Littlehampton finally getting cabs

Hurrah!!

Exchange earmarked to go live in a few days and up until about 2 weeks ago there was no sign of life at around 20 of the 34 cabs I've located.

2 weeks ago some random road works appeared in places not next to the existing cab and I thought nothing of it, until this week a number of cabs have been installed!

I've found 4 cabs so far, 1 next to an existing cab and 3 around 50-100m away.

Here's looking forward to ditching my 3Mb ADSL for something a little faster - I miss my 50Mb cable I had in Bristol.

I think the prep for FTTC cab for my local cab indicaqtes it will be about 80M away from the PCP. 80M closer to me

I;m guessing (I don't know) they are doing this to push the coverage out further from the town.

80meters seems a bit far away from that pcp, usually its a close as possible to the existing pcp where room allows for the FTTC cab to be installed.

Speed on FTTC is all dependent on how long the copper lines are from the pcp to your property, a closer FTTC cab will not benefit you at all.
If Openreach want to increase coverage they would either have to move the pcp or install a new one further down the road to increase the range/coverage which would be rare since its still the commercial rollout and that would be costly.

Edited by deleted (Wed 27-Jun-12 13:37:26)

In reply to a post by ccxo:

Speed on FTTC is all dependent on how long the copper lines are from the pcp to your property, a closer FTTC cab will not benefit you at all.

And, of course, the spped on FTTC is actually dependent on the line length from the premises to the PCP and then to the FTTC CAB so any distance between the two CABs in any direction is not good!

I assume the tie pairs between the two cabinets are "all" carrying VDSL2 - does this not cause vast amounts of cross talk during this run?

Just returned from working away and noticed a new cabinet a few metres away from the old in Parkside Avenue at the corner with The Winter Knoll when out walking the dog this morning. Will have to check my cabinet in Berry Lane later - fingers crossed.

Got all excited and then noticed SamKnows shows RFS date has slipped 6 months to 31/12/2012.

I don't understand all the acronyms in this thread. I was under the misapprehension that the closer the cabinet the better you were likely to get too.

I'd not had a chance to look over that way for cab yet, but that's encouraging that they'll be over my side soon if they are doing the cabs in numerical order.

Noticed BT engineer this morning connecting up the new cabinet across the road from me. I asked him regarding go-live date as samknows now saying December and he said that he was doing the fibre-optic today but that power was still needed for this cabinet. Although he had no idea of the overall picture for Littlehampton, he would be surprised if we had to wait that long. They are keen to get everything up and running and paying as soon as possible.

I've seen a few guys with the little tents in Wick and Rustington and meant to ask them if they knew about any timescales but I've not had the time.

I saw what I think was the tubing being pulled into the pit next to my cab, so hopefully my cabinet is not too far away from being installed.

I'm next door to Littlehampton, in Rustington. I've been keeping a close eye on fttc progress. Today at 2 local cabinets (one of them being the one I'm connected to), they laid a concrete base ready for an FTTC cabinet. The exchange is due to go live September, and my is phase 8a, which I know is anytime now. So it's all looking to be on track. I have no idea if fibre optic cable has been laid though or if there is power ready to go into my cabinet.

As the base has only just been installed you are a good few weeks yet for all the necessary steps to be finished before the cabinet is ready for service.

In reply to a post by ccxo:

As the base has only just been installed you are a good few weeks yet for all the necessary steps to be finished before the cabinet is ready for service.

I imagined that would be the case. I'd be happy if they were taking orders in October, as that is what I expected as the database says the end of September. If it was all working sooner, I'm not sure what I would do as I'd have to take into account the cost of paying off my current contract with O2.

Concrete cab power and tie cables all done within 10 days on my cab

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Concrete cab power and tie cables all done within 10 days on my cab

Is there a way I can tell what's been done, apart from obviously the concrete being laid and the cabinet sitting there? All I can see so far is rope sticking out of the 2 larger pipes, which I guess are for pulling cables through when the cabinet is fitted.

sounds like you have just the base and ducts so far then. Keep an eye on it each day!

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

sounds like you have just the base and ducts so far then. Keep an eye on it each day!

I have been walking past several local cabinets every day, and to be honest I feel a bit of a geek! I do love this build-up though to getting FTTC, and it's nice on forums like this where we're all a bit geeky about it and are counting down the seconds before we can place the order. *grin*

I really feel for people who expect their exchange to be enabled by a certain day, so they get worked up and excited about it, then it's put back 3 months! I hope that doesn't happen to me.

Edited by deleted (Fri 20-Jul-12 10:09:46)

I actually find this page quite interesting. I see no signs of channels being dug to the existing cabinet, or anywhere else for power or a fibre connection. It's possible some of this was done months ago when I wasn't even aware FTTC was on it's way to my town, but I think it's unlikely that I still didn't take notice of it.

My local cabinet is in place now. The side panel was left open and when I took a peak inside, I could see it was where the power is connected, and there were just a few disconnected cables so I didn't see a need to let BT know. A few days later the side door was closed, so I assume they went back to connect power up to it.

On another cabinet near me I have just seen Openreach working. The old and fttc cabinets were both open and the pavement was up, and they had 2 reels of cable (one was black, the other was yellow). Does that give anyone a clue as to the stage they're at? I guess it's fairly obvious it is fully connected now, but I'm not sure about the fibre optic cable from the exchange. Would they do all the other work before the fibre optic cable was in place?

I wish I had the nerve to ask the engineers but I lost it as I approached them.

I have noticed on the latest pdf from Openreach that the last 11 exchanges to become live all had a date of Sept 2012, as does my exchange. To get back to the thread subject though, I noticed that Littlehampton exchange (the next town to me) has been put back to December.

BT Engineer in Berry Lane told me the other week that he was finishing up and cab just needed power. Non-BT Contractors are there at the moment presumably adding the power.

Edited by deleted (Thu 02-Aug-12 12:28:25)

In reply to a post by DarthVodafone:

BT Engineer in Berry Lane told me the other week that he was finishing up and cab just needed power. Non-BT Contractors are there at the moment presumably adding the power.

Most the cabs I come across next door to you in Rustington have FTTC cabs near them now. Openreach have spent 2 days connecting up 2 of them very near me now (one of them is mine), but I have no way to know if the power connection is done or not. Rustington still shows Sept 2012, which means BY then as opposed to FROM then, and the last 18 exchanges to go live all had dates of September. So I doubt it's far off now for both Rustington and Littlehampton.

I still want to understand about why they were connecting splitter nodes for FTTC, but nobody seems to know.

I don't even know what splitter nodes are but as long as it doesn't slow it down I suppose I don't need to.

It looks to me like we are all getting the work done at around the same time around here but for some reason the schedule showed Littlehampton as being after Rustington last time I checked.

In reply to a post by DarthVodafone:

I don't even know what splitter nodes are but as long as it doesn't slow it down I suppose I don't need to.

