FTTC Conflicting Information

Hi All

I've been looking forward to order FTTC on the 30/06/2011 as this is the date that both Zen and BT said the cabinet/exchange would be FTTC enabled....so I looked today and found:

For Telephone Number 01244xxxxxx on Exchange CHESTER CENTRAL

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 1Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 750Kbps and 2.5Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 1Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 1Mbps and 3.5Mbps.

Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 31st December 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 13.8Mbps and upstream line speed of 5Mbps.

Yet this shows that the cabinet is FTTC deployed....

WNCSC CHESTER CENTRAL CH3 7EY {WNCSC}{p75} 0 100 8.18 6a Yes FTTC

Can anybody explain whats happening?

Is there any way of finding where these cabinets are too?

Gareth

Your second quote, from the Openreach spreadsheet does NOT show that FTTC has been deployed... just that it is in the plan. It has no indication of whether the cabinet is live or not.

It does tell you that the cabinet is planned in phase 6a, and that 100% of the phone lines in that postcode are serviced by that one cabinet - which is good news.

The "Deployed=Yes" that has confused you is only an indicator of whether the cabinet is included in the plan.

To find whether an exchange/cabinet is actually live (or due in the next couple of weeks, you need to see a different spreadsheet: the "BTW-FTTC-Exchange-and-Cabs" one.

That spreadsheet (for mid-June) shows there are 11 cabinets RFS ("ready for service", aka live) in Chester South, but nothing at all in Chester Central.

Thank you very much WWWombat.

Any idea when the cabinet will be live or is the date from BT more accurate?

GE

Just another holding date it seems .

The most reliable way is to find cabinet 75 - I guess about 600-700 metres from you, and look for activity there including the installation of the FTTC one for it, or maybe just road works for fibre and/or power supply to nearby.

Once that is in place, stick your ear up against the vents and listen for the cooling being powered up. Even that can be a few weeks before it goes live.

Note that you won't be able to get BT Infinity, so the BT Broadband checker is no use, as it won't show anything for you. You need the BT Wholesale one, but it looks as though that's what you are using.