FTTC - Motherwell -,What the signs?

Motherwell is due to be done by BT in December, and was wondering what I should be looking for in my area. I have certainly not seen any new cabinets appear yet for example.

I imagine that the December date means the exchange will be ready, and that a number of new cabinets are operational, but not all of course, so guess it could be months after December before it reaches my area???

Postcode ML1 4FY if that aids replies.

Thanks

There is some place markers for bt work to start today and more to start on the 15
Reference: BT020-S000000026571 (1370613)
Location: Os 33 Balvenie Drive Motherwell
Address: Balvenie Drive, Carfin
Promoter: British Telecom
Telephone: 0800 3282873
Dates : 06/10/2012 - 09/10/2012
Use this site to find bt work in Scotland
put your post code in and set date from today untill November and see what comes up in your area

http://www.roadworksscotland.org/mapsearch.aspx

Many thanks for the info, the web site shows the area being worked on is where I am 95% certain is my street box, will kep my eyes open over the next few days !

Question - from things I have read, there is a chance that not everyone in the street box may be able to get the new service (read things like only some areas serviced by the box get the new service) but am guessing that is for engineering reasons. Can anyone explain more? I hope my box should serve all as it is between 2 estates that are 8 or so years old.

For your post code i get this
We couldn't find any information about your postcode. This usually means that there are no current plans to roll out a fibre product to your postcode area
But it could be worng

Don't forget that the spreadsheet checkers are working on data that is almost a year old.

Thanks for the replies and info folks!

In reply to a post by ajackuk:

Question - from things I have read, there is a chance that not everyone in the street box may be able to get the new service (read things like only some areas serviced by the box get the new service) but am guessing that is for engineering reasons. Can anyone explain more? I hope my box should serve all as it is between 2 estates that are 8 or so years old.

With one exception (*), everyone served by a street box (ie a cabinet, or PCP) will be able to get FTTC service.

The problem is the other way around: some postcodes are served by 2 different cabinets. Where 1 cabinet is upgraded, but the other is not, then a postcode ends up being partially served.

However, any one property is (almost without question) served by 1 cabinet - and so either will or won't get the service.

(*) The one exception is (similar to ADSL) the distance the property is from the cabinet (where in ADSL it is the distance from the exchange). The absolute maximum distance isn't known, and depends on whether the line is made of copper or aluminium). Some places seem to run out of service at 1200 metres, while others are around 1600 metres. I think the longest I've heard of is 1900 metres.

Well they are installing the cabinet! On the other side of the road to the current street cabinet, but it is being installed.

Fingers crossed that come December / January it will all be switched on.

In reply to a post by ajackuk:

Well they are installing the cabinet! On the other side of the road to the current street cabinet, but it is being installed.

Fingers crossed that come December / January it will all be switched on.

gonna be at least another 3 months imo, they need to schedule several other visits to cab

Power,
power certification,
etc

Power can be installed within 24 hours by the utility company provided BT have scheduled. Assuming the supply is metered the utility company will connect up to the meter. The customerie BT is responsible for coonecting from the customer side to the equipment. THere should not be any need fpr a seperate certification voisit as this should be able to be done under the competent person self certification scheme a copy of which should go to the customer and the Bulding Control Department or Planning department of the LA

we have just started to get our cabs installed and one of them was making a noise within a week of it being installed

That was the local wildlife that had got in for some shelter

Probably daft question, but in for a penny.....

The new fibre cabinet is on the opposite side of the road from the street cabinet, it is not likely to be for the estate on THAT side of the road only?

Nope.

No phone line is ever directly connected to the FTTC cabinet. The wires to the house (the D side) always go from the original PCP cabinet, and are connected in that cabinet to a tie cable that goes to the FTTC cab.

We have the same here - almost all of the FTTC cabinets are sited across the road from the original.

Thanks!

Time to go back being patient and seeing if I can order come the end of December

Ohh, they are back worknig on it, big trench dug to the side of it, they likely to be adding power or connecting the fibre to it??

Where does the trench go, as it will go to one of 3 places.

1) Trench between the pcp and FTTC cab for the copper link
2) Street light or power duct for power
3) BT duct for the fibre connection

In reply to a post by ccxo:

Where does the trench go, as it will go to one of 3 places.

1) Trench between the pcp and FTTC cab for the copper link
2) Street light or power duct for power
3) BT duct for the fibre connection

The PCP is on the other side of the road, and the trench does not head that way.

The trench was just to the right of the FTTC cab, but they have increased digging in front of the cab too now.

Getting exciting and hope for a nice Christmas - sad I know )

Sorry to be a damp squib, but even if it went live today, you would be very unlikely to get an installation date this year.

At least it's progressing well by the sounds of things.

Edit: About three weeks from time of order seems to be about the norm, although I have seen quicker mentioned.

Edited by R0NSKI (Fri 07-Dec-12 13:22:17)

It can also be anything up to 6 months or more between the contractors digging holes around the cab and the cab going live based on what's happened round my way.

