FTTC in Carlisle begins its roll-out (Part 2)

Part 1 - Here

Mod closed the other one since it was getting a bit to long, so I started up part 2

Noticed that the exchange has changed to 'accepting orders' on the openreach fibre map (Found Here)

(Could any mods link this one in part 1 since I can't?)

From what ive seen on other posts that just means that carlisle has the required number of cabs live, have you tryied ordering yet? Havnt been past the cab to see if its humming but was told ours is ready.

Edit: Cab still listed as 30th for my number

Edited by omnius (Tue 21-Aug-12 14:42:02)

Only 1 cabinet is required for a exchange to go live, their where multiple threads saying x number of cabs had to be ready for a exchange to start accepting orders, this was proved to be wrong.

I must have missed that post, thanks for the info

Wonder who the lucky sods are

Edited by omnius (Tue 21-Aug-12 16:33:38)

In reply to a post by omnius:

I must have missed that post, thanks for the info

Wonder who the lucky sods are

Wolsty close and areas that are served from there is live.

Cabinet 90 is live... As said, Windsor Park (Wolsty Close area)

In reply to a post by omnius:

From what ive seen on other posts that just means that carlisle has the required number of cabs live, have you tryied ordering yet? Havnt been past the cab to see if its humming but was told ours is ready.

Edit: Cab still listed as 30th for my number

Tried to order today, still saying the 30th.
The openreach guy said it should be some time this week though.

I tried sky, woman pretty much said "computer say's no.........." but couldn't say if it was because they wernt ready yet or because the cab hadn't been released by openreach.

Will try again when it is

In reply to a post by omnius:

I tried sky, woman pretty much said "computer say's no.........." but couldn't say if it was because they wernt ready yet or because the cab hadn't been released by openreach.

Will try again when it is

There can be a lag for sky, they have to connect up the correct pieces of string before they can go live. Anything between a couple of days, to never...

Sky are without a doubt the best low cost ISP for adsl, I'm hoping their fibre product is as good, but i dont know how long i can resist....

In reply to a post by omnius:

I tried sky, woman pretty much said "computer say's no.........." but couldn't say if it was because they wernt ready yet or because the cab hadn't been released by openreach.

Will try again when it is

I may give BT a ring tomorrow, because I don't think the online checker is 100% accurate.
I'm really not sure why openreach are not releasing it if it's ready...

In reply to a post by OpTicWally:

I'm really not sure why openreach are not releasing it if it's ready...

Indeed ive been trying to work out why 90 is live as they have cabs all over and i would have thought they would have started with the one closest to the exchange. Not that im being bitter (ok not much ) im happy that carlisle is now starting to go live and they can be the guanine pigs

Heres a thought, do the cabs need time to sync to the exchange like they do to our houses? for example theres a 10 day training to get the best out of the line as possible which is handled by the kit in the cab, is there kit at the exchange (or even the cab itself) that "trains" the cab to the exchange to get the best possible throput

Yea, I thought they would of started with the closer ones then worked their way out
But I'd have to agree, at least there's some progress, haha!

And it's very possible I'm just hoping when we can finally order, we don't have to wait forever for them to install it...and the speed they say on the website is correct

Just placed my order! Getting it installed on 11th of Semptember.

Edited by deleted (Thu 23-Aug-12 13:15:11)

sweet, i can order as well

Was hoping the install date would be closer but I'm not going to be that fussy

Spoken to a call centre adviser at sky, sky fibre is not available in carlisle yet. he couldnt tell me when it would be but to keep calling back.

They have till we get back from hols next month then its off to BT if they still havnt got it sorted

Just an update...

Fitted today (took just 10 minutes!) Very quick...

Windsor Park, Carlisle (I am approx 500m from Cabinet)

Needs a few days to settle in, but currently (after 20 mins on) 45Mbps Down and 9Mbps Up. (Used to get 2-2.5 Down).

(BT Guy, suggests it will go higher yet - Gone for Infinty 2, unlimited)

Now off to see what I can use it to download!

hate to ask this but any chance of you telling us which modem they gave you?

eci or the other one?

Hi

No problem... I was going to answer "a white one" but thought you'd want more...

It's a ECL Echolife HG612...

Now up to 75 down and 16 up... Getting there... (that's wired) Showing 65 14 when on wi-fi...

Hope that helps...