It looks to me like we are all getting the work done at around the same time around here but for some reason the schedule showed Littlehampton as being after Rustington last time I checked.

I didn't know what they were either but have read up on it since seeing the engineers working on them, and speaking to one of them about what he was doing. The OR engineer I spoke to just said it would be "a couple of months" to be available in Rustington.

I noticed that Littlehampton was due to go live in the June Quarter before, and now December. From what I've read in forums though it could easily be moved forward again.

Well I've seen plenty of activity around Littlehampton / Rustington in the last few days yet STILL no sign of life on my cab - typical!

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

Well I've seen plenty of activity around Littlehampton / Rustington in the last few days yet STILL no sign of life on my cab - typical!

There certainly is a lot of activity locally. Every road I walk into I seem to see another OR van. Hopefully they'll get to your cab soon!

I tell a lie, about 3 weeks ago I saw them pulling what looked like a fibre tube into the pit, but nothing more.

Mine is Cab 34 out of 34 so maybe they are doing them in chronological order???

It can't come soon enough - I moved here from Bristol with a solid 50Mb cable connection, to a flaky 2.5-3Mb connection and I now work from home and it's painful.

I'm on 34 too by coincidence, but on the Rustington exchange.

Unlikely to be splitter nodes but fibre joint node, which may look similar to the casual observer

In reply to a post by Ribble:

Unlikely to be splitter nodes but fibre joint node, which may look similar to the casual observer

I did wonder if they maybe something very similar. They do look identical to me but obviously I wasn't able to study them closely when the OR engineers were working on them.

Thanks for that Ribble.

Edited by deleted (Fri 03-Aug-12 11:42:32)

In reply to a post by DarthVodafone:

BT Engineer in Berry Lane told me the other week that he was finishing up and cab just needed power. Non-BT Contractors are there at the moment presumably adding the power.

I walked along Berry Lane today and the pavement is up now. I can see what I THINK is an electrical connection waiting for the cabinet to be connected to it (no work being done today, being a Sunday), plus the black fibre cable going into the cab.

Just passed a "J&J Drake, working on behalf of Morrison utilities" van next to the new cab on Arundel Street (opposite the trophy shop) and a guy inside the cab.

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

Just passed a "J&J Drake, working on behalf of Morrison utilities" van next to the new cab on Arundel Street (opposite the trophy shop) and a guy inside the cab.

Would that be Arundel Road you meant by any chance?

Ah yes.....my bad. Was early

After a flurry of activity it's all gone quiet again.....and still no signs of a cab for me

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

After a flurry of activity it's all gone quiet again.....and still no signs of a cab for me

Last week a cab near me was being worked on again. I thought it was completed but I guess not, as they dug the road up again and had their large reel of fibre cable out. I still have high hopes for Rustington anyway, but have noticed several cabs in Littlehampton don't have their FTTC partner yet.

Isn't Rustington due the end of next month?

Its only a holding date, the exchange and others may well slip into the next 3 month holding slot which will be end of December.

Proably find if its not live before the end of September then will likely go live in the first few weeks of October, with more cabs coming live.

I appreciate that, but both Rustington and Littlehampton were due in June, but at the end of June Littlehampton slipped to Dec and Rustington to Sept.

From Worthing down to Chichester Openreach are working on 12 exchange areas- the smaller exchange cabinets will be connected to the larger parent exchanges.
With estimated go live dates of September/December 2012, so its not hard to see why their are delays in the area since their is so much work going on, may even see December 2012/March 2013 dates.

In reply to a post by ccxo:

The smaller exchange cabinets will be connected to the larger parent exchanges.

I'm a little lost here. Are you saying the smaller exchange cabinets, or the cabinets of the smaller exchanges?? Is that why Bognor, Chichester and Littlehampton are set to Dec and the rest are Sept?

I should have been a bit more clearer, the larger exchanges will be enabled for FTTC, while fibre from these will connect to the smaller exchange cabinets, providing the FTTC service to the smaller exchange area.

As for the dates their only holding dates and are very likely to change, it all depends on the amount of work left in each exchange area.

That makes much more sense.....kinda.

Why would they do that as that means running multiple fibres for miles back to the larger exchanges - I would have thought it'd be easier to aggregate the fibres back to the nearest exchange and run backhaul to there.

Also, how comes they think that the smaller exchanges might be ready sooner when surely it's more difficult to get them working than the cab's native to the exchanges serving the fibre?

The mind boggles.

The fibre will likely go back to the nearest fibre link to the main exchange, their will be the main fibre link between the exchanges and its likely where the fibre will connect to- as it does not need to go to the smaller exchange.

The date is only a holding date and can easily move into the next slot so its not a 100% sign that the smaller exchange cabinets will be ready first.
Their are alot of factors in enaling cabinets and why they are chosen first, only Openreach knows this and we can only wait and see which cabs go live first.

It is finally here available to order

I was reading on some other forums that it is usually available shortly after you hear the fans running in the cabinets. I noticed today when walking the dog that the cab in Parkside Avenue and (my cab) in Berry Lane were quietly humming away suggesting they were switched on.

No news for Littlehampton on the @Openreach_news twitter feed and still only shown as Coming Soon on the http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/ that everyone refers to.

But....

If you check the BT Wholesale page at http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl , this says that Fibre To The Cabinet is available. Woohoo!!!!!!


Note that it could not find my phone number (presumably because I am a Sky customer) but it was happy using the Address Checker link on the same page. I then logged onto Sky and clicked through the upgrade my package links where it also said it was available. £50 for setup and £20 per month. BT engineer is booked for 8AM to 1PM on Monday 24 September 2012 which was the earliest available.

No flaming please for Sky vs BT arguments - I know the differences and this thread is not for that discussion. Just wanted to post the good news so you can all (hopefully) get your orders in now too (as long as no one manages to get an install earlier than mine of course).

Edited by deleted (Fri 07-Sep-12 16:23:38)

Good to hear its avaliable- the twitter feed can be a bit slow will likely announce the exchange soon.

Ok I've re-written my post....

I'm amazed it's available in Littlehampton. Rustington was due first, and they are still working on several cabinets in Rustington that they put in place over a month ago.

I've just tried the DSL checker for several Littlehampton addresses and none show as live yet. If you've put an order in though I guess they must be. Odd how the DSL checker for your area and others don't show as live for me though. Hopefully for you there isn't an error somewhere and it really is live.

Edited by deleted (Fri 07-Sep-12 20:46:19)

I just tapped in my mother's details (she would be connecting to the Parkside Avenue cabinet) and that says will be available for 31 December as you suggest Zackary. However, I tapped in a few addresses that would be connecting to my cabinet in Berry Lane and they are all saying available now.

For Address XXXXXXXXXXXX, BERRY LANE, LITTLEHAMPTON, BN17 5HD on Exchange LITTLEHAMPTON

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial check on your address indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 2Mbps.

Our check also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL Max broadband line speed of 7.5Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 6.5Mbps and 8Mbps.

