RFS date versus actual live date?

Hi,

Last time I posted on here was in 2003 when some nice chap at Pipex stopped BT pulling the plug on my flaky broadband connection. Since then we've lived with a dodgy service which max's out at 1.5 meg. We are 6.7 km from our exchange so lucky to get that.

However, at long last our exchange is showing an RFS date for FTTC as 1st December; a few days back. The green boxes were installed and wired 3 or 4 weeks ago. Any idea how long before we might be able to order please?

I'm also keen to be prepared in advance and buy a suitable router - what do you guys recommend please. We work from home (a successful internet business on a 1.5 meg connection!) so need a good piece of kit.

Thanks for any pointers,
Dave

What does this checker have to say?

Have you gone into any of the well-known FTTC ISPs to see if it offers the fibre packages?

Do you connect wired or wireless to the router, and if wired is 100Mbps ethernet adequate or would 1Gbps be useful?

Also worth looking at what devices the provider recommend for a router, beyond the supplied openreach modem

Remember that the RFS is for the exchange and can have no real link to the date your cabinet/line will be ready. Check the cabinet you are connected to in order to make sure the power is on (you'll need to listen carefully near the vents this time of year). If the cabinet is up and running and the fibres been put in then the RFS is likely a good date to go by, probably plus a month.

Hi folks,

Firstly, thanks for the replies, its appreciated.

The BT checker says this which I assume is encouraging!

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 34.4Mbps and upstream line speed of 13.3Mbps.

I am currently with ADSL24 who do have a suitable offer altho I've not really shopped around recently.

The router they recommend (a D-Link) appears to be a few years old and I reckon there could be more up-to-date versions available. Any recommendations appreciated. We run an internet design and marketing business from home with a couple of ethernet networked PCs and several devices accessing wi-fi (you can imagine the pain with our slow connection!)

We also fling some hefty files around to a NAS so a router that is capable of shifting content quickly would be ideal - that and decent wi-fi coverage.

Thanks again,
Dave

Sorry to say it Dave, but 31st Dec is a classic OR quarter end placeholder. This will most likely change to 31st March 2012 in a few days time.

Mine started out as the 31st of September and slipped to December 31st but it actualy went live at the very begining of November. Ignore the checker and just keep seeing what it says on the BT website, for me that said available and the checker said December the 31st still.

Hi,

Well we've waited 10 years for a decent services so a few more months shouldn't be too bad. At least it is coming. I spoke to one of the BT guys who was wiring the job up in his little tent a few weeks back and he seemed fairly sure that we'd be rolling in January. We're based in Derby but they'd sent guys over from the West Midlands to do the wiring - it did seem like they were focussed on getting the job done.

Fingers crossed!