FTTP in Lincoln

Lincoln is listed as getting FTTP by the end of March. Does this mean it will be available to all premises or is it just selected areas? If it's only selected areas do BT have a list available to check?

Thanks

What Lincoln will get is a mixture of FTTP and FTTC in the different areas.

There is no offical list from BT that the public is avalible to view, however their has been the leaked Fibre/Postcode documents which do list which postcoes will roughly recieve each service.

There are large sections of lincoln due to get FTTP, with FTTC filling in a few more cabs though like other exchanges there are cabs that are missed.

If you post you're postcode we can say what you will be likely to recive.

That'd be great, my postcode is LN5 8NR

Thanks

That postcode is served by 4 cabs according to the December spreadsheet:

cab 17 (1 % of lines) - FTTP
cab 54 (64% of lines) - no information
cab 59 (1 % of lines) - FTTC
cab 72 (32 % of lines - FTTP

bit of a lottery to be honest.

Thanks, it is a bit. Is there anyway to find out what cabinet I'm connected to? I wonder what happened to the other 2% of lines?

What does the checker say for your line number?

https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

For Telephone Number 01522****** on Exchange LINCOLN

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 1Mbps. However due to the length of your line the 1Mbps service may require an engineer visit who will, where possible, supply the broadband service.


Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL Max broadband line speed of 500Kbps; typically the line speed would range between 250Kbps and 1.5Mbps.


Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 3Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 2Mbps and 4Mbps.

The actual stable line speed supportable will be determined during the first 10 days of use. This speed may change over time, to ensure line stability is maintained.

If you decide to place an order, a further test will be performed to confirm if your line is suitable for the service you wish to purchase.

Thank you for your interest.


Please note that postcode and address check results are indicative only. Most accurate results can be obtained from a telephone number check.
Note: If you already have a Broadband service enabled on this line and you want to switch service providers, you will need to contact both your current provider and your new provider to get your service changed over new and existing service provider to have this service transferred.

Looks like there's nothing on the near horizon.

My own personal postcode is slated for FTTP and my own cab has not been upgraded while many other cabs around it have already (but are not yet live). The BT checker gives me the same result as you - i.e. no mention of anything to do with fibre, while numbers connected to FTTC cabs near me get mentions of fibre in the checker.

Oh right, well that's a little disappointing. Whats even more frustrating is that every other street around me has virgin but we can't get it as it's a new build estate. Guess I'll be stuck with ADSL for a while longer yet. Thanks for your help

You may be lucky. I don't think the line checker gives FTTP very well and will not show until the service is ready to provide.

The new estate is more likely to be suitable for FTTP than the old properties depending on the duct the developer provided.

If you have poles, follow the route out of the estate until you find a cabinet. On it will be a 1 or two digit number, that is likely ( but not absolutely) to be your cabinet.

If no poles, find the nearest BT manhole and follow that down to the entrance to the estate. This should also lead you to a cabinet as above.

If it is cab 59 there should be a new FTTC cab close to it (within 50m). If 17 or 72 there will be no sign of any work.

The FTTP is likely to be placed in a manhole where a splitter will serve up to 32 connections. As this is all new the checker cannot do any checks and you will always get the 'synch' speed you contract for. Download speed will depend on contention across the Internet and the destination site connection which may be LESS than yours.

Could be one on Russel Street, one on Boundary Street, and some from the Next estate behind Boundary street. The no info one could be for the Walker Crisp factory.

Hi Kitcat, thanks for the help. The new part of the estate is all underground so no poles. There is a BT manhole just outside the house, I'll have to look tomorrow to see if I can trace it further but the nearest cabinet would be number 72 at the top of Manby street. This would make sense with the larger percentage as well as the new estate out numbers the old houses so if they all went through this cabinet I would expect the largest percentage.

As you said number 72 has no indication of any work so fingers crossed for FTTP

Also note FTTP work is considerably slower then FTTC so it will take a while from deoplyment to actual live service.

Looking at the whole of Lincoln their is about 60+ postcodes to recieve FTTP.

Well I've been for a wander this morning and it looks like I was wrong. The most likely cabinet is 54, not sure how I hadn't noticed it before! This is the one that has no information so I guess I might not even be getting FTTC

In reply to a post by amnlincoln:

Oh right, well that's a little disappointing. Whats even more frustrating is that every other street around me has virgin but we can't get it as it's a new build estate. Guess I'll be stuck with ADSL for a while longer yet. Thanks for your help

I'm in exactly the same boat as you. Virgin media on the road next to mine and they have FTTP, we have no Virgin and no FTTP. FYI this what the checker says for FTTP:

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a WBC Fibre To The Premises technology with an estimated Broadband downstream line speed of up to 100Mbps and upstream line speed of up to 30Mbps.

Our records show the following network service information for your premises:-
Single Dwelling Unit Residential
UG Feed with no anticipated issues.

