Haslington Exchange Cabinet 66.

Since there is only us left by the looks of it,I have started a new post for our exchange,continuing on from the previous one.

re 66er Hi, previously Anonymous and fellow cabinet 66 sufferer here.
I do think we might need to give BT a nudge somehow. Not sure if we could just walk in to the exchange, but we could try. Would they be open at weekends though? I�ll e-mail you and we can figure something out.



re pokchop1st Just checked the BT Wholesale checker and guess what:-

Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 30th September 2011. Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 29.4Mbps and upstream line speed of 6.4Mbps.

*****Y Typical,

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Jun-11 16:21:55)

A word of encouragement:

3 months ago, my date had just slipped to June. The cabinet was there, but not live - yet all surrounding areas were already live, even though they got their cabinets at the same time.

It felt very much like BT had moved on, and forgotten to finish this one off. There was no way to find out any useful information from anyone, so I sent an email to Ian Livingstone (I also complained about the way their quarterly delays kept dashing expectations, but it seems nothing's changed there).

I got an answer, with him sending it on to the DSL bods, but I have no idea whether it caused any action. The cabinet did go live a week later...

You might want to try the same, and make the point that it is very frustrating to feel forgotten once the initial cabinets have gone live.

Thanks for that Wombat,time to send ( Mr Livinginstone an email I presume).

Not sure if we could just walk in to the exchange, but we could try. Would they be open at weekends though?

Don't bother, if, and when someone comes to the door it'll be an engineer on their lunchbreak, they will have no idea, and will be miffed that you have wasted some of their precious 40 minutes.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

.... The cabinet was there, but not live ...

our problem is we don't even have a new cabinet.

Sorry, but who is Ian Livingston? If he can help, I suggest anyone else one here who is on cabinet 66 e-mails him, I certainly will, as soon as I can find his address.

That�s what I thought. It doesn�t look like the kind of building you can just walk into and speak to the receptionist.

I have sent Him an email just now.
[email protected]

Dear Mr Livingstone,
I am a very frustrated potential customer for your BT Infinity fttc broadband.
My exchange ( Haslington Exchange at Crewe Cheshire )has been enabled since March 2nd,My cabinet Number 66 was originally due to be enabled on 31March then was but back to June 30th.
Today it has been moved to Sept 30th ( Bt wholesale DSL checker),quite a few potential customers from the same cabinet are on a forum at ThinkBroadband.com and We all think it is extremely frustrating to feel forgotten when the initial cabinets have gone live and also there is no way of finding out any useful information from anywhere.
Hope you can help us in our quest to get a satisfactory result to our frustrations.
Thank you in advance.

Mr Evan Pugh,
97 Queens Park Drive,
Crewe,Cheshire.
CW2 7SN
Tel:

Might be easier communicating and possibly organising on here than by e-mail.

If Ian Livingston - (just found out CEO of BT) can�t help, it might worth canvassing opinion in the area, see if anyone else cares. Possibly resort to having a chat to Edward Timpson?

Once I have the spare time I will send Mr Livingston and e-mail. Hopefully he�ll see a lot of e-mails with the subject Cabinet 66 Haslington Exchange in his inbox.

Sorry, but who is Ian Livingston?

He is BT's Chief Executive Officer.

Just realised I've spelt his name wrong on the email.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Jun-11 20:19:21)

Did some research. Decided to get typing. He now has an e-mail from me too

Just received an answer to My email.

The date given represents our current best estimate. I am sorry that it has been delayed but we do have to strike a balance between trying to give forward information and that these dates are subject to change as there are number of factors that can affect the dates.

????????

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Jun-11 20:26:06)

He pretty much copied and pasted the same answer to me. Well, that didn't really achieve much. What now?

Suppose We will have to give them some more time to sort it out(say about a month Max)
Then maybe petitions if we can drum up some help.

Sent him another email in reply to the first one.

Thank You for the prompt reply,but yet again no useful information,are there any of these factors you mention available to Me.



Here is his Reply to that.

I really don�t know what I can add more than this is our best estimate. The factors will range from planning permission to availability of electricity supply to resource availability given regional roll out.



Ah well,poor man must wear his finger out with all the emails he gets.

I�m not even sure he is replying personally. They are such generic responses, like the ones I�ve seen on BT forums, that I suspect this might be written by someone employed to field these enquiries.

I�m considering two options: one, e-mail to Edward Timpson asking him if he can find out more information. Two, write to the Chronicle to make other people covered by cabinet 66 aware that they are missing out. Some people might not know they can get faster speeds, but once they do, they will want it.

I�m surprised cabinet 66 serves Queens Park Drive, does it also serve Queens Park Gardens? If so that is quite a large area to be overlooked. I thought it was just my estate, Coppenhall Drive etc, and the neighbouring Hughes Drive estate. Does anyone know the extent of its coverage?

Yes it covers quite a large area,it was there well before your houses were put up.

Yeah, it must have been. I can remember that area just being waste ground with a ruined brick building. I also have a vague memory of the Queens Park Gardens area being a derelict hospital (I think). So that cabinet was never really designed to serve as many houses as it now does.

Post deleted by pokchop1st

Just checked and the Cabinet serves all these postcodes,
From CW2 7SF,sn,sp,sr,ss,sw,sx,sy,ua,ud,uf,ug,uh,uj,ul,un,uq.
That's Queens Park Gardens,Queens Park Drive,and all down Victoria Avenue from Hughes Drive down to Jewsons.

Hi pokchop1st

I'm going to take this away and see if I can find out anything more about this specific cabinet - thanks to you and the others who have posted all the detail here already. As soon as I have an update I'll post it on this thread.

Thanks

Nigel

Hooray

Result at last. Thanks Nigel.

Edited by deleted (Thu 16-Jun-11 11:00:19)

Thanks Nigel.

The lack of information is is the most frustrating part of this. So anything you can tell us will be greatly appreciated.

