FTTC Ashington Exchange

There's a few of us on here waiting on FTTC to be installed in Ashington or the surrounding towns/villages but so far all discussion has been in unrelated threads started by others.

I thought we could all post the latest activity we've spotted around town.

Last week i noted that a long trench had been created on Hawthorn Road (top block, between Castle Terrace and 1st Avenue) to clear blocked ducting.

Today fibre was being laid next to the cab at the top of Alexandra Road. This was the first time I've seen fibre being actively laid.

This is not the Fibre being laid, as Fibre is not laid. What you probably saw is them laying the "empty" pipe, and once in place, they "blow" the fibre through the tube from the head-end exchange or nearest point of presence. But either way, yes, thats a good step forward!

Thanks James, I had laser eye surgery this morning and my wife was driving so I didn't get a good look at what they were doing!

The tubing looked narrower than I've seen previously, so I thought it was fibre rather than the tubing. I'll have a better look tomorrow.

Hope it went well and you can see the benefit (no pun intended, sorry!)

Yeah, the tube is very thin, as the Fibreoptic cables that are blown through are so thin like a piece of string.

There is a large number of CABs been installed over the past couple of months including mine (PCP 55), three others within 800 metres or so and three or four that I have seen in Stakeford south of the river.

Presumably we don't know whether we are all connected from the exchange (or if any of us are) - the main exchange seems to be Cramlington which was enabled a while ago (first in Northumberland?) followed by Bedlington which the first OpenReach spreadsheet indicated was actually provisioned from Cramlington.

BT roadworks in Choppington lane could be to get the fibre here?

And Blyth was enabled on Monday 14th May - lucky *****

The Ashington exchange seems to cover some reasonably long lines so FTTC will make a big difference on availability but with the demise of Alcan and other employers there must be many people who won't be able to afford it.

I recently got Sky reinstalled after a year away (finally offered me a deal worth having) so I'll be looking to join their fibre product come go live. Currently with Be but at over 2 miles from the exchange I'm only getting 4.5Mb.

There are two sets of BT roadworks on roadworks.org on Milburn road and Sixth and Seventh Avenue from 16th - 24th May and 17th - 29th May. This seems longer than a simple CAB installation.

Does anyone have any more info on this?

My cab has been installed for approx 6 weeks and no one has been back to it as far as i am aware.

Im looking forward to getting fibre as i only get 2mb at the moment. The bt checker says i can get 56mb - thats a 28x increase so i will definitely be signing up. Im going for sky though as soon as they have the equipment hooked up in the exchange.

Roadworks.org has a few electricity connections listed and some work by BT on Milburn Road and Newbiggin Road.

There is also some new spray paint on Hawthorn Road on top of a BT manhole cover. Arrows pointing in various directions and the word "Coil"

I had hoped we were nearly ready for go live but this suggests more work is needed.

Just a few days left till then end of the month. Still no new cabinet in my street, guess maybe I am connected to another one.

sorry to say but the BT Checker now says 30th September. Im sure it wont take that long, maybe 3-4 weeks...........i hope!

There is activity at my FTTC twin today

The fibre has been blown through and the engineer was connecting it up. He didn't know when the cab was due to be commissioned or the exchange enabled though.

But at least I know the current status of my cab.

Thats good news.

How far from the xchange is your cabinet? I believe the fibre runs from the exchange to a cabinet which then runs to another cabinet and another cabinet...etc like a spider web. so depending how far from the exchange you are might give an idea how much the spider web has grown.

Unless im wrong and each cabinet has its own fibre link to the exchange?

Thanks

I'm only about 350m from the exchange (straight line distance)

Well, I still think that my exchange has been forgotten about.

The cabinet next to The Half Moon in Stakeford has been done, the one opposite the Kielder2 fish and chip shop is resolutely untouched. I am hoping that the cabinet will be worked on in the near future or it looks like I will be bypassed for the FTTC upgrade.

Russell

I can now order FTTC on CAB 55!!!!!!!!!!!

