Confirming info about a cabinet...

Hi.

My exchange recently went live for Infinity. Needless to say, my line (and presumably cabinet) is not covered.

This was somewhat expected, in that my post code didn't even *appear* in the databases from last year, let alone have any info about which cabinet I'm connected to, nor whether or not it would be upgraded.

I was obviously hoping that this was an oversight, and that it would be added, but it seems not.

Our internet is some of the worst in our town (it speed tests at about 1.2Mb/s, which is especially poor when other people equidistant from the exhange now get >75Mb/s for the same price!) and we have no other provider available. So really we're pretty stuffed, and we'd like to push BT to do something, or at least explain why we're not being upgraded so we know where we stand.

However, I've hit an immediate snag, which is that on contacting BT, we were told that we're connected to a different cabinet to the one we *think* we're connected to. Neither are due for upgrade, but the one BT say we're on is pretty far from where we actually live, and seems to mostly serve commercial premises. The one we think we're probably on is just around the corner and serves 100 to 200 homes.

I'd really like to know for sure what BT's information actually says. Does anyone have access to info newer than the December db? (if so - can you check this postcode please: SG18 8EW)

I'd also like to know what BT consider "commercially viable". If *I'm* right about our cabinet, then it's serving well over a hundred homes, and is no further from the exchange than several which *have* been upgrdaded and quite possibly serve fewer people. Is there a threshold? Is there some way to prompt them to reconsider a site (these are new homes, so if they checked over a year ago, their would only have been a handful connected)?

If, for some bizarre reason, our house really *is* connected to a cabinet miles away, is it possible to have a new line installed to a much nearer and more appropriate cabinet? If not, I not only need BT to install fibre to a cabinet serving a handful of commercial properties, but I'm so far away my speeds are still going to be awful.

How many lines does a standard BT cabinet serve, maximum? I'm wondering when they'll install more cabinets in the area, so I can keep an eye on what they're putting in, and where.

I appreciate that shifting BT isn't necessarily going to be easy, but I'd at least like to start with good information. If anyone has any advice beyond that, I'm all ears.

If your cab only serves 100 lines, it is highly unlikely that it is viable. Not all the lines will go FTTC, so they'd be spending a lot of money with the prospect of a very slow rate of return.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

If your cab only serves 100 lines, it is highly unlikely that it is viable. Not all the lines will go FTTC, so they'd be spending a lot of money with the prospect of a very slow rate of return.

As I said, it's probably between 100 and 200 and growing. Everyone on that cabinet is going to have speeds roughly comparable to mine (in other words well below the desirable minimum of 2Mb/s) and so perhaps more likely to convert than average. Streaming services like iPlayer are more or less unusable - certainly not without stuttering even at the lowest of settings.

How many lines do you think are viable? I didn't think they actually provisioned that many at any one time.

Not unusual to be connected to a cabinet much further away than the nearest.

Where I live, the houses were built and lines put in many years ago, to a cabinet 1.3Km away.

Since then, new homes have been built and there are perhaps 6 cabinets closer to where we live, but GPO/BT would never have re-routed our bit of cable. The multi-pair that goes to the post outside is still linked to a cab 1.3Km away.

Back then they were not considering the effect of broadband speeds...

In reply to a post by TMCR:

Not unusual to be connected to a cabinet much further away than the nearest.

Where I live, the houses were built and lines put in many years ago, to a cabinet 1.3Km away.

Since then, new homes have been built and there are perhaps 6 cabinets closer to where we live, but GPO/BT would never have re-routed our bit of cable. The multi-pair that goes to the post outside is still linked to a cab 1.3Km away.

Back then they were not considering the effect of broadband speeds...

Yeah, but in my case the 'near' cabinet was here before the house. And yet BT are telling me that not only is my line not connected to that cabinet, it also isn't connected to any other even vaguely near cabinet (there are several, all of which are at *least* 10 years old), but instead they routed my line to a cabinet serving some commercial premises much further away.

It may be correct, it may not. However I'd *really* like to know what the current database actually says (or indeed, if it still says nothing at all).