Our check also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 17Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 10Mbps and 19.5Mbps. Our test also indicates that your line could support an estimated ADSL 2+ Annex-M broadband upstream line speed of 1.5Mbps and downstream line speed of 17Mbps; typically the downstream speed would range between 10Mbps and 19.5Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 80 Mbps and upstream line speed of 20 Mbps.

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: Provision of some services may not be allowed due to product withdrawal, please contact your service provider for further details.

See for yourself by tapping in an address connecting to this box (I'd suggest you use BN17 6QW as you can pick a random number in Southway whereas Berry Lane only has house names).

I also have a BT line that I do not want to upgrade as it is actually supplied by my employer. Tapping in that number also confirms that it is available now and gets around the disclaimer about being indicative only.

As you say, this suggests that they have either made a mistake and I am going to get put back or that the Exchange is ready but not all cabinets yet.

Either way, apologies for misleading anyone into thinking they could order only to find they could not.

Spare a thought for the hard pressed fibre engineers trying to please everyone...Also remember we are working in all the major towns & city's at the same time. And everyone want's a peace of us...

Morning DarthVodafone.

I have checked the addresses you mentioned, and did find a few houses in Berry Lane that were live, but of the 10 or so I checked only about 2 had FTTC. As you rightly said, all houses in Southway (that I checked) have it now.

So I'm sure there is no mistake now. It just seemed so at first - Sorry if I worried you! I'm surprised that not all homes in Berry Way have it yet (according to my own search anyway), but I know they were working on the cab down there just recently so maybe they haven't got everything connected up yet, and the other end of Berry Lane are likely to be on the other nearby cab. I haven't kept track of other cabs in Littlehampton but I know several have been there a while now and I've never seen any more work being done on them, suggesting they've all been connected and ready for a while.

Every other random postcode I checked for Littlehampton last night and this morning, other than those you mentioned, don't have it, so it seems only very few do so far. I'm wondering if Rustington might be live now too but my cabinet not finished yet. I'll keep checking.

If you see a big guy leaning over cabinets in Littlehampton and Rustington listening for fan noise - Say hi, it'll be me. *laughs*

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Spare a thought for the hard pressed fibre engineers trying to please everyone...Also remember we are working in all the major towns & city's at the same time. And everyone want's a peace of us...

Of course, I'm sure they're doing their best and are working hard to get everyone connected - But remember they are all being paid, and the customers are also paying for the service and will pay more once FTTC is enabled. It's not as if they are doing us a favour.

Edited by deleted (Sat 08-Sep-12 09:15:24)

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Spare a thought for the hard pressed fibre engineers trying to please everyone...Also remember we are working in all the major towns & city's at the same time. And everyone want's a peace of us...

Hi Anon Engineer.

You are appreciated. I guess because you are delivering something that everyone really wants you are automatically a hero when it works and is delivered on time and a villain when it isn't. That can make it seem like you are not appreciated.

With your inside knowledge, do you think the situation we are describing (where at least one cabinet seems to have the service available before the go-live date whereas others don't) is possible or do you think there is some kind of database error?

Thanks.

In reply to a post by DarthVodafone:

It is finally here available to order
[SNIP]
Just wanted to post the good news so you can all (hopefully) get your orders in now too (

No such luck here. Still no signs of a cab either

UPDATE: I have selected a random postcode for each cab and run it through the checker, here are the results:

P1 No
P2 No
P3 No
P4 No
P5 Yes
P6 No
P7 No
P8 Yes
P9 Yes
P10 Yes
P11 "Unable to check" error for several postcodes
P12 No
P13 Yes
P14 No
P15 No
P16 Can't find a valid postcode for this cab
P17 No
P18 No
P19 "Unable to check" error for several postcodes
P20 No
P21 No
P22 Yes
P23 No
P24 Can't find a valid postcode for this cab
P25 No
P26 Can't find a valid postcode for this cab
P27 No
P28 No
P29 Can't find a valid postcode for this cab
P30 Can't find a valid postcode for this cab
P31 No
P32 No
P33 Can't find a valid postcode for this cab
P34 No

So it appears a minimum of 5 out of 34 cabs are live.
Interestingly, the postcode I used for cab 13 was the postcode that physcially included the cab and PCP. You can select both the PCP and streetside cab as addresses and they do show slightly different estimated speeds.

Edited by deleted (Sun 09-Sep-12 22:50:50)

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

UPDATE: I have selected a random postcode for each cab and run it through the checker, here are the results:

That is amazing work Pete. I am sure it was borne out of trying to find out how unlucky you have been in not getting a new cab so far. I really hope you don't have to wait too long. Any of us following this thread are obviously the ones in Littlehampton and Rustington who are chomping at the bit.

Littlehampton is no longer in OR's "coming soon" list. The "accepting orders" list is currently unavailable, suggesting it's being updated (or the file got corrupted during the update).

Rustington still shows as due Sept 2012.

No change in the map yet.

[Edit] Nice work there Pete.

Edited by deleted (Mon 10-Sep-12 20:29:59)

Accepting orders PDF has been updated and Littlehampton is on there.

Edit: Excel file too

Edited by deleted (Mon 10-Sep-12 21:36:37)

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

Accepting orders PDF has been updated and Littlehampton is on there.

It tells me there is an error in the file (have refreshed). Oh well, I'm more interested in Rustington which I know won't be there as it's still in the "coming soon" list.

ordered my fibre on saturday. It's being installed on the 25th of this month. they reckon i should get 61meg down and 20 up. woo hoo!! I'm on cabinet 22, went past there earlier and it was humming away to itself

Edited by deleted (Mon 10-Sep-12 21:38:54)

I walked past P13 earlier today and it was quiet. How loud are the fans, can you hear them over moderate traffic or does it need to be quieter to hear them?

The cabs I have heard are quieter than usual road noise

The fans are very quiet, to hear it you need to place your ear up against it.

I was right up against it, but it was really busy on the road. Might try again when it's quieter.

I'm gutted that P22 is less than 300m from P34, you can order and I dont even have a cab yet

grrrrrrrr so angry right now!!!

I managed to get hold of an email address so I contacted them about my cab. This is the response I got:


As you will appreciate, Openreach is rolling out fibre broadband on a strictly commercial basis. When calculating the commercial viability of cabinet areas we take many factors into account. These include ensuring that we locate the cabinets in accordance with all national and local planning laws, ensuring that the cabinet does not obstruct pedestrians or provide a danger to all road-users. We must ensure that the DSLAM is located within 100m of its associated telephony connection cabinet and that there is adequate access to power and existing telephony infrastructure. To further enable the location of the DSLAM, we must accurately survey for underground structure and obstacles etc. As such we look at the potential return for our investment over a number of years, (20),with the prospective number of take up of the service being around 20% of households.
Your cabinet SD/LTTLH 34 has had several possible positions to locate it surveyed, however, the financials were too great to build and maintain this cabinet at this time and as such, this cab has been deferred from the programme. You must understand that this decision was not taken lightly, however, we have made a commitment to our customers, shareholders and the government to roll-out fibre broadband to 66% of the UK by November 2014. This is a complex and long term project with finite timescales and funding, we have to work within this confinement which ultimately means some areas are deferred. However, we do intend to revisit areas not included in the initial rollout, such as SD/LTTLH 34, for possible deployment at a later date.


