FTTC Washington (NEWAS)

Hey,

Long time lurker here. As I know there are quite a few here connected to this exchange and I am kind of jealous of people sharing information about their local exchanges I thought I would sign up and make a thread for us to discuss the roll out in Washington.

What we know already:

The exchange went live on 31st July.

As far as I know the only cab currently taking orders is P3 in Donwell. I have not checked all the cabs however but I have been sampling and it is the only one I have found so far. It was live actually a week or so before hand and had the 'Fibre is here' sign. Before that it was saying 30th September.

I have seen the cables being done in Rickleton two weeks ago but there has been no movement as far as power is concerned since then.

The road is dug up in about 4 places by Telnet along Bonemill lane right beside the turn off for Washington Highway which would suggest to me they are installing the power there but having some difficultly. I am guessing by the position they are going to P15 which is just besides St. Georges Church.

I really wish they would concentrate on the 'not spots' that are not already covered by Virgin where I imagine the take up will be huge. The documents say my cab will see a 43.7 uplift yet they work on the ones with 2 uplift first where take up will be tiny.

Despite driving about a fair bit the past couple of weeks I have not seen an Openreach van anywhere for quite a while except parked outside McDonalds in Team valley. With Sunderland North going live this week I imagine they are also served by the same core of engineers so everything might be taking longer.

At least we have the promise from the council that 90% of the homes they represent will have FTTC by the end of Summer. If that comes and goes at least we have someone else to complain to.

So anyone seen any works going on etc?

At least we have the promise from the council that 90% of the homes they represent will have FTTC by the end of Summer. If that comes and goes at least we have someone else to complain to.

Where does this promise come from? The Council have no control over how quickly the rollout goes other than providing some funding into a BDUK project which is aimed at the areas not covered by BT's initial rollout.

In reply to a post by Kr1s69:

At least we have the promise from the council that 90% of the homes they represent will have FTTC by the end of Summer. If that comes and goes at least we have someone else to complain to.

Where does this promise come from? The Council have no control over how quickly the rollout goes other than providing some funding into a BDUK project which is aimed at the areas not covered by BT's initial rollout.

I misspoke it was less of a promise and more of a 'this is our plan, we hope it happens': http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=6075 There is another article here: http://www.itpro.co.uk/637297/sunderland-to-get-wall...

You are right the council side of things was the BDUK funding, however they made such a big deal about it and got quite a bit of press that if/when they do fail to deliver it will be interesting. Ultimately we all know how easily dates slip for BT so it is unlikely to happen, however what I should have said in my OP was that local businesses will not be happy when they have to back peddle because of the failed delivery when they made such a fuss about it. Sorry about the confusion.

Supposedly the Sunderland North exchange went live yesterday, though after thoroughly searching different postcodes and tel numbers on the BT wholesale site, not a single cabinet appears to be live yet.

Openreach working on Biddick Lane a couple of weeks ago, but when using the BT checker no mention of FTTC availability . For our postcode doesn't even seem to be a date for BT Infinity.
There is a new cabinet near the arts centre, no. P52. Irritating as several years ago the pavements were dug up "to lay cables" but we can't get Virgin so are stuck with landline, via telegraph poles.

I'm a long time lurker on these forums too.

I live in Rickleton and my cab (P25 I think) has had power installed, I'm fairly certain. OR (or a sub contractor) dug a trench outside a neighbours fence, he asked the guy and he said it was for power cabling.
Like many, I'm waiting hopefully for the big day when I can order. Searching the BT checker for my postcode gives an estimated d/l speed of 69 meg. I'll be delighted with that!

In reply to a post by magpie:

I live in Rickleton and my cab (P25 I think) has had power installed, I'm fairly certain. OR (or a sub contractor) dug a trench outside a neighbours fence, he asked the guy and he said it was for power cabling.
Like many, I'm waiting hopefully for the big day when I can order. Searching the BT checker for my postcode gives an estimated d/l speed of 69 meg. I'll be delighted with that!

I am in Rickleton as well, P24 though which is just on the end of Petrill. P25 is the one opposite the primary school I think. That is actually quite interesting as walking past the P25 today it does not look like any work has been done for quite a while how long ago was that? I had a little listen on P25 today and it did not sound like there was any activity there but I don't really know what I am supposed to be listening for to be honest.