In reply to a post by pokchop1st:

Just checked and the Cabinet serves all these postcodes,
From CW2 7SF,sn,sp,sr,ss,sw,sx,sy,ua,ud,uf,ug,uh,uj,ul,un,uq.
That's Queens Park Gardens,Queens Park Drive,and all down Victoria Avenue from Hughes Drive down to Jewsons.

Interesting, how did you find that information?

Go to this Link.HERE

Just remember you need Excel 2007/10 or similar to see it all.


Give Me a shout if you need any help with it.

This is the relevant page Cabs are shown as p66 etc.




WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7QS {WMHAS}{p39} 0 100 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7QT {WMHAS}{p39} 0 100 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7QU {WMHAS}{p39} 0 100 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7RA {WMHAS}{p39} 0 4.08 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7RA {WMHAS}{p68} 0 8.16 4.75 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7RA {WMHAS}{p70} 0 2.04 3.95
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7RB {WMHAS}{p39} 0 45.83 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7RH {WMHAS}{p39} 0 100 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7RJ {WMHAS}{p39} 0 100 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7RL {WMHAS}{p39} 0 100 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7RP {WMHAS}{p39} 0 100 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7RQ {WMHAS}{p39} 0 20 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7RW {WMHAS}{p39} 0 51.72 4.64 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SE {WMHAS}{p41} 0 100 17.26 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SF {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SG {WMHAS}{p41} 0 100 17.26 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SH {WMHAS}{p41} 0 100 17.26 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SJ {WMHAS}{p41} 0 100 17.26 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SN {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SP {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SQ {WMHAS}{p41} 0 100 17.26 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SR {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SS {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SW {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SX {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7SY {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UA {WMHAS}{p66} 0 98.83 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UA {WMHAS}{p74} 0 1.16 5.3
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UD {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UF {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UG {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UH {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UJ {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UL {WMHAS}{p38} 0 2.17 3.35 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UL {WMHAS}{p66} 0 97.82 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UN {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 7UQ {WMHAS}{p66} 0 100 12.61 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 8SB {WMHAS}{p67} 0 100 941.4
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 8SD {WMHAS}{p67} 0 100 941.4
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 8SE {WMHAS}{p67} 0 75 941.4
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 8SG {WMHAS}{p41} 0 100 17.26 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 8SH {WMHAS}{p41} 0 77.77 17.26 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 8SH {WMHAS}{p71} 0 22.22 46.2 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 8SJ {WMHAS}{p71} 0 100 46.2 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 8SL {WMHAS}{p71} 0 100 46.2 5b Yes FTTC
WMHAS HASLINGTON CW2 8SN {WMHAS}{p71} 0 100 46.2 5b Yes FTTC

Nice one, thanks. I have already downloaded it, but I use a Mac and I don�t own the Mac version of Excel, so it didn�t open properly for me.

Hi all

Just to let you know it will be tomorrow now before I have an update, I'll stay on it though and should get a post up before close of play Friday.

Thanks

Nigel

In reply to a post by 66er:

Nice one, thanks. I have already downloaded it, but I use a Mac and I don�t own the Mac version of Excel, so it didn�t open properly for me.

LibreOffice 3 for mac will open it ok, formatting is not quite correct but readable. OpenOffice will not import all the rows and NeoOffice crashed.

Thanks. I was using NeoOffice. Will try LibreOffice.

Thank You Nigel,here's hoping for some good news for a change.

Hi Pokchop1st

For everyone interested in whats happening with this cabinet, I can expand a little on Ian's comments.

We understand from Openreach that the majority of cabinets in the Haslington area have been enabled. The reason this cabinet is not yet live is due to a planning issue (i.e. planning application refused). Action is now being taken to re-introduce this cabinet into the deployment plan but it is likely to go beyond the current 30th September date. Every effort is being made to deliver service ASAP.

So no definitive dates, but this cabinet is still very much in our plans and we're working as hard as we can to make it happen.

Thanks

Nigel

So Pokchop1st, it mnight not be the best news... but it is news that leaves you capable of doing something about it...

I guess the council's planning department might be your next port of call!

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

So Pokchop1st, it mnight not be the best news... but it is news that leaves you capable of doing something about it...

I guess the council's planning department might be your next port of call!

Been There no sign of any application,will have to dig deeper.

Thanks for the info Nigel.

I thought it might be something like this, so I looked on the council's website in the planning section a while ago. Wonder why it didn't get planning permission? I can only imagine someone objected or it needs to be relocated onto someone's land and they refused. Will have to look into this over the weekend.

Been through all the Cheshire East planning application site and found nothing about any BT cabinets let alone ours.
Can't understand why planning permission is required for this cabinet,it does not meet any of these criteria.This is from an Openreach site,and copied from Talk Talk site.


Planning permission is not usually required, with the exception of sites in national parks, conservation areas and other areas of special interest. You can find more detailed information on the relevant legislation below:
�Under Part 24 of the Town & Country Planning Act BT as a Code Operator has deemed planning permission to install Cabinets so no notification at the planning stage is required in most cases under this piece of legislationThey then decide if the application has to go through the process and if it does they have 56 calendar days in which to consult interested parties and consider the application. The LPA can refuse the application on the grounds of siting and appearance only. However if no written rejection has been received within the 56 days installation can commence. Under Para 5 of the Electronic Communications Code (Conditions and Restrictions) Regulations 2003 BT must notice the LPA of our intention to install any Cabinet. The LPA do not have the power to veto any site but they can request conditions to be attached to the installation and they have up to one calendar month to do this. However BT can reject these conditions if they feel they are not reasonably practicable. In order to install the Cabinets BT must notice the Highway Authority via the New Roads & Street Works Noticing system when they intend to work in the street. This allows the Highway Authority to ensure there is no clash with other Utilities who may be working in the same area and so avoid any unnecessary congestion.�


I think that the 56 day limit in the above has been well and truly passed.