Thanks

(30 times faster than when I woke up this morning!)

cheers

Im fairly sure thats the one that can be unlocked, if it is then great as i would very much like to see what my line stats are.

I just wish i could get sky to hurry up, i must have badgered everyone in the fiber team now.... well some mod did put there direct dial number on the sky forums

Edited by omnius (Mon 03-Sep-12 21:07:21)

Them speeds would do me fine, haha What was your recommended speeds if you don't mind me asking?

In reply to a post by OpTicWally:

Them speeds would do me fine, haha What was your recommended speeds if you don't mind me asking?

No probs... I was advised 59 down 20 up...

Today, just looked and it is 70 down and 16 up...

Thanks

Thanks

In reply to a post by BalexB:

In reply to a post by OpTicWally:

Them speeds would do me fine, haha What was your recommended speeds if you don't mind me asking?

No probs... I was advised 59 down 20 up...

Today, just looked and it is 70 down and 16 up...

Thanks

Green with envy, in fact I am greener than my shiny new green Fttc cabinet that hasn't been activated yet.

What install slot u got optic?

wouldnt mind watching what he does in the cab, still knowing my luck i will still be in work

1pm to 6pm!

Just an update!

Got it installed today, first in the cab which is always good
Engineer was a nice guy, was having a crack with him about the roll-out etc..found
out there's going to be 51 cabs in phase one getting upgraded in carlisle, but the
contractors are slacking putting the cabs in!

He said the full speed my line was receiving was 126 down and 42 up!
I went for the 80/20 package, he said I'd probably get around 75/16 since that's the actual maximum for the package, and he was correct!
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2173470091.png

Very pleased The only problem I have found so far is that the download speed on xbox live seems to be slow (ethernet) but I can deal with that, haha!

Grats good to know it all went well, looking forward to when i got back from hols so i can get mine sorted.

Just a update, have found out that sky need to buy a GEA link from openreach to enable fibre in carlisle, have sent several emails to sky requesting info if anyone "up top" has any time scale available as to when they will be looking into this but had no answers as of yet, ALSO found out that carlisle is a access node for the main sky fibre backhall so to be frank why are they waiting? theres 6 sky ssid's in range of my laptop so if they are thinking along the same lines as i am and going with BT.............

In reply to a post by OpTicWally:

He said the full speed my line was receiving was 126 down and 42 up!

You must litterally be on top of the cabinet, you lucky so and so - well if they ever allow faster the 80 meg that is.

He said they're looking into getting faster speeds with better packages, so fingers crossed!

I think you'd be better going with BT, the speeds would be way better I'd imagine, and it's what bt do best

Its starting to look that way, well im not makeing the decision till oct 15th then i will be placeing a order with someone, most likely either plusnet or BT.

You useing the homehub optic or your own router? i just ask as im wondering just how good/bad the homehub is.......

Oh and sky have a new router/hub called the sr101

Link:- http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-news-announcement...

The home hub for now! Everything's fine apart from the download speed on Xbox, which is under 500kbps compared to the 7.8mbps download I get on my pc, both of them wired, had me confused. May be fixed by a simple router reset but I want to wait until the 10 day line stability thing is up before I reset it!

My speed is still solid at 76/16. Very impressed compared to my old 6/0.9! Makes life much easier to upload videos.

That new Sky SR101 confuses me somewhat, it's a router for Fibre which will eventually scale beyond 100Mb that only has 100Mbps Lan ports, seems like a missed opportunity there, if they'd given it Gigabit ports it would have been alot more future proof and would have removed the need for people to have their own Gigabit switches. From what I've read also the wireless is limited to 150Mbps, with overheads that means your unlikely to be able to max out at 80/20 line, also given new devices (phones included) are being released as dual band (2.4/5Ghz) this seems like another missed opportunity.

I can only assume it's to save costs, but when they won't allow customers to use their own router I don't see supplying outdated hardware (as they've always done) as good customer service.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

I can only assume it's to save costs, but when they won't allow customers to use their own router I don't see supplying outdated hardware (as they've always done) as good customer service.

Not much different to the BT HomeHub 3 then?? I take your point that Sky won't let you change your router - so if they do offer service over 80Mbps Sky would have a problem. Since Sky don't offer any FTTP products yet, its not yet an issue.

They prob never will, lets be honest only a very select few will get FttC and at the moment even fewer will be able to afford Fibre on Demand.