Thanks BT, thanks very much.

Had a little conversation with the guy and without revealing too much he said that connecting the DSLAM to the network was where the problem was and that "costed the DSLAM out of the project".

I was hoping it was the predicted take up, in which case I could have potentially done something about it.

That's really bad news Pete, I'm sorry mate, you must be fuming. It's money money money isn't it? These companies never realise how much upset they cause customers and potential customers, which in turn costs them money long term, probably more than they save.

Edited by deleted (Wed 12-Sep-12 20:35:00)

Yeah, the worst part is that my ADSL sync speed is slowly getting worse so I was relying on fibre to offset this.

I dont understand the fibre routing so I maybe talking rubbish, but they managed to get fibre to the 2 cabs <300 and <200m from my cab. I appreciate that both of those are on the other side of the A259, but they managed do get the cabling in to the PCP OK.

What happens when the new housing estate is built next door - here, buy a brand new house in 2013 but you can only get 2Mb broadband, digital TV is sketchy and mobile phone signal are dire. So much for a town whose motto is "progress".

I only get 3Mbps here on ADSL2+ so like you say, video streaming is not too good at those speeds. I cannot stream HD video at this speed and even SD is a little jumpy sometimes.

I feel so fortunatey to be getting FTTC, as I imagined Rustington would be one of the last places to get it. I did take a momentary gasp when you mentioned cab P34, as that's what I'm on, but of course you'll be on Littlehampton exchange.

There were vans at my P34 cab yet again today, an electrical company of some sort. It's amazing how many times work is being done on just one cabinet to get things going.

My local cabinet (Rustington exchange, P34) is now live, as I heard the fans today. Same with another nearby cabinet. I've also noticed that the DSL checker has updated information for my particular address saying FTTC will be enabled by the end of September. It didn't say that before for several homes in this postcode, even though the December 2011 database says 100% of the postcode are on P34.

So just have to wait for the exchange now. Must be any day.

In reply to a post by Zackary:

My local cabinet (Rustington exchange, P34) is now live, as I heard the fans today. Same with another nearby cabinet. I've also noticed that the DSL checker has updated information for my particular address saying FTTC will be enabled by the end of September. It didn't say that before for several homes in this postcode, even though the December 2011 database says 100% of the postcode are on P34.

So just have to wait for the exchange now. Must be any day.

That's right, rub it in!!!!

Oh of course. Errrmmmmm.....Yea sorry Pete. *yikes*

I've been away for a few days and am just catching up on this thread - sorry to hear your news Pete. I'd read on other forum threads that sometimes they don't do every cabinet for day 1 and so I was dreading being unlucky myself. I don't think I would have handled it as well as you seem to have.

Are you saying that they decided not to add your cabinet because of technical issues making it more expensive? I don't follow some of the acronyms you are using - what is a DSLAM? (Google made me think that this was just another name for the new cabinets but correct me if I have the wrong end of the stick.)

Not sure if it is relevant but following the latest reshuffle, this happened http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240162815/Maria-...

If the problem for you was siting of the new cabinet then I would be pressing for them to review the decision in the light of that policy change. Get neighbours, the local press and affected companies on-side if you can. We can all write letters in support.

From what I can gather it's not a planning permission problem.

I've been told that the cost of connecting the DSLAM to the rest of the network is what priced it out of being upgraded. Not sure why that is, as surely there is ducting running to the PCP with the existing copper pairs running to it plus there are 2 DSLAM cabs within a 250m radius from my cab. Also, I did see them pulling what looked like fibre tubing into the pit in front of the PCP so I'm really confused.

I'm in the process of trying to establish how many of the cabs got installed to see if I'm alone or not, then I am looking to approach the local council and see if they can help in any way - Littlehampton's motto is "Progress" and this is far from progressive!
If I need to I'll canvas the properties served by the cab for help. Being where we are we have really long lines and [censored] sync speeds so I'm sure I can get some support from them!!

DSLAM cab is the new cab that is added where the fibre is terminated into the kerbside DSLAM. DSLAM stands for Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer. The PCP is the Primary Connection Point and this is the existing cab where the phone line from the local properties aggregate.

With normal DSL the DSLAM is at the exchange and this is why the further from the exchange you are the lower your sync gets as the signal degrades as it gets further down the copper. By moving the DSLAM to near the PCP you end up with just a few hundred metres of copper and the signal degrades a lot less.

Edited by deleted (Tue 18-Sep-12 20:56:09)

This may be of use Pete.

m.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/local/plans-for-better-broadband-in-west-sussex-move-forward-1-4289434

Interesting article. I certainly hope that gives Pete some hope again.

Rustington is now live and I've put my order in, but do really feel for Pete's situation, and anyone else who isn't able to get Fibre in the near future. This article is potentially great news for others in the West Sussex area though.

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

grrrrrrrr so angry right now!!!

I managed to get hold of an email address so I contacted them about my cab. This is the response I got:


As you will appreciate, Openreach is rolling out fibre broadband on a strictly commercial basis. When calculating the commercial viability of cabinet areas we take many factors into account. These include ensuring that we locate the cabinets in accordance with all national and local planning laws, ensuring that the cabinet does not obstruct pedestrians or provide a danger to all road-users. We must ensure that the DSLAM is located within 100m of its associated telephony connection cabinet and that there is adequate access to power and existing telephony infrastructure. To further enable the location of the DSLAM, we must accurately survey for underground structure and obstacles etc. As such we look at the potential return for our investment over a number of years, (20),with the prospective number of take up of the service being around 20% of households.
Your cabinet SD/LTTLH 34 has had several possible positions to locate it surveyed, however, the financials were too great to build and maintain this cabinet at this time and as such, this cab has been deferred from the programme. You must understand that this decision was not taken lightly, however, we have made a commitment to our customers, shareholders and the government to roll-out fibre broadband to 66% of the UK by November 2014. This is a complex and long term project with finite timescales and funding, we have to work within this confinement which ultimately means some areas are deferred. However, we do intend to revisit areas not included in the initial rollout, such as SD/LTTLH 34, for possible deployment at a later date.


Thanks BT, thanks very much.

Hi Pete,

Sorry to hear about this, i feel your pain being in a similar situation

Can i ask which email address did you have to write to get such a detailed response?