I imagine as there is so little distance between the two cabs power would be put in around the same time. The thing that annoys me the most is seeing the BT advertisement for fibre on the phone box every time I walk past the Woodlands.

OR dug a trench in the grass leading to the entrance to Wellhope a couple of months ago and laid some black cabling, then again about 2 weeks ago as far as I recall. The latter time was when a friend in Wellhope asked them what they were doing and they said installing power.

That was about the time they were working on P25 as well so hopefully they are just doing it all in one big push. As far as I am aware providing power is one of the last stages before it goes live. Supposedly if you listen at the vents you can hear the fans turning but I have not had any luck with it as of yet. I only wish I knew someone in Petrill so I could ask them if they have had any trenches dug

Their are many stages to enabling a area for FTTC, the speed of the work depends how many cabinets are planned and if other exchange areas are being worked on nearby.
Power is installed by seperate sub contactors for the power companies and can take multiple vistis before a cabinet has power, this is usually one of the slowest parts of the rollout.

As for the slow spots in your area, Openreach will enable the most economically viable cabinets that will give the highest amount of take up for their investment.
VM cable areas are high population centres which the openreach rollout does target due to the large potential take up, also taking customers away from a rival is another benefit.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Aug-12 18:59:11)

In reply to a post by ccxo:

As for the slow spots in your area, Openreach will enable the most economically viable cabinets that will give the highest amount of take up for their investment.

Which would actually be the slow spots. In my area they enabled they sub 1 Mbps areas of the town first probably because there had been years of campaigning for better speeds.

The most economically viable cabinets are those in residential areas with a high line number, as their will be a good % that will move over to FTTC services, slow spots do get removed by FTTC and their is a very high take up but many slow spot areas remain as its either a small amount of lines or long Exchange only lines.

Good campaigning to show demand does help Openreach alot in the rollout as it shows a demand for their product.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Aug-12 19:49:56)

The road directly in front of P56 in Harraton is all dug up by telnet and the work on P15 where they had several holes in the ground near the main road has been completed. I am guessing work is delayed a little at the moment because of all the rain.

To be honest I was a bit surprised to realise that Washington wasn't already enabled.
From an economic point of view I would have thought it would have been a higher priority than the more rural Fencehouses exchange which went live in May.

People are getting fttc from the tencehouses telephone exchange were I am connected two although I am connected directly to the exchange not a cabinet and cannot get it .

Kenneth.

I think the reasoning is that supposedly Virgin is already here but in actuallity it covers a tiny portion of Washington. Here there was originally Washington Cable but they went bust and Virgin came in after going through Sunderland. However they only ended up covering a tiny portion of Washington but we are still in a 'virgin covered area'

Anyone looking at this map would be able to tell you that Washington is crying out for better broadband. There is more than half of the town, about 10 thousand homes, syncing at less than 1-2 mb. I am lucky if at 3 am when very few people are on the network if I can get to 90kbs, more often than not it is in the 50s. The jump to fibre is going to be a day one purchase for a lot of people. So the one area live already is one of the only areas that was already getting 30+ from Virgin.

But these higher speeds have skewed the averages for everyone else delaying any roll out in the past.

Two Open Reach vans down besides P25 just now. Did not get to stay long enough to see what they were doing as the vans were literately just pulling in. I would keep an eye on tonight to see if anything changes. Hopefully one of the engineers was for P24 as well

Edit: Managed to contrive a walk past there again after finding a letter than conveniently needed posting. By the time I got there was only one van and they were just leaving. So they were there about 2 hours doing work similar to what was done on P24 two weeks ago. The old PCP was open and they were doing things to it. That is about as specific as I can be. I say they but one was actually doing the work and the other guy with him was catching some rays in the sun!

Edited by deleted (Thu 16-Aug-12 14:38:04)

Contacted OR about another issue and they said my cab, if everything goes to plan, should be live mid to late October obviously disappointing for longer wait but things could be moved up depending on how other works go or whatever. I don't know if that indicates anything about when P25 will be live but at least we know a loose target date.

