FTTC/P Whitchurch, Hants

Whitchurch in Hampshire (THWI) was one of the winners of the race to infinity and as such 3 of the 4 cabinets in the town have been upgraded to FTTC and are taking orders, with 3 outlying cabinets in the pipeline.

However, the cabinet that I am connected to has not been upgraded. Somewhere I saw that the exchange was destined for FTTC/P so there is speculation that those connected to the cabinet that has not been upgraded would be getting FTTP at some point in the future.

Today I received a flyer through the door stating that M.K.J. Communications would be carrying out urgent street works on behalf of Carillion Telent and British Telecom this Friday. Does any one know whether this is an indication that the FTTP work is on-going, and if so, how long we might have to wait for availability?

If it was FTTP then the word urgent would not normally be used

I kind of thought that as well, but wondered whether any one else had received similar flyers in the past. I will speak to the guys doing the work on Friday and see what they can tell me about what they are doing.

Whitchurch IS getting some FTTP, but I think it's going to be a new build estate. Two bods I know have just got dates through for the FTTP Brownfield site course, as they will be doing the installs in Whitchurch.

There is no new building going on in Whitchurch that I am aware of. We have has a number of new small estates over the past couple of years, but nothing now. There is not much space left without extending the town into the countryside. And the cabinet that they have not upgraded is the one closest to the small industrial estate. Why not upgrade that one to FTTC of they are not going to do something else.

the cabinet that they have not upgraded is the one closest to the small industrial estate

To eek out the revenue from 'high end' service to business, private wires, and the like.

Definitely FTTP coming to somewhere near you.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

the cabinet that they have not upgraded is the one closest to the small industrial estate

To eek out the revenue from 'high end' service to business, private wires, and the like.

Definitely FTTP coming to somewhere near you.

Sounds like BT's typical business model - dated in the 80s!

I spoke to the guys who are doing the work in my road today and, despite the skepticism (yours and mine), they are installing tubing on behalf on BT between access holes in the pavement, which they claimed was in preparation for installation of fibre for FTTP. Here's hoping and waiting.

I have been way for a week and have therefore only just noticed your news article entitled "Openreach announces next phase of superfast broadband roll-out". There it states that WHITCHURCH HAMPSHIRE is one of the "Areas offering FTTP now". However, none of the checkers show availability for my line despite being almost certain that I will eventually have this available. So it appears that again the information is somewhat optimistic, at least in my case.

It might still be limited to a few parts of the exchange area.

Although FTTP doesn't require cabinets, there's still a significant amount of kit that needs to be deployed in the underground chambers & through the ducting - and I guess that this is only partially done. I imagine that, internally at least, BT know which "jointbox areas" are now active.