The CEO of BT and the CEO of Openreach replied to me but their responses weren't very specific to my case

In reply to a post by DarthVodafone:

This may be of use Pete.

m.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/local/plans-for-better-broadband-in-west-sussex-move-forward-1-4289434

I saw this on the Gazette's twitter feed the other day - it is thankfully a little hope, but I wont hold my breathe for the fear of turning blue!

iWc - address you want is '[email protected]' and a guy called Tony Franklin is usually the one that replies.

Well, I got my fibre installed on Tuesday. The guy who installed it had to come from Kent, said only him and one other guy were doing installs for this area, meaning Sussex and surrey, no one else is qualified yet. I've gone from about 5.5 down and 0.75 up, to 60 ish down and 15 ish up, well pleased.

In reply to a post by adam1968uk:

Well, I got my fibre installed on Tuesday. The guy who installed it had to come from Kent, said only him and one other guy were doing installs for this area, meaning Sussex and surrey, no one else is qualified yet. I've gone from about 5.5 down and 0.75 up, to 60 ish down and 15 ish up, well pleased.

Nice going! I've not given up hope yet, I'm in the process of mapping the towns cabs, working out who got what and what is live and I'll be approaching the council will as much info as possible and getting them to lean on BT. Hopefully the "white spots" that they are looking into get sorted quickly.

my exchange is the next one along...middleton on sea....
Original live date was June, then Sept..now Dec


cabs are all in, cables have been laid linking my estate..just waiting for the switch on.

"I'm in the process of mapping the towns cabs"

Wow, that sounds like a labour of love! Do you intend to publish the map? I'm in the older part of Southfields Road. The nearest cabs I've seen are some distance away. A postcode check gives a date of 31/12/2012 for my location.

Yeah, I will do.

It's less a labour of love and more a necessity to ensure that the council realise that we've been left behind. As we are (and I can't confirm this until I finished but I believe it to be the case) on the cab geographically furthest from the exchange we've had to suffer from low sync speeds from day 1 and probably the lowest in the town - FTTC was to be our saving grace!

If the "white spots" project the council is a success for us, then it'll have been worth it.

Well, it's been a bit of time since I posted last on this so I'll cut a long story short.

I managed to get the West Sussex Better Connected project to look into my issue based on all the info I gave them and they agreed to take it on.

They have been in discussions with BTOR and I got an email today to say that my cab is back in the rollout! I have no further info so I've contacted NGA Enquiries to see if they have any timescales yet.

Happier than I was a few months back!

Looks like a little progress:

This marker shows cabinet: P34
Which is linked to exchange: LITTLEHAMPTON
Please note: This is the intended area for the cabinet that will provide fibre broadband services to your postcode. We're sorry but it�s taking us longer than planned to get your cabinet ready for service. Please bear with us.

We're sorry that the work we are doing to bring fibre broadband to your area is taking longer than first planned. This can be for many reasons that include blocked underground cable routes, issues with providing electrical power to the cabinet and issues with the cabinet�s location. Please bear with us while we work to resolve this which may take some time. We will continue to work on this and apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

Hi Peter,

Firstly, thank you for chasing this with BT/WSCC! I moved to a house connected to P34 in Littlehampton from Rustington in November and was rather annoyed to find out that it wasn't getting FTTC, but the house I moved from in Rustington had just been enabled.

As a web developer working mostly from home, FTTC would be a big improvement over the 3MB I'm getting at the moment. I've also spoken to someone on the nga enquiries email on a few occasions who originally told me that P34 wasn't going to be upgraded at all due to the cost of getting power to the cabinet, then said it had be re-added to the rollout and would be available September 2013, and now say it will be March 2014.

The checker at http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.address (when entering a house number/post code) also shows the March 2014 date, so hopefully we only have 12 months to wait!

Well a small, maybe positive update.
I noticed this week that Telent's streetwork guys have dug from the pit down approx 20 yards and out into the road.

Hopefully it's the start of the work to support the cab going in.

I drove past a couple of hours ago and saw a shiney new cabinet just down from the existing one

Any idea how long from the cab being installed to services being available? Checker still saying March 2014...

I know - I saw it this morning!!

It varies from location to location, and from the previous conversations I had to NGA was that getting the fibre & power to it was the challenge so it could be while.

BT site says Oct 13 - Mar 14 as an estimate and I've been estimated 34.6Mb/6Mb which sure beats the 2.5Mb/1Mb I get now.

Only time will tell.

7 months on and I'm still waiting:
"Sorry delivery of a power supply to your cabinet is currently delaying progress. Please bear with us."

However, as it went from showing "31st Mar" to "Nov 13 to Mar 14" I've been checking ever week and this week something has changed. Previously it showed 34.6 down and 6Mb up estimate, then it added a Range A and Range B set of values (both showing the 34.6/6).

Today I'm showing:

FTTC Range A (Clean) 55.5 39.9 14.2 8.6 -- 31-Mar-14
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 48 24.9 14.2 6.8 -- 31-Mar-14.

Does the updates estimates being updated like this give a hint to it possibly going live soon? I'm hoping it means that they have been testing and found they can get more out of it.

Sorry but it's totally unrelated.

All estimates have been updated, there's quite a big thread about changes to the the wholesale checker in the fibre forum.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/f/4282893-cha...

Edited by R0NSKI (Wed 04-Dec-13 18:05:33)

In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

Sorry but it's totally unrelated.

Oh well, back to weekly checking.

Availability date on the BT Wholesale checker has just changed from 31-Mar-14 to 31-Dec-14

I wrote to Arun Council and BT about the cabinet a couple of months and Copied in Nick Gibb. They replied saying that the cause of the delay was indeed due to problems with power to the site and that the cost was prohibitive at this time, and that the West Sussex Better Connected budget could not be used for contributing towards the cost of getting power to the cabinets.

They did say that they had sent an engineer to asses the situation and that as there were lots of works being carried out for the new estate, it may be possible to get power to the cabinet as part of that, but I'm not holding my breath.

I've just seen this prior to coming here - This is an absolute joke!!

They can happily connect up what is recognised as one of the most economically deprived areas of the county yet a private estate of approx 120 homes, including a fair few companies, is left with with poor quality connections.

In reply to a post by wheeler:

the cause of the delay was indeed due to problems with power to the site and that the cost was prohibitive at this time

The usual cost for a new electricity supply is around £1k, but it isn't always so simple.

The supply companies will charge you an actual amount to connect - so if your supply is the one that causes a transformer to be overloaded, then you get to pay for the whole of the new uprated transformer. There is no mechanism to share the cost over a number of supplies.

I saw one council report where the cost for power for 3 cabinets in the town had reached over £90k.

WWWombat - that's interesting, and makes sense in this situation.

Any ideas what happens next, or is it just a stale mate between BT and the UKPN?

What is the power draw of a FTTC cabinet, and can it really push a transformer over capacity, or are the power companies just seeing this as an easy way to get their transformer upgrades paid for?

Stalemate, as the exta cost (to BT) makes the cabinet commercially unviable. They'll (presumably) just wait until BDUK or a council injects money to cover the cost, or until some third party pays for the upgrade as part of their own request for a power supply... and then just get a standard £1k supply.