I think given time they will drop the router issue as to my knowlage they are the only isp who demands you use there stuff only and that has already been bypassed by both a very skilled hacker and another router maker, all things considered sky might want to get there next router off them since the r&d cost will be nill as its already been done.

The sr101 is both fibre and adsl, its been reported the bottom lan port can detect the connection to the bto modem and reconfigures to a wan port

Edited by omnius (Mon 17-Sep-12 21:38:05)

In reply to a post by omnius:

I think given time they will drop the router issue as to my knowlage they are the only isp who demands you use there stuff only and that has already been bypassed by both a very skilled hacker and another router maker, all things considered sky might want to get there next router off them since the r&d cost will be nill as its already been done.

The "skilled hacker" worked out the userid/password is calculated from the wireless SSID and passcode, that's clever maths.

The other router maker just followed the info on the web - and that was worked out by using packet sniffing software between the BTO modem, and the Sky router. Turns out Sky use standard DHCP and one of the options is unknown in the home market. (Option 61). Reminds me of the US cable firms that required your PC had a specific host name, so when the first routers arrived, they let you enter this detail or you didn't get an IP.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by omnius:

I think given time they will drop the router issue as to my knowlage they are the only isp who demands you use there stuff only and that has already been bypassed by both a very skilled hacker and another router maker, all things considered sky might want to get there next router off them since the r&d cost will be nill as its already been done.

The "skilled hacker" worked out the userid/password is calculated from the wireless SSID and passcode, that's clever maths.

The other router maker just followed the info on the web - and that was worked out by using packet sniffing software between the BTO modem, and the Sky router. Turns out Sky use standard DHCP and one of the options is unknown in the home market. (Option 61). Reminds me of the US cable firms that required your PC had a specific host name, so when the first routers arrived, they let you enter this detail or you didn't get an IP.

Who are you to determine that cracking a mathematical code, related to router authentication user/password, is not skillful hacking?

FYI there can be quite alot of maths involved in hacking.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

That new Sky SR101 confuses me somewhat, it's a router for Fibre which will eventually scale beyond 100Mb that only has 100Mbps Lan ports, seems like a missed opportunity there, if they'd given it Gigabit ports it would have been alot more future proof and would have removed the need for people to have their own Gigabit switches.

Just a thought but is it possible they ARE gig ports but have been firmware locked to 100meg?

Could we please keep this thread on topic and not stray off course. I suggest a new thread is opened to talk about the router. Thank you.

Hector Graham, Dumfries.

In reply to a post by omnius:

Just a update, have found out that sky need to buy a GEA link from openreach to enable fibre in carlisle, have sent several emails to sky requesting info if anyone "up top" has any time scale available as to when they will be looking into this but had no answers as of yet, ALSO found out that carlisle is a access node for the main sky fibre backhall so to be frank why are they waiting? theres 6 sky ssid's in range of my laptop so if they are thinking along the same lines as i am and going with BT.............

Any more updates regarding sky fibre?

none, no answers either way and the guy i contacted in openreach couldn't/wouldn't say if sky had asked.

Current guess is that they are waiting for the official RFS date which is sept 30th

Ok new update, had a message from a member of the fibre team on skys own forum saying that they are looking at getting the exchange enabled by the end of the month or soon after.

Since we havnt yet got the mac code off them they just got a little extra time

I am still waiting for my cab to get enabled, openreach just seems to have disappeared .

think they all went south when the various floods hit, one of my work mates was told by bt "sometime in December" for his cab.

Hes gutted but then hes on 14meg adsl compared to my 3 meg so he can sod off

Optic hows your connection going? any problems and did you get the xbox connection working properly?

Was told by a fibre engineer the other week that those cabinets on the west of the city might not get activated until march next year

He's gutted himself because he is connected to one of those...

I remember someone saying that they totally messed up the adsl trial they did in Cumbria many years ago, looks like theve had problem with the fibre as well

What is it about hills, valleys and lakes that makes plans made by various company's fall apart?

Edited by omnius (Sun 14-Oct-12 07:20:04)

Asked about some of the properties my family owns in Scotby:

I can confirm that we are deploying fibre broadband to the cabinet which serves your parents property. Regrettably we are currently experiencing delays with the cabling works to install the new fibre cabinet.