Our cab went live today for orders. I got a installation date of 9th next month.
the cab had sat for about 3 weeks after all the dinging and cable was done

Well the trench is filled in and looking very smoothly from look of it.

Think it was power they were putting in, as yesterday they were back but pulling a cable through the ducts (they had the covers up on what I assume are cable duct access points, a couple of hundred yards apart) as saw they getting ready to put a blue cable through, to pull the fibre through with????

BTW - is it true they put a big sticker on the FTTC box when it is ready?

Went to visit friends and got talking on the subject, they said they knew it was ready when a damn big sticker had been applied, advertising what the cabinet was for.

No, those stickers can appear anytime, they've even been spotted on cabinets which aren't yet live.

Darn!

Will just have to learn patience

Hi,

Coming to this thread late. I live just around the corner and yes, we have been eagerly awaitng this fttc - our connection speeds have been abysmal for the ten years we have lived at this address.

Anyway, my questions are - once this is live, what do we do? How do we go about being upgraded? Will we get the much improved broadband service automatically from our current privider (Sky) or will we have to ungrade our account?

I'm assumng providers other than BT will be able to give us the improved service - or do we have to move back to BT? If so, how do we go about choosing the correct package?

We currently get everything - TV, broadband, calls, line rental - from Sky.

Thanks for any help/advice.

Welcome neighbour!!
My take on the questions you asked:
�Anyway, my questions are - once this is live, what do we do? How do we go about being upgraded?� Keep an eye on the OpenReach / BT checker � it will say the exchange is now enabled and orders being taken. It is only when you place an order (I think) that they can tell if you are on a fully working FTTC cabinet. The is quite possibly a delay between the BT system knowing �we� are now live, and the system your current provider (Sky) uses. It could be a day or two delay, it could be longer � hopefully others will chime in.

�Will we get the much improved broadband service automatically from our current privider (Sky) or will we have to ungrade our account?� No, you are on their ADSL type account, and will have to upgrade to their fibre offering � check the Sky web site for details on the different costs. You will have to tell Sky you want to move to their fibre account, place an order, nothing will happen automatically. It might be worth checking with them now if you are locked into some time specific contract and cannot upgrade until x months have passed. Think unlikely as you want to stay with them, but worth checking. Speed wise , the BT checked gave an ESTIMATED download speed for us as 68 meg � better than the 3 or 4 I get currently, but it is only a guide of course.

�I'm assumng providers other than BT will be able to give us the improved service - or do we have to move back to BT? If so, how do we go about choosing the correct package?� Sky should offering fibre from the Motherwell exchange, it may just not be available for you to order as quickly as it would for BT � for the delay type reasons I mentioned above. From what I have read, unlike ADSL where Sky, Talk Talk etc have put their own kit in the exchanges, everyone �buys� their fibre from BT at some wholesale type rate. Am sure will be corrected if I got that wrong!

Packages � check what Sky are offering and make your choice on what you are looking for out of faster speeds. I also think you can still get everything from Sky if you want to.

In reply to a post by ajackuk:

The is quite possibly a delay between the BT system knowing �we� are now live, and the system your current provider (Sky) uses. It could be a day or two delay, it could be longer � hopefully others will chime in.

It could be considerably longer for Sky than most other providers.

All ISPs using the BT Openreach FTTx system use the same equipment from the end user to the parent exchange (in most cases the same exchange your voice service comes from, but not always). Assuming we're talking about FTTC, you'll have the same:

* BT provided VDSL2 modem
* faceplate filter on an NTE5 'linebox' master socket
* metallic pair (copper or, in some cases, aluminium) to the PCP (green cabinet)
* tie cable pair from to the DSLAM port in the FTTC cabinet (new green cabinet)
* fibre link from the DSLAM to the exchange FTTx switch for broadband
* tie cable pair from the splitter in the DSLAM cabinet to an E side cable pair in the PCP for voice service from the exchange


Depending on the ISP, either you or the ISP provide the router that connects to the BT modem.


From the exchange to the ISP, most ISPs use the BT Wholesale network. This seems to be provisioned from the day the exchange goes live.


TalkTalk and Sky do not use BT Wholesale. Both these ISPs connect to the BT Openreach equipment at each exchange where they offer FTTx service and use their own network for backhaul. There is often a delay between the exchange going live and this connection being made - it can be several months, maybe even longer. Ultimately, it is up to TalkTalk and Sky which exchanges they cover and when.

The link to the BT Openreach equipment is the easy part - the difficult part for Sky and TalkTalk is upgrading their network at each covered exchange for FTTx traffic.

Thanks for the update on the order of events, very interesting indeed.

Bum!!

Openreach shows we have lsipped to March

Yes, they have done that to my exchange too (not Motherwell). All around is fibre, but not right here.
I've seen the new cabinets or at least new cabinets have appeared next to the old ones, but no sign of anything done to them i.e. power, etc.

Looked at BT checker, now says this:

Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 30th June 2013
Bother

Patience, I really need to develop this as a skill .....