Although some may not require planning permission, there could be objections from residents, business owners, other interested parties as to where the new CAB has been installed. This will then hold up any plans for it to go live.

There was a situation in a local town where the chamber of commerce objected to a new CAB because it's location was close to where they put up the tree at Christmas. This delayed the CAB going live until it eventually moved to a different location.

If it isn't a conservation area, I'd have thought the biggest chance of complaints would come from a cabinet getting in the way - either causing a problem to the highway physically or obscuring sight lines, or by narrowing a path too much.

I have just sent a long and detailed e-mail to Cheshire East Planning Department. When/if I get a response I will let you know.

In reply to a post by 66er:

I have just sent a long and detailed e-mail to Cheshire East Planning Department. When/if I get a response I will let you know.

A visit to Delamere House might be in order as well,I believe they still have something to do with local planning issues.I'll see if I can make it this week.
Any chance you can take some photos of the offending subject and the surrounding area and post it on here somehow,you are quite a bit nearer than Me.
Thanks.

I took some photos on my walk to work this morning. I�ve been a bit naughty and uploaded them to flikr while at work, but I figured it was for a good cause.

Had to reduce the size for time�s sake. Hope they are OK.

Here�s the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30284065@N08/sets/72157...

I have also added pics of the Cabinets on Minshull New Road, to show sizes and width of footpath and as a comparison between old and new.

Edited by deleted (Mon 20-Jun-11 09:52:16)

Thanks for the Pics,We might need them sometime.
Lot done today went to Haslington Exchange managed to get in to see Barry the boss,explained our position to him and he agreed it must have something to do with a planning issue,He also said that the exchange don't know anything at all about such issues it is all done in other BT depts? All we do here is get on with the deployment when We are given the go ahead,so not much joy there then.

I then took a trip to Delamere House and after waiting for 30 minutes or so I met a very nice lady and told her all about the issues,it turned out that she actually lives in cw2 7u* area and was very interested,She also was very surprised that anybody would put in an objection to siteing it there.There is nothing recorded in the Crewe offices so she sent an action form to Cheshire East planning Dept about the problems we are encountering
(thank you Pauline)]
!5 minutes after I arrived home I got a call from them saying that they could not find any planning applications from Bt or anyone else about the said cabinet siteing and asked me to Clarify with BT if there ia a Planning Reference Number been allocated to it.
I have sent an email to BT Care requesting they look this up and get back in touch.

Nice work! I wonder if Nigel is still keeping an eye on the forum, maybe he could help?

If we draw a blank, I�m sure Mr Livingston will be happy to hear from us again

I�ve still not had a reply to my e-mail, but if I do get one it will obviously say pretty much what you have already discovered.

The plot thickens...

Nigel is keeping his eyes open,He just phoned Me back and said that he has been in touch with Openreach again re My comments and the Planning reference number.
Might not hear anything new for a couple of days .He will post on this forum if He hears anything from them.

Looking at those pictures, it is plausible that *if* they chose to site the fibre twin closer to the T-junction, that it would affect sight lines for motorists - and so draw a complaint from the highways department.

I recall seeing something here about having to be careful near road junctions, but it wasn't a thing related to roadside cabinets, just general planning guidelines.

That made me wonder... even if there is no explicit planning request, do BT put their plans past a highways department first? I suspect this is the case.

I found this interesting white paper "Accelerating NGA, which BT is using as something of a sales pitch to those organisations/councils/villages that will need to partner withe some telco to get broadband fitted. Interesting quotes:

To meet technical requirements, the new
cabinets have to be within 50m of an existing
cabinet. But they also have to be connected
to mains power and this is often the defining
factor in positioning them. In fact, the
cabinets draw over 500W, which classifies
them as a dwelling and means each one
requires a metered supply. So Openreach also
had to involve Scottish Power in negotiations
over positioning.

It is critical that the new fibre cabinets are
situated where they will cause the least
aesthetic concerns or safety issues, such as
obscuring sight lines of traffic, reducing the
width of a pavement, or too close to a bus
stop.

Openreach toured the area with the local
council planner agreeing the best locations
for the cabinets.

Whenever any issue arose, impromptu
meetings were held between Openreach�s
planners and the local council's to agreed
rapid solutions. Setting up virtual teams by
engaging all the key stakeholders in the
delivery plan on a daily basis helped to build
up a strong team.

Local authorities have to be given 90 days
notice before works can begin on the street,

If extensive sections of new duct are
required, Openreach has to give the local
authority a further 30 days notice for work to
be carried out,

So it might be worth checking with the Highways department as well as the planning one!

Yes very interesting Wombat,thanks for that,will take it up with BT Care if nothing comes from Nigel's Openreach talks.

I have just sent an e-mail to Cheshire East Council Highways Department. So hopefully one of us will get some answers soon.

Hi all

I've checked again and the information from Openreach is that the planning application was resubmitted to the Local Planning Agency on 27th May following the first application being rejected.

That's how things stand at the moment.

Nigel

Thanks Nigel, it�s good to know things are still progressing.

Weird how our local planning office can find no record of it Let�s hope they sort it out soon.

In reply to a post by 66er:

Thanks Nigel, it�s good to know things are still progressing.

Weird how our local planning office can find no record of it Let�s hope they sort it out soon.

I wonder if BT Care can come up with the planning application number to make it easier for your local council to find?

Shouldn't be any DPA issues as it's public information anyway and likely covered by the Freedom of Information act.

A planning application number would be useful. I�ve just done a search by date on the Council�s site and still found nothing. I do wish it was easier to find what is pretty basic information. Like you say, it should be public information.

Done that see Posts above.


Quote.
!5 minutes after I arrived home I got a call from them saying that they could not find any planning applications from Bt or anyone else about the said cabinet siteing and asked me to Clarify with BT if there ia a Planning Reference Number been allocated to it.
I have sent an email to BT Care requesting they look this up and get back in touch.

