FTTC/P Areas

Exeter (WWEXTR) is listed as a FTTP/C exchange.

Many areas have gone live for FTTC, including mine, both myself and my mother have an FTTC connection and get the full 40 meg which we're very pleased with.

However I notice a lot of areas listed as getting FTTP in the spreadsheet that was kicking around here a while back have ended up with FTTC, and the areas that have had firbre laid along the pavement last summer still show as having no form of fibre available atall via the BT Wholesale availability checker.

My old flat was pole fed and has had a tell tale black / yellow fibre sticking out of the top of the pole for over six months now and I saw OR laying the fibre in the conduit and aggregators in the manholes as I say, last summer, but none of these areas show as live.

Two questions:

1. Areas that are / were scheduled to have FTTP but are fed by cabs that have been FTTC enabled - will they still get FTTP?
2. Does it usually take so long to get the FTTP up and working?

I'm not actually bothered, I've got FTTC now and my attainable rate is over 80 meg so speeds are well above anything I could possibly need, just interested

Believe there was a tainted spreadsheet doing the rounds

1. http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5016-fttp-on-dema...
2. FTTP is slow to deploy due to the amount of new tubing needed to carry the fibre, and then the joining of all the fibres together.

Best to use the BT Wholesale checker to see what response it gives you for your phone number.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Believe there was a tainted spreadsheet doing the rounds

1. http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5016-fttp-on-dema...
2. FTTP is slow to deploy due to the amount of new tubing needed to carry the fibre, and then the joining of all the fibres together.

Best to use the BT Wholesale checker to see what response it gives you for your phone number.

Fair enough. I can't see the overlay option being too popular given the costs but still wondering why the availability checker (BT Wholesale) shows FTTP unavailable in areas six months after the fibre was laid... The aggregators are sat pole top and in the manhole covers - the infrastructure has been in place since the summer.

Never mind, I have my FTTC and I'm chuffed to bits with it

That's worrying.

I live just up the motorway in Taunton, we are also down as FTTC/P. I have seen plenty of new FTTC cabinets pop up, including one just at one end of our housing estate on the main road (no. 39). However, our estate (which is only 7yrs-ish old) is not fed from this older cab. There is another newer one (no. 115) only 20ish metres away that we use.

On the spreadsheet Here my postcode (TA2 7TQ) and cabinet are listed as FTTP, but the btwholesale checker shows nothing about FTTC/P for my number. I even bothered @BTCare on twitter, but they said it hadn't been decided yet. Does anyone out there know what is happening?

I haven't seen any work taking place, but all our cables are underground. t sounds like I might be waiting some time though...

The fibre may pass some areas without connecting people in that area.

Or are you saying nowhere in Exeter has access to FTTP?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

The fibre may pass some areas without connecting people in that area.

Or are you saying nowhere in Exeter has access to FTTP?

It's not fibre passing, like I say, it's fibre at the top of the pole connected to an aggregator. This is the same in many areas around town...

I've seen OR lay the fibre all around several estates in underground conduit, and up the poles ready for ordering, but those areas have shown no fibre services available for 6+ months.

None of the postcodes / addresses I've checked return as having FTTP available despite the physical infrastructure having been there for 1/2 a year...

Good luck in Taunton!

I don't think the issue is with BT being able to get the fibre distribution part sorted out (ie to poles & manholes) - it is the work after that point... and that is all still within a trial that has been delayed.

So, on that evidence, it doesn't surprise me that the FTTP parts of the deployment have come to a crashing halt, even with fibre laid to the poles.

Another important aspect that would kill off FTTP deployment was the uncertainty of the battery requirement - and BT waiting for Ofcom's answer, before then having a pricing strategy. Once they start deploying FTTP as a replacement access network, they need those parts answered.

With some of those in place, you might think that BT would now start to ramp up the FTTP deployments - and that indeed might be happening internally.

But the cynical response to the "FTTP-on-demand" announcement is that BT might as well just deploy FTTC everywhere, and let the most desperate customers pay the extra for FTTP installs. If this is close to being true, then you should expect area-wide FTTP installs to stall, and be replaced by FTTC.

The one thing I'm pretty sure about - is that once you have FTTC, then you aren't going to get FTTP as a default area-wide install. Not for a good while longer...

Thanks, it seems I'll need it. I really hope I'm not just left indefinitely with my existing 4Mbps while the houses only metres away enjoy FTTC @ 20Mbps+.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

But the cynical response to the "FTTP-on-demand" announcement is that BT might as well just deploy FTTC everywhere, and let the most desperate customers pay the extra for FTTP installs. If this is close to being true, then you should expect area-wide FTTP installs to stall, and be replaced by FTTC.

The one thing I'm pretty sure about - is that once you have FTTC, then you aren't going to get FTTP as a default area-wide install. Not for a good while longer...

This would be fine, except lots of areas in and around the city centre (I.e. exchange radius under ~ 700M) have no Fibre options atall.

No matter.

TBH I don't really care whether or not I get FTTP at any point in the future, 40 Meg (or indeed 80 Meg soon) is plenty enough - and with 80Mb of the future FTTC product being so close to the FTTP speeds 110 Meg, really what'd be the point?

Just feel sorry for those in the city centre.

Exeter has the opposite dilema to what it had a few years ago - now blistering speeds are available on the outskirts and suburbs but nada centrally ...

Note: The black tubing may not have the fibres actually in it, so unless you saw them blowing/splicing and adding fibre to the plates in the aggregator then you cannot be sure.

There was a general announcement a while ago that said that planned FTTP areas were not going to complete for some time. So it may be as others have said, they are waiting on some aspect.

Cornwall should get a good covering of FTTP, certainly there is a commitment there to do a good chunk of FTTP, and not just FTTC with FTTP on Demand.

Did ask about FTTP on Demand, and the planned FTTP should still be going ahead.

My money is on BT accelerating FTTC roll-out to cover as many homes as possible quickly, and the fibre teams are now busy doing that, and will come back to FTTC eventually. The final few metres to get FTTP was taking 7 hours per home in Milton Keynes, so was pretty labour intensive.