And there was me thinking I was the only one in the whole estate waiting for fiber! I am @ ML1 4FT blair athol... I saw all the BT Openreach vans out over at tesco a number of months back and was hoping it was fiber, shortly after i saw them i seen more fans down at the ravenscraig and just outside the estate digging and as you say laying in blue cables. And just as recently as 2 months ago i saw an openreach van down out side our exchange here https://www.google.com/maps?q=55.804342,+-3.968495&n...

So am i right in saying that we will be getting FTTC in our estate and i will be getting speeds better than 3 - 5 mbps? if so thank god!

Oh and howdy neighbour! lol


P.s. i just check my postcode agenst that website that other guy posted for scheduled work in the area and hey presto! right where our cabinet is located, work is due to start there... tomorrow funnily enough lol! what are the chances of that! here is what i am seeing,



Reference: BT020-S000000036294 (1483815)
Location: Glen Ord Road Opp 6 Longmorn Placecarfin...
Address: Glen Ord Road, Carfin
Promoter: British Telecom
Telephone: 0800 3282873
Dates : 15/01/2013 - 17/01/2013


i will be keeping an eye out tomorrow and the coming days.

Edited by deleted (Tue 15-Jan-13 04:20:17)

Well i drove i hard drilling today and drove round past the cabinet and sure enough they were drilling and digging, though i only seen them drilling and around the green box on the other side of the street, which i think supply the other half of the estate, to be honest i never even noticed a box there before so they might have put it there? i dunno! might have been there all along, its not something i keep an eye out for lol... i also do not know if they were working on our box today, i presume if they weren't that they will be in the next couple of days.

Howdy indeed - on Inkwood!

The green cabinet was put in a couple of months ago now, and I too noticed this morning they have done some trench to it, wonder what connecting up now.

The Openreach site suggests we might get 68 meg type download speeds - bring it on!!

Ah ink wood! just roon the corner lol,

Yea looking forward to it my self! we might even be seeing it in march, check out this link http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/ put in you're postcode and look @ the motherwell exchance marked CS forcaste date is march, but then again that might just be the date the exchange turns on fiber? i dunno... i would have though some folk in motherwell were allready on fiber though.

That said what has been pondering my head for a while is motherwell college down the craig, they have had crazy speeds since day one of the collages opening, apparently that big building in the middle of the craig that looks like a bus stop with a fence around it is an exchange that is off the radar, and only for the college & sports center, and for the craig as a whole once all the houses are build etc, hell knows though that's just what i have been told by some one.

Would be interesting to see if the cabinets ever get switched over to that exchange, i have enquirer about it before and the people on the phone don't even know it exists lol i dont even know if they can switch a cabinets exchange or not but yea...... 68 meg would be more than enough!!!

The March 31st date is a end quater holding date that Openreach plan work to, if the exchange and first few cabinets are ready they will go live before March 31st, if not then the exchange will move into the next holding date- June 30th.

The college most likely has a leased fibre line from the motherwell exchange, its unlikely that their is another exchange as motherwell exchange covers the college area.

Ah, that makes sense! from what I understand they do pay a pretty penny for there internet so yea! i have always wondered where exactly the exchange is in motherwell, when i search for it i always end up at a building which looks like an old shop type of think, i thought that the exchange would be more, modern....

Edited by deleted (Thu 17-Jan-13 02:40:15)

Most exchanges buildings are either old pre war buildings or 60s/70s concrete monstrosities.

Don't forget that 'end quarter' dates are just estimates which often slip, and that all cabinets are not necessarily enabled on the same date.

When a DSLAM cabinet is placed on the ground, it can take many months for service to be available. It took around 9 months from the DSLAM appearing next to the cabinet which serves our house for the cabinet becoming Ready for Service in the first wave of cabinets enabled on our local exchange. Rarely, a cabinet is placed on the ground and subsequently removed without being enabled because of some sort of problem. Usually this because it turns out to be much more expensive than anticipated to get a power feed to the cabinet.


It's almost unheard of for BT to reroute wiring to a different exchange. Indeed, thinking of phone exchanges is unhelpful when it comes to thinking of fibre based products. The fibres are taken back to an aggregation node, which may be your local exchange or may be a larger exchange nearby.

It seems likely that BT are planning for a fibre based future where all voice and data is carried over the fibre based data infrastructure. Once everything in an exchange area is running over the fibre based setup, it will be possible to abandon the phone exchange if it is not an aggregation node, otherwise it will become a few racks of networking equipment. Multi-pair metallic cables from the exchange to the cabinet are redundant in this setup - they can be ripped out and sold for scrap.

BT are experimenting with the possibilities of Fibre Only Exchanges - but widespread fibre only seems a long way off. The problem, as always, is serving the more far flung places. It will be extremely expensive to get any form of fibre product to the last 10% of the population. There's also regulatory issues, in that LLU as we know it today (used by the likes of TalkTalk and Sky) will not be possible without metallic cabling right the way to the exchange.