I don't know how much an FTTC cabinet actually draws, but the significant thing (for dimensioning the supply line, and the transformer capability) is the maximum supply that could ever be drawn, now or in the future. For example, a house with a standard supply (with a 100A fuse) needs to be rated at 100A, even if it doesn't ever draw that much.

The transformer then has to be rated to take every connection at maximum current.

So a 10A actual draw might not take the transformer out of rating, but allowing the full 100A, just in case, perhaps would.

Better Connected Sussex got back to me today. They are saying that the power IS coming from the new estate when it's fitted. Roadworks.org don't show anything for UKPN in the next 12 months, but the site is being built at a rapid pace so the power is going to need to be put in fairly sharpest.

BCS has said they'll chase it again in 2 months if it's not up and running by then.

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

but the site is being built at a rapid pace so the power is going to need to be put in fairly sharpest.

Is this cabinet on a newly-built estate? or one where building is still going on?

No, the cab is on the entrance off of a main road into the existing estate (where I live, approx 10 years old now) however there is a new developement being built next to us about 500m down the main down.

The suggestion is that the power for the new site has to run along the main road, past the entrance to my estate and the cab, and further along to where the new development is being built.

Not quite sure how the main feed into a 600 home development is needed to feed a small cab, but hey ho.

id be ore worried abou the new developement as i bet that has a new copper cab and is not on either then commercial or BDUK programmes

If you've not already noticed - there is power being laid down the road running right past the new cabinet this week. The work is being done by "Gas Transportation Co Ltd" and is marked as Gas work on roadworks.org, but they appear to also do electrical work.

Hopefully they will be connecting the cabinet, I'll keep and eye on it as I drive or walk past the cabinet every day.

Been keeping a close eye on it. They are running HV/LV cabling and the other end is very close the the cab, but it's also at the point where the cabling crosses the road and heads up towards the new estate.

Because of that I'm not getting my hopes up but it is looking encouraging.

I've just had an email from 'Better Connected' West Sussex, who say:

Openreach have confirmed that Littlehampton cabinet 34 remains within their planned commercial rollout of broadband but, in terms of timescales, I have not been able to obtain a clearer picture for you. A request for the power provision to be planned is now with the power company but it is not known how long it will take for a solution to be planned.

As Littlehampton 34 is a commercial cabinet, West Sussex County Council cannot influence Openreach or the power company. However, I will continue to request updates on the status of the cabinet and will contact you when I have news.

Thanks for that.

I noticed on the BT retail site that's is had an Aug-Dec14 estimate and that changed to Sept-Dec14 a couple of weeks ago.

And today being Oct 1st it's changed to October - Dec.

Last Friday there were two large BT Openreach vans parked by the cabinet most of the day, and it looked like they were hooking up the firbe connections (it looked a bit like this - link to splitter image)

The HV/LV power now runs all the way down courtwick road and it looks like they're connecting it to the existing power cables behind morrisons at the moment...

Hopefully we should be live soon!

Edited by MrSaffron (Fri 13-Dec-19 14:22:38)

I've been stuck in the house for the last few weeks due to putting my back out and I was just not 10 mins ago asking my wife if she's seen anything there.

This is great news, it might actually happen this time!

And today all sign of fibre has vanished from the checkers.....

Is this the lull before the go-live or have they pulled it yet again??

Keep the faith Pete - it often happens about a week before opening for orders

Having been let down repeatedly over the last 2 1/2 years I'll not hold my breath!

Changed:
- reasons:- Sorry delivery of a power supply to your cabinet is currently
- delaying progress. Please bear with us.
... into:
+ reasons:- This cabinet is under review. We'll explore fibre broadband
+ solutions & will update once done..

That doesn't look good to me

That's changed since yesterday. I knew it was too good to be true!

I've emailed my contact in the council and asked for an update.

Edited by deleted (Fri 12-Dec-14 15:29:00)

Council have not got a definitive answer but they still believe that power is an issue and will chase for an actual answer but it's likely to not be until the New Year that they get an answer.

I have noticed that 2 new pits have opened up along the route the the new power took - maybe there has been a problem??

Council has been in touch. BTOR were at their offices today and they enquired after my cab.
They are still saying that powering the cab is the problem and that it's still on the commercial rollout, however "some movement" on the power has been made but is probably still some way off.

Edited by deleted (Tue 13-Jan-15 19:45:12)

We got a letter through the door yesterday from UKPN - There is going to be a planned power outage on Monday 26th while they connect up the power for the new estate. I assume that means after that date there will be a live LV/HW power cable running past the cabinet - so hopefully it's just a case of connecting it up after that...

I got that too, but I suspect that's more to do with the second phase of the Kingley Gate.
They had started to re-dig the pavement along New Courtwick Lane so I thought they maybe had a problem with the original install, but today it looks like that they were not digging but resurfacing as the top 2" has come off and has been replaced.

Only time will tell.

Well my 3 monthly update from the council was not encouraging, they are getting stonewalled by the local OR rep and advised me to contact high level complaints.

Just checked now that I found a postcode for an address on the new estate....... FTTP @ 330mb available.

Not impressed.

Not impressed.

In my case quite I am impressed since it would appear the developer has liaised with BT, put its hand in its pocket, and ensured that they can market the development as having ultrafast broadband, or whatever is the word of the day for a 330Mbps service.

As for the continual delays you are experiencing, you have my sympathies. I'm in a similar position on a 2-3Km EO line (39dB attenuation) here in central London with no BDUK funding and little or no BT funded network rearrangements likely in the near future.

Neither am I, in particular as power to the new estate runs right past our cabinet. Obviously someone is playing games.

Better Connected has stopped sending me updates on the issue, so I assume they won't do anything.

Did you have any luck with High Level Complaints?

I'm tempted to try getting the local press involved, as a response to The Gazette's recent cut-and-paste success article about the roll-out in West Sussex. No power two years after the cabinet was installed is hardly a success, even by West Sussex's standards. Although I'm almost certain, it won't make any difference.

Never got a response from HLC - I might try again when I get back to the UK next week as it's been 6 months.

Good news! BT Checker now showing FTTC availability for 31 Mar 16

I just saw! I suspect they did get my emails and just didn't respond but I'll eat my words if we are not bumped again by 21st March.

Now showing 30 Sept 16

I just saw before coming to post here. This is beginning to take the pee. We are now projected to get upgraded 4 years and 3 months after the other 33 cabinets on the exchange with no obvious reasons why.

Email from WSCC - they are saying BT is still citing power problems. They were intending on getting power from the local street lighting circuit but they is not reliable and could cause connections to go offline.

I have the High Level Complaints email, going to try them again.

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

Email from WSCC - they are saying BT is still citing power problems. They were intending on getting power from the local street lighting circuit but they is not reliable and could cause connections to go offline.

I have the High Level Complaints email, going to try them again.

