30th September 2011 FTTC

So initially the BT checker said March 2011 for FTTC cab enablement, then it pushed it back to June, then July and then now currently shown is September. However I know it takes around 3 months prior to the date shown on the website for new cabs to show up in the area, and I have seen nothing at all yet. Does this mean BT will again change the date on the BT ADSL checker and if so when do they make changes on the checker? (every quartely or monthly?)

Thanks.

They tend to push the dates back by a quater 2 weeks before that date is reached.

If no cabinets have started springing up yet then it will definately be pushed back to December as it takes about 3 months for the cab to be fully installed once the ground work has started.

My cab was started in May and I still can't order Infinity.

In reply to a post by Bobby_Valentino:

So initially the BT checker said March 2011 for FTTC cab enablement, then it pushed it back to June, then July and then now currently shown is September. However I know it takes around 3 months prior to the date shown on the website for new cabs to show up in the area, and I have seen nothing at all yet. Does this mean BT will again change the date on the BT ADSL checker and if so when do they make changes on the checker? (every quartely or monthly?)

Thanks.

The go live date for WWEXTR was initially planned for 30th September 2010 under Phase 5a, however cabs only started appearing a couple of weeks ago and the date is currently planned for 30th September 2011 - a year behind so far.

Wouldn't hold your breath

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

it takes about 3 months for the cab to be fully installed once the ground work has started.

Do you have anything that references this timeframe as I'd be interested to know why it takes that long.

References are from the BT Infinity forum from people who have marked the time from their cab being started from going live.

A friend of mine who works for BT middle management says that the power companies said they could do it all within a certain timeframe and now have trouble keeping up.

The time frame will vary as much from cab to cab as from exchange to exchange. If a cab is among the 1st to be installed in an area then it maybe many weeks, even months before service is available. If its one of the last then it could be just aa little as a couple of weeks.
Delays are numerous but the majority are likely to be availability of sufficient engineering resources, either contractor or direct labour (I hear Openreach is still struggling to manage their day to day workload continuing to use contract work to boost their direct labour force, whilst at the same time reducing their headcount!) , insufficient duct space / blockages, planning / streetworks delays by local authourities , in addition to power connection dealys.

Edited by deleted (Fri 22-Jul-11 20:03:35)

In reply to a post by Bobby_Valentino:

So initially the BT checker said March 2011 for FTTC cab enablement, then it pushed it back to June, then July and then now currently shown is September. However I know it takes around 3 months prior to the date shown on the website for new cabs to show up in the area, and I have seen nothing at all yet.

My cab was March 2011, then June 2011, now 30th September 2011. I know the far end of the main road had a nice new 288 connection Huawei (the big ones) installed in June. The other far end had a small (tiny) cabinet installed in May. The middle of the (long) road is still waiting

Well we're a little ahead then.
All cabinets in town are in (only ones which aren't are the ones they're not doing - including, bizarrely, one at the other end of our estate - which has been built for around 5 years so I doubt BT haven't updated a database yet).

Our date, having been pushed back about six times (was originally supposed to be last December) has now been moved forward (yes; FORWARD!!!!) from Sept 30th to Sept 1st. I'm yet to be convinced it'll actually happen!

3 months seems to be a commonly-quoted average. Equally-commonly quoted is the fact that the sticking point seems to be power connections.

Some of the delays will come from the statutory delays mandated by planning notifications (but you obviously aren't aware of this delay, as it comes before any site work), and similar delays in planning for roadworks (even if just on the path). Those pesky rules that force utilities to co-ordinate roadworks forces the delays...

Figure that it needs at least 3 separate site visits that must wait for these periods: A site build, a fibre feed, and a power feed, and you can easily see why the delays easily mount up. The utilities also face penalty fines if they don't finish roadworks on time: this means that any small problem will result in them sealing things up, and starting a new month-long notification period, in preference to coming back tomorrow to fix things but paying a fine.

