finding your cabinet?

hey guys, im new here!

just wondering how you can find out where the cabinet you are connected to actually is?

Im in washington and apparently connected to NEWAS P8, but I have no idea where it is and when ive looked around there seems to be loads of cabinets around and im not sure what to look for.

any advice would be appreciated, thanks guys!

You need to look for a green box with a (usually faded) "8" on it.

You may be able to follow logical routes (!) of BT manholes to find it.

RobertoS's site here has pictures of street furniture to help identify the boxes which areant PCPs.

Best of luck!

cool, that sites pictures is helpful!

ive been hunting around using google street view, think ive found where it is, but it doesnt look like theres a FTTC cab near it and it says "not in phase" on the checker which i assume means it isnt getting done, hope it does at some point!

Street view will most likely be showing pretty old images. I know my cab does not show up and it has been standing there at least a year.

Where in Washington do you live? I know the exchange is in Hertburn so the only thing I can think of is perhaps you are linked directly to the exchange.

sulgrave, connected to cabnet P8 according to http://fttc-check.alc.im but it says it isnt part of phase

In reply to a post by Trobed:

Street view will most likely be showing pretty old images. I know my cab does not show up and it has been standing there at least a year.

Where in Washington do you live? I know the exchange is in Hertburn so the only thing I can think of is perhaps you are linked directly to the exchange.

The street view images are typically 2+ years old. They've started updating them again but no idea where in the UK they have started from.

Using that link for my postal code gives:

Cabinet Probability Uplift Phase Status Type
P2 100% 2.42 7b Part of deployment FTTP (Fiber to the Premises)

That is great news. However, none of the ISP checkers even acknowledge FTTC let alone FTTP so I suppose that we just have to play the waiting game.

That "Probability" is a bit of a bad heading, as to me it implies the probability of getting FTTC/FTTP. That isn't what it means.

When it is 100%, like there, that's fine.

When it is less than 100%, it means the probability that a line at that postcode is connected to that cabinet. Some postcodes are served by 3 or 4 cabinets. So lets take cabs P1,P2,P3,P4.

We could have:- EO (Exchange Only) 6%; P1 63%; P2 8%; P3 4%, P4 18%. Note that adds up to 99%, but that's because Openreach round down all figures. It means 100%.

Currently EO lines can't have fibre.
Each of those cabinets will also serve at least one more postcode.
Not all of those cabinets were necessarily scheduled at December 2011 which is the latest data available on these non-BT public checkers.
There can be some on FTTC, and some on FTTP. No cabinet is both. But if P1 is FTTC and P3 is FTTP, it's luck of the draw which you are on. You cannot have your phone line moved between cabinets.
In this situation some posters are getting information from Openreach telling them which they are on.

I hope that helps everyone.

yea, im 100% at cabinet P8, hopefully its being upgraded but according to the december data it isnt going to be done

In my personal case the information in the table makes perfect sense.

There are 4 cabinets in the town. 3 of these have already been updated to FTTC and people have ordered and been supplied fibre to the cabinet. There are also 3 cabinets in outlying areas which are scheduled to be upgraded to FTTC but that has not been done yet.

The last cabinet, the one that I am connected to, is the one closest to the small industrial estate. It has not yet been upgraded to FTTC, and appears from all the evidence to be scheduled for the FTTP on-demand trial, probably some time in the 2nd quarter next year. So that means that we have to wait possibly a year longer then the rest of the town to get our fibre broadband.

What interests me most from your post is where you say "No cabinet is both". Does that mean that when my cabinet is finally upgraded I will have a choice of either staying as I am or upgrading to the most expensive product by having FTTP installed, with no choice in between? That does seem a little unfair to those who want a faster broadband connection but are on a limited budget.

In reply to a post by brightd:

The last cabinet, the one that I am connected to, is the one closest to the small industrial estate. It has not yet been upgraded to FTTC, and appears from all the evidence to be scheduled for the FTTP on-demand trial, probably some time in the 2nd quarter next year. So that means that we have to wait possibly a year longer then the rest of the town to get our fibre broadband.

I thought Openreach FTTP on Demand is going to be available to order in Q2 2013.

It has not yet been upgraded to FTTC, and appears from all the evidence to be scheduled for the FTTP on-demand trial, probably some time in the 2nd quarter next year

A bit of confusion there .

The FTTP fibre on demand trial applies purely to cabinets that already have FTTC at the time (or after) the trial starts. It will not be on non-fibred cabinets. Do you mean your cabinet is scheduled for true FTTP?

you say "No cabinet is both". Does that mean that when my cabinet is finally upgraded I will have a choice of either staying as I am or upgrading to the most expensive product by having FTTP installed, with no choice in between?

I'm not entirely sure what you are asking there.

As "products", a cabinet is or is not enabled for FTTC. That enablement consists of a second cabinet being installed close to and connected to it, with a direct fibre supply from the fibre headend exchange, which may not be the one the phone line is connected to.

The FTTP product is installed in the area served by a non-FTTC cabinet, but the cabinet itself is not upgraded. The spreadsheet data just presents it as cabinet enablement for simplicity. FTTH/P is what it says - fibre all the way with no intermediate conventional cabinets. There are of course various junctions and distribution points.

"Fibre on demand" is a hybrid system. That consists of fibre being run to the premises from the fibre cabinet associated with an FTTC-enabled cabinet.