The Twitter announcement from OpenReach hasnt been posted yet but I am off!

Now waiting for MAC from BE.

A bit like waiting for Christmas, kid with a new toy etc!

Quidco currently giving £50 for new subscribers to BT Broadband including Infinity plus the £25 Sainsbury's voucher.

Looking forward to 80 Mb/s down, 20Mb/s up rather than 6Mb/s down, 1Mb/s up as at present.

Would have been a harder decision is I still had the 21Mb/s at previous address though.

The cabinet on the corner of Ashington Drive and Ridgeway is looking sadly neglected, I am currently getting 256kbs down and 512kbs and that's on a good day when I can actually get connected. Having lived in North Northumberland and received a 5mb service this amazes me.

That's rather low, you're not that far from the exchange. Have you checked your cabinet is due to be upgraded?

Also, have you looked into why your speeds are so low?

Thanks for the comment, I'm currently arguing with the ISP , Bt and anybody else that will listen, unfortunately I am making very slow progress, apparently we are sitting on the far end of the Ashington exchange . I am not sure when the cab is due for upgrade and no information for Stakeford is available.

Still no fibre partner for my cab in North Seaton Village.

In reply to a post by Metallifux:

Still no fibre partner for my cab in North Seaton Village.

Have you checked any of the various postcode checkers to see if it was included in the plan at December last year?

If you post your postcode I and several others should be able to identify the PCP and its plans.

I would have thought that all CABs that are straightforward (no issues over planning or power) have been installed long ago.

It is possible to place orders even though the exchange isnt "accepting orders" yet?

Have you checked the BT ADSL Checker (provided you are not SKY or TT full LLU in which case use a neighbours telephone number or a local shop on the same PCP)?

Yep checked all of them, postcode is NE63 9YE.

BT Openreach have now confirmed the exchange is active via their twitter feed and website.

I'd like to get a picture of which cabs have been activated, so if your cab has been activated let us all know

So far I know the following are active:

Cab 55
Cab 21

Not Active

43

Also if anyone sees a change in the Talktalk or Sky checkers that would be good to know.

Cabinet P13 definitely not active as not even in place.

Cab 43 is now active

I just thought i would drop this info in here.

Today i spoke to some work men laying the tube which the fibre gets blown through along the newbigging road towards the dove's roundabout. The say they will be running it all the way to stakeford in the next few days (excluding weekend). Except they have a little issue at the top of the half moon bank but they said they will be resolving this on monday so im assuming this means collapsed ducts and they will be digging.

They also mentioned that the fibre will be blown in approximately 2 weeks behind them. So this is good news for me as my cab is in this direction!

The guy also mentioned, but i think he is misinformed, that they will be installing fibre equipment (he mentioned nodes) onto the telegraph poles and running fibre to each pole and then to the property. Like i say i think he maybe has his info wrong or he is pulling my leg as i have never seen anything about FTTP in this area.

Hope this cheers some fellow stakeford residents up.

@Kris - Where is cab 43?

Thanks

Edited by deleted (Thu 09-Aug-12 18:04:06)

Sounds promising

Cab 43 is on 1st Avenue, off Hawthorn Road so not far from the exchange. It was activated this morning and I've confirmed both talktalk and sky are already available from our exchange.

I've signed up with Sky as retentions gave me a good deal to stay - only £3.25 more than ADSL2+ per month for 12 months. I've posted in the sky forum more details of the offer I got.

Now just waiting on BT visiting in a couple of weeks.

Excellent mate.

If you have ordered today what is the wait time for an engineer visit to set it up?

Cheers

23/08 was the first date available.

My cabinet has gone live, not sure where it is as it isn't next to the cabinet my phone line comes from, able to order from both BT and Sky though, shame my house is up for sale

In reply to a post by Metallifux:

My cabinet has gone live, not sure where it is as it isn't next to the cabinet my phone line comes from, able to order from both BT and Sky though, shame my house is up for sale

Well that is a bummer isnt it!