The college you mention is most unlikely to be using consumer type broadband. That sort of institution will usually have a very high speed connection over one or more dedicated duplex fibres - depending on the relative economics this will likely be one or more leased line circuits or "dark fibres" (where you rent or buy outright a fibre between two points and put your own optical equipment on the ends).

These connections are available just about anywhere - at a price! Especially at higher bandwidths, these connections can cost many thousands to install (location dependent), and, depending on capacity and resilience, tens or hundreds of thousands a year in rental costs. Dark fibre is typically more expensive to install and much cheaper to run as you don't have to pay heavy bandwidth costs to the leased line provider - you light the fibre using hardware appropriate to your needs, with higher bandwidth hardware being more expensive.

Once you've got a link between your site and a suitable ISP, you have to pay that ISP for a connection to the Internet at your desired speed. You get to specify the contention, guaranteed minimum bandwidth and other options - the more you want, the more you pay. Bona fide colleges and universities connect to Janet, which is much cheaper than commercial ISPs.


It is most unlikely the building you identify is a private BT Exchange for a limited number of buildings - indeed, it's increasingly unlikely that the college has more than a couple of phone lines from a traditional phone exchange for backup purposes.

The traditional way to bring in phone service for large institutions was one or more Primary Rate ISDN circuits - up to 30 64k digital circuits, each capable of carrying one phone call, brought in over dedicated metallic or fibre infrastructure and connected to dedicated phone exchange hardware or an ISDN card in a computer. These days, ISDN looks increasingly expensive and inflexible - instead it is becoming common for voice telephony in medium and large organisations to be provided using VoIP technology over the site's Internet connection. It's possible to save thousands a year in rental costs by getting rid of ISDN circuits (a BT ISDN 30e connection with all 30 channels enabled costs around 7500 pounds a year plus VAT in rental alone), which helps to offset the costs of leased line Internet connectivity.

Similarly, it's becoming rarer to have a traditional on-site private exchange and phone wiring. Increasingly, phone service in organisations is provided using VoIP phones connected to Power over Ethernet enabled network ports on the internal network. Using business grade network switches, you can have network ports that automatically switch to the appropriate internal network depending on what device authenticates to the port.

There's advantages and disadvantages in running an on-site phone exchange if you are using VoIP. If there is an on-site exchange, it's increasingly likely to be software running on a computer in the site's server room rather than dedicated phone exchange hardware (more money saved - large private exchanges with ISDN connectivity and lots of traditional voice ports are expensive). It is possible for all the VoIP phones to connect directly to the external VoIP provider - though that is more common for smaller deployments than large sites such as a further education college.

Thanks for the detailed and informative reply very interesting and allot of it makes sense, and some of it was over my head lol, i am not a networking boffin more software and programmer, my speed has went way way down to 900kbps to day and i cant get it back up no matter how many restarts so somethings going on

Drive into Motherwell, go past the Asda on your left and after the roundabout, the shopping cenre is on your right with the long bus stop area.

To your left is a lot of new building / land clearing and behind that in clear view is a glass / steel - grey coloured building with aerials on.

Tis there

Ah i see what building it is now lol the aerials should have been a give away lol

Have you seen any more work on the green box? I have been working away most of the week.

I have a slight hope that one time I go past, I wil lsee them working on it so I can ask how close we are to gonig live, not that I am sure they would actually know.

In reply to a post by Anton2k:

Well i drove i hard drilling today and drove round past the cabinet and sure enough they were drilling and digging, though i only seen them drilling and around the green box on the other side of the street, which i think supply the other half of the estate, to be honest i never even noticed a box there before so they might have put it there? i dunno! might have been there all along, its not something i keep an eye out for lol... i also do not know if they were working on our box today, i presume if they weren't that they will be in the next couple of days.

Never replied to this one, sorry!

From what I have read, the bigger / older green box is of course what we are connected into at the moment - what they could be doing is connecting the new fibre FTTC box, to the current voice / ADSL box that serves us. Techie people on here, no sniggering please at my descriiption!

Another step closer.....

Hey, i only see them digging, no bt openreach vans, on the 15th and the 17th no to sure about today as i have been out most of it, but yea, i wonder if our cabinit will be directly routed into the new one, will that mean we get slower speeds? i guess every one will have to get routed into that new cabinit from there old ones, yea i aint to clued up on this stuff etheir lol

Noooo, the fibre cabinet has to be linked to the current copper cabinet - it is how the connect the copper cables from out house to the fibre.

We need both cabinets connected to work

Ah had no idea it worked like that i through they wired the fiber straght into the copper cabinits with some wizzardry lol, oh is you're internet playing up? mine has been flaky ever since they started digging over ther, i am way down to 800kbps then i will jump back up to 3000kbps and it keeps jumping, they said they are gona call me within the next 72 hours, think some one is gona look at the exchange, was just wondering if u were having any problems and it wasnt just me?

Flakey here too, no idea why but piggin annoying.

