Is there any cabinet info out there?

I have found some posts with old (leaked) info regarding specific cabinets that are to be upgraded, dating back to April 2011. but need more up-to-date info.

Just wondered before I make my decision to go with digital region (possibly my only choice!)

My exchange (SLIN - Intake, Sheffield) has been enabled, street cabinets have been appearing on the route to mine, but when they got to the one before me ( Street Side Dslam Cab Nmbldw, Hopefield Ave, Sheffield, S12 4XB ), the Openreach guys have disappeared!!!

Coincidentally, it would seem they have decided to install only up to the limit of the Virgin Media in our area, which is what I wanted to check.

Using the PlusNet availability checker with spurious local postcodes, selecting the 'Streetside Dslam Cab' as the relevant address seems to confirm that the new cabinets are enabled, but obviously wont tell me if they are continuing to roll out on this exchange.

Anyone any ideas?

Cheers

I did this:
- Go to this link: at Google Docs
- Use "Edit - Filter", and choose "SAU_ID = SLIN" first
- then add a condition , and choose "Postcode starts with S124X"
- then sort the postcodes ascending.

That shows that 20% of lines in S12 4XB are served by cabinet 60, and are to be deployed in phase 6bf, while 79% are served by cabinet 19 and are to be deployed in phase 6b.

No idea when those translate to in real dates though.

You can obviously alter the filters to choose your own postcode. Look for the column titled "Deployed"; if that says "yes", you should get it sometime. If it is blank, then they aren't planning to include you. If it says "No" then they might get to you later.

Cool, i'll try that in a bit,

Thanks

thats pretty much what I was looking for, thanks for that.

Apparently my postcode is served 100% by cabinet 17, which is deployed, and which is in phase 6bf (like you though, no idea what that means lol) uplift is 6.35 (again, no idea what that indicates)

A bit wiser and I will report back if I find any more out that may be of use to others.

Cheers

the phases dont mean much anymore

the 6.35 is the average speed increase for all in that area. ie 6.35 x your current speed

Ok well I'm learning plenty here. Thanks for the explanation. I would think that's a very conservative estimator as we're about 3km from the exchange so estimated current speeds are only in the 3 to 4 range

In reply to a post by yoda2691:

Coincidentally, it would seem they have decided to install only up to the limit of the Virgin Media in our area, which is what I wanted to check.

That seems to be the case in my town also - those with good ADSL and the option of Virgin's fibre service are getting the option of Infinity as well, but those of us who only get BT at rates best measured in bits per hour, are stuck.

First provider to offer decent internet here is going to get a lot of business, you'd think *someone* would bite.

Its a pretty big rollout so its going to take time, theres no doubt BT want to take VM customers but they are also expanding to alot of areas with no cable.
Alot of exchanges do have cabs missed which will evenutally be filled in later on, a market demand and or local council pressure can get cabs done. Have seen 3 more cabs come in phase 9b when exchange and most of the cabs where enabled back in 5a.
Once the LBP's are done end of next month and all expected to go to tender my end of 2012, will see BT win the majority the amount of areas with no cable will increase even more,.

Ofc, its perfect business sense to offer Fibre in areas that already have cable.

A lot of those customers will switch to BT, but ofc in the areas that have nothing, everyone is going with BT (one way or the other).

So they will think along the lines of.. (max customer take up).

A) 50% of the people in the Virgin Media area.
b) 100% of the people in the areas that have nothing, that they are going to get round to doing every line anyway.

Virgin are at a disadvantage because they are not rolling out any new areas, only trying to capitalise on the areas that they have.

For true competition, we would want every house to be connected to both networks......

ps: has anyone else worked out, that because of the inherent advantage that fibre has, SKY in a few years is going to have a defunct business model..... ?

In reply to a post by Moradin:

Ofc, its perfect business sense to offer Fibre in areas that already have cable.

A lot of those customers will switch to BT, but ofc in the areas that have nothing, everyone is going with BT (one way or the other).

So they will think along the lines of.. (max customer take up).

A) 50% of the people in the Virgin Media area.
b) 100% of the people in the areas that have nothing, that they are going to get round to doing every line anyway.

You're right that to some extent people like me represent a captive market for BT, and thus giving us fibre might seem unnecessary. However I wouldn't call that a perfect business plan.

It ignores entirely the issue of customer satisfaction. Neglecting a portion of your existing customers might have no implications when there are no alternative providers, but sooner or later we'll get a choice, and if we've been treated like 2nd class citizens by BT for too long, we'll be off as soon as the opportunity arises.

Besides which I'm not sure where the "50% of VM cusomers" comes from. Do they get that in existing areas? I can't see what would motivate switching from VM to Infinity for most people.

Virgin are at a disadvantage because they are not rolling out any new areas, only trying to capitalise on the areas that they have.

Yes, but if they changed their minds about that, they'd instantly pick up quite a lot of disgruntled BT customers very easily.

Perhaps there are also disgruntled VM customers looking to switch (well, I know a few, so that's probably true...), but does it really sound like great business practice to simply be trading unhappy customers? Especially when concentrating on that simply generates *more* unhappy customers?

Similarly any use of 3(+)G mobile networks. My broadband is slower than using a 3G dongle, but the costs are currently not favourable. If the pricing model changed then I might well be telling BT where to insert their home hub.

ps: has anyone else worked out, that because of the inherent advantage that fibre has, SKY in a few years is going to have a defunct business model..... ?

If you mean in terms of delivering telly, I doubt it's escaped Sky's attention that internet might be a better delivery platform, but we're a long way from that actually being a feasible option for enough of the population. I can't even watch iPlayer reliably on low quality, but satelite delivers in glorious HD.

Ultimately I suspect some next-gen wireless product to be the killer of traditional broadcast, and not fibre.