Edited by deleted (Wed 22-Jun-11 13:51:08)

I have sent a copy of Nigel's Post to My contact at Delamere House,who will send it on to the Planning Dept in Cheshire East,unfortunately there is no planning reference number in the post let's hope they can find it via the Date 27May.

any news ?

Nope, it's gone very quiet. Seeing as it doesn't have a planning reference number and technically didn't need planning permission anyway, I think it might take a while before we hear anything. I received a email off planning, but just asking for more info. Not heard back from highways, who I think will be the ones with the answers.

Had a look through the Highways Dept Roadworks site on the Cheshire East Website.
Found this

BT
01 Jul 11 -
14 Jul 11
Victoria Road S/O 96/98 STATION ROAD ON VICTORIA ROAD Install 1m of 1 way power duct in Footway,Install 8m of 2 poly ducts in Footway,Performing an 1excavation to expose existing power cable in Footway,Provide 1 Cabinet and base (NGA cabinets 1.5m x 0.5m)

NGA cabinets are FTTC.
Pity it's not ours,but it looks like this is what We are looking for.

http://maps.cheshire.gov.uk/roadworks/TabularWorks.aspx

Just received this e-mail from Cheshire East Planning:

�Many thanks for your email concerning the BT cabinet near your property.

The installation of these cabinets is part of BT Openreach's ongoing proposal to expand broadband accessibility and the government's Digital Britain policy. New cabinets are located as close as possible to existing cabinets, normally within 100m of them. BT Openreach state on their website that they "carefully consider various factors, such as safety to pedestrians and other road users, visual impact, impact on the security of adjacent property boundaries, as well as ease of access for installation and maintenance".

Under the Town & Country Planning Act, BT as a Code Operator has deemed planning permission to install Cabinets, so formal notification at the planning stage is rarely required. The Local Planning Authority is generally notified under the 'Electronic Communications Code (Conditions and Restrictions) Regulations 2003', although the Highway Authority would only ever comment from a highways perspective, such as the impact on visibility to traffic or safety to pedestrians etc.

I have passed your enquiry to our Highways Development Control Team who normally deal with these issues, and have asked them to reply direct to you.

Regards, Dave�

In a way, nothing we don�t already know, but I think it�s some progress. The Highways people should have some answers for us.

Had another e-mail from someone else in planning:

Thank you for the clarification. Apologies for the delay in responding to your
enquiry. I have searched for an application in this area and can find no
applications for this proposal. BT, as a statutory undertaker, do have some
permitted development rights for proposed works and so this may not require a
planning application. I can find no correspondence sent on the 27th may for this
site either. Sorry I can be of no further help. I would advise you contact BT
regarding this issue.


Kind Regards
Lisa Robinson
Planning Liaison Technician
Cheshire East Council


So, that takes us right back to square one. This is starting to remind me of those long drawn out problems they used to air on �That�s Life�.

I�m still holding on for Highways, I think they are still our best hope for answers.

Quite agree 66er,it is getting really frustrating a bit like Wimbledon bouncing from one side to another and nothing positive coming out of it .
Hope Nigel is still following the thread,could do with him chasing it up again.

I can officially confirm we are being given the run-around by BT. Finally had a response from Highways. Here it is in full.

"I have no information in relation to your request and suggest that you contact B.T.
to clarify their position regarding this matter,

Regards,
Simon Boone
Senior Development Engineer
Cheshire East Council
Strategic Highways and Transportation
Delamere House
Floor 6
Crewe
Cheshire
CW1 2LL"

Great, now we have to find a way of getting a proper answer out of the ever helpful BT. Will this never end? Right now I have reached the point where I don�t care so much about whether I get FTTC or not, all I really want is to know which way it�s going to go.

Thought as much,at least We can hope that by the time we get Cab 66 online Be/O2 will be available and we don't need to go with BT.

Exactly. I am with plusnet, which although part of BT, don�t seem to be so bad, so I will probably stick with them for a while, when/if FTTC becomes available for us, but Be are definitely on my radar too.

As far as the present is concerned, I suppose all we can do is go back to hassling BT for answers

In reply to a post by 66er:

Exactly. I am with plusnet, which although part of BT, don�t seem to be so bad, so I will probably stick with them for a while, when/if FTTC becomes available for us, but Be are definitely on my radar too.

As far as the present is concerned, I suppose all we can do is go back to hassling BT for answers

Mr Livingston I Presume

You read my mind

Sent another email to Ian Livingston and he passed it on to Openreach.Here is the reply.
Dear Mr Pugh,



I am BT�s Group superfast broadband director and Ian Livingston passed me your email on the FTTC enablement status of your cabinet (#66) in the Haslington exchange area.



I see that you have contacted your local planning department and Highway development control team to confirm whether Openreach have submitted a 28 day notice and to understand why there is a delay in our cabinet deployment. It would be inappropriate of me to comment on why the local planning department cannot find Openreach�s notification letters but I can assure you they are sent via recorded delivery. It is possible that as they are not requests for planning permission but notifications under the electronic communications code regulations (2003) to utilise permitted development rights, there is some confusion in what you have asked for. Regardless, Openreach submitted a revised notification in late May after there was an objection to their initial notification, and as the 28 day notice period has now passed, Openreach are now moving forward with the installation and enablement of the new cabinet. Openreach expect the new cabinet to be ready for service by the end of September 2011.



Openreach are deploying on average 250 new cabinets a week across the UK. This is the largest and fastest deployment of superfast broadband anywhere in the world at present. Inevitably there will be issues occasionally across our supply chain as a number of factors are outside of our control. I understand your frustration that your cabinet is one of those that has been delayed.



Regards,



Johnny.

Johnny McQuoid
Superfast Broadband Programme Director

BT Group Strategy, Policy and Portfolio


Some decent news at last.

Nice one. That sounds pretty positive. In a way it is the kind 30th September thing we�re used to hearing, but there�s enough detail in what he says to give me hope that it will actually happen this time. I guess it�s just a matter of being patient and waiting � again.