In all cases, for a user to have a fibre type supply, FTTC/FTTP/On Demand, a change of product is required by the ISP, or of course a migration if desired. You can stay on ADSLx if you wish, or upgrade. You do not automatically get "fibre" when your postcode is enabled. The last time I looked, BT Retail fibre prices were pretty much the same as their ADSLx ones. The general premium with other ISPs seems to be about £10pm but with better allowances then their ADSLx products.

I'v got a page about it here, but I've just given you the important bits, and that page needs updating for fibre on demand. (I'm a bit behind on updating a few pages ).

I live in an estate of flats and houses. Our flats are near the road. Near the top of the road on the opposite site, are three quite large cabinets. I guess these are about 50 yards away. The door of one nearly always seems to be open. There doesn't seem to be much in what I can see. I can hear fans in them. On our side, right on the corner, in the next road really, is a single cabinet. About 200 yards along the main road from the end of ours is a single cabinet. I often see someone working on it. Have to take some photos if I can.

I don't have fibre BB but from checks done on the Plusnet site I could if I wanted.

Edited by rob54 (Thu 06-Sep-12 00:50:07)

im totally outraged that the housing block with over 200 houses and flats isnt being done, especially now that every house within 50 metres of it is getting infinity next month and can already get 100mb virgin cable!

Why leave over 200 homes with nothing when everything around it already has virgin? I think ill send virgin an email about getting the block done, everywhere within 50 metres has it and its quite a few potential customers.

outraged! lol

A fair bit of work to cable up flats, and needs permission from landlords.

Particularly if the flats have no easy access conduits and landlord objects to lots more cabling on the outside of the building.

The problem being not everyone will take up fibre, and therefore BT won't recover the installation costs, we have one similar in our area, and they get very bad speeds.

Saying that the one that covers where I work has been done, and although I haven't checked I doubt there's 200 houses or businesses in total fed from it.

If you are on PCP 8 then I assume your postcode is one of:-

NE373EQ
NE373EN
NE373DX
NE373EL
NE373EF
NE373ED
NE373EP
NE373EG
NE373EB
NE373DU
NE373DZ
NE373EA
NE373EE
NE373DY
NE373DT

That seems to be the coverage for this PCP and is not a huge number of postcodes (but depends on the number of houses on each postcode!).

If, as you say, there are around 200 properties this is not a huge number for BT OpenReach to get any return on enabling the PCP - this is a rollout financed by BT not a charity.

They may come back and "fill in" the gaps or the BDUK funding "may" pay for it.

Have you registered on the OpenReach site as being interested? Have you got as many neighbours as possible to do the same? Have you pestered you councillor about it (in a civil manner!).

There is no way that Virgin will be interested - they dont want to invest more money.

If you are in a block of flats or similar then Hyperoptic may be worth a go? Not sure thay have ventured so far north (they may well get nose bleeds ).

i see where you are coming from, they cant do everywhere, im just gutted because I want superfast broadband.

but after some investigation ive worked out that my estimate of 200 homes was off, its actually around 530-540 homes all being served from P8, which I think is a lot of poential customers when there is no virgin at all in the block.

In reply to a post by Drummeruk:

... but after some investigation ... there is no virgin at all in the block.

Was this a technical investigation, or a practical ensuring of it?

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 07-Sep-12 12:21:28)

bit of both, just worked out how many houses/flats there are and the only virgin in the block is virgin national, we only get standard adsl broadband.

its just annoying that the houses over the road, less than a 100 metre away, already get virgin and are now getting the option for infinity as well. personally i think that if i could get virgin i would take it over infinity every time, sucks not getting either!

Infinity is the name of BT retail's FTTC product- it is Openreach GEA-FTTC that is being deployed, BT so far have made the most out of advertising and is why alot of people believe its infinity that is being deployed.

Virgin national is just virgin re-selling adsl and is one of the worst packages you can be on for asdl.

Send a email to this address

Network Investment Customer Engagement Team
Email:- [email protected]

They should be able to say if their are any plans or reasons why FTTC has not been deployed to cabinet 8.

Virgin cable in uncongested areas is very good, though in congested areas FTTC is a better option, if both are avaliable.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by Drummeruk:

... but after some investigation ... there is no virgin at all in the block.

Was this a technical investigation, or a practical ensuring of it?

I can't work out if that is a serious comment or not.

Ensuring that there are no virgins in the block amused me

Hey Greenglide

I always thought folk in the north-east were friendly

Sunita

In reply to a post by Drummeruk:

sulgrave, connected to cabnet P8 according to http://fttc-check.alc.im but it says it isnt part of phase

this site is out of date?

says no plans for my postcode. openreach site says dec 2012.

I then tried dozens of postcodes around the exchange all said no plans.

ok working now

P78 100% 17.21 9a Part of deployment FTTC (Fiber to the Cabinet)

massive speed uplift as expected, how close is 9a to live service?

being told my cabinet is was put down as FTTP in the initial survey in emails from OR but theres no timeframe for it,

dunno if this is true or not, guess ill have to wait a few years t find out

FTTP rollout progress likely 1st quater 2013-Nov 2014 which is the end of the rollout so should see something between then but its when Openreach start work.

If roadworks.org covers your area, you can set it up to email you if their are any works in your area.

Edited by deleted (Wed 12-Sep-12 00:52:34)