Poplar?

As a veteran of the poor Poplar broadband (lack of space in exchange etc), I note with interest that BT says Poplar is enabled for FTTC.

Does anyone know what percentage of poplar cabinets are enabled? Has this basically resolved the entire issue in the area?

I ask because I'm considering a move back into the area...

Only one cabinet was enable early in E14.

so the ones done this year, are all on the december excel sheet, that we are just waiting for someone to leak.

If you check the openreach website here:-

http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/

you will see the Poplar exchange taking orders for FTTC., as are Mile End, Stratford, and Albert Dock.

but as you rightly guess, only certain cabinets will be enabled.

Why do you need the Openreach sheet? Surely the ultimate test is if your CP is offering service there, so shouldn't the answer rest with the CP checker?

In reply to a post by Gadget:

Why do you need the Openreach sheet? Surely the ultimate test is if your CP is offering service there, so shouldn't the answer rest with the CP checker?

But the OP is considering moving back to Poplar, so has no address or phone number to check, especially wrt the future. Which is where the spreadsheet comes in.

Well, I'm considering a house purchase in the area, and BT retail (and most likely Openreach) doesn't know about the postcode yet - most likely because the cabinet hasn't been installed at all.

It would be interesting to know how Poplar is faring in general. 1 cabinet is not a good sign at all, and sounds very much like they did one so that they could say they "did Poplar".

ahh but thats from the OLD april spreadsheet.

to know the current take up of fibre in the E14 region, you need the December spreadsheet. Its the only way to know for sure how many of the cabs in the area are due to get FTTC.

BT & Openreach for some mad reason like to keep it secret.

For sure, a lot more cabinets in the area will now be enabled, or due to be enabled.

most likely because the cabinet hasn't been installed at all.

It is very unusual for a whole new cabinet to be installed, unless the prospective address is part of a very large new development.

I believe the majority of the cabinets on the exchange are enabled, but this still leaves gaps in coverage for some of the tower blocks served by exchange only lines. Luckily a number of these are now being offered FTTP as part of the pilot of that service to apartment blocks - see separate news item on this on TBB.

Difficult to be more definitive than that until you have a particular location in mind, and of course it would be simple enough then to use the line checker anyway.

Don't forget to check the LLU availabilty too. Why? Because even if your cabinet is not enabled, I highly doubt the LLU operators in that exchange will have reduced the number of ports available. The number of (say) Be* or Sky users that have since moved to a FTTC connection will have likely freed up LLU capacity at the exchange.

This should therefore mean that you should be able to get a decent-performing LLU ADSL2+ connection, if such a thing would suit your needs.

I've no direct source for this, I merely infer it from the recent news articles and forum posts showing Be* shedding customers. It's therefore a fairly logical assumption; please of course do research it more first! It might be worth having a look around the area (or use street view if not possible) to find the number of a local takeaway. Pop it into the checkers and see what's said - it should give a good idea of the state of Poplar's LLU.

In reply to a post by blueacid:

Good thinking !

Genius, fine problem solving, thank you. I will definitely do that!

Glad to have helped Let us know the outcome of your search!

What size would warrant a new cabinet? I guess the answer is related to capacity... what size is the standard cab? And what spare capacity do they build as standard?

(My friend had two additional lines installed (for a total of 3) and they didn't bat an eyelid!)

In following my own advice (thank you, wings takeaway), Poplar currently has Be* capacity available.

In reply to a post by blueacid:

In following my own advice (thank you, wings takeaway), Poplar currently has Be* capacity available.

Which means that Be resellers such as ADSL24. AAISP et al are ideally placed to upgrade a customer to FTTC if it becomes available to the customer, whereas Be currently have no FTTC product.

Poplar here too, in a new flat, however it seems I'm fed via a distribution point and not a street cab, so no FTTC for anyone living here. For a brand new development it seems a very poor strategy to not cater for FTTC.

Can anyone explain the difference between a distribution point and a cab? Obviously the cab is needed to hold the DSLAM... does distribution point come direct from the exchange or something?

The distribution point is (usually) the last node between the cabinet and the premises.
A typical (but not necessarily always the case) example is:
Exchange <- E-Side Cable -> Cabinet <- D-Side Cable -> Distribution Point <- Lead-In Cable -> Premises

And that completely precludes FTTC?

If there is no cabinet within the route, then Fibre To The Cabinet won't be available.
Exchange <- EO Cable -> Distribution Point <- Lead-In Cable -> Premises

Edited by panda (Wed 04-Jan-12 16:43:53)

My friend had two additional lines installed (for a total of 3) and they didn't bat an eyelid

LOL ! At least 2 to 300 lines to consider a new cabinet.