Well done guys. Not only does that give you some answers for your cabinet, but it gives us a clearer picture of the hidden internal process that BT have to go through, and an explanation of why the simplest of problems can become a 1 or 2 month delay.

It certainly explains why, when my cabinet didn't go live with the others here, it took a month to get the first set of roadworks reorganised for power, and then a second month for the second set.

It also gives other people an idea about what to ask planning & highway departments for, rather than just the loose term for "planning permission".

well done guys you deserve to have fttc sooner with all the tennis between council and bt. heres hoping you get it in july

BT are rediculous, my issue isnt with cabinet 66 but I work for a business in the town centre that currently has no planned FTTC coverage - geographically, BTO's fibre has to run past the end of our street to get to your area yet were not planned to have any coverage within the next 6 months! Feel sorry for you guys; makes you wonder what the issue is as I used to work for a business literally a stones throw away from Jewsons and BT were unable to provide enough copper capacity to the site so they ran fibre across half of Crewe to meet our needs - that was about 5 years ago! I bet you any money that they have run more fibre to the new cabs in that area totally overlooking the provision already there. It should have been an easy one for them really!

Don't quite get you,Haslington Exchange has only been enabled for FTTC since March 2011. How did you manage to get it 5 years ago??

I guess anyone could have paid for fibre service in the last N years - provided you have been willing to pay "leased line" costs.

The only thing about FTTC that is "new" is that it is being deployed at both a scale & cost suitable for mass residential usage.

I can only guess the company you worked for had a fibre optic link direct to the exchange and so might not be connected to the cabinet. I can�t imagine any business in that area that would need such a connection. I can only imagine a high end media company needing something like that 5 years ago.

An openreach engineer was working on your cabinet on Saturday, but didn�t think it was fair to hassle him with any questions, it was fairly obvious he was just doing some routine work. Hope we some activity soon though.

we needed 30 analogue lines and a decent broadband connection; at the time all BT could provide was I think 15 or 16 analogue lines (which were apalling quality) and 1 meg max adsl. There's also a major issue with aluminium cabling in that area which meant ISDN wasn't an option. This was not acceptable to us so they put the fibre link in at no cost to the business (we were not paying for a leased line). I remember the installation well; the fibre cable coming in had 3 loops, of which only 1 was connected to the NTE gear they installed in the building and of that we were only using a miniscule amount of the available bandwidth, I'm sure they could utilise the rest of the capacity in the cabling that is already in place as part of the FTTC rollout but then as I said, its likely that they don't even know its there, in my dealings with BT over the years, I have found that person A hasn't got a clue what person B is doing, even if they are stood right next to each other, its the nature of the big beast!

Based on your description, I suspect the fibre was installed to support ISDN30e. It is often delivered over fibre and is distinct from leased-line data services. ISDN Primary Access (ISDN30e) provides 30 lines, usually to connect private telephone switchboards (PABX's) to the public digital telephone network.

BT charge far less for ISDN30e than they charge for leased line installations, likely due to the revenue from the calls subsidizing in a way that flat-rate data services don't really support.

In reply to a post by 66er:

I�m not even sure he is replying personally. They are such generic responses, like the ones I�ve seen on BT forums, that I suspect this might be written by someone employed to field these enquiries.

I�m considering two options: one, e-mail to Edward Timpson asking him if he can find out more information. Two, write to the Chronicle to make other people covered by cabinet 66 aware that they are missing out. Some people might not know they can get faster speeds, but once they do, they will want it.

I�m surprised cabinet 66 serves Queens Park Drive, does it also serve Queens Park Gardens? If so that is quite a large area to be overlooked. I thought it was just my estate, Coppenhall Drive etc, and the neighbouring Hughes Drive estate. Does anyone know the extent of its coverage?

Hi, did you by any chance write to the Chronicle about our problem? I notice in this week's Chronicle they have a news item about FTTC in this link. Might be a good time to get in touch??

Click Here

Edited by deleted (Fri 22-Jul-11 10:28:06)

The firm�s investment makes available broadband speeds of up to 20 megabits per second � more than double the maximum speeds previously available to the majority

Oh dear, someone's got the wrong end of the stick. Let me do the editor's job:

The firm�s investment makes available broadband speeds of up to 40 megabits per second � just under double the maximum speeds of 24 megabits per second previously available to the majority

I don�t know exactly what Nantwich are getting, but it�s not FTTC. They are getting some kind of souped up regular broadband. Sorry I don�t know more about it, I read it quite a while ago. The speeds are correct for the kind of connection they�ll be getting.

Still, it�ll be worth writing to the Chronicle about our issue now the subject has been raised. I�ll send something in over the weekend if I get the time.

I have sent a letter to Crewe Chronicle today,to see if they are interested in our ongoing saga,will let you know if they get in touch.I have linked this forum to them as well.


Nantwich are getting Next Generation Copper Broadband as reported here.
Click Here.

Read it again and then Click Here

yeah, that�s what I was talking about.

I�ve just sent them a letter too, hopefully more residents will care once they know what they are missing out on.

I was wondering how the North-West was suddenly going to get to "85% availability by Spring" - but if they're only talking ADSL2+, that explains a lot.

Anyone's definition of "Next Generation" depends on how good (or how poor) their "current" generation is...

I've just been reading through your FTTC saga. I happen to be a County Councillor in north Wales and my exchange Hawarden is due FTTC by end September 2011. I can appreciate your frustration with your council, on a totally different subject I once asked for a sighting of a report when it was produced. I received nothing, then weeks later I was speaking to another officer in same department and she asked me if I had seen this same document. She then emailed it to me. Seems my mistake was asking is a "Report" had been produced, the document I received was marked "Memorandum" hence ask for the wrong thing, get nothing...

Incidentally, I was in Crewe last year help push Edward Timpsons' leaflets out; good bloke.

Good Luck!

Cheers!