Mostly use the iphone on Three tethered, get 8 meg often

Edited by deleted (Sat 19-Jan-13 22:19:51)

Yea, I have a feeling it has to do with the digging! i haven't see any open reach vans yet though. 8 meg! that's [censored] good! We are on giffgaff(o2) and Vodafone and don't regularly get over 2mbps!, from what i understand three have a 3g tower (looks like a lamppost with not light on it) here https://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=55.811694,-3.969656&... that's probally why you are getting such a good speed! i am gona look into getting three if they have any unimited data bundles.

In reply to a post by Anton2k:

Yea, I have a feeling it has to do with the digging! i haven't see any open reach vans yet though. 8 meg! that's [censored] good! We are on giffgaff(o2) and Vodafone and don't regularly get over 2mbps!, from what i understand three have a 3g tower (looks like a lamppost with not light on it) here https://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=55.811694,-3.969656&... that's probally why you are getting such a good speed! i am gona look into getting three if they have any unimited data bundles.

Just get a "One Plan" 30 Day contract and put it in a USB dongle. They say it doesn't work but it does. I do it myself!

In reply to a post by Anton2k:

Yea, I have a feeling it has to do with the digging! i haven't see any open reach vans yet though. 8 meg! that's [censored] good! We are on giffgaff(o2) and Vodafone and don't regularly get over 2mbps!, from what i understand three have a 3g tower (looks like a lamppost with not light on it) here https://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=55.811694,-3.969656&... that's probally why you are getting such a good speed! i am gona look into getting three if they have any unimited data bundles.

I am on the One Plan they do and get unlimited data.
Typing this from train, at Motherwell station I ran a speed test and Three giving 15 meg!!!

Well i am just off the phone to sky again and they said that the original call i made to some Indian woman! was not processed correctly so no engineer visit was scheduled. So the guy from sky put me right through to BT, he was very helpful. The woman on the BT end ran a line check and indeed confirmed there was a problem with my line, when i stupidly asked is the engineer coming to my house lol, she said no and that it would probably be a problem outside on the street (they were drilling on the street!) so now i have to wait another 48 to 72 hours before some one has a look at it, though it might be before then but u know how this stuff goes......

Got a phone call from one of the open reach guys today, was at uni. Apparently the problem was a loose cable coming from the motherwell exchange, etheir it was loose or the end needed replacing, one fo the 2, any way my speed is back up to 4.6 and could go up to 5 / 5.6 as the guy at sky told me there was a 1mb lee way, so my connection is currently on dynamic management i think its called that any way, for the net 10 days and my max speed should then be configured.


- Anton.

Result!

Did you take the chance to quiz him about the fibre while you had him

Yea, he said he couldn't give me exact dates but did say we would be getting it, would be interesting to find out who picks the dates, I have a sneaky feeling that we might see it b4 June, I am gona take a guess and say march/April...

I got a bit more of an update from Openreach today on our cabinet:

Motherwell cab 84 has completed the major hardware part of the build, however, there is still software loads, resting and commissioning to complete. It is still currently looking like the go live date will still be around the last week in March

Fingers crossed!

Hi, I'm currently in the process of buying my first home in Phoenix Park (Ravenscraig).

Does anyone know whether this estate will be getting Infinity during the Motherwell roll-out? Speed checks are saying max 1Mb just now!

What does the Openreach checker say when you put your postcode in?
It should give you an idea.

http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/

The postcode is showing up (on the map) nowhere near the actual development.

The development is between Merry St and Dalziel Park but this has it on the outskirts of Newarthill (which is just the central point of ML1).

It's closer to Motherwell than Holytown, so hopefully it'll be coming from Motherwell which IS going live, rather than Holytown that's for future expansion.

I suspectyou might be too new an estate to be in the current plans, and if you use the checker it shows you as being no where near where you actually are.

Do you know your BT street cabinet number?
If so you could mail Openreach and ask, there is an email address somewhere.

I can dig it out if you can find your street cabinet number.

Thanks for your help!

According to BTWholesale:

Telephone Number 0169826**** on Exchange MOTHERWELL is served by Cabinet 91

This is the sales office for the development, 200m from the house itself. Presumably that'll be the cabinet that it's going to be coming from.

If you could dig out the e-mail address I'd be really grateful.

Bad news - the date on the Openreach web site for Motherwell has slipped to June - feck

Their address is:
[email protected]

There will be a few days delay in them replying as they are very busy, and they can be a bit hit and miss in their replies - it generally depends on which person you get from the group mailbox.

Give them if your postcode and street cabinet number and ask if you are part of the current plans for Motherwell. It might be worth mentioning your in a new build estate and that the postcode checker shows you in the wrong part of town

It takes up to 10 days for them to reply, they will ask for a phone number and address so they can put it into their system.

The date has not slipped, all that has happened is the estimated go live has moved into the next holding slot which is June 30th

Thanks guys, I've e-mailed them. Hopefully they'll get back to me with a great big YES! rather than a no

In reply to a post by ccxo:

The date has not slipped, all that has happened is the estimated go live has moved into the next holding slot which is June 30th

Sorry, not quite following you, why has it not slipped when the date has moved?