Absolute rubbish. West Sussex streetlighting uses the same powercable that runs in the pavement as for houses, shops and other users. There isn't a "council owned" 5th wire system, its all owned by the local DNO in this case Scottish and Southern. If there are houses or indeed a streetlight nearby, then the cabinet can be connected to the same 3 phase cable that feeds them - using a single phase tap off. The only excuse maybe if the 3 phase cable stops several hundred yards short of the cabinet (could be possible), making the trenching length too costly, or if the 3 phase cable is at capacity - highly unlikely.

There was a new power cable laid last year marked HV/LV within 1 meter of the new Fiber cabinet. There are street lights within a few metres.

This is the junction with old and new cabinets visible, as well as plenty of street lights

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.821843,-0.549128,3...

Edited by deleted (Mon 21-Mar-16 17:13:44)

I have just found your posts ... thank goodness that there are others who are as frustrated as we are !

We originally registered our interest with BT about 4 years ago and are still waiting....every 6 months the deadline date gets pushed out further...I really should realise that this is just a pipe dream...its like looking for the end of a rainbow.

Any suggestions on whom we can contact to see if we can "gee" things up a little ?

You can try the High Level Complaints email at Openreach. I'll dig it out and send it over to you.

So I've been waiting patiently for BTOR to do something with my cab and 3 days before the availability date they just bumped me again - to 31st Dec 2017 which will make is 5 years since the rest of the exchanges cab went live.

Fuming.

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

So I've been waiting patiently for BTOR to do something with my cab and 3 days before the availability date they just bumped me again - to 31st Dec 2017 which will make is 5 years since the rest of the exchanges cab went live.

Fuming.

Want to start bothering CEO of Openreach (BT) Clive Selley, I had nearly 2 years of conection issues, got no where with my complaint, even when shunted to high level complaints they weren't intrested, so I emailed the former CEO Joe Garner, & BT CEO Sir Micheal Rake, things moved fast, very fast within two weeks, I had a new line installed, moved to another pole closer to cab.Rather impress with the outcome.

Edited by Nightglow (Tue 27-Sep-16 19:48:32)

In reply to a post by Nightglow:

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

So I've been waiting patiently for BTOR to do something with my cab and 3 days before the availability date they just bumped me again - to 31st Dec 2017 which will make is 5 years since the rest of the exchanges cab went live.

Fuming.

Want to start bothering CEO of Openreach (BT) Clive Selley, I had nearly 2 years of conection issues, got no where with my complaint, even when shunted to high level complaints they weren't intrested, so I emailed the former CEO Joe Garner, & BT CEO Sir Micheal Rake, things moved fast, very fast within two weeks, I had a new line installed, moved to another pole closer to cab.Rather impress with the outcome.

Well emailing Clive Selley (CEO of Openreach) won't resolve anything, however emailing Michael Rake (Chairman of BT) along with Gavin Patterson (CEO of BT Group), one of them might.

Our road was fitted out with FTTP Hardware back in 2011, however only half went live, even though all was completed.

It has taken me the last 5 years of emails, phone calls to BT and Openreach etc, it has taken my local MP the last 2 or so years or letters, emails and phone calls where the both of us was getting no where.

My local MP just had enough of being messed about so he sent a letter to Gavin Patterson asking what the issues were and why we was all being messed about, 4 days later we was able to order FTTP.

Granted there were some build issues that Openreach then discovered at our splitter node (bottom of our road), but that's another story.

But going through load of lies and being fobbed off for nearly 5 years to it just requiring a letter to Gavin Patterson and an extra 4 days, just makes me laugh LOL.

So what I am saying is try emailing Michael Rake along with Gavin Patterson with a basic version of the issue, sending a huge email will just put them off from reading it, oh and the main thing is don't be rude, be polite in the email and you might be lucky.

Also try and get your local MP to write to them two, that might press the right buttons.

Paul

Better five years late than never... I've just received an email for West Sussex Better Connected stating that the power will be being connected soon and we will have FTTC before Christmas...

"
Many thanks for your email and for keeping in touch. You were in my diary to contact next month after Openreach has carried out some planned work.

Assuming that the work is done, which will be UK Power Networks putting in power to connect to the cabinet, I can give you the good news now.

You can expect fibre broadband for Christmas!

We�ll have more certainty about timescales and speeds once the cabinet is powered and tested so please do ask me about it at the end of October.
"

I drove past the cabinet earlier and sure enough there is a sign notifying OpenReach works on the 25th, and the following on roadworks.org:

Highway Authority:
West Sussex County Council
Location:
opp. the junc of NEW COURTWICK LANE on A259 LITTLEHAMPTON BYPASS...
Description:
LITTLEHAMPTON - 34 - 395128 - Power - 5 days - POWER CONNECTION following street cabinet installatio...
Permit status:
Granted
Works ref:
BC005MU1WBAUSEIBQD0LWU02
Current status:
Advanced planning
Work info last updated:
15:16 on 12/07/2017
Last updated on roadworks.org:
17:04 on 20/09/2017
Data source:
BT

Looking promising, but as ever, until the cabinet is accepting orders, don�t get excited (as hard as that may be!)

I saw the yellow sign on the side of the road last week and the power work is booked in for next week. Next week it'll be 5 years since the cabinet was first due to live with the others, it's been a long wait and I've sent so many emails and had so many conversations that I'd given up on the cabinet ever going live.

I saw a guy with a laptop in the cabinet on Tuesday and thought it's not going to be long now.....and I just had an email from WSCC that they've heard from BT the cabinet is live.

Just spoke to my ISP and they've put in my order!!!! GAAAAHHHHH!!! After 5 years we've finally caught up! They are also offering upto 330Mb FTTPoD. Might enquire into the costs.

Yes. I've just ordered an upgrade with plusnet. Estimated 40 - 59mb. Please let me know costs and which ISP are offering fttpod. I've just entered an 18 month contract with plusnet and I suspect as I'm a couple of miles from the cabinet fttpod would be expensive!

At a couple of miles from the cabinet VDSL2 speeds of 40 to 59 Mbps are impossible, so your estimate may be out

Yes you are right. That was a terrible estimate. Google maps puts it at 0.4 miles. Still very expensive for fttpod I suspect.

I had a go-live date of 10th November from PlusNet.. I've just called them to check what's happening as I hadn't heard anything and they tell me it's been pushed back to the 23rd due to a lack of openreach engineers.

On the 3rd i was given 17th as earliest selectable date or ASAP. I selected ASAP as i thought they might get it in earlier but now been told 21st due to engineer schedules. Ive been estimated up to 51/11Mb which is a massive jump up from the 2.5/0.4 I get now.

Installed today and I'm getting 51/9.5. Very happy

Excellent, I saw someone working on the cabinet at around mid day.

Hopefully mine will go in on the 23rd. I wonder why if they have two orders waiting they couldn't do both at the same time...

