How accurate is the BT Openreach data?

I've been mapping the cabinets in our area, and I've noticed what can only be loads of mistakes in the data.

If you look at this map http://batchgeo.com/map/d40765292120b6f48e0cfebb9589... then you'll see that cabinet P25 has postcodes spread out all over Ramsgate, click the cabinet number at the bottom of the map to highlight that group.

Also cabinet P46 has one quite some distance away.

These are not the only ones I've noticed, I've seen it with loads of others, also postcodes that the mapping software doesn't recognise, and some of these unknown postcodes I've tried on the Post Office postcode checker, and it doesn't recognise them either, such as this one CT12 5FB.

Surely these must be errors, why runs lines from cabinets a long way away, when there are many other cabinets closer??

If these are errors, then it doesn't bode well for the data that Openreach is using, I've already seen one complaint on a BT forum where somebody was told they could get Fibre and then when the engineer turned up he discovered they were connected to a different cabinet altogether and could not get Fibre. They were told that the data had not been updated when they moved house and took the number with them.

Because sometimes a cabinet is full, and a quicker repair has been possible using capacity on a different cabinet. Without digging into the full paper records or even checking on the ground it is impossible to really tell.

I don't think that's really the answer, take this one http://batchgeo.com/map/bf57fdd5ac3c9633c5690fba6f7c... cabinet P7 is located near the top of the bunch at the junction of West Cliff Road and Dumpton Park Drive, in Broadstairs.

Then you have postcode CT118AE 1.3 miles away in Ramsgate, now this is a densely built up area with seven other Ramsgate cabinets within half a mile of the postcode, the line would even go right past another Broadstairs cabinet, so it just doesn't make sense.

There are other ones with even bigger distances, and we're not talking about country side, this is a heavily built up area, with many cabinets, some of them have got to be errors, and what about the postcodes that the post office doesn't even recognise?

Edited by R0NSKI (Mon 02-Apr-12 20:27:28)

What is odder is that the postcodes are on both sides of the railway, which suggest poor record keeping on the part of the field staff. Other possibility is that Royal Mail have changed postcodes over the years and the records have not needed to be changed as there have not been any faults reported. Andrew's comment about available pairs back to another cab is correct, reflecting a long standing lack of investment in some areas.

Have you tried tying up the cabinet data with the serving exchange data available from Openreach?

The one showing the wrong side of the railway, is most likely referring to the area of that post code on the correct side of the railway track. Don't forget that the push pin is at the centre of the post code as mapped by Google.

I appreciate that Andrews comment is correct, but is it correct in this case with so many other cabs close by?

Either way, I bet it causes a lot of problems.

Not sure what you mean by this bit though, or more precisely where I'd find it?

In reply to a post by kmendum:

Have you tried tying up the cabinet data with the serving exchange data available from Openreach?

Edited by R0NSKI (Mon 02-Apr-12 20:51:53)

Because sometimes a cabinet is full, and a quicker repair has been possible using capacity on a different cabinet.

I think you are wrong there. Yes, there are *sometimes,* (rarely), a link between cabinets. But it is extremely unlikely to find a DP served by two different cabs. i.e. The DP to cab route is a given.

Add to this mix the fact that towns grow organically rather than a planned manner, and the odd mistake and you can get a lot of confusion.