And all that assumes that the power company or contractor *can* come back in a month.

Our cabinet was first due for the power roadworks in October last year, and expected to go live in November or December. In December, it looked like they dug a trench for power to a nearby lit Give-Way sign. In February, they were back with more roadworks - this time across the main road. Then in March there was another set - but this time along the path without crossing the road.

This is a little off topic, so please forgive me.

Does anyone know roughly how often the "public" BT checker and PDF resources are updated? From what I can tell, the Openreach "When can I get it" PDF is updated around every month, but there are loads of other checkers and resources out there that seem much more out of date. The checker I'm most interested in is the BT Wholesale checker. I'm expecting my enablement date to change from Sep 30th to something sooner any day now, as all the cabinets that applied for planning are in, the black/yellow fibre has been installed in many of them and the ones that have fibre also have power as of 2 weeks ago (mine included). I'm willing to bet my cabinet is RFS, but all the checkers aren't updated yet, but I can't be sure.

Indeed, a fairly complex set of logistics for each and every cab really.

The roadworks for my cab started on Friday morning, we have the base, cab and the path between old and new cab was dug up and relaid on Saturday morning to connect the old and new cabs.

The description of the works on our councils website says;

Install 18m of 1 way poly duct in Footway,Install 4m of 1 way poly duct in Carriageway,Provide 1 Cabinet and base (NGA cabinets 1.5m x 0.5m)

Sounds like the power might (should?) go in this week, or do the power guys come later and use the duct in the carriageway laid now?

I am pretty sure our fibre is already there as there has been the big OR vans with the big reels knocking about our area on various days in the last three months.

In my experience, the power goes in weeks after the fibre has been laid. They dug up another load of pavement in a different direction to connect the power.

I'm pretty sure that the power will never go in before the cabinet - there won't be much desire for a live power cable sticking out of the ground!

I also suspect that BT wouldn't want to start the paperwork chase for the power installation until the cabinet is known to be in place and ready to accept it (ie it has the electronic kit installed too), just so the project-management don't have to re-apply for the roadworks after a problem. In fact, I really suspect that live power will always be the very last component to be added.

Combining that, plus the delays I mentioned, suggests that power will only be put in *at least* a month after the rest has been installed.

You might also find that the 2 poly ducts mentioned aren't for power either - they're more likely to be for the copper tie cable to the existing cabinet, and the fibre itself. I would have thought that the electricity contractors would want to be the ones responsible for the power ducting.

Makes sense to me too that the power would be done later and seperately, could just be the description of the works that's misleading but the 4m in the carriageway would suggest for the power as that is pretty much the distance to one of two power pickups I can see they could use and all the BT manholes and therefore I assume ducting is in the footway. The works are scheduled to be in operation for another week, so I'll keep an eye to see if they start a dig across the road for the power.

In reply to a post by Wizen:

Does anyone know roughly how often the "public" BT checker and PDF resources are updated? From what I can tell, the Openreach "When can I get it" PDF is updated around every month, but there are loads of other checkers and resources out there that seem much more out of date. The checker I'm most interested in is the BT Wholesale checker.

PDFs seem to be updated monthly. The "BT Wholesale" checker can see changes almost daily sometimes - I suspect it is tied in to a database that gets regular operational changes.

Other checkers may use the same data, but may adjust the results somewhat (like BT Infinity does). Marketing pages often end up way out-of-date.

I'm expecting my enablement date to change from Sep 30th to something sooner any day now, as all the cabinets that applied for planning are in, the black/yellow fibre has been installed in many of them and the ones that have fibre also have power as of 2 weeks ago (mine included). I'm willing to bet my cabinet is RFS, but all the checkers aren't updated yet, but I can't be sure.

It is easy to feel ("wish" may be a better term) that the checker is the only link missing. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have turned out that way so far.

Don't forget that both cabinets & exchange have to be live - and your exchange might be a child to some parent exchange that must also be ready (or at least ready for child exchanges)

Evidence also suggests that the set of "exchange+cabinets" won't go live until there are at least 10 cabinets ready.