Hi,thanks for your support,but in the main the Local and County council have been very supportive and helpful,it's the BT and Openreach lot that are causing our frustrations by not telling us why or what the holdup seems to be,as we have mentioned in a few of our posts the Council have asked BT/Openreach for specific document Numbers regarding the cabinet and they have been unable or unwilling to support this.
Hope yours goes ok.

Thanks.

I think most of the problems are done to the sheer size of their roll-out. Within my ward there are three cabinets, with others literally just a road width outside my patch. From the County Council I received just the one notification, this because it was to be located within the Hawarden Conservation Area. I returned the form completed by return, the location was adjacent to houses built in the 1970's and I have no wish to delay residents' FTTC. But in any event OR had jumped the gun and had already started groundworks before their consultation period had expired, had I opted the other way with very good reason, OR would have had to rethink. That said, the electricity supplier for the area (Scottish Power MANWEB) appear to be having difficulty locating a suitable power cable. Whereas most are a couple of feet below pavement level, this FTTC cabinet is located near a brick built substation and a couple of days ago I could see just the top of a safety helmet of the guy excavating the now rather deep hole.

It is a bit like watching a kettle boil, but should be sorted for both of us soon.

Cheers!

Well no sign of Crewe Chronicle looking into our saga,not even had a reply to My letter from them.

I have had no response either. I would have thought they'd have an auto response set up. No reply makes me feel my email was just deleted. Looks like we're still on our own.

That's 1 Month gone and still no sign of any work going on there,hope it improves during August or We will see the 31 Dec 2011 coming up on the checkers towards the beginning of Sept,
Getting really fed up now.

Me too. I have a nasty feeling we�ll see that date change to December. If we do, we�ll have to start another round of activity. I�m starting to get the annoying feeling that we�ve been fobbed off with that last bit of information we had, and in reality nothing is planned, beyond the fact that cabinet 66 will probably get upgraded sometime before 2015 or so.

Your not the only one who is annoyed, my cabinet is 72 on walthall street, off Nantwich road, i have been to the counsil and the cant find any planning permission, i have spoken to over 5 bt open reach engineer, and the dont have a clue what is taking soo long, i have been waiting since last year for mine to be done, and its getting to almost 1 year now, the most annoying this is that all around my street have had their fttc installed and activated, down my street have fttc, its just up my end, and its really getting frustrating as my speed is very slow................. help.......................

Do cabinets 66 and 72 serve a number of businesses, or a business park perchance?

Our nearest town has had most of the cabs done, apart from any which serve businesses, which have been skipped.

Hi,In reply, the only business in the Cab 66 area are Hustons & Jewsons,the rest is residential,
this covers all of Victoria Avenue and most of the roads leading off it.If you've read our forum you will see that we have tried everything to find out when we are going to have the Cabinet enabled. The last hope was an email from,
Johnny McQuoid Superfast Broadband Programme Director.
Stating that we should have it by 30Sept 2011, some hopes, nothing has been going on anywhere near there yet.
If you want his email please PM me.

It�s good to know we�re not the only ones. In some ways it�s even worse for you, because you are in quite a densely populated area with neighbouring streets upgraded. If we can get a few more people on cabinets 66 and 72, and any others that haven�t been upgraded, we should send a co-ordinated e-mail strike to Johny McQuoid. We have to do something to get better answers if nothing else.

My letter got published in the Chronicle! I�ve not read it yet, just skimmed it, but everything seems to be there. Hopefully more people will join our cause.

That his email isn't giving you much hope doesn't bowed well for my cabinet. I've got exactly the same response from Matt Dalby Head of Deployment Control but I got an assurance that it'll be upgraded by the end of the year

hallelujah!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30284065@N08/6053676630/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30284065@N08/6053676920/

(just round the corner on Coppenhall Grove saw it a few minutes ago)

Just sent an email to Jonathan Mcquoid last night,saw them working on it this morning.
Coincidence??

really great news.

Here is the replyfrom him.
I�ll pass your email onto my colleagues in Openreach and try to find out when they expect the cabinet to be enabled. If it is stood up, then we�re well into process.



Johnny.

My wife texted me at lunchtime to say there�s a lot of work going on at the cabinet, so hopefully the process is going quickly and smoothly.

I hope there is similar progress for those stuck on cabinet 72.

Things are indeed progressing. There's a half filled trench running from Ye Olde Cabinete to the new one. The new cabinet has a hole in front of it with empty conduit in the ground, obviously waiting to be filled with nice new cable. If this pace continues it might be up and running by the end of next month.

they have got an army on it saw at least 5 when i went pass i reckon within a week. i had two guys on mine lol glad ur now sorted guys . i also noticed a new cab has gone in at the top of sydney rd as you get towards roundabout

Great News,just come back from a week away,got another email from Johnny McQuoid.

The cabinet was stood up on the 17th August as you noticed. According to my Openreach colleagues, the power jointing, fibre connection and copper jumpering work should be completed by end September/early October.



Johnny.

Edited by deleted (Fri 26-Aug-11 18:46:45)

Brilliant news. My wife saw them connecting cables to the cabinet a few days ago before the hole was filled in, so I guess most of the really hard work is over. So it should be pretty much as he says, on schedule. I�m looking forward to it more than Christmas!

In reply to a post by 66er:

so I guess most of the really hard work is over

It seems that the least reliable part (in terms of time-planning) of the process is connecting to power.

I guess that this is mostly governed by the need to tell the council a month in advance of any work - and the penalties faced if that work takes too long. The consequence seems to be that there is at least a month to wait for power, and if any delay is encountered, they'd prefer to fill the hole in & start a whole new month's delay, rather than continue into the next day.

All in the name of trying to reduce jams on the road

Someone was working on it today when I passed,The Cab was open and covered with a tent (cos it was raining ??).
Can you go and place your ear on the door to see if there is any humming noise coming from it,
then we'll know for sure it is up and running.

