FTTC Progress Against Schedule

Currently the BT rolloiut is running heavilly behind schedule. If we take the lastest schedule there are a 172 exchanges listed as due for completion by the 30th September. Assuming 79 working days in that quarter it means they have to average 2.2 exchanges a day. To date they have averaged 0.6.

In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

Currently the BT rolloiut is running heavilly behind schedule. If we take the lastest schedule there are a 172 exchanges listed as due for completion by the 30th September. Assuming 79 working days in that quarter it means they have to average 2.2 exchanges a day. To date they have averaged 0.6.

You think you could do better? Sheesh. BT didn't have to start a roll-out at all. The dates all say they are estimates. It's their timetable - no one has told them when it has to be ready.

Give them a break!

The reason people get dissapointed is because they state a date, and they rarely stick to it.

its mainly the idiot working out an estimated go live date that is to blame.. they would actually be better saying nothing at all.

It is certainly true that they are 3-5 months behind where they had 'planned' to be at this point.

In reply to a post by Moradin:

they would actually be better saying nothing at all.

And then plenty of people would complain about that too.

In reply to a post by Moradin:

It is certainly true that they are 3-5 months behind where they had 'planned' to be at this point.

True but I don't see as something to crow or moan about. The project has just turned out to be more difficult than they'd hoped. That's common in every endeavour but when you're talking about a project this large or this complicated and involving local authorities it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

If you look at what they are actually achieving is about 35% of what they have listed and this seems to have been fairly consistant throughout the rollout. The current most of the September ones will go into Q4 and some into Q1 2013. The December ones are likely to go into Q2/Q3 2013.and the 2013 ones will go into Q4 2013 & Q1 2014

But as they now have plenty of experience as to what is being achieved they ought to update the schedule to be closer to what they are actually achieving instead of conmstantly putting out dates they know they will not meet.

Come on then show me the figures to support this 35%?

If its true that when BT say close to 40% of UK households can get it, but really only 14% of UK households then that makes for a massive news story due to misleading their shareholders.

The take-up would be very impressive if they have the 0.5m + homes from just covering around 3.6 million homes.

This is refering to the rollout schedule and not what is already installed

I would say though that a simple sanity check would indicate far less than 40% of households can currently get FTTC.BT tend to base the figures on enabled exchanges rather than enabled cabinets and as BT keep it a closely guarded secret as to how many cabinets are enabled on each exchange it can only be based on estimates based on peoples experiences of trying to get FTTC

Hi,

Sorry you are wrong. In the area where i live BT have delivered what they said they would pretty much when they said they would.

However, early OFCOM figures did suggest my area had 90% coverage but OFCOM have admitted this was incorrect and even MP's where not happy about it!

My town has areas indicated as September 2012 and 2013. Some of the areas indicated as 2013 have civil engineering works under way and ducting and fibre is going into the areas indicated as September.

Its looking like 10,000-15,000 will be done between now and October - I'm assuming some slippage.

Regards,


Gareth

Cabs installed is around the 20,000 mark

Tadley (North Hampshire) was scheduled for Dec 31, 2011. Then this was moved to June 30, 2012. Now it's Sept 30. A couple months ago BT put new cabinets in but so far no difference in speed up or down. What else needs to be done after a new cabinet is installed?

Install mains, tie link to existing PCP, push fibre tubes through ducts, blow fibres through tubes, connect to DSLAM, commission.

Oh - and the subscribe for an FTTC service from an ISP!!!!!

I don't know much about any of the process. Sounds like this could take a lot longer than the new projected date of 30 Sept. Will it be obvious when all this happens? For instance,will they need to dig up the entire road to sink cables?

In reply to a post by nhow:

... but so far no difference in speed up or down. What else needs to be done after a new cabinet is installed?

As has been said, you have to order FTTC from someone.. Note that BT Infinity is not the only supplier, despite the misleading TV adverts. More information.

We have Sky Unlimited Broadband. Got this a few months ago. The tech updated our socket and connections as well as providing new DSL router. When he did the install he said we would get the BT upgrade when it went in as we use BT lines.

In reply to a post by nhow:

We have Sky Unlimited Broadband. Got this a few months ago. The tech updated our socket and connections as well as providing new DSL router. When he did the install he said we would get the BT upgrade when it went in as we use BT lines.