My BT Infinity was installed this morning - full 80 / 20 but I am at work so can't play with it

In reply to a post by Metallifux:

My cabinet has gone live, not sure where it is as it isn't next to the cabinet my phone line comes from, able to order from both BT and Sky though, shame my house is up for sale

How do you find out if yur cabinet has gone live so you can place an order? I'm on cabinet 16 next to Main Post Office on Station Road. Allot of activity there weeks ago with BT guys working on new cabinet over a few weeks,last one I saw was joining the fibre cables to cabinet that was about 6 weeks ago closely followed by a guy with a laptop connected to cabinet.

Enter your phone number here (with out a space)

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

If your not on a BT supplied line (EG LLU) then enter your house number and postcode here

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.Addres...

thanks for the links for checking if cabinet live, appears mine is not yet says by 30th Sept but my mothers nearer the exchange is showing live and can order. It appears they are activating cabinets one by one, I'll have to keep checking

Yep, they can be one at a time or half a dozen, just depends how many are ready. There may be delays with your cabinet or it could go live tomorrow.

It's always worth trying a few other addresses on your cabinet, in case there is a database error.

You can use this checker ( http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre/checker.php ) to find other addresses on your cabinet, only use ones showing 100% to actually check if the cabinet is live, otherwise you may choose an address that's on another cabinet.

Since my last post about speaking to a guy installing the fibre tube which the fibre gets blown through (he mentioned FTTP coming to this area) i have seen another guy working in the ducts up the halfmoon bank today so i asked him about the fibre to my cab as im still waiting for my cabinet to go live and he mentioned the same thing.

I never asked him he just brought it up that this FTTC is just the 1st stage and "very soon" (his words) they will be running the fibre down to the poles for FTTP.He mentioned it is mainly for business's.

I thought the 1st guy was maybe just mis-informed but this 2nd chap mentioned it too so maybe openreach really are going to treat us to FTTP in the ashington/stakeford area.

Im not too fussed as the FTTC will be a huge boost to my 2mb speed anyway but it would be nice to have the option. 330mb downstream does sound tempting for the right price.

He is proably reffering to FTTP on demand, unless their has been FTTP planned for Ashington since the December 2011 spreadsheet which lists FTTC for Ashington.

How about an update Kris, did the install go ok?

Hi,

Was just coming to post about it

The engineer called a bit before 8am to say he was about to start work in the cab and that the broadband would go down and that he'd be over in 20 minutes.

He replaced the socket i have (self install NTE5) with an Openreach one and installed the modem.

He said I was the first activation on the cab (which I kind of expected) and that I was his first Sky install, so I showed him the router screens etc.

I had already setup the router before he arrived - I knew the sky fibre router was the same as the ADSL router but with a custom firmware - what I didn't know until I installed it was that the ADSL side is still live and so it can work with both ADSL and FTTC. This allowed me to already have the sky router setup and working before I got FTTC. It was simply a case of removing the RJ11 cable and connecting the Openreach modem via ethernet.

I haven't heard anything about when my phone line (currently using Sky wholesale line rental, so a BT line) will be moved over to Sky. I'd rather stay as a shared LLU customer but this wasn't an option.

I'm connecting at 40/10 with speed tests ranging from 30Mbit to 35Mbit. I have tried a linux torrent and got 4MB/s out of it sustained speed, so I'm happy.

Should also note he installed the modem on the wall, which the wife wasn't too happy about

In reply to a post by Kr1s69:

Should also note he installed the modem on the wall, which the wife wasn't too happy about

I got the same grief!

I had hoped to be one of the first connections on the Ashington exchange but OR screwed that up by not turning up on the day! Next door neighbours then allegedly beat me in the "first connection on the CAB" race because of the weeks delay

Their existing HH has been replaced by an HH3 which I can log into with BT FON - I signed up for it but am continuing to use my Billion 7800N as the wireless is MUCH better - wireless N up to 300Mb/s splats all over more than half of the channels!