Also don't forget that the "black/yellow fibre" isn't actually the fibre itself - I have a feeling it is the micro-ducting that the fibre will get blown down.

My cabinet has been sat there with power applied for a couple of months now. Well after the cab was first powered up I saw a couple of Openreach engineers there. Had a chat and found that they were putting in the links between the cabs. They told me that the fibre still hadn't been run to the cab so power was one of the earlier things to have been completed.

In reply to a post by rhino7:

My cabinet has been sat there with power applied for a couple of months now. Well after the cab was first powered up I saw a couple of Openreach engineers there. Had a chat and found that they were putting in the links between the cabs. They told me that the fibre still hadn't been run to the cab so power was one of the earlier things to have been completed.

I guess all we can glean from this is that they do this "as and when" - if power company can get their cable in quicker than OR can get their fibre in then that's what happens - and vice versa.

Huh

Its not always doom n gloom for cab dates etc. Our exchange was set for july this year. No cabs were in place and it was moved back to sept. In the past 21 days 11 of the 19 cabs have just been installed and 2 of these are now ready for service. We have already had orders successfully placed with us on the two said cabs. So that's a very quick turnaround to say no cabs where even in place 21 days ago.

However, the cabs in this exchange area are not being served by fibre from the local exchange, but from a larger exchange (oldham) which has had fttc for over 18mths already hence why as soon as the cab is powerrd it can be made live as no exchange upgrades are required. I gurss they are just extending the already laid fibre cables from the nearest cab from oldham

Edited by deleted (Wed 27-Jul-11 23:44:58)

Well, all three cabinets went in last week and this morning they were digging across the road to lay the power ducting on one of them (power itself, who knows?). So, it looks like for our three cabs there's some reasonable co-ordination going on.

Lucky you. Theres no digging work or any signs of FTTC cabs being installed in, in my area, despite the adsl checker still saying it will be ready by 30th September.

Post deleted by Bobby_Valentino

Edited by Bobby_Valentino (Sun 07-Aug-11 12:58:37)

Sweet, my exchange is now listed in the Exchanges already accepting orders category (http://www.openreach-communications.co.uk/superfast/.../) But the BT ADSL checker still says my cab will go live 30th September 2011, however there is no sign of any digging work to put the DSLAM's in next to the green cab down the road. Does this mean when September 30th arrives or near that date, BT will change the date on thier checker?

Edited by Bobby_Valentino (Sun 07-Aug-11 13:03:01)

In reply to a post by Bobby_Valentino:

Sweet, my exchange is now listed in the Exchanges already accepting orders category (http://www.openreach-communications.co.uk/superfast/.../) But the BT ADSL checker still says my cab will go live 30th September 2011, however there is no sign of any digging work to put the DSLAM's in next to the green cab down the road. Does this mean when September 30th arrives or near that date, BT will change the date on thier checker?

They can do

My cabinet is one of three on a very long road (and I live on a side road). Originally the BT number checker gave my number as FTTC available 1st May, then it was 1st July, now its 30th September. The other two cabinets on the main road have had their FTTC additions, one is a large original style right next to the church, the other is one of the new very tiny ones.

All we can do is wait and watch.

Wow, just driving down the road and i saw the first and only FTTC cab a few roads away from me. Its placed right next to the phone cab, and looks slightly taller and slimmer. This is a very good sign, although its not for my phone cab grrr. I'll be watching very carefully around my cab area now!

In reply to a post by Bobby_Valentino:

Wow, just driving down the road and i saw the first and only FTTC cab a few roads away from me. Its placed right next to the phone cab, and looks slightly taller and slimmer. This is a very good sign, although its not for my phone cab grrr. I'll be watching very carefully around my cab area now!

Nice... I keep looking at my cab each time I drive past (couple of times a day!) and the only thing thats happened is re-shelling, back in March.