My dads on Sunderland North and his postcode is accepting orders cab P9

does anyone know if sulgrave is getting fibre abilities?

i think the cabinet is p8, but from what ive found it just says not in phase which does not give much hope

Take up tends to be low in cabled areas when BT roll out FTTC. Not really suprising. The areas may have a slightly higher population density than average but most that want HS woiuld have takeen cable. These areas also tend to have a high percentage of short lines than average

Cabled area's will have a certain % of the population on cable services but their will likely be alot of people on asdl+2 packages that meet their needs.

Cable areas that have heavy congestion will likely see people switch over to FTTC but you will likely find most dont know FTTC services are avalaible.

In reply to a post by Trobed:

Contacted OR about another issue and they said my cab, if everything goes to plan, should be live mid to late October obviously disappointing for longer wait but things could be moved up depending on how other works go or whatever. I don't know if that indicates anything about when P25 will be live but at least we know a loose target date.

Trobed, can you tell me how to contact OR in this way, please? I've looked all over their website. I might have missed it, but nothing leaped out at me as being the way to do this.

Is there a magic email address? What info do you give them off the bat, phone and postcode?

PM is fine if necessary to not publicly post the OR details.

You missed it

Take a look at the address in this post

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/t/4148121-re-...

In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

You missed it

Take a look at the address in this post

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/t/4148121-re-...

Yes, I had missed that one. Thank you.

Yeah that is the one I used, Good luck! I think the mid-October is going to be the target for most people.

Update:

Now P10 is taking orders. It looks like they are slowly moving downwards towards the Washington Highway.

does anyone know if there are any plans for P8?

Just tried the OR checker and it says my cab (P25) in Rickleton is due to have FTTC enabled by 30th Sept.
Can't wait to order! Does anyone think I'll have a problem ordering Sky fibre as I've heard that their info seems not to be as up to date as eg BT?

Bare in mind that date may well slip, they often do.

All ISPs use BTs data so you shouldn't have a problem once the BT checker shows it 's available, Sky I think needs extra hardware in the exchange but this is probably in place if the exchange has been live for some time.

That is the place-holder date and likely to slip. I emailed them last month and my cab (P24) will be going live mid October I would imagine that it will be a similar time for your cab as it is just down the road. Not too much longer to wait

I also contacted OR, about 2 weeks ago, to be told P25 would be live mid to late Oct. The date of 30th Sept only appeared on the checker today,so I thought the date perhaps had changed.
As always, it'll be live when it's live, and not before!

I see what you mean now. Searching on any of the checkers my phone number has never given me a date for FTTC but the postcode has but now it is saying 30th on the Wholesale and more importantly it now says infinity will be available on that date as well. Even the TalkTalk checker has gone from available in October to September when all of the other cabs still have October dates. I am preparing myself for it to slip but it is a step in the right direction. It could even be sooner I would imagine. I remember within a week of the cabs going live in Donwell something similar happened.

Hi,

I've noticed people are referencing cabinet numbers here. I don't know how to find out what my cabinet number is and if it is/is going to be upgraded to infinity.

Can anyone tell me how to find out my cabinet number?

Many thanks
Mark

Search for your postcode here It will tell you your cab number and if it is a part of the current upgrade.

Hope that helps

Edited by deleted (Tue 11-Sep-12 23:11:27)

Hey, My cab P24, just down the road from yours went online today and I just placed my order. First slot they had is Morning October 3rd. I imagine your cab will be switched on practically any day now.

Blackfell is now live, P11 according to the checker.
Had installed today, so much better than the on a good day 2Mbps!
Download >50Mbps
Upload >10Mbps

P25 is now live, I've placed an order with Sky with an installation date of 3rd Oct.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! 24 hours after being told by the Sky person on the phone that I could order Sky Fibre Pro and Sky Talk, I find that Openreach then cancel the FTTC order as there is no telephone number valid (I'm taking my number from Virgin to Sky but somehow it's not valid?).
Oddly the installations were on separate dates, Talk being activated on 27th Sept followed by Fibre on 3rd Oct.
I'm now told that the best thing to do is let the Talk activation carry on, then when Sky have control of my number they will re-order Fibre for me.They say their systems are not able to cope with a simultaneous Fibre and Talk order!
I'm loathe to cancel the whole procedure as I might even lose my landline number in the process, but I wonder if Sky have any way of speeding up the Talk activation so at least I can re-order Fibre sooner.
Any thoughts/advice, anyone?