The Sky router at 150Mbps is fine for me. Until all my devices move from wireless G to wireless N I won't be making full use of the wireless speed anyway.

Random question - does your cab have the Openreach "Fibre broadband is here" sticker on it?

In reply to a post by Kr1s69:

I had already setup the router before he arrived - I knew the sky fibre router was the same as the ADSL router but with a custom firmware - what I didn't know until I installed it was that the ADSL side is still live and so it can work with both ADSL and FTTC. This allowed me to already have the sky router setup and working before I got FTTC. It was simply a case of removing the RJ11 cable and connecting the Openreach modem via ethernet.

Good news!

I haven't heard anything about when my phone line (currently using Sky wholesale line rental, so a BT line) will be moved over to Sky. I'd rather stay as a shared LLU customer but this wasn't an option. I'm connecting at 40/10 with speed tests ranging from 30Mbit to 35Mbit. I have tried a linux torrent and got 4MB/s out of it sustained speed, so I'm happy.

Interesting. I've ordered Sky Fibre and have received a load of paperwork about moving from BT to Sky and the activation of the phone service - and yesterday I received a "Sky Broadband D-Link Setup CD" in a cardboard

Should also note he installed the modem on the wall, which the wife wasn't too happy about

That's good, I was going to request this if he doesn't offer. I also want him to relocate my master socket back to where it was originally (by the front door) and put the VDSL modem and thus Sky router next to it. In 2002 my employer had BT fit the phone line and they relocated it to my front room (for USB ADSL modem use) which is now in the way

My voice service has now been switched from Wholesale line rental via Sky to full LLU.

I got a couple of badly written emails from Sky saying welcome to their broadband and telephone service. I don't think it would take much to write separate emails for existing customers changing service.

In reply to a post by Kr1s69:

Random question - does your cab have the Openreach "Fibre broadband is here" sticker on it?

One appeared earlier in the week. Presumably the majoraty of punters don't know what it means though!

I work for a major IT company and the majority of the development and testing staff I work for don't know what I am talking about when I mention FTTC, fibre broadband etc. When I say "faster" some assume it in Virgin cable!

All my wireless devices are wireless G now (I think) and the greater bandwidth means I can move further away from the router and still run at decent speeds. Having said that in a late 80's build bungalow with egg box internal walls it would only be the back garden that would be a problem and I have never ventured that far with a PC - maybe next year!

I work for a major IT company too, I wonder if it is the same one. Based at Cobalt by any chance?

I'm based on Cobalt too, working for P&G.

Just over the road from me in HP then.

The EDS building? We have lots of HP in Cob 12A working for P&G.

Yeah it was the EDS building but the EDS sign went a long time ago, I'm on the 3rd floor looking at the P&G building. We are very envious of the wii you have in one of your break rooms above the main entrance.

I'm probably one of the ones you've seen, I normally play on the first floor at lunch time (although I work on 3rd floor)

Not to deliberately increase your envy, but we've actually got Xbox's with Kinect rather than Wii's now, and they are in the coffee area of each floor.

Consider my envy substantially increased.

and me too!

i am in Cobalt 1, third floor overlooking the nursery.

That's pretty weird 2 of us working for the same company and one over the road.. Cobalt 1 Greenglide I assume universal credit?

UC - good god no!!!!!!!

I am in VME legacy where the real work is done

Ha ha not touched vme since the caps/ winter fuels days.

Well I went ahead and ordered last month. Installed on the 8th and this is the result.

http://speedtest.net/result/2228234610.png

Very happy with that.

Work in progress on that cabinet on top of Hawthorn road, looks like they renewing old cabinet and installing in fibre cab.

Well anyone on cab 16 that's the one on station Bridge outside main post office went live today for orders on BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk and sky web sites of orders.

Just on phone to get MAC from my ISP to switch to fibre which is proving a long phone call trying to get me to stay. Final after 20 minute call they have given in to my request and put my request for a MAC code through. Now just awaiting an email in next few days with MAC code.

