Updated list of exchanges

Sept 13 issue available:

http://www.openreach-communications.co.uk/superfast/...

Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but note the SAUID column. Its not the exchange code of the exchange name (in the previous column), but the exchange code of the exchange that the Fibre is being served from.

For example, the FTTC cabinets in the Saddleworth exchange area are being fed with fibreoptic cabling from the Oldham exchange, so Saddleworth exchange itself is not being upgraded.

Of course, it doesn't really matter either way, it has no impact on speed or anything.

Did BT make a boo-noo on this one, as in the past it has usually been the actual exchange code rather than the serving exchange?

James

Edited by deleted (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:13:50)

My local exchange (Penkridge - WMPKR) has changed from `future exchanges` to `exchanges coming soon`, but the SAUID has changed to WMSPA, which is actually the exchange code for Stafford and appears as both the code for Penkridge and Stafford.

Supposed to be here in March 2012, but now not sure if it's coming to this exchange or not because of the codes.

Ah, thanks Adsl24, you posted that just as I raised my concerns. In previous editions it did have WMPKR as the the SAUID for the `future exchanges`.
According to the leaked PCP to postcode report, my cabinet is down for the upgrade so hopefully the fact that the exchange is 7-8 miles away won't affect the service(?).

At last LCSOU is on the list for sometime in 2012, but i will believe that when i see it hopefully by then there will be a better choice of FTTC provider with it's own back haul ect

Nope, makes no difference where the exchange is on FTTC. Treat your FTTC cab as the exchange, as that's where the new VDSL equipment is hosted.

Huh, we've finally got a date. March 2012.

Slightly curious though to note that it refers to our exchange as 'SMBB' when everywhere else it's called SMBY :-/

Edit:Ah so we're being served from Banbury. Curious that since BeThere unbundled us before Banbury. They must be changing the network routes.

Edited by Andrue (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:23:41)

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Huh, we've finally got a date. March 2012.

Slightly curious though to note that it refers to our exchange as 'SMBB' when everywhere else it's called SMBY :-/

That's because your FTTC roll-out is being served from Banbury not the Brackley exchange., so don't you go pinching all my back-haul
SMBB is Banbury

Brackley; a slave to Banbury - just the way it should be

Edited by adebov (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:25:22)

In reply to a post by adebov:

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Huh, we've finally got a date. March 2012.

Slightly curious though to note that it refers to our exchange as 'SMBB' when everywhere else it's called SMBY :-/

That's because your FTTC roll-out is being served from Banbury not the Brackley exchange., so don't you go pinching all my back-haul

Yeah, just saw that. How bizarre :-/

Edited by Andrue (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:26:09)

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Do they really mean that, though?

Yes; quite a few smaller exchanges are cropping up on the list as being served by a neighbouring exchange (Blewbury, for example, is down as served from Didcot).
James (earlier) mentioned Saddleworth as being served from Oldham.

Edited by adebov (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:28:15)

In reply to a post by adebov:

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Do they really mean that, though?

Yes; quite a few smaller exchanges are cropping up on the list as being served by a neighbouring exchange (Blewbury, for example, is down as served from Didcot).
James (earlier) mentioned Saddleworth as being served from Oldham.

*Sniff* I feel small now. Quite a bizarre turn around compared to LLU. And there was me thinking Brackley got some fresh backhaul and had oodles of capacity :-/

Yep. What happened in Saddleworth, is that they basically extended the reach from the Oldham exchange to the Saddleworth cabs.

So, if you think about each exchange, there is a crossover point where the cabs start to be fed by a different exchange (for copper). So, all BT have to do, is blow the fibre a bit further, between the junction of the last cab on one exchange, to the next closest cab on the next exchange and then onwards from there to each cab thereafter.

In our case, this is definitely true, because the first 4 cabs in Saddleworth are now enabled for FTTC, and those 4 cabs are the closest ones to the edge of where the last Oldham cabinet is... if that makes sense?

I'm not sure if this is sharing capacity on the same fibre cables from the last cab on the serving exchange? Something to think about I guess.

Edited by deleted (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:33:30)

It could be the way of the future.
If/when a full FTTP roll-out happens, I can see a lot of smaller exchanges being closed down.