If you decide to place an order for a fibre product, an appointment might be required where an engineer may need to visit your premises who will, where possible, supply the service.

The crazy thing is that with the planned roll out they will be making fibre available to around 30 houses which already have cable. If they added my cab they would be connecting 100+ properties with no cable and ADSL speeds of around 2.5Mb. Surely that makes better financial senses as they are likely to get a higher uptake......

In reply to a post by amnlincoln:

The crazy thing is that with the planned roll out they will be making fibre available to around 30 houses which already have cable. If they added my cab they would be connecting 100+ properties with no cable and ADSL speeds of around 2.5Mb. Surely that makes better financial senses as they are likely to get a higher uptake......

Someone else pointed out in an earlier thread that Virgin -> OR switchers make BT more money than ADSL -> Fibre switchers. I sort of understand that logic, it's still annoying though...

plus the Virgin to OR user migration also reduces Virgin's revenue so another plus for OR

MaxnNRG

Thanks for this, it is the first time I have seen a FTTP line checker result posted and it gives some interesting detail.

All FTTP will need an engineer install, but this infers that they will do a survey before agreeing to provide the service. ( "where possible!")

In reply to a post by amnlincoln:

The crazy thing is that with the planned roll out they will be making fibre available to around 30 houses which already have cable. If they added my cab they would be connecting 100+ properties with no cable and ADSL speeds of around 2.5Mb. Surely that makes better financial senses as they are likely to get a higher uptake......

With the Lincoln rollout, their is alot of FTTP so thats going to slow it down considerably, there is still a fair amount of FTTC thats being rolled out as well but its all on different phases.
Will likely find those cabs missed on the December list will be either added for FTTP or FTTC once the current work is done, no VM present no threat of competition.

Hi guys, sorry to hijack the post, but can you guys check out whether my postcode LN2 5AU is ever going to get fttc/fttp? My nearest exchange is on since last month but BT check doesn't tell me anything.

From the December spreadsheet,

SLLI LINCOLN LN25AU {SLLI}{P13} 0 100% 2.82 6b Yes FTTP

You are planned to have FTTP, though with the delays in its rolllout its unknown when it will be ready.

Their is the April spreadsheet but only isp's have access to this, it may provide updated information.

thanks. have to sit tight and wait then. with FTTP, do they actually have to dig cables to your house or something?

If you are fed from a telegraph pole it sometimes, (always?), comes from there. If you are fed underground I suppose it depends how suitable the ducts are.

Its now September and I am still not getting fttp. No visible plan on when they will upgrade my cabinet!

In reply to a post by willgoat:

Its now September and I am still not getting fttp. No visible plan on when they will upgrade my cabinet!

Same, no news on FTTC/P using the BT wholesale checker. If anyone can check LN1 1EL on the spreasheet I'd very much appreciate it.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Same, no news on FTTC/P using the BT wholesale checker. If anyone can check LN1 1EL on the spreasheet I'd very much appreciate it.

SLLI LINCOLN LN11EL {SLLI}{P6} 0 100% 4.4 6b Yes FTTP

From the December 2011 spreadsheet, your postcode has 100% of the lines going to cabinet 6.
This area was planned to have FTTP- have to wait for work to begin most likely start 2013 onwards, maybe earlier.

In reply to a post by ccxo:

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Same, no news on FTTC/P using the BT wholesale checker. If anyone can check LN1 1EL on the spreasheet I'd very much appreciate it.

SLLI LINCOLN LN11EL {SLLI}{P6} 0 100% 4.4 6b Yes FTTP

From the December 2011 spreadsheet, your postcode has 100% of the lines going to cabinet 6.
This area was planned to have FTTP- have to wait for work to begin most likely start 2013 onwards, maybe earlier.

BT Checker now shows Cab 8 to be FTTC and live end of March. Damn, I was really hoping for FTTP.

FTTC is likely to be rolled out more quickly than FTTP, so there's advantages and disadvantages. FTTC can be remarkably good - I'm fortunate enough to be close to the cabinet, so get the full 80/20 sync speed.

If you are close enough to the cabinet get above 50/12, I doubt there's many applications at present that need a faster connection. There certainly aren't many sites that can saturate my download bandwidth - even the major content distribution networks cannot always manage 75Mbps downloads. At present, I could not justify FTTPoD.

Hi, I live in Lincoln and have been a lurker for a while now and enjoy reading what many people have had to offer on this forum.

I have done some work checking through the December spreadsheet.

Correlating it to actual information found on the BT Wholesale site, all "LN1 3xx" areas have FTTC available now through Cabinets 25, 35, 48 and 56; with one glaring exception that is Cabinet 1.

This is the cabinet which serves my address and according to the speadsheet 21.42% of Dunkirk Road, along with 100% of Blenheim Square and Sobraon Heights.