Edited by deleted (Mon 18-Feb-13 08:02:36)

Their has been a reply from Openreach to a poster on the forum about the date change- see below

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/t/4211693-re-...

"The change in dates on the website is as a result of the recent Advertising Standards Agency ruling �Openreach will be moving to provide a six-and-nine-month view of when exchanges will be enabled to improve the accuracy of this data when it is presented to end-users by CPs.

However, the deployment plan remains the same � the majority of people who were given a March date will still be able to receive service by that point, we are just unable to provide a three-month view any more as a result of the ASA ruling.

Whilst in most cases we were able to forecast an accurate date, deploying fibre is a complex engineering job which involves planning consent in some cases, power provision, traffic management, etc. Therefore there will always be the potential for unexpected delays to occur for an individual cabinet. Moving to a six-month view reduces the impact of such delays on our predictions."

Ohh, so there is still some hope for next month - thanks

Sad face time

Thank you for your enquiry.

From the telephone number you provided you are connected to the Motherwell Exchange, cabinet 91.

We are deploying one of the fastest and largest commercial deployments in the world. Our commercial deployment will have extended to 66% of the UK by the end of December 2014. We aim extend this to 90% of the UK, in partnership with other sources of funding, e.g. local and National government. Our deployment is based on the commercial criteria for each cabinet 91 at this point isn�t in our footprint for upgrade

Where cabinets are not in our footprint or are not commercially viable Government funding is available to county and borough councils and if you can, it is worth registering your interest on the local council website.

You may also wish to lobby your local councillor on progress in your local area. You can also register your interest on the Openreach website at; www.openreach.co.uk

I appreciate it is frustrating but we are deploying Fibre Broadband on a commercial basis and are not able to provide service to your PCP on that basis.

Darn

Have a look at this document from North Lanarkshire Council. Click on your area and see if you can find your street. If it's grey then either BT or Virgin have informed the Scottish Government they will have 'Superfast Broadband' in that area by 2015. If it's black then both have said they will have it by then.

http://bit.ly/11OWDvS

If your area is pink then write to your MSP and state your case for your area to get Superfast Broadband. The pink areas I believe are actually 'white areas' which means that they will be in scope for the Scottish Goverment funding via BDUK.

The areas in these maps are post code sectors.

Best of luck!

Del

Thanks for the info ...

It's a red/pink area ... so there's no hope right now.

I'm going to get TalkTalk installed and hope for the best ... 1Mb is ridiculous but it's better than nothing.

Presumably once I move in I can get some of the neighbours on side and get them to hassle everyone too

Mate - worth checking out getting a something like the One Contract on your phone from Three - unlimited data and tethering for my iphone. Actually had the contract few years am not sure they still offer those terms, check

Last night I was getting 12 meg in the house - do not get me wrong it did not stay at that all the time - in fact varied widely - but it is generally better than the 3 meg I can get from my home ADSL

Motherwell exchange has started accepting orders this week if you are lucky enough to be served by an upgraded cabinet. My install date is April 5th. Most postcodes in the Carfin/Newarthill area are showing as accepting orders for BT Infinity 2.

Great spot - am looking to place my order now.

BT, Talk Talk and Sky all say can get it through them, who you ordering with out of interest??

Order placed, due to install on 15th April.

Get ADSL off TalkTalk but they were £10 more than iether Sky or BT - went with BT in the end.

Just ordered. April 9th Install.

Didn't think this day would ever arrive.

Who you going with???

Also, can you update with any info on how your order / install progresses, any issues you have etc.?

My install date is the 16th, which is later than others but think that is as am moving from Talk Talk to BT.

Hey my install date is the 16th also, going with BT aswell, sky did come down to £35 a month for me, but thats just for the phone and internet, 59 all in for tv phoen and internet, and thats 76mb down, i recon i will only get about 69mb down though, but BT have that wifi cloud thing where i can connect anywhere, which i think is gona come in handy, BT in the end all in is £44 that's for phone and internet, i need to pay line rental in advance, and its for 18 months. Did you get any better of a deal?

Edited by deleted (Thu 28-Mar-13 23:15:20)

Same deal and money, and like you the BT wifi use was attractive.

Installation on same day, must be same engineer I guess

Yes sounds like it, well i am gona go out and pickup a 2tb or 3tb hdd, this connection will be getting stress tested lol!

DavidM is the first of us to get an install on the 9th - lets see how he gets on

Ah, is he also in our estate? hope he reports back his speed, we could probably gauge what we will get depending how far he is away from the green box, will be interesting to see what he gets.

He has not actually said where he is.
Will just have to be patient but the delay when being so close to it, am like a kid!

Sad really for faster internet I know

Edited by deleted (Wed 03-Apr-13 11:00:14)

I will report back on progress.

I am in the estate at the edge of Newarthill near Carfin Station.

I have been quoted 37.9 down and 6 up. My ADSL 2 connection runs between 3 and 4 (in the main nearer 3 consistently). I'll let you know how it goes. Scheduled for the afternoon of the 9th.