Really weird on what ISP you can in the same area as I was told I am not in the Sky network area so could only get Sky Connect ADSL service, if I could of had Sky Fibre it would work out cheaper as could bundle it with my TV etc....

Thought I'd chime in here fellow Washingtoners.
I'm in Biddick, cabinet P18. The BT Infinity checker has consistently told me it's unavailable in my area, and I was aware of the original 30th June enablement date having been pushed back to 30th September. However when checking my postcode on the FTTC Check website, The status is 'Accepting Orders' with availability 'Now'... The BT Wholesale Checker shows the 30th September enablement date.

I decided to check if I could get Sky Fibre instead of BT as it never even occurred to me to check with different ISPs (clever BT marketing!), and to my surprise the order was put through (yesterday morning) with an installation date of 16th October... Still suspicious I called Sky last night and they said if wasn't possible the order would usually have failed at their end straight away, so they're calling me at the end of the week just to make sure! Keeping my fingers crossed...

My broadband speed isn't terrible I've always had around 7mb, but 34mb (my estimated speed) would be excellent!

Good luck with your order. Sky have messed mine up as they put through the calls package first. This meant Sky didn't have a telephone number to assign to the fibre order (I'm keeping my number) and so it was cancelled. I'm in dispute with them to reinstate the fibre order, no date has been confirmed yet.
Very frustrating.

Further development, I received 2 letters from Sky today, one welcoming me to Sky talk and broadband the other saying that my Sky talk order has been cancelled!
Needless to say I phoned them, it hasn't been cancelled.
What is going on with Sky??

Argh noooo!

I just discovered the Openreach When and Where website and according to that, my cabinet (P18) has a yellow pin with a message that begins, "We're sorry but the cost of providing power to this cabinet means that currently it is not commercially viable."

Weirdly though if I use the BT Wholesale checker it still says my cabinet is due to be upgraded by 30th September...

Is there a possibility the Openreach website isn't the most up-to-date? If it's accurate then... Damn!

My Sky Fibre order hasn't yet been cancelled, I've received the confirmation letter, although when I track it online there is a delay message in red...

I've look at the Openreach When and Where page but can't seem to find anything about specific cabinets Where have you found your information? I keep checking the BT site but on my line number it only shows register interest for Infinity. Used fttc-check.alc.im and the cabinet I am connect to is part of deployment and on Wholesale postcode checker does show the area for Infinity by 30th Sept.

From what I've gathered, the Openreach When and Where map will only show information for your specific cabinet if there's been a delay to plans for it (as there has been with mine). If nothing comes up when you search your postcode other than the status of the exchange, then the plans for your specific cabinet haven't been delayed

Been living in Washington just over a month, started as the new vicar of St Georges 3 weeks ago and have seen a few open reach vans about and plent of roads being dug up. Living at south end of Rickleton way and have been astonished at how bad ADSL is here - 700k down, 300k up! so hoping for FTTC asap. Was used to 15x that speed where I just moved from.

From the details, looks like im on Cab 24, but no idea how to confirm that, so will be chasing BT asap to order.

I noticed Sunderland went live this morning but its still showing as unavailable on my telephone number my cab has been installed but I guess it's not live yet.

can you not get virgin where you are?

I think i'd have virgins 100mb service over openreaches fibre, I was told that virgin was installed over all of washington but it seems like i live in the only building in washington that doesnt have virgin fibre and also isnt getting openreach fibre!

Finally got connected with Sky Fibre Pro yesterday. Sky to their credit got OR to come early (as Sky messed up my original order), but didn't send a router in time. However OR installed their modem and hooked it up to my PC directly, with an ethernet cable. Works fine. Predicated d/l speed was 59meg, currently getting 45meg and so far very happy.

In reply to a post by Drummeruk:

can you not get virgin where you are?

I think i'd have virgins 100mb service over openreaches fibre, I was told that virgin was installed over all of washington but it seems like i live in the only building in washington that doesnt have virgin fibre and also isnt getting openreach fibre!

Virgin Cable isn't Fibre its pretty much FTTC, but the cables used are coax rather than copper twin. Virgin Cable has its own issues, as the coax is shared in areas, and if a handful of homes in the area are maxing out the link it can cause problems for others. See the Virgin Cable forum on tbb.

