SSTRO Exchange - FTTx on EO (Will we ever see it?)

Hi Everyone,

I currently support a business located on a Trading Estate on the Trowbridge Exchange (SSTRO) the site has generally 15 users at any one time but this can exceed 30 on roughly 4 days every month.

We are located about 4KM from the Trowbridge Exchange and after doing research, I have found that the customer site is connected to an Exchange Only Line.

The solution we've got at the moment is a Line Bonded Solution from Be UnLimited which has sufficed for year. But we are now approaching the start of a third year of support and the speed on the Internet is certainly NOT going unnoticed.

We have several users who at least twice a week need to video conference (normally 2 at the same time). We also have users who need to VPN into the server several times a day and the companies e-mail is a Microsoft Exchange service outsourced to provider on a leasing agreement (currently rolling monthly as I understand)

We get speeds on the bonded DSL of about 6MB which isn't the end of the world. But for 15 users all it takes is for some plank to try and watch the cricket on iPlayer and the whole system crashes. (iPlayer since that stunt is now blocked!)

I know for a fact that SSTRO is FTTC enabled (I support another customer on the same exchange who has the service) but I am also aware of the problems BT have (or excuses I sometimes cynically think) with providing an FTTx service on EO lines.

One of the senior management members has attended a local business networking event and the BT Rep at said event said that it was "on the way" however I took this at the time with a salt pinch... Good job really as that was over 12 months ago! Nothings changed.

Incidentally I know that Virgin Media have offices just over the road - yet we cannot get a Cable Service here even though other areas of Trowbridge have it (indeed one reasonably close to us)

So my question is:

Does anyone know if we're ever likely to see an FTTx solution in the near to medium term future? Can anyone else think of a slightly different setup that may work better to significantly improve our speeds? (EFM etc not really an option and I am aware of 4 line bonding which we're trying to avoid due to high costs for little marginal improvement)

The real salt in the wound is that North Bradley which is very close to us but further away from SSTRO does have FTTC

If by near to medium you mean within a year, probably not.

Within 3 years - probably yes.

How many businesses do you reckon there are using ADSL on the trading estate ? a "demand survey" presented to Openreach may be one approach - they could cut in a PCP cabinet and feed FTTC to it if the economics were right. If you have a county BDUK initiative for Superfast you should approach them too.

How far away is the nearest FTTC cab ? FibreOnDemand is supposed to be "next year" which would be FTTP from the cab to you.