Sadly complete rubbish. You would have to order Sky's fibre product and your local cabinet needs to be activated. As a Sky telephone customer you have to use the number checker on the Sky site or phone Sky customer services to find out if you can get Sky Fibre Unlimited or Sky Fibre Unlimited Pro.

Oh well....thanks for setting me straight.

For instance,will they need to dig up the entire road to sink cables?

No. Some ductwork required near the existing copper cab and new DSLAM cab, but other than that, no.

Something really strange. I just checked our phone number and house on Sky (as I said we are already Sky customers with Sky Talk and Unlimited BB). The result was it said our house is not able to get either...or presumably fibre once it's available!! What do they think we're paying them for?

If the cabinet is not live yet, and yours isn't, then you will be unable to order.

Where are you in Tadley, it's on my patch ?

I guess I wasn't clear. What the Sky site was checking was what sort of BB was available to my phone number and address. It came back saying we couldn't get either Sky Talk or BB (which is what we have now from Sky). They didn't even mention fibre.

We live in Baughurst and they put new cabinets in nearby.

In reply to a post by nhow:

I guess I wasn't clear. What the Sky site was checking was what sort of BB was available to my phone number and address. It came back saying we couldn't get either Sky Talk or BB (which is what we have now from Sky). They didn't even mention fibre.

We live in Baughurst and they put new cabinets in nearby.

Same for me - the cabinet arrived in June but its not yet active, I suspect waiting for power.

The BT checker is the normal place to get an estimated date; but unfortunately with Sky voice lines you can't use the BT checker. (give it a try: https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html )

The Sky checker might not offer you Sky Talk as you already have it!! The Sky checker for me only offers Sky Talk and Broadband, no Fibre, but also doesn't tell me the 30th Sept date that the BT checker does. (I have a BT phone line).

Oh, OK, that then would be an issue to take up with Sky.

Know Baughhurst well.

I did check on the BT site...that's where I found out they had advanced the date to 30 Sept for Tadley. We used to have BT but the download speed was so appalling we switched over to Sky. Now it's about 7.5, more than double what we had with BT...but what's confusing to me is that it's still BT lines...but we have to pay for Sky line rental....

I think they're all a load of bo****ks

I think they're all a load of bo****ks

Who ?

The aforementioned providers of telephony and internet services

This is because your line is no longer a BT line, so it will not be recognised in the online checkers. You will need to use the address checker with your postcode and house number.

Edited by deleted (Wed 18-Jul-12 21:43:45)

I used both. Sky didn't recognise either even though we have their complete package...talk, BB and TV....full monty

Their is still alot of work going on in Tadley on a few cabinets still- wont finish till 18 of August and their is more cabs planned for September.

As for the exchange not sure if the work is complete their or not.

if cab in installed and in delay there could be a duct problem, its blocked or needs highways to apprve a new route, it could be awating power or the cost of providing power is prohibibitve and therefore cab does nt get lit and made RFS, There are a host of reasons,

PS 2.5bn Roll out rollout out now above 10m homes (May 2012) and will complete a year earler that planned by 2014 -- using no public money and still pleople complain

Thats daft though. It is still a BT line it is just that they pay Sky the line rental. THe line is stil owned and maintain by BT

I agree, but the way their systems work can't understand that fact

Its maintained by Openreach, not BT Wholesale, which is who all the ISP's purchase service through. So whilst we can perform an address lookup on Openreach's PSTN systems and clearly see that an LLU MPF line is existent, it will not be recognised in the BT Wholesale systems and its not a BT Wholesale line, but an MPF line with an LLU operator.

That's why people on LLU SMPF can still use the BT Wholesale checker.

Crazy, I know, and confuses end users no end.

In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

Currently the BT rolloiut is running heavilly behind schedule. If we take the lastest schedule there are a 172 exchanges listed as due for completion by the 30th September. Assuming 79 working days in that quarter it means they have to average 2.2 exchanges a day. To date they have averaged 0.6.

Don't worry about it, people will I'm sure jump in and tell you that it's fine and to go easy on BT if they haven't already.

As you rightly point out though these are BT's dates and if they can't keep to them they shouldn't have supplied them, simple as that.