Checked this morning on my way to work. Cabinet was totally silent I�m afraid

Oh Well, just have to wait again I suppose.

True, but I think the worst is over. At least we have a cabinet now, so we know it�s only a matter of time. I don�t mind how long it takes (within reason), it was having no cabinet, and therefore no hope, that bothered me. As long as I can stream HD movies on xbox live during the Christmas holidays, I�ll be happy.

And hopefully I can stream Premier League etc without the endless buffering I get while watching.

Latest from Speed Test.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1463923298.png


Now you see why I am so desperate.

Edited by deleted (Sat 03-Sep-11 10:49:51)

Yep, mines about the same really. Fibre can�t come soon enough.

[IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/1474700668.png[/IMG]

My speed dropped dramatically this weekend!
[IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/1477980819.png[/IMG]

Mine's still just above the 1mb mark,I can get it up to about 1.50 occasinally.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1478944458.png

Hi guys,

I am currently with BE and get a connection of around 6mb.

BT says I can't get "Infinity" but I can get their fibre "enhanced" broadband and should get speeds of 13.9mb.

I live on West Street opposite a cabinet that I know BT have put fibre into. I am on the "Haslington" exchange which I am sure means we are on Queens Street.

Does anybody know if this exchange is going to allow us to get infinity?

I moved to BE from BT because the speed was much better, oh and it was cheaper!!

Paul

Hi Paul,
Are you using the BT wholesale checker at https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

Haslington Exchange has been fttc enabled since March 2011.

West Street postcodes CW1 3PA cabinet Number 41,CW2 8SL caninet Number 71 and CW1 5PL cabinet Number 13,should have been live in Phase 5b which was 30th June 2011. If this is any help.

Edited by deleted (Wed 14-Sep-11 11:07:33)

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 2Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL Max broadband line speed of 4Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 2.5Mbps and 7Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 5Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 3Mbps and 7.5Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 13.9Mbps and upstream line speed of 5.3Mbps.

The actual stable line speed supportable will be determined during the first 10 days of use. This speed may change over time, to ensure line stability is maintained.

It is FTTC, but I can't get infinity. This is what BT told me. This basically means that the best I can get is the 13.9 and not the 40mb that infinity offers. So is infinity only available to FTTP or can FTTC also provide it.

Unless they are not upgrading the cabs for infinity I can't see why I cant get infinity but I can get "fibre enhanced"

Have you tried the postcode checker?

Also check this out. http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1441764

Might give you some ideas.

I believe underneath, technically Infinity is the same as Fibre Enhanced - they're both available on FTTC.

The only difference is BT will not show Infinity as available, or let anyone order it if their ESTIMATED speed on FTTC is below 15 megabits per second (Mbps - hope I got the capitilisation right - I'm sure to be corrected if not ).

It's product segregation. Keeps the average speeds high on Infinity, and I'm not sure on this bit but I also think there is some kind of minimum speed expectation with Infinity as well.

I had an estimate of 14.2Mbps and whilst its only been a week or so since install I am getting a consistent 35Mbps.

Fibre Broadband is available from a variety of ISPs - not just BT.

Edited by deleted (Wed 14-Sep-11 12:12:11)

Just done another check and YES we are showing December 31st 2011,which isn't a big surprise,just have to hang on in there.

Just sent another email to My friend !! Getting frustrated now.

Update on below,the cab is still not enabled,any chance you can check again for us please.Thanks Rob.

On 22/08/2011 13:51, <removed> wrote:
>
> Rob,
>
>
>
> The cabinet was stood up on the 17th August as you noticed. According to my Openreach colleagues, the power jointing, fibre connection and copper jumpering work should be completed by end September/early October.
>
>
>
> Johnny.

Edited by MrSaffron (Mon 17-Oct-11 16:23:46)

In reply to a post by pokchop1st:

Just sent another email to My friend !! Getting frustrated now.

Update on below,the cab is still not enabled,any chance you can check again for us please.Thanks Rob.

On 22/08/2011 13:51, <removed> wrote:
>
> Rob,
>
>
>
> The cabinet was stood up on the 17th August as you noticed. According to my Openreach colleagues, the power jointing, fibre connection and copper jumpering work should be completed by end September/early October.
>
>
>
> Johnny.

Have you noticed any road works around the time frame he mentioned?

Edited by MrSaffron (Mon 17-Oct-11 16:25:32)

No sign of any roadworks since the cab was put up on August 17th,the new cab is roughly about 50 metres away from the old one and in a quiet close with plenty of room around it,
so I would think roadworks are not a problem.

Mmmm I had my FTTC cab installed in last week, still no sign of any road works indicating linking of the current cab with the FTTC or power linking to the FTTC cab. Impatiently waiting...

Received a reply to My email.

The build team in Openreach have explained that the power installation to the cabinet has proved problematic, delaying the FTTC enablement. The likely �ready for service� date is mid-December. I realise this is disappointing for you but we have 57 cabinets in Haslington already live � unfortunately yours has proven more difficult. I can assure you that we are doing our best to sort the problem out.

December it is then.

The ultra observant will notice a missing email address.

Where addresses for people who are helping in various providers are published we do remove them, if the email address is not meant to be a publically visible one. The problem being people move around departments, and there is a tendency for people to bombard with irrelevant or time wasting issues.

If this causes a problem for someone, i.e. they wanted to find out something specific then feel free to pester me, and I will then pester the appropriate people. This system works as I often know where the answer is, and/or can spot patterns in requests.

Yes indeed,he did ask Me not to post his addy again

,

Whilst I always do my best to answer customer queries or at least, get them to the right teams with BT Group, I do not operate a customer service operations team and my email address is therefore not the best route for superfast broadband availability queries. The best route for most customers is to use the bt.com or btwholesale.com availability checkers or to contact their own service providers (if they are selling fibre).

I tried to remove them in earlier posts but I was too late,thanks for removing them.