It could also be BT trying to find a use for the oodles of space they've got inside the Banbury exchange (given it was a main switching centre, when built circa 1975, it must have masses of empty space, now all the equipment is considerably smaller some 35 to 40 years after the exchange was designed).

Still needed for Voice though... so I can't see any exchanges being closed anytime in the future. Eventually of course it will happen

Mar-12

yay

lets hope BE has a product out by then.

Edited by epyon (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:36:28)

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

Eventually of course it will happen

I didn't mean short-term , but (you're right) eventually everything will go fibre, and that's when BT will be able to seriously cut back on the number of exchanges.
Who knows?

Perhaps so

Occasionally in my BT days I'd have worked in Knock exchange in Belfast and while not a particularly large exchange, most of it was sitting empty. Apart from a few distribution frames and some ISDN and ADSL equipment there wasn't a lot happening.

Particularly fun was some old filing cabinets that had old engineer handbooks and the like in them...definitely world war era.

To give an idea (of the size of our exchange) I've found a flickr photo showing it (the large four level beige building) opposite a four-deck multi-storey car park (photo was taken from the top of the main multi-storey, which is about 6 or 7 levels).

I can't imagine the exchange is that full these days.

Edited by adebov (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:52:05)

Similar here.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=southwell+road+bango...

The red brick building is the original exchange. The concrete monstrosity next door is the "extension".

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

So, if you think about each exchange, there is a crossover point where the cabs start to be fed by a different exchange (for copper). So, all BT have to do, is blow the fibre a bit further, between the junction of the last cab on one exchange, to the next closest cab on the next exchange and then onwards from there to each cab thereafter.

Here its really strange, the Aldershot exchange (bigger town) is getting FTTC from Farnborough ? Camberley, over 7 miles away getting FTTC from Farnborough? Errr....? Why? These are exchanges that have higher line counts than Farnborough and are bigger towns; they both had LLU suppliers long before we did.

Also annoying... where's my cab :-/

In reply to a post by orly:

Similar here.

LOL, mine's hidden behind trees:
http://g.co/maps/q8bs2

from both sides:
http://g.co/maps/k33wu

Strangely Google thinks its the borough council; it most definately is not, I've been up there and seen the BT vans and the BT signs on the building.

But the biggest dullest looking building is the exchange in Crawley (my home town) where its even in Exchange Road:
http://g.co/maps/qm5dv

Edited by jchamier (Mon 12-Sep-11 21:07:42)

The funny bit on the streetview for my exchange is when you pan to the left to see the houses opposite...it's like a sky satellite gallery. must be over a dozen on just a couple of houses.

In reply to a post by orly:

The funny bit on the streetview for my exchange is when you pan to the left to see the houses opposite...it's like a sky satellite gallery. must be over a dozen on just a couple of houses.

LOL that is serious overkill !! I hope some of those buildings are flats, otherwise something odd is going on there.

In reply to a post by adebov:

To give an idea (of the size of our exchange) I've found a flickr photo showing it (the large four level beige building) opposite a four-deck multi-storey car park (photo was taken from the top of the main multi-storey, which is about 6 or 7 levels).

I can't imagine the exchange is that full these days.

Ours is a bit smaller: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2346483

The Oldham exchange is the opposite (huge):

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=ol1+1ba&hl=en&ll=53....

and

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=ol1+1ba&hl=en&ll=53....

which exchanges would be more saleable in a rationalisation ? may make it clearer why the choice of serving exchange is being made.

Our exchange, EAMAD (Madingley) is being served from EACRH (Cherry Hinton) about 8 miles east in Cambridge. The exchange next door, EACAX (Caxton, a few miles to our west) is getting its fibre from EMSTNEO (St Neots), about 8 miles further west.

Strangely Samknows shows EAMAD with a FTTC RFS date of 1/12/2011, but EACRH shows FTTC "not available"

Edited by bgriffiths (Tue 13-Sep-11 13:33:46)

Interestingly theres nothing more for West Berkshire, Newbury is live, Thatcham is live in parts, though OR says 31st Sep and Hungerford has a date of 31st December.

I wonder once Thatcham goes live if they will run fibre up to all the cabs in neighbouring exhanges.