Call me a cynic however generally speaking it is these addresses which are relatively new build and don't have access to Virgin Media.

Does anyone believe that this is a deliberate ploy by BT as those served by Cabinet 1 have no choice but to use their copper wires?

Speaking to neighbours we all want to have fibre but BT refuse to dish out any information on its plans for Cabinet 1, despite its position in the street being really conducive to having extra equipment installed beside it.

Please help with any information or advise on how to persuade something from BT

Hope that it gets onto your local BDUK programme. It's too late to 'persuade' BT to do anything.

The cabinet probably doesn't cover enough premises for BT to consider it worthwhile.

I'd say it probably covers about 60 to 80 properties. It just struck me as its the one cabinet which doesn't have any competition so to speak.

Annoying that they play games like that as all the surrounding areas going slightly further afield have also been upgraded, which incidentally also have Virgin Media competition.

It seems like an abuse of their position however the crux of the matter is proving it, and even if it is proven, if anything can or will be done about it anyway.

I wonder if I could get friendly with the Social Club across the road and WiFi across (unlikely haha)

60-80 properties is way too small. It's not about abuse of position, even if there were cable there they'd dismiss it out of hand as there's no way they can make their money back from it.

The cut off in most cases, cable or not, seems to be around the 250 premises mark though there are exceptions.

You're probably right there, its just frustrating that BT will not give out the state of play.

Its always the standard answer of "Keep checking every now and then to see if you can get it", rather than simply being honest and telling me that I will never get it unless there is some external funding or suchlike.

You get the same answer from Virgin, and did from their predecessors - rather, the same lack of answer. My "old" estate (built 1996) had about 200 homes, and was never cabled - by NTL originally, or Virgin more recently.

It had 200 properties, and runs next to a road that *is* cabled - we;re less than 50 yards away. In fact, subsequent new-builds have happened that included cable, so it is now a pocket surrounded by cable coverage. We could never get an answer about whether they'd cover the area or not.

Here's the rub on BDUK funding though...

BDUK will never fund an area that has Virgin cable (they count as NGA grey areas) so BT will never get a subsidy for those places. If BT *ever* wants to compete in those Virgin-supplied areas, they *have* to include them in the commercial rollout, even if the commercial justifications don't pan out.

Ah I have been told by Virgin that there are no plans at present to cable my place, which is 100% more open and honest than BT.

It doesn't stop them throwing rubbish through my letter box asking me to sign up to fibre lol!

In reply to a post by benjd84:

Ah I have been told by Virgin that there are no plans at present to cable my place, which is 100% more open and honest than BT.

I'm a little intrigued as to why you consider BT to be neither open nor honest. What has [email protected] told you? What does the number checker tell you? If your cab isn't included in BT's commercial roll-out due to it being commercially non viable that has little to do with BT not being honest or open, they're a business just like any other and their shareholders expect them to operate profitably.

As others have already said hopefully your cab will be picked up by your local BDUK scheme given that you have no access to either VM or a BT nga connection. Many of us are in that or similar positions and is it certainly frustrating so I can understand how annoying it is.

A certain degree of overlap between BDUK and Virgin is acceptable as 'collateral damage'.

In reply to a post by MCM:

I'm a little intrigued as to why you consider BT to be neither open nor honest. What has [email protected] told you? What does the number checker tell you? If your cab isn't included in BT's commercial roll-out due to it being commercially non viable that has little to do with BT not being honest or open, they're a business just like any other and their shareholders expect them to operate profitably.

Hi, it is their apparent policy for giving a complete lack of information on cabinets that are not converted which is not open nor honest.

The number checker states that I simply have ADSL available, it doesn't say fibre is coming soon or not at all. However through a half an hour of research I found that 4 of the 5 cabinets in my vicinity are all converted and taking sales.

The provision or not of a service in itself is not at issue here, all I am seeking from them is a straight answer. If they have decided it wouldn't be viable to convert the cabinet which my line runs to, then what harm would it have to simply tell me that. Yes some customers might get a bit irate, however most will simply assess their options and look for some form of alternative if it is that important to them.

The fact that they are a business owned by shareholders doesn't seem relevant to me at all in this context.

Virgin seemed quite capable to tell me that they have no plans to hook my place up, and that was what I would call an open and honest response. Incidentally they too are a business with shareholders!

Have you actually asked [email protected] ?

Edited by deleted (Sun 30-Jun-13 21:00:57)

In reply to a post by benjd84:

Hi, it is their apparent policy for giving a complete lack of information on cabinets that are not converted which is not open nor honest.

So what precisely did nga enquiries say when you e-mailed them? If you haven't contacted them then you can hardly claim that BT are withholding information. You first need to ask. As a commercial company BT have no obligations to disclose business information but in the case of the provision of nga access BT are happy to reply to e-mails but you do need to ask.