FTTC cab sizes ....

As title, is there any way of knowing what size of cab will be being installed , the painted (DLSAM) markings do they represent the actual size ?
In this area only 2 FTTC needed planing permission both are the big 288 line cabs 1600mm x 1200mm x 450mm according to the planning apps submitted

The streetwork's site only gives basic detail of size and I'm sure is generic info used by several local authorities
I ask because i read on here that they are now installing a smaller cab 128 lines, if this is the case then it seems a bit pointless as there could easily be more potential customers than what the small cab can support,and then presumably they would have to return to install another or a bigger one ?

or is the size based on how many lines the connected PCP serves?

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 30-Jun-12 19:17:29)

It is based on the anticipated take up I assume.

Having said that I am not aware of a 288 line version of the ECI DSLAM and all DSLAMs on an exchange are supposed to be the same arent they?

In some area, allegedly, the take up has been less than expected so installing the smaller DSLAM may make sense.

In reply to a post by greenglide:

In some area, allegedly, the take up has been less than expected so installing the smaller DSLAM may make sense.

They've just installed a 128 up the road from me, so what happens if/when customer 129 asks for FTTC? Do they put in another cab or just say no?

In reply to a post by GMAN98:

In reply to a post by greenglide:

In some area, allegedly, the take up has been less than expected so installing the smaller DSLAM may make sense.

They've just installed a 128 up the road from me, so what happens if/when customer 129 asks for FTTC? Do they put in another cab or just say no?

They put it on pair 129.

In reply to a post by GMAN98:

In reply to a post by greenglide:

In some area, allegedly, the take up has been less than expected so installing the smaller DSLAM may make sense.

They've just installed a 128 up the road from me, so what happens if/when customer 129 asks for FTTC? Do they put in another cab or just say no?

Someone on another forum was told no and would have to wait until someone decided to drop fibre but if there was enough demand I guess they would put in another cab.

Openreach have only installed ECI 128's in town and there are quite a few PCP's that cover 300+ addresses although takeup hasn't been that high apparently.

In reply to a post by greenglide:

It is based on the anticipated take up I assume.

Having said that I am not aware of a 288 line version of the ECI DSLAM and all DSLAMs on an exchange are supposed to be the same arent they?

In some area, allegedly, the take up has been less than expected so installing the smaller DSLAM may make sense.

288line/port same thing as only one line per port i would think,

It's just a thought , But they may be still using the older bigger cabs, these in the plans have a big door and a small one, not the single door small cabs ,

I guess that if further significant take up is expected, then yes, a second cabinet.

Rumour has it, that Cab 14 Twyford has bust it's recently added FTTC cab already, and that to cope with further demand a second is on it's way. TBF, these guys had no BB at all 'till this service arrived, so keen might be the best way to describe the punters.

Installing smaller cabinets is a narrow minded idea, of a company trying to save £10 in a £1000 billion pound concept.

Eventually, everyone will be FTTC or FTTP. and further down the line, everyone will have fibre.

why? because its the future, more reliable, and eventually the services offered by fibre, will outstrip those on a sky dish, or even those coming down your TV antenaa.

I predict a future where a dish or an antenna do not exist on houses.

Edited by deleted (Sun 01-Jul-12 12:25:33)

lol I don't think the difference between a 128 and 288 cab is a tenner

for the cash they are spending, it might as well be.

Edited by deleted (Sun 01-Jul-12 12:37:16)

128 cans be extensed but - but in the majority of cases the 128 is suitable it can be increased in some curcumstance but why would you increas cab sized yhan you needed to i that you needed to -- bearing uin mind this is private investement and has to be backed up in a viable business case that makes a return dirung a defined period (cabs are seized depending on the amount of premuises they servied and the take up asscoaciated with the commercial busines case

Hmm not really, they've only got so much to spend doing this and have already upped it by 1 Billion, uptake so far is low so there's not much point spending more on capacity in some areas and having less of a footprint

By all accounts take up is low so far, about half a million customers. I'm sure it will pick up over the coming years though

the current cabinets outside your house... how long have they been there?

essentially a cabinet is nothing more than a piece of steel. it costs 20 x more in labour, and planning to put the cab in than the actual cost of the cabinet.

its just poor efficiency to put a small one in, that eventually will have to be turned into a large one.