As I type this, an electrician is working on the cabinet. I think he's with a company called Core. It looked quite promising anyway.

Just got back from holiday,good news then.

In reply to a post by pokchop1st:

Just got back from holiday,good news then.

Is the cab humming yet?

My wife had the day off today and she said as she was heading into town she saw a guy with a laptop working on it. When she returned the man had gone but she tells me the cabinet was humming. It looks like our time in the slow lane is close to an end.

Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 31st March 2012


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In reply to a post by 66er:

Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 31st March 2012


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't worry,they always do that when the 3 month cycle comes along,I also saw an OR bloke there yesterday playing about with cables,looks to be soon now,you will have to do what I do now and check the checker every day,I reckon this week sometime. X fingers.

NOT this year then.Will have to do some quick New Year wishes,cab still humming but the availability checkers are still on March 2012,which is exactly 12 months since the exchange went live.
Wonder if this is a record.???

In reply to a post by pokchop1st:

Wonder if this is a record.???

Nope; unless its all the cabs served by that exchange.

In reply to a post by pokchop1st:

NOT this year then.Will have to do some quick New Year wishes,cab still humming but the availability checkers are still on March 2012,which is exactly 12 months since the exchange went live.
Wonder if this is a record.???

I'm on exchange LNILC activated March 2011 as well, still waiting for cab #66 on my exchange to be activated for FTTH installs with no planned date from OR. At least your cab is listed as having a target date... maybe it's something to do with the cab number...

Good luck getting the service some time in 2012!

Spoke to BT Care yesterday regarding our Cab 66,young lady called back tonight having spoken to someone in the know?? She believes it will be on by the end of the month.
WE SHALL SEE.

Interesting. My ISP sent me an e-mail recently saying that in the next 5 weeks or so they will be automatically switching me over to 21CN, so maybe that has something to do with the cabinet being fully activated.

I�ve also noticed some roadworks over at your end that seem to be connected to the BT manhole covers on victoria avenue, as spray painted markers run off from the manhole covers across to the roadworks. They also head off down victoria avenue, but I couldn�t be bothered to follow them to se where they lead
Maybe this has something to do with the cabinet and possibly the electical issues?

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchanges/21cn_ove...

Have a look above for details on 21 CenB/B It's got nothing to do with FTTC though.

The roadworks by our house are British Gas puttin in new pipes.

The latest message from the BT DSL checker, when I enter my number, reads:

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 32.4Mbps and upstream line speed of 12.6Mbps.

Does that mean it�s actually up and running? Do you want to give it a try?

Try popping your number into the BT Retail Checkerand it will tell if you can go ahead and place an order. Other ISP checkers should give the same results.

It does look quite hopeful, all checks come up positive.

Something is definitely happening with my line. My speed has dropped below 0.5Mb, which usually means they have been working on it. Hopefully speeds like that will soon be a thing of the past.

If you can place an order, I would go ahead and do so

Yippee order gone in and accepted,goodbye O2 sorry to leave you.

Deleted: too slow!

Edited by deleted (Fri 13-Jan-12 20:44:21)

Excellent.

Finally! That took a while...

Yes!! 7 months since the start of this Post,it's been a long drag learnt a lot from all of you on the forums,thanks to you all. Rob.

I'll have to start a LNILC Cabinet 66 thread, as this is obviously the way to get fibre available

Congrats on being able to order!

Finally, we are in the 21st century. Who did you go with in the end? BT? I�m not sure who to go with, I�m on plus net at the moment and so could just switch over to their fibre option. Only thing is, I�m not sure I�ll be able to afford the upgrade just yet, after all that! . Nice to know it�s there though. Hope I can find a way juggle the finances as my speed is now 0.4Mb.

I feel after all this time, we should cover the cabinet in brightly coloured garlands and have a street party

Yes,went with BT does the things I want to do and of course the price.
Hope it all goes well for you,Engineer comes next monday 23rd,
Wonder how many would come to the street party
Anyway I'd rather keep it quiet, the less that jump onboard the better for for us.

In reply to a post by MaxNRG:

I'll have to start a LNILC Cabinet 66 thread, as this is obviously the way to get fibre available

Congrats on being able to order!

Thanks hope you get yours sorted soon.

I'll be happy if my eventual Cab41 Leyland party is attended by nobody, I want to jealously guard it considering the effort I've made on my own - still it's still a promise from OR of a date, no ground work done as yet

Today�s the big day for you. Hope all goes well.

I don�t think many would show up for the street party, most people still seem unaware of FTTC, and like you, I quite like it that way

I�ve looked into the cost and will go for it in Feb or March. I�ll probably stay with plusnet. I know a lot of people don�t rate them, but my experience of their service has been pretty good. Once more companies offer Fibre, I will probably change further down the line.

Good luck, hope all goes well. It's definitely worth waiting for. Don't forget to let us know how it goes.

Well it's been installed,OR engineer did as I wanted very happy so far but will have to wait for a few days to settle down.this is My test on here.

wellcome to superfast broadband i've been live since april last year down danebank ave

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1725564227.png

Thanks, just for fun downloaded a 1.3 gb movie on torrent site,it took 9 mins,at peak times.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1725631802.png
Ecstatic.

My connection from the BT box outside My house ran round the side and back and through into the kitchen,My router (O2 ) was connected via Devolo 200mb Homeplugs to My study upstairs and this was very unsatisfactory ( the position of the phone point not the homeplug).The OR engineer agreed with Me and placed a new phonebox+faceplate in My dining room using a new cable which is now 4 feet from the connection box. I still used the homeplugs and they work extremely well as you can see from the speedtests (which of course will settle down over the next few days).
So far I am really chuffed with it.

In reply to a post by pokchop1st:

NOT this year then.Will have to do some quick New Year wishes,cab still humming but the availability checkers are still on March 2012,which is exactly 12 months since the exchange went live.
Wonder if this is a record.???

No record there. Exeter was as a whole over a year behind in getting activated.