At present I cannot advise of a date when we hope to have fibre broadband available, as the works are still at the early stages. However, please monitor our website at http://www.openreach-communications.co.uk/superfast/... as we will publish any anticipated dates as soon as we know.

It was part of phase 8a on the deployment spreadsheet, so looks like a big delay. Annyoing, as Christmas isn't going to be great stuck on a 1mbit ADSL connection!

this is the reply that I got :

Thank you for your email

Information about the commercial fibre project can be found on the rollout site :-
http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/

In your locality work is ongoing and currently this is awaiting power and other works. At present the estimated date for cabinet (25) enablement is close December 2012 assuming there are no major issues.

Your Communications Provider (CP) is responsible for all aspects of your service including advising on the services they can supply at your address. Please contact your CP to register your interest so they are aware and can contact you at such time in the future as they have additional information.

should've mentioned that this is for etterby

Cab 151 (garlands) is now taking orders, just spoke to talk talk and have install date of 6th November.....wont believe it until its installed and running though

Oh well at least it looks like they haven't deserted us, just wish they would hurry up with the cab I am connected to,

yes they are still working, there was 2 of the big openreach vans on london road this morn when i went to work, thats the really big ones you could fit a tansit in and still have room left over.

they where doing something in the hatches that they also routed the fibre tubes into last time they where there.

ive also seen some of the "contractors" working in various fibre cabs while out and about. im praying i dont get one of them when my fibre gets done on thursday as i need a new nte5 and possibly a rewire of the drop pole as when it was origanaly connected they couldnt fit a nte5 as the internal wireing wouldnt allow it

*news*

Sky are live on carlisle exchange. Just done a check on a line i know is available via BT infinity and it came on on the sky checker as available for fibre.

Just need my cabinet to be switched and sky here i come!!

Thats me now fibred

first speed test was 75.21Mbps down and 13.63 up with a ping of 17ms

Even tho the est was 20 up im very happy with that

lucky sod.

For the very first time though my line has shown up on the bt infinity checker has having a live date, it says december 31st. In the past it has just said about not being available at this time.

Progress... Even if it seems a long way off

interestingly when i put our details into skys website its showing as fibre not available, same as bt did when our cab first went live, could be another database error.

glad i went fibre tho, 6GB file in just over 15 mins, carnt tell you how good that felt, back on adsl2+ that kind of download was a all day thing. Im number 20 on our cab, down seems constant but upload is all over the place, i suspect the dlm is at work

Cabs are still being worked on, was told by my fitter that the main bottleneck is the power people who are WAYYYYYYY behind, dunmail drive (dalston road end) was put in place about 5 month ago but they only connected power last week. Most of the fibre blowing problems are now either done or work is underway to repair the ducts.

In reply to a post by gazter:

lucky sod.

For the very first time though my line has shown up on the bt infinity checker has having a live date, it says december 31st. In the past it has just said about not being available at this time.

Progress... Even if it seems a long way off

Aye same for me now, Bottom of Denton Street cab.

The cab serving Milbourne street is now live

I began this thread on the sixth February with a picture of BT laying some piping to blow through the fibre.

Today, after about the 1000th check on the bt infinity checker page it says my cabinet is active and accepting orders.

Sky, however are not showing it up as available. Will be ringing Sky tomorrow and hopefully get hold of their fibre team and put an order in

Nine months... Feels like an eternity, cant wait to say goodbye to 2.8meg download, depressingly though just as it seems usenet is collapsing in on itself.

No sky here either, im glad i jumped ship. havnt had a single problem yet

pings gone up to around 20 (30 to 40 to wow but i think thats just them and since my old ping was over 90 i think i can live with that ) download is at 74.7 (adsl2+ 3.5) but the upload has now gone to 17.6 (adsl2+ 0.3) in the last week and since i think i found out the cause of my hh3 speed issues (it wasnt the firmware after all) its been rock solid

Edited by omnius (Sat 01-Dec-12 09:40:37)

Apparently there are several areas of Carlisle where BT themselves will not be offering Fibre, because there are 'network problems'.

This actually means 'it will cost too much'.

Areas which will NOT get FTTC are:

Kingmoor Park, Kingstown, Rosehill and Durranhill industrial estates, part of the city centre, and many residential addresses in Harraby, Botcherby, Currock, Raffles, Belle Vue, Stanwix and Denton Holme.