For the poster who mentioned that they didn't have to do this, yes they did. They were years behind most of their peers in starting an NGA rollout and are playing catch up to compete with Virgin, their catch up being a relatively modest almost universal FTTC with FTTP rather cleverly supplied 'on demand' rather than to dense urban areas as their peers may have done.

BT are late to the game and have made huge amounts of noise, doesn't change that their coverage is spotty, their claim of coverage is quite carefully framed as covering exchanges that pass a certain amount of premises rather than the actual amount of premises that can take the FTTC service, and they've cunningly avoided having to spend their own money on FTTP for the most part by offering it on demand in 2013.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

if cab in installed and in delay there could be a duct problem, its blocked or needs highways to apprve a new route, it could be awating power or the cost of providing power is prohibibitve and therefore cab does nt get lit and made RFS, There are a host of reasons,

PS 2.5bn Roll out rollout out now above 10m homes (May 2012) and will complete a year earler that planned by 2014 -- using no public money and still pleople complain

The rollout covers an exchange area covering 10 million homes, it doesn't mean there are 10 million homes that have it available to order.

A bit of nice BT BS there, while they're busy worshipping themselves over spending money that should have been invested years ago, when they were busily spending far more on the cost saving 21CN and then 1.25 billion on share buybacks.

When framing the amount BT are spending it should be done in the context of what they spent on 21CN and their share buyback, neither of which were of obvious benefit to the customer base.

In reply to a post by nhow:

I did check on the BT site...that's where I found out they had advanced the date to 30 Sept for Tadley. We used to have BT but the download speed was so appalling we switched over to Sky. Now it's about 7.5, more than double what we had with BT...but what's confusing to me is that it's still BT lines...but we have to pay for Sky line rental....

My line was still a BT line despite paying line rental to Sky and having Sky Talk and broadband but when I switched to Sky Fibre the line switched to Sky and disappeared off the BT checker completely.

For Full LLU the copper pair no longer touches any BT wholesale system so their systems will not even know it exists, therefore they cannot line test it and give any speed info.

As I understand it, Openreach can line test it, but that info is only passed to the CP renting the pair. other CPs do not have to make this info available to anyone, unlike BT Wholesale who do, so it is only visible on that CPs system.

It appears that some CPs like to use the BTWholesale checker as they are interested in gaining customers from others, but not so interested in giving visibility to anyone of what people could get on lines they already control.

This also suggests that they do not want to encourage people to move to FTTC as they will have to pay out more to obtain the service and still have the 'sunk' costs as the voice will continue to use their own equipment as well.

BT Claim it is 10m lines on enabled Cabinets, not enabled exchanges.

This still overstates the numbers as not everyone on the Cabinets can get FTTC but the difference is only about 5% so mabe 9.5m homes with FTTC available. This is still good.
The 2012 Ofcom Communications Market Report says 31% of Homes in March 2012 so this is in the same ballpark as the 9.5m and creping up on the 44% passed by CATV, ( surprisingly only around 50% overlap!).

That's very interesting. If you don't mind me asking, are you paying a lot more for Sky Fibre than you were for BB?

well my area had the 3 month push back but this week openreach have been working on my street.

The cabinet for my phone is about 100-150m away, but they put a new FTTC cabinet across the road from me maybe 5-10m or so distance.

given the new date is now dec 2012, is it likely I can order early?

The only date you will know is the date when you can place and order . Any other date is indicative and can be pushed back or brought forward.

Is the FTTC cab definately twinned with the existing cab your on? They seem quite a distance apart!

Our FTTC cab was installed in April i think and we're still waiting with the checker showing September rather than the original June.

I would say you're now on track for December.

I asked the workmen and they said its to lower the copper length as the estate opposite me has horrific copper lengths, there is also a new cabinet next to the phone cabinet as well.

its possible it may be twinned with the new phone cabinet that was put in a side street near me that was fed with ali cables (posted few years back on this) as now I think about it I have not noticed a new cabinet near that one.

Edited by Chrysalis (Wed 25-Jul-12 20:04:39)

BT are still falling a very long way behind schedule If you have a Dec date Q2 2013 is more realistic so far out of the 190 Sep exchanges only about 15 have been enabled

Rollout countiues till 2014 and any dates are estimates till then, if any work continues past 2014 then its late.