BT continuously changing Infinity Role out dates

I am beginning to wonder whether BT are cheating with information about infinity.

We were told nearly two years ago that our exchange would be enabled in the December and our cabinet in January.

2 days before the date, the checker mysteriously changed to March.

2 days before that date, it changed to the September. Then the same to December and so on and so forth.

This year, the date was changed to the end of April and just a couple of days before hand, it changed to the end of June. I have just checked the site yet again and, surprise, surprise, it has changed to September.

This is the Stony Stratford exchange near Milton Keynes. Some of the new cabinets have appeared round the town - you can spot them by the sight of a BT engineer sitting at them scratching their head.

I have no idea where our cabinet is meant to be located, but we are only 100 yards from the exchange as the crow flies.

BT report their progress of rolling out infinity by using their planned dates for activating cabinets. But if they keep changing these dates (and always at the very last minute) are their statistics basically rubbish?

BT Open Reach quote their roll out of FTTC (not Infinity - this is a BT retail product) normally in terms of "properties passed" or percentage of people / homes who can get the service.

This will be the number of people who are served by an enabled FTTC CAB.

This information is available to SKY, Talk Talk and probably all resellers of the BT Wholesale products - somebody would have shopped them by now if they were fiddling the figures.

The reason for the continual 3 month slippage is largely because BT allocated the same dates to more lines than they could realistically manage and are continually putting dates off by 3 months even when the know many of them won't hit that date. Whether they know which will and which won't is a moot point.

Lots of us are getting dates moved later and later, you're not alone.

When reporting to government, they always talk in terms of number of people who WILL be connected by a certain time because politically that is a better figure. They seem to be massaging this rather nicely.

Sorry, I spent too many years working on political programmes and advertising, it has made me rather sceptical...

if you are 100 yards from exchange thats a bad thing in FTTC terms, you could be wired to exchange, and nver get FTTC

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

if you are 100 yards from exchange thats a bad thing in FTTC terms, you could be wired to exchange, and nver get FTTC

Just what I was thinking, perhaps the OP could post their post code and someone will check what your connected to.

In reply to a post by jsanglier:

When reporting to government, they always talk in terms of number of people who WILL be connected by a certain time because politically that is a better figure. They seem to be massaging this rather nicely.

Sorry, I spent too many years working on political programmes and advertising, it has made me rather sceptical...

Exactly what evidence do you have for stating that BT are reporting false figures? Most of the figures I have seen have referred to properties passed rather than properties connected.

Personally I tend to have less faith in the utterances of people in politics and advertising than I do a major company. That is, providing of course, it is not a bank , or a ...

What happens, is that 'BT' have a department that trawl these, and similar, forums. If they spot posts complaining, and being rude about their staff, like yours, they will trace your IP address, and have the FTTC DSLAM upgrade to your cabinet delayed.

I have no idea

You got that bit right !

statistics basically rubbish

Right again.

at a 100yards you may be connected directly to the exchange and never get fttc

It is okay, I know what I am connected to.

As I said in the post, I am that distance "as the crow flies" - not that actual cable length.

And no, we are not directly connected to the exchange - I know that from 12 years ago when I was on the original ADSL 2mb trial.

@MCM: As in my original post, I asked the question and said what seems to be - I did not say this was an absolute with tons of proof. If that had been the case I would have written an article for a paper, not posted on here. So, sorry, only an impression from my own experience. As for how they publicise figures - well, that has been part of my living for the last 35 years. You always look at the best way of pushing statistics, unless you are arguing for more subsidy, in which case you want to make it look desperate. It is all in the wording.

Edited by jsanglier (Sun 01-Jul-12 12:59:20)