Would be interesting to know, what it would cost for fibre to be brought up to 1 cabinet on a different exchange, as my village coverage is split by 2 exchanges, the southern one having FTTC- which half the village gets but not the other half.

In reply to a post by chrisadsl:

Sept 13 issue available:

http://www.openreach-communications.co.uk/superfast/...

YEY at last carlisle is listed, so thats 2 places in the whole of cumbria now getting fibre

Even made it into the local paper (must be a slow news day lol)
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/super-fast-broadba...

not sure what ive missed in these exchange list but this is ours if anyone is interested....

http://g.co/maps/5ye44

You have to say, some of the original exchange buildings do look rather pretty from an architectural point of view.

Why, I belive there is no longer a requirement for line power as long as there is battery backup in the home phone. Current requirement is for 4 hours but they are consulting on reducing it to 1 Hour

You mean in the kit on the end of the fibre that a phone can plug into.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

which exchanges would be more saleable in a rationalisation ? may make it clearer why the choice of serving exchange is being made.

That was my thought, too.
I'm guessing there are some exchanges which form critical parts of the BT network, so need to stay).
They are going to need fibre hubs and switching centres (or whatever they're likely to be called when we go full fibre for voice and internet). Might as well arrange these so there's a very large exchange every 20 to 30 miles (or however far they can get with the attenuation of modern fibre-optics) and sell off the ones in between as prime residential building land (which they'll tend to be; given the siting of most exchanges).

I'd have thought, in a full fibre World, BT would want to do some serious rationalisation and go with very large "hub" exchanges in the larger towns & cities, and serve the villages and most small towns from those.
Not to mention it's likely to be very easy to sell smaller village (and small town exchanges) rather than the very large sites which are common in larger population centres and medium to large towns served by a single exchange (such as ours - a population of around 50,000 isn't massive, but makes for a very large exchange when there's only one in town).

In reply to a post by adebov:

Not to mention it's likely to be very easy to sell smaller village (and small town exchanges) rather than the very large sites which are common in larger population centres and medium to large towns served by a single exchange (such as ours - a population of around 50,000 isn't massive, but makes for a very large exchange when there's only one in town).

Interesting thoughts. I'd assume lots of BT exchanges act as communication hubs for multiple providers, even those who don't do consumer LLU provision. Corporate lines etc.

Many will provide services for critical national infrastructure (e.g. civil government / police / fire / ambulance) communications - though I guess that's probably quite regionalised too.

If FTTP was commonplace with voice over fibre, then I'd understand, but FTTC doesn't bother with voice over the VDSL; so most places will need the SystemX voice exchange alongside all the new 'stuff' for years.

The fibre can be served from any exchange to cabinets outside it's own footprint, as it doesn't have to go via the PCP's on that said exchange - it can just go straight to a new FTTC cab wherever that is. The exchange itself doesn't really require any upgrading to support FTTC, all the work is done in the new cabs. So, you could quite easily have an area (like Cherry Hinton) that isnt FTTC enabled yet cabs on a nearby exchange can be fed from Cherry Hinton.

Make sense?

BT have already announced a few full-fibre exchanges (which I take to mean voice as well, whether you like it or not).
One such exchange is Deddington (about half-way between Oxford and Banbury).
I drove through there today and noticed a good many homes & businesses are fed from poles (so much for the "can't put fibre on poles" idea - I can't see BT retro-fitting ducting for the whole village, given it's got a population of just over 2,000).

This, AIUI, means fibre only (no copper) and BT must be doing trials for a reason.

I see this (and the others) as BT testing the water (to get an idea of the complexity of a full fibre phone system).

As we've seen (with ADSL in the late 1990s and, more recently, with FTTC/FTTP trials in South Wales) many trials eventually lead to partial (or full) national roll-out within a few years, so watch this space (there may be an awful lot of old copper voice and ADSL exchange equipment appearing on ebay).

PM me your postcode and I'll cehck your cab

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

PM me your postcode and I'll cehck your cab

Thanks - PM sent

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=newbury&hl=en&ll=51....

This is the newbury exchange, a very popular building in the town, as it stands over everything bar a industrial tower nearby.