Like you say though, its all money driven, they just want the biggest return in the fastest time period that they can get.

In reply to a post by GMAN98:

Hmm not really, they've only got so much to spend doing this and have already upped it by 1 Billion, uptake so far is low so there's not much point spending more on capacity in some areas and having less of a footprint

By all accounts take up is low so far, about half a million customers. I'm sure it will pick up over the coming years though

Maybe if they try installing in areas where the uplift is high rather than just assuming that there'll be a 20% uptake and deploying in areas with cable / fast DSL already they'll see better uptake.

I'm less than 120m from the exchange, I have cable, BT are upgrading the cabinet. What's the uptake going to be like? It's not likely to be astounding. I know people who are 7km from the exchange and have services that struggle along at 1.2Mb who are getting nothing because BT assume 20% uptake from both cabinets.

Idiocy.

If we were talking about the old cabinets I'd agree, but we are not, the new cabinets have a VDSL DSLAM sized for that cabinet and port count, so its not just a case of a bigger cab shell, its rammed with active components unlike the old cab's

I'm not saying a bigger cab is twice as much, unlikely but there will certainly be a cost difference.

In reply to a post by GMAN98:

Idiocy.

Yep, my town is an upside down L shape. The exchange is on the far south side of town (near me) and I have friends on the north side of town. ADSL did not sync up there, one friend actually tried - his office paid for BT line and BT Business ISP and the openreach engineer tried for 2 hours but failed to achieve sync.

Virgin Media has been in place on that side of town for over 10 years.

So Openreach install the FTTC cabinets up there first! To people who already have 30mbps or faster services, leaving out the people in my area with under 10mbps ADSL.

Yes, but if they followed your idea, these pages would be awash with folk moaning about the lack of roll out in their area.

Maybe, what we don't understand about all this, is that it has been based on areas where the provision of the fibre itself is easiest, existing spine routes, etc.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Yes, but if they followed your idea, these pages would be awash with folk moaning about the lack of roll out in their area.

Maybe, what we don't understand about all this, is that it has been based on areas where the provision of the fibre itself is easiest, existing spine routes, etc.

I've spoken with BT a fair bit on these matters, and I hate to point out but these pages will be awash with people complaining about a lack of roll out whatever. Just the people doing the complaining that changes.

I know why Openreach target cabled areas, trying to get some revenue where they currently get none, predicting 20% uptake wherever is weird.

Seems ridiculous to be deploying 288 line cabinets to areas like mine which will have 120Mb / 12Mb available by August when areas with tons of people at sub-1Mb where uptake is going to be huge are ignored.

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

Seems ridiculous to be deploying 288 line cabinets to areas like mine which will have 120Mb / 12Mb available by August when areas with tons of people at sub-1Mb where uptake is going to be huge are ignored.

It not all about speed. VM's service is in many places more than useless - and also they don't offer any technical options such as Static IP, or reverse DNS. If VM opened their physical cable network to multiple ISPs then this wouldn't be an issue - but at the moment cable network means restricted to cable ISP.

Openreach physical network means a lot of ISPs, those at the full equipment level (Sky, TalkTalk) and those that take a wholesale feed (BT retail, AAISP, ADSL24 and all the others).

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

Seems ridiculous to be deploying 288 line cabinets to areas like mine which will have 120Mb / 12Mb available by August when areas with tons of people at sub-1Mb where uptake is going to be huge are ignored.

It not all about speed. VM's service is in many places more than useless -

Agreed, people are leaving VM in swathes, especially gamers