If BT aren't providing it, Sky cannot offer it.

In reply to a post by iainkirk:

Apparently there are several areas of Carlisle where BT themselves will not be offering Fibre, because there are 'network problems'.

This actually means 'it will cost too much'.

Areas which will NOT get FTTC are:

Kingmoor Park, Kingstown, Rosehill and Durranhill industrial estates, part of the city centre, and many residential addresses in Harraby, Botcherby, Currock, Raffles, Belle Vue, Stanwix and Denton Holme.

If BT aren't providing it, Sky cannot offer it.

Was that from the news and star story? I fed the journalist that story after going through the spreadsheet and cross referencing all the missing cabinets.

That's the one.

Where is this spreadsheet you refer to?

The spreadsheet is from December 2011 and is about 5 or so issues out of date, so that article is wrong as Openreach do infill into a exchange, so those areas will eventually see a FTTC service via the commercial deployment or from the BDUK project for the area.

The article was right at the time.

I'm surprised about Rosehill - cabs have went up round Scotby now...

In reply to a post by mr_mojo:

I'm surprised about Rosehill - cabs have went up round Scotby now...

Intentional policy by BT to exclude industrial estates.

my date for activation at etterby has now changed from 31/12/12 to 31/03/13. Gutted

In reply to a post by ahunter281:

my date for activation at etterby has now changed from 31/12/12 to 31/03/13. Gutted

same here in upperby the date changed to 31-3-12, the cab has power mid november there was a man doing some testing with a laptop, he then took pictures of the cab before leaving.

Edited by copex (Sun 30-Dec-12 12:02:44)

In reply to a post by copex:

In reply to a post by ahunter281:

my date for activation at etterby has now changed from 31/12/12 to 31/03/13. Gutted

same here in upperby the date changed to 31-3-12, the cab has power mid november there was a man doing some testing with a laptop, he then took pictures of the cab before leaving.

Both 31 December and 31 March are end-quarter placeholder dates. If your cabinet is under testing and almost ready to go, it is likely that you will be able to order service some time before 31 March.

In reply to a post by David_W:

In reply to a post by copex:

In reply to a post by ahunter281:

my date for activation at etterby has now changed from 31/12/12 to 31/03/13. Gutted

same here in upperby the date changed to 31-3-12, the cab has power mid november there was a man doing some testing with a laptop, he then took pictures of the cab before leaving.

Both 31 December and 31 March are end-quarter placeholder dates. If your cabinet is under testing and almost ready to go, it is likely that you will be able to order service some time before 31 March.

thanks for the info and not pointing out i posted 31-3-12 and not 31-3-13

and as if by magic the cabinet is now expecting orders so i dont have to wait untill march.

Edited by copex (Sun 06-Jan-13 12:29:56)

Has sky sorted there stuff out yet?

got my hopes up for a second but mines still march

In reply to a post by omnius:

Has sky sorted there stuff out yet?

Yes, i am on sky fibre as i type this, it is amazing...

not suffering the half speed issues?

oh and its nice to see that they are still installing cabs, my mums is due march (believe it when i crash into it) there also installing at dixons chimney and that one on london road opposite b+q. Havant seen any others yet.

It's been a while since I replied on here lol but to say am [censored] is a understatement yet another put back until end of June now the hole for the fibre cab is there but no cab so here's to another 3-4 months of jeer speeds

send an email to 'nga.complaints.or.enquiries [AT] openreach.co.uk' including your telephone number and they will advise you on the delay or provisional live date. i just asked them when FTTC was available on my telephone number, i got a reply two week later.

my cab live date was Jan it was then bounced to March but went live at the start of Jan

Edited by copex (Wed 06-Mar-13 19:55:39)

Thats not too bad, my cab 25 has had its date put back to march 2014, totally gutted. Emailed them a couple of times and get told something different everytime

In reply to a post by BazovCarlisle:

It's been a while since I replied on here lol but to say am [censored] is a understatement yet another put back until end of June now the hole for the fibre cab is there but no cab so here's to another 3-4 months of jeer speeds

Back again just to let you know that yet again another putback for between July and December MARVELLOUS!!!!!

I just enquired with openreach the other day and got a quick response! I was told that my cabinet (76) will be FTTC compatible in october 2013! But totally gutted because I am supposedly over 1.5km from it so I will not be eligable! :'(