If the new spreadsheets are to be believed for their data about EO lines, then there are no EO lines getting either FTTC or FTTP as yet. There are some 130,000 postcodes listed as EO. Just for comparison, there are some 40,000 cabinet-based postcodes that *are* listed as getting FTTP.

So, while we know that technical rules do preclude FTTC, what is stopping EO lines from getting FTTP?

The more BT get through their deployment, the more this seems to stand out as a hole in their strategy. Surely this demands questions to the people who set strategies - with media questioning the CEO, rather than individuals asking about their own phone line.

Don't forget there are also two overall types of cab. The normal phone one, (PCP), and the FTTC one that gets installed near to it. The DSLAM is in the FTTC one. Full explanation.

So working from panda's post, it is possible there is a PCP and matching FTTC one further back than the distribution point.

WWWombat
How do you know how many Postcodes are listed as by EO? The lists do not contain any EO only codes.

There is nothing to stop EO lines having FTTP but they would have to be shown in a different format and file as there would be no Cab to identify these by.

As the final splitter only handles 32 or 64 Customers, EO customers who already tend to have good speeds (15 -20Mb) may be forecast to have a lower takeup and therefore may not be ecomonic to provide at the low fill rate forecast.

Experience may change this rational but I'm sure BT will want to rollout to areas that are likely to have a better fill rate first.

The December files certainly do include EO lines, which have the "EO Flag" value set to 1. I used Excel to filter that column having values if "1", and found around 60,000 records in the first file and 70,000 in the second file. I made a small mistake, as I counted records with 1 but ignored the fact that there might be duplicate entries for postcodes

Here's an example I found locally:
THBO, BROOKWOOD, GU240LR, {THBO}{M_F}, 1, 9%

And here's one where a postcode has multiple EO entries, with a different SAU_Node_Id:
MYHGT, HARROGATE, HG11PE, {MYHGT}{M_D}, 1, 14%
MYHGT, HARROGATE, HG11PE, {MYHGT}{M_F}, 1, 28%

The SAU_Node_Id seems to include a string like "{M_A}", "{M_B}", etc. Perhaps it identifies the cable bundle, or the frame used.

Some E0 entries will be businesses with fibre direct from exchange. Not FTTP though.

Thanks

I can see them now, the heading said "PLEASE NOTE: Postcodes which map to Exchange Only Lines are not shown in this report." so I hadn't looked for them.

I can see 25k and 23k with 100% so 48k Codes completely EO the rest all have some that are not EO. So the heading notes must be incorrect.

I can't tell how many are FTTP because of the number of duplicates but agree 40k different rows.

Hey folks,

This lack of fibre is really annoying. We need some fibre to cabinet (fttc)

FTTC Range A (Clean) 77.6 57.9 20 18.9 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 70 41.3 20 12.2 -- Available

This is what we need at cabinet 54 - poplar

I implore everyone in the area reading this to go to:
http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/expression-gen....

and add yourself to the 'expression of interest' and of course we need to put pressure on Tower Hamlets council to insist that this cabinet be upgraded. There are tons of small businesses, hotels and new homes that could use super fast broad band. The current service is appalling and will drive business away instead of bringing it in to lovely Canary Wharf and South Quay.

Check your phone or postcode at : https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

best regards all,

Hugh

Edited by monbrolondon (Fri 17-Jul-15 17:34:19)

or you could work with your community and gap fund it see openreach not on a plan

the commercial programme is finished

Are those estimates for somewhere completely different?

In reply to a post by Fastman2:

or you could work with your community and gap fund it see openreach not on a plan

the commercial programme is finished

This isn't entirely true, the commercial programme has not finished, we was and still are part of the original 66% commercial rollout for FTTP in East London that was going on back in 2011, we got put on hold in mid install so they could do all the BDUK work, and it only now that they are starting to come back to finish off our install.

Sure the commercial programme maybe finished for new projects, but certainly not for already partly completed installs, or ones that was originally down to be done.

Paul

true in the fact from a decision -- ie there are some to do that were part of the commercial (that your and some FTTP) as these have been delayed popla54 is not part of the commercial programme so the only way the cab would be enabled woud be via some external private funding

In reply to a post by Fastman2:

true in the fact from a decision -- ie there are some to do that were part of the commercial (that your and some FTTP) as these have been delayed popla54 is not part of the commercial programme so the only way the cab would be enabled woud be via some external private funding

Agreed, also checked some old NGA Documents and that cabinet {LNPOP}{P54} isn't down for fibre neither was it part of the Commercial Plan, well back in 2011 it wasn't.

Paul