So after weeks of activity all the cabinets in my area have been FTTC enabled, that is all except my cabinet P38 could anyone give me a ray of hope that it will be eventually upgraded or am I doomed to sub 3Mbps for eternity...

In reply to a post by taime:

So after weeks of activity all the cabinets in my area have been FTTC enabled, that is all except my cabinet P38 could anyone give me a ray of hope that it will be eventually upgraded or am I doomed to sub 3Mbps for eternity...

I have just came across this thread, I too am connected to the same cab (Fatfield) and would also be interested in the answer. I'm getting fed up with the [censored] speed and everyone else is getting fast broadband. All the tech stuff in the house needs fast speeds

Using Sky's website reveals no info for my area, might threaten to leave and go with BT and see what they say.

After doing some research I found the following reasons why a cabinet might not be upgraded.

Please bear in mind that in some cases it may not be possible to provide FTTC broadband in areas due to:

� Your phone line may be connected directly to the telephone exchange and not to a local street cabinet - (Exchange Only Line [EO] )
� Your line may be too far from the local street cabinet to have a stable FTTC broadband service such as BT Infinity service.
� Your local street cabinet may not be suitable for fibre optic cables.
� We haven't yet got the council's planning permission to do the necessary work at your local street cabinet.
� Your home may not be suitable for fibre optic cables.
� Your landlord may not have agreed to the fibre infrastructure being provided in your building (for example if you live in a flat).

but apart from the planning permission one I cant see a reason why this cabinet cant be done ?

http://goo.gl/maps/vU0X8

You have omitted a major reason why some cabs are not upgraded with an FTTC twin and that is that BT do not consider the necessary investment to be "commercially viable". Other reasons include problems in supplying the necessary power which can sometimes lead to significantly increased costs.

In reply to a post by MCM:

You have omitted a major reason why some cabs are not upgraded with an FTTC twin and that is that BT do not consider the necessary investment to be "commercially viable". Other reasons include problems in supplying the necessary power which can sometimes lead to significantly increased costs.

From what I have read Sunderland council is funding part of the roll out via grants,

http://www.itpro.co.uk/637297/sunderland-to-get-wall...

Plus the area covered is not insignificant the exchange is quite a distance away and most peeps will be on sub 3Mbs so the uplift would be enough to warrant the majority of people to upgrade

I would of thought the building I live in with 400+ houses and flats that currently have no access to any type of fibre broadband would of made it a good prospect when it comes to commercial viability, no competition from virgin like everywhere around it where they have put cabs in.

I was told the cab was marked for FTTP but I dont know any way to check that so I'll moan until it happens lol

anyone any news on this yet, seems like its going to be at least 2013 now, BT are the pits for upgrading lines.

I too am connected to NEWAS P38, its located in newrigs, and there has been no seperate fibre cabinet erected. According to the B.T engineer this means its a long way off or it's not going to happen. I have just raised a complaint with B.T about the discrimination, as all the new build private house have been activated but our estate left, and also the fact that the game consoles and games are now pretty much useless. I suggest anyone on p38 starts to bombard B.T and ofcom with complaints.

Send a email to nga at Openreach, it will take between 7-10 days for them to reply but they will have the most up to date plans for your area, if it will be included in the commerical rollout or be left to the County Durham BDUK project which covers your area- Sunderland is part of the project.

When sending the email say that you are on cabinet 38, your phone number and address as they will ask for this.

[email protected]

Its not really discrimination as the commerical rollout is privately funded, if cabinet p38 is not upgraded later on via infill then it will be upgraded if Openreach win the BDUK tender for your area, as it will be needed to meet the coverage figures.

Edited by deleted (Thu 10-Jan-13 15:17:43)

Thanks ccxo I emailed your link and got the following reply

Thank you for your enquiry about fibre broadband. When rolling out fibre broadband, we don�t necessarily upgrade all the deployable cabinets at the same time. This may be for our planning or local planning reasons, engineering resource or technical issues. Your cabinet is still in the early build stages and current projections show that it should be ready to accept orders for fibre broadband in June.

However, please note that this date is purely advisory as we may encounter engineering issues which delay this date.

I am more than happy with this as it shows we are at least on the radar to be upgraded, better late than never

Further to my last post I noticed as drove past last night (Wed 6th March) there is a nice cabinet shaped hole that has been freshly dug out opposite P38