Fingers crossed.

Thanks - be good to hear how install goes on day, any issues etc.

Am quoted as getting around 70 meg D/load - will see

Edited by deleted (Wed 03-Apr-13 14:43:24)

I've got my install this Fri 5th April. I'm in Newarthill beside Carfin station, and have been quoted 29.7meg D/load, 5.7meg U/load, anything is better than the 3.5 - 4 meg I get just now. I'm 900 meters from my cabinet, which is located beside Marinis in Carfin. My new Home Hub 3 arrived today on schedule. BT have been phoning my neighbours getting them to switch to Infinity, they have install dates of 11th and 12th. I'll report on how my install goes and what speed I actually get.

Good to know, be interesting to hear how your install goes, speeds you get etc, roll on tomorrow

All installed, I'm pleasantly surprised, I am getting 58 meg download and 15 meg upload, almost double what the checker predicted despite being a good distance from the cabinet. Apparently I'm the first install from the Motherwell exchange according to the engineer . Obviously the line will need to settle down over the next few days, I'll report back if my speed changes significantly. Now I'm off to give it a good testing.....

Good to hear you are happy and the speed!!

What about the install, how long did it take etc?

Engineer arrived at the door, explained what he was going to do and check what he would need to do in the house, popped out to the cabinet and was back in 5 mins, he said he was quick as it was a brand new cabinet and no one else was previously connected.

The openreach modem which does the vDSL to Ethernet conversion has to be hung vertically on a wall or he will not install, it can't be left on the floor or placed on a table. I believe that this is due to ventilation/overheating concerns. The Ethernet from the modem plugs in to the HomeHub3.

Longest part of the job was waiting for the line tests to complete. After the tests, he showed me a text to confirm the upload and download sync speeds as reported at the exchange and then confirmed that a PC in the home can connect to the internet. In all it was about an hour.

One point to note is that you can not just log on to your router and see the download/upload sync speed as you could with ADSL, access to the openreach modem is not possible. You need to use the bt speedtester on their website to test the speed, it will report the sync speed as reported by the exchange as well as a upload/download data speed test to the PC running the test, I'm reporting 58.3 Mbps at the exchange and have seen ~53mbps to my PC when I used Ethernet to the Home Hub, it was about 48Mbps when using wireless between Home Hub and PC.

As a stress test I used three PCs to simultaneously stream 4 videos each from youtube and the like and saw download speeds of 15 - 20 Mpbs on each PC. At the same time I had one of the PCs uploading at about 8Mbps, so more than pleased with the performance.

Diggity!!

DavidM - good luck for today

Engineer has been. Could not have been more straightforward. Very helpful and quick.

Expected was 37.9 down and 6 up. Synced at 59.3 down and 20 up. Speedtest showing 58 down and 16 up. Delighted with those speeds. May settle down a bit after the 10 days, but engineer was pretty confident it was not going to move by much.

I am 600 meters from the Cabinet in actual line length. Hope everyone else has the same experience and result.

Good Luck (need to update my signature now)

Good speeds over distance to FTTC I live in the Falkirk area and have a install date for bt infinity 2 on Monday 15th my estimated speeds 57mb download 20mb upload. Hopefully might reach full speed 76mb. Anything in between will be good.

Regards

Good to hear it went well for you, just 2 more of us getting our install on Tuesday.

My estimate is for about 70 meg, so fingers crossed.

Will report back also on how it all goes.

Can't wait! looks like we are gona be getting some good speeds based on the last 2 guys. My router comes tomorrow.

Hope we do yes, roll on tomorrow for our installs!

Our hub we had to pick up from Royal Mail on Sat morning, nice looking device I have to say but we will not be using it.

Yep! can't wait, duno what ill do if i get a phone call saying its been delayed! lol, the hub does look the part but but i dont fancy being part of that bt fon thing, although i might use it, i have been reading some articles about the hub and i don't think they are the most secure router, i was initially looking at picking up one of these http://uk.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Routers/RTN56U/ any way, FIBER HERE WE COME! never thought i would see the day!

Had the call - he is due here about 09:00.

Diggity

This is soooo sad but just watched the guy walk into your house, as myengineer turned up at front door lol

lol, i couldn't be in the house for the instillation, parents had to be in from him, i had uni, can't wait to see what speed i am gona get! i saw the open reach van outside at around 8ish this morning, expecting it to be for you since u ordered first, but they must have sent out 2 engineers! hows the speeds? i am still at uni

Bit up and down - but around 70

Speed test hardwired into modem / router shows 80

Edited by deleted (Tue 16-Apr-13 11:45:38)

my results: http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13661...

I am a happy camper!

That's what am getting, upload is around 8/9 but it goes up and down, download jumps between 50 and 80, i noticed the router does not have and upstream on downstream check on the router home page is that what u mean by hardwired modem speed? how do i get this?