So looks like Plusnet going to get a new fibre customer soon,

Not so happy anymore. How is everyones connection doing? From the initial highs of 7MB/s I was getting I am now lucky to get over 5 in the middle of the night and just over 3 during the day, Anyone else experiencing these kind of drops in performance?

So is this transfer rate rather than sync speed?

Who is the ISP?

I was getting 78Mb/s down and 20Mb/s up (sync speed) and speed tests confirmed up to 60Mb/s down and 18Mb/s up.

The speed has stayed pretty stable with no significant drops.

I am currently using a hacked Huwaei (sp?) modem (from eBay for the stats) and ISP is BT. Modem supplied by OR was ECI.

"It just works!"

Yeah I'm with BT too. Going to give it a bit longer and see if the line sorts itself out I have been chopping and changing routers a bit.

Post deleted by passap

Is the Wansbweck estate not in the area that was not originally in the rollout plans? If so then I would find it unlikely (but not impossible) that BT have changed their minds.

Have you looked in the spreadsheets kicking around? This should give you an indication as to whether it was considered? Put your postcode into this fibre checker

Wansbeck estate is "after the bridge over the Wansbeck turn right at the roundabout at the top of the hill at Stakeford "?

Pleased to report that my speeds have returned to where they were on day one.

The Wansbeck Estate is as you stated after the bridge over the Wansbeck turn right at the roundabout at the top of the hill at Stakeford

There are 3 cabinets quoted for my postcode on the fibre checker web page 2 of which I believe are already up and running but there are no signs of any activity at p31 which is the cabinet covering my address

Most annoying as a few doors down the road from me they have fibre broadband from Bedlington Exchange

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BT Broadband - Down 950kbps Up 720kbps
Previously Sky similar speeds

I'm getting 36-37Mbit out of a Sky 40Mbit connection. Speed test is from a samknows reporting router (running speedtests itself throughout the day.)

In reply to a post by Kr1s69:

I'm getting 36-37Mbit out of a Sky 40Mbit connection. Speed test is from a samknows reporting router (running speedtests itself throughout the day.)

With BT Infinity 2 I am getting 62.91Mb/s down according to samknows on my Android smartphone accessing from work!

In reply to a post by passap:

The Wansbeck Estate is as you stated after the bridge over the Wansbeck turn right at the roundabout at the top of the hill at Stakeford

There are 3 cabinets quoted for my postcode on the fibre checker web page 2 of which I believe are already up and running but there are no signs of any activity at p31 which is the cabinet covering my address

Most annoying as a few doors down the road from me they have fibre broadband from Bedlington Exchange

Is P31 the PCP opposite the new care home? There were earlier posts about this - on this thread I believe.

It seemed then to be left out of the roll-out. I suppose it "could" be due to a small number of premises served? I assume the premises served from the Bedlington exchange were done first as that exchange had FTTC first.

It does seem odd considering the distance from the exchange - you would expect the take-up to be high

I know this is a really stupid question, but how do you know which cab yolre connected to?

I live in central Blyth, but can't get Infinity - and I can't find out how to find out why.... I'm close enough to the exchange to be inconvenienced by engineers parking on our street, and served by a drop wire from a pole in the back lane behind my house....

I feel like throwing a shoe at the telly every time I see one of BT's infuriating adverts...

A year ago, some BT spreadsheets escaped into the wild - listing cabinets & postcodes. If your exchange was planned that far back, it will have details.

Otherwise the best answer is to email the Openreach NGA enquiries team: [email protected] (as described in the Openreach FAQ)

Pop your postcode in this checker, it use the data wwwombat referred to.

P31 is beside the shops on Ashington Drive at the junction with Ridgeway

Hi

What kind of timescale are we talking about for Openreach to reply on that email address? The FAQ does kinda say don't email for general enquires, its more for an enquiry on delays on a cab etc.