Each one is an appointed task for a set date. I guess there were no available appointments (to prevent overbooking and failing jobs)

That would have been mine being done, I was down from about 11:50 until 12:40

Just got mine activated

77.9 down 18.5 up. Very impressed.

http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6818949320

Must be much closer than me!

If that is VDSL2/FTTC then the speed test is over reading the figures as 76 Mbps is the maximum.

Yes its FTTC... I can try a different speed test this evening, any recommendations?

In reply to a post by wheeler:

Yes its FTTC... I can try a different speed test this evening, any recommendations?

Right here. https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest is my preferred one.

My results from that one...

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15114685735...

Does that suggest 79.4Mbps as the peak speed and 73.8Mbps as average?

The peak speed in your case is just an effect from some buffering/av/firewall software most likely, but the graph explains why you got the high figure from the other tester.

The 73.8 Mbps is a plain old median average, the burst is the 85th percentile speed and some other testers do tend towards using that figure because of a theory that it will reflect the connection speed.

wget -O /dev/null http://ipv4.download.thinkbroadband.com/512MB.zip
--2017-11-23 20:28:01-- http://ipv4.download.thinkbroadband.com/512MB.zip
Resolving ipv4.download.thinkbroadband.com (ipv4.download.thinkbroadband.com)... 80.249.99.148
Connecting to ipv4.download.thinkbroadband.com (ipv4.download.thinkbroadband.com)|80.249.99.148|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 536870912 (512M) [application/zip]
Saving to: �/dev/null�

100%[========================>] 536,870,912 8.86MB/s in 58s

2017-11-23 20:28:59 (8.85 MB/s) - �/dev/null� saved [536870912/536870912]

That tells me I'm getting at least 70.8Mbps - which is good enough for me considering the BTO line checker gives VDSL Range A (Clean) 'high' of 59Mb

The PlusNet router shows 'connection' speeds of 80/20Mb - out of interest what are the overheads which take the connection from 80Mb max to 76Mb max?

Edited by MrSaffron (Fri 13-Dec-19 18:49:55)

https://www.coverfire.com/archives/2012/11/29/per-pa... goes into the number of bytes that are used for the overheads of getting your IP traffic across the VDSL2 link

So it's been a couple of years and my FTTC connection is great, but I'm starting to think about FTTP.

I can see from samknows that the Littlehampton exchange is enabled for FTTP 'in some areas' however the BT availability checker says it's not available at my phone number/postcode.

Is there any more info on FTTP availability?

Most exchanges have a very small amount of FTTP. TBB's own broadband map has an option for Openreach Native FTTP so you can get an idea of where it is available. It looks like Littlehampton just has some properties in the north west corner at "Kingley Gate" - I'm guessing it is a new development?

That broadband map is very nice, thanks for the link.

Yes, Kingley Gate is new, and have FTTP. I'm slightly to the east of that estate.

I've applied for a quote from Cerberus Networks for FTTPoD - I expect it will be out of budget!

For reference I received a quote fairly quickly from Cerberus - £7,800+VAT, passing 5 other premises - distance 600 - 799m from aggregation node.

That was the free desktop quote? If you place an order for £250+VAT you may find that the final price is lower.

Thanks, that's very interesting. I run a business from my address so think I'd be eligible for the £2500 grant. If I could be sure the final quote would be cheaper I'd be very tempted, but at the moment I'm managing OK with FTTC and I don't think it's worth the £250 survey/gamble on price.

I'll keep an eye on things and hopefully the install costs come down, or grants go up, or someone nearby gets FTTPoD

In reply to a post by wheeler:

Tor someone nearby gets FTTPoD

Don't hold your breath for that - last I heard, they were doing 40 per month (up from 20) across the whole UK.

I'm not surprised, at these prices!

It's coming! The Openreach guys are in my street as we speak pulling fibre into the pits.

I spoke to them and they said there is a big rollout happening and my street is where they are starting. He's not sure on the plans, but he said it's town wide, and as you are (from memory) in the estate next to ours, it would be reasonable to assume you'll not be far behind.

I'm really happy. I spent the first year having FTTC drop as many as 100 times a day.
They sent engineer after engineer out and each time they said the lines better than expected, and they run tests and see nothing. They would leave and 20 mins later it would start again.

The eventually decided the problem was the power line ethernet adaptors that I dont use (as in they were in the box inside a cupboard but it had been noted as part of the original fault that I had removed them and it hadn't fixed the issue) and closed the investigation. My ISP managed to get it useable by fiddling and getting it to stay synced at 35Mb (my estimate as 66-55 on a clean line). It's not perfect, I still see 4-5 drops a day but I can live with that. Having a line that's going to stay synced and with a good stable latency will be epic - my only conerns is that where BTOR put the fibre infrastructure in the neighbouring new-build estate, customers were tied to BT Internet for the first 3 years. I really dont want to switch ISP if I dont have to.

Edited by deleted (Fri 13-Dec-19 11:37:40)

Legally BT Consumer is on dodgy ground if on new builds they lock people in. Longest consumer contract allowed is 2 years as well. The BT lock is probably some deal a developer has with a reseller, or someone looked to order FTTP got told by TalkTalk/Sky they could not have service (since they did not sell FTTP) the story of lockin with BT has grown.

If there is written proof of a true lock in then Ofcom and others would very much like to see it.

So you will NOT be locked to going to BT Consumer, can stay with existing provider so long as they sell the FTTP service themselves or move to a growing number of others that do.

Hi Pete,

Yes, I'm very close to you, on the same cabinet. I've seen a lot of activity from BT at the cabinet recently including a big OpenReach van this morning.

Fingers crossed it makes it to me.

There were 8 vans along my street this morning, all of them parked next to open pits, pulling fibre through. There is a pit right outside my front door and I have some CCTV of them working away - took them about 20 mins.

In reply to a post by wheeler:

Hi Pete,

Yes, I'm very close to you, on the same cabinet. I've seen a lot of activity from BT at the cabinet recently including a big OpenReach van this morning.

Activity at the cabinet is likely completely unrelated to the FTTP rollout.
That's probably just an engineer maintaining the FTTC lines or a standard phone only line.

The fibre doesn't touch the cabinet with an FTTP build.
You may see OpenReach working in an underground chamber in front of the cabinet which could be related to the rollout.

Watch for them working in chambers or up poles in your street as that's a much better indicator than a van at the cabinet.

Definitely been some changes at the cabinets here.

Looks like, according to the Interweb, a G.Fast pod has been added to the PCP.

Probably a VDSL sidepod

Maybe. There seems to be as debate over what similar pods are actually for. Extra capacity seems more likely than G.Fast.

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

Maybe.

Probably? Very probably?

Order is in - estimated install is 8th Jan

Forgot to update - installed on the 8th Jan and it's not dropped a beat since.
Glad I'm finally shot of the VDSL and the 2 dozen drops a day, especially since lockdown!

What was? This was a very long thread, and your sig and speedtest in it are completely out of date.