Edited by deleted (Tue 16-Apr-13 12:19:01)

Run this test:

http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/

Then select further diagnostics once the speed test has finished, it will show you your download ip profile speed, this is the limit BT place on what gets sent down your line.

For your current download sync rate, you need to run this test:

http://diagnostics.bt.com/login/?workflow=Speed

At the end of the test it will show an exchange to home hub sync rate

After 10 days, my line has settled at 50 down and 14 up, most of the online speed tests tend to give variable results, I've found one on this page to be most accurate, select the capacity test, it always seems to be within 2% of the quoted ip profile for download.

http://connectivity.onestopclick.com/Tools/17/226/br...

Hmm, woke to no internet this morning

The modem has green lights all over it.

Ran the BT speedtest (the one with the graphic at top showing exchange to house and then download speed on computer.

It shows79.8 meg on the exchange to house, but 0.9 on the download speed on the computer.

Did have the Apple kit in instead of the BT router, but swapping the BT router in has not made a difference.

Any ideas?

Edited by deleted (Thu 18-Apr-13 08:44:00)

Well it has come back on - ish

Still geting 79 meg to house, but computers getting 40 meg now, quitee a drop!

Is this the sort of activity that might happen during this "learning period" after new install??

I did see drops almost as bad as that during days two and three of the learning period. I've also swapped to a dual band router to let me make use of 5Ghz wireless. Using the free utility inSSIDer I could see that there were about 11 routers near my home all interfering with my wireless signal, there is no one else using 5Ghz where I am, so I get better download speeds due to there being no interference from the neighbours

Yea my speeds have been up and down, after doing a bit of research i just presumed it was the learning period. Yesterday i was downloaded a 11gb file in 15 mins was crazy! as for the wireless side, i don't really have any issues as i am connected directly to the router via a Ethernet cable, but i have noticed there is a few bt home hub 3 routers near us, saying that the bt router has a smart wireless feature built in that automatically picks you're channel for you based on surrounding networks.


Edit: Also just a heads up, bt filter p2p aka torrent traffic, only way round it i can see atm is to use a vpn. noticed i get slow torrent speeds from time to time, but again this could all just be to do with the learning period.

Edited by deleted (Thu 18-Apr-13 23:06:43)

It was estimated woulde get around 79 meg d/load and around 19 u/load before the install, and that is what we got on the day, and for the Wednesday too. From memory, the BT online speed checker (with the graphic that shows exchange to house speed / then house to computer speed) was showing us as getting between 76 and 79 meg when it was run, all very nice

Yesterday morning woke up to find no internet at all - could not load a web page, and then over the course of the morning it slowly came back on, but not to the speeds we were getting. most of yesterday the speed checker was telling me I had download speed of 14 meg, but upload of 19!

Each time the speed checker shows speed to house as being 79 meg, then house to computer speed fluctuates wildly.

This morning I ran the test and got a download speed of 73 meg, then a few mins later it was back to 14 meg.

So, is this type of extreme normal during the 10 days learning period??

I get that it could be the wireless getting interferance, but am not using the HH3 (though have plugged it in several times to see if it makes a difference) and am using the Apple router kit I have had working happily for years.

Am not a P2P user but if you are on the TOTALLY Unlimited Broadband you are not supposed to be getting any P2P restrictions

Ah, didn't know that, looks like i am gona have to give them a bell, i am gona wait for the ten day period if things are still a bit flaky on the 11th / 12th day i would hop on the phone to them. Also i have been reading about this open port on the hh3 routers 161, probably not as much of a concern to you as you're using apple kit, but it seems bt are shipping their routers with ports 161 and in some cases port four thousand and somthing, i can't remember the exact numbers, here's a link http://community.bt.com/t5/Other-BB-Queries/port-161... they say its to 'enrich gaming experiences' but w/e its used for i am not at all happy about it being open, open ports are just begging to be exploited, it wouldn't surprise me if someone has already found a way to exploit it.

Also i just did a speed test using the offical bt thing, i am getting currently 74.98 down 8.77 up and a ping of 35.88, also i have noticed that my upload speed has not moved at all in a few days, its sticking at 8, when i should be getting 20, not a big concern though download is more important, though 20 up would be nice.

Edited by deleted (Fri 19-Apr-13 13:28:42)

The BT forum you sent the link to - if you read the Infinity area there you will see a number of folks asking about P2P slowdown, and being told as lnog as on the Totally.... they should not get any. Not an area I know huge amount about, so only glanced, but there was talk from people who were on the Totally but had slow down still, but best go read yourself

Will check my speed again when get home.

Pray you do not have to call the BT help numbers, the call centres in India do not have the best rep

Yep lol i had to deal with them 2 days ago to get caller id on the phone and voice mail setup...

Well it looks likes the learning period is over, but my upload speed is still sitting between 8 and 9 mbps, what are you getting ajackuk ? upload speed wise?

In reply to a post by Anton2k:

Well it looks likes the learning period is over, but my upload speed is still sitting between 8 and 9 mbps, what are you getting ajackuk ? upload speed wise?

Pretty solid at 14/15 matey.