Do you get an automated reply on that address as I didn't.

It certainly isnt immediate and I am not aware of any automated response.

I think it is a "wait and see" situation. I don't think it is a proper staffed up "help desk" operation (but I could be wrong).

Reviving this old thread I created when I first got FTTC.

Today I’ve had gigabit FTTP installed (well 900Mbps with ofcom advertising rules)

11 years seems a really long time between technologies. When I got FTTC I had assumed there’d be faster VDSL options available in the future or other similar DSL tech that would offer faster speeds. I really didn’t expect 80Mbit FTTC to be the only choice for more than a decade. Due to crosstalk the connection slowed in the last few years down to about 60Mbit.

Today’s FTTP service is about 15 times faster than my current FTTC line with the option to go faster.

One minor thing I wasn’t expecting today was I got the new 2.5Gbit ONT. At least that is a little future proof.

Edited by Kr1s69 (Thu 21-Dec-23 16:39:35)

In reply to a post by Kr1s69:

One minor thing I wasn’t expecting today was I got the new 2.5Gbit ONT. At least that is a little future proof.

nexfibre thinking ahead, as you'd hope. Its likely the network is XGS-PON and so the 2.5 Gb is only relating to the Ethernet connection. Toob are deploying in my town and they are also using XGS-PON but only a 1 Gb connector on their ONTs. Sadly they aren't near my flat yet

I actually got EE via openreach.

I’ve been tracking Nexfibre in my area but openreach became available first so I went with that. The Nexfibre CBT is installed on my pole but no sign of it being ready to order.

With Nexfibre there’s no ONT, the fibre goes straight into the router (which then does have a 2.5gbit port available for LAN devices.

In reply to a post by Kr1s69:

One minor thing I wasn’t expecting today was I got the new 2.5Gbit ONT. At least that is a little future proof.

Out of interest what model is the ONT?

In reply to a post by Kr1s69:

I actually got EE via openreach.

Oh cool. So they're planning for the 1.6 Gbps download service, whichever service you signed up for. May still be GPON then, as ISPreview report OR are still testing XGS.

I’ve been tracking Nexfibre in my area but openreach became available first so I went with that. The Nexfibre CBT is installed on my pole but no sign of it being ready to order.

Sounds similar to me, Toob is on the pole up the road, but they tell me they don't serve flats from poles, and to wait for their engineering team...!

With Nexfibre there’s no ONT, the fibre goes straight into the router (which then does have a 2.5gbit port available for LAN devices.

Combined ONT and router, they probably wanted to clone the experience of the DOCSIS hubs, not a great idea as over many many years the fibre from the wall to the router may be more delicate than the thick coax. Their problem though, as long as they have an Ethernet port so you can use your own.

The model is ADTRAN SDX 611Q which is one of the two 2.5gbit options I think that exist.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/09/pictur...

I had FTTP installed yesterday as well. I Got an Adtran ONT as well, an SDX611 which is tiny!

Just got the Plusnet 145 package - more than enough for our needs!

There is a two and a half month overlap between the new FTTP and the BT FTTC but to go from



To



Seemed to good to miss!

And Plusnet still do a fixed IP for a one off £5!

Your FTTC speeds were pretty similar to mine.

I probably don’t need gigabit but the price differences aren’t huge and it’s frustrating waiting on Xbox games to download when the updates can be 100GB.

WiFi speeds are good but less than the broadband speed (which wasn’t an issue with FTTC) so I may look at using ethernet a bit more.

VM still isn’t live here so I’m pleased I went with Openreach.

Edit: VM is available to order as of today! Not that I’m needing it now.

Edited by Kr1s69 (Fri 22-Dec-23 12:34:38)

OK, thanks. I just had a quick look and as far as I can see I have the Nokia (Alcatel-Lucent) one with the yellow ethernet socket but there isn't really any benefit of the faster one as my internal LAN tops out at 1Gbps.

Edited by rippedcotton (Sat 23-Dec-23 10:39:41)