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 deleted (Sun 01-Jul-12 12:59:20)

if your cab ins contiaunnly being deplayed -- it sounds as though it has been obkjected to by either local objctions or highways --(as this is consiste which whay you are experienceing) sugges a conversaion with your local autohirity l=planning group to see if this si the case

if a cab is objected ito or a rplan is reuiqred due to highways - it will conitually roll back every quarter until it is resolved -suggest it is a resiting or planning problem

Just checked - all the local cabinet applications have been approved and there seem to be none outstanding.

Unless, of course, that in their multitude of delays they haven't even applied yet!

Good idea though...

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

if your cab ins contiaunnly being deplayed -- it sounds as though it has been obkjected to by either local objctions or highways --(as this is consiste which whay you are experienceing) sugges a conversaion with your local autohirity l=planning group to see if this si the case

You're writing in enigma code right?

so if that is correct and the cab is standing (assuming you know hwhich is your cab and where it is -- then it is a problem obtaining the ppwer certificate (or connecting power

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

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

That's me that is

That sounds like rubbish. They would apply for planning consent if required and most do not need it before scheduling it.

Edited by deleted (Sun 01-Jul-12 16:19:38)

JSanglier - the dates in the checker roll over automatically at the end of the quarter if "your" cabinet has not been activated for whatever reason. It's not deliberately being changed "at the last minute" it's just BT Openreach's computer system doing its thing. If you go and look at the BT Infinity forum over on the BT Care Vommunity you'll see lots of threads about this very phenomenon.

They do get there eventually - over here in Bradwell I had the rolling three-month date changes for about nine months until suddenly in May the checker started to say that I could order Infinity. So far it's been worth the wait !

Thanks for pointing me to that BT forum, anon - most informative.

You're very welcome ! That anon was me - I've registered now.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

<snip>It's not deliberately being changed "at the last minute" it's just BT Openreach's computer system doing its thing. <snip>
They do get there eventually - over here in Bradwell I had the rolling three-month date changes for about nine months until suddenly in May the checker started to say that I could order Infinity. So far it's been worth the wait !

Here in Stantonbury Fields it has been about 2 years of FTTC being pushed back. "Eventually" can't come too soon.

Can't say I'm at all surprised to hear that, must be especially annoying when Heelands has had it since last year. You have to wonder whether there was ever any serious intention to install it in your area as long as two years ago or whether they just stuffed the same dates into the database for the whole of MK North.....

I have had similar with my cabinet scheduled for activation in Dec 2010. The cabinet only turned up about 2 months ago and then a couple of weeks later the Super Fast Broadband available sticker appeared. The checker gave a go live date of 4th July. A couple of days before this though the go live date changed to 30th September so it looks for me that it is back inito some never ending queuing system for BT to get someone round to resolve the problem. Of course the rest of the town has had FTTC for well over 12 months now too (just to rub it in)