Hi,
This is my neighbour who has posted this.
Just to give you a little background we live in a medium sized village in the Northwest called Lowton. We are connected to the Ashton in Makerfield exchange.
For years the a lot of the village has had very poor broadband connection, around 800k-1mb download due to the distance from the exchange and we have been highlighted as a broadband “slowspot”
http://www.broadband-notspot.org.uk/coverage-map.htm...
About two thirds of the estate have access to Virgin media services of if they want fast broadband they have been able to connect with virgin.
At the beginning of the year we found out that the Ashton in Makerfield exchange was being upgraded to fibre technology and this would be available by September. I thought that my very slow and unreliable broadband problems would be over!!
Over the past few months we have seen the new green street cabinets installed and we have been waiting for the day that we could order BT Infinity. The deadline passed (30th September) and I was checking every day when I came home from work but no sign
I then contacted BT to see what the hold-up was and I was told that the cabinet that I was connected to was not upgraded as it did not meet the “commercial criteria” for upgrade. Shocked about this I went round to my next door neighbour to tell them only to find that they had ordered BT infinity that day.
I started to do a little more digging to try and find out the reason why my next door neighbour could get superfast broadband, but I could not.
On my estate there are 2 cabinets. Number 55 and number 69. Cabinet 55 was upgraded but 69 not upgraded. I actually live nearer to cabinet 55 than I do to 69!!
Anyway as I said two thirds of the estate has access to Virgin media, however there is a pocket of about 150 houses that do not. I asked BT to give me the details of the areas that bath Cabinet 55 and 69 covered to see if I could work out why my cabinet did not meet the “commercial criteria”
I was sent this information from BT.
To my surprise the cabinet that has been updated (55) covers almost all the streets that already has access to virgin Media, there is only a small number of about 25-30 houses that will benefit from the upgraded service that cannot get Virgin. Cabinet 69 covers an area that is also covered by Virgin media; however the vast majority of the area, around 120 houses is not covered by the virgin media footprint and now will have no access to fast broadband services.
From the information provided to be by BT openreach the following streets are covered by the upgraded cab 55
BEARDSMORE DRIVE, , virgin Media
BRAITHWAITE ROAD, , virgin media
ALLERBY WAY, , virgin media
REDMAIN GROVE, , virgin media
GARTON DRIVE virgin media
HAGUE BUSH CLOSE, virgin media
HOLLY BUSH SQUARE virgin media
THORNBUSH CLOSE, , virgin media
THE GROVE (LOWTON), , virgin media
FIELDFARE CLOSE, virgin media
MULLEIN CLOSE, ASHWOOD FARM DEV., virgin media
WOODSORREL WAY, ,
SPEEDWELL CLOSE, ,
SAFFRON CLOSE, ASHWOOD FARM DEVELOPMENT.,
FOXGLOVE CLOSE virgin media
PRIMULA DR, , virgin media
FIELDFARE CLOSE Virgin media
This is the area covered by cab 69
DUXBURY WAY, virgin Media
DURRELL WAY, virgin Media
AMIS GROVE virgin Media
STEIN AVE, virgin Media
HUDSON GROVE, , virgin Media
LANDOR CLOSE virgin Media
CHANDLER WAY, , virgin Media
LAPWING CL virgin Media
BALLANTYNE WAY, , virgin Media
WILD AVUM CL virgin Media
CONINGSBY GARDENS, , virgin Media
SUDBROOK CLOSE, virgin Media
WILD ARUM CLOSE, , virgin Media
PLOVER WAY virgin Media
BUNTING CL virgin Media
REDSTART CL virgin Media
WOOD SORREL WAY
STONECHAT CL
WHINCHAT C
BRAMBLING WAY, ,
SPEEDWELL CLOSE, ,
SAFFRON CLOSE, ,
WHINCHAT CLOSE
BRAMBLING WAY
As you can see from Cabinet 55 the only streets that are not covered by Virgin media are Wood Sorrell way (most of which is connected to the non-upgraded cab 69)
Speedwell Close (most of which is connected to the non-upgraded cab 69)
And Saffron Close (most of which is connected to the non-upgraded cab 69)
There is a huge market for people who have no access from cabinet 69
Speedwell Close: Numbers 1,2,3,4,6
Wood Sorrell Way 1,2,3,4,6,8,10,11,12,14,16,17,19,21,23,25,27,29, 32,34,36,38,40,42,44,46,48
Saffron Close 1,3,5,7
Whinchat Close – All Houses 1-57
Brambling Way – All Houses 2-57
Stonechat Close All houses 1-8
I am finding it difficult to understand why cabinet 55 meets the “commercial criteria” and yet cabinet 69 does not since there are more people who have no access to fast broadband services are actually connected to the non-upgraded cabinet 69. Virgin Media has already saturated the market in the area covered by cabinet 55 for superfast broadband services.
The other issue is that the cables from the upgraded cabinet and the distributions points from each run very near the non-connected houses. The distribution point in my street where my neighbour is connected to cabinet 55 is about 10m from my house and the cable for this actually runs past my house!
I asked if I could be connected to the distribution point for the upgraded cabinet, and I was willing to pay for the work to be done and I was told that this would not be possible, even though it is so close to my house.
Our local councillor has said that he will "support" our cause as we are currently getting less than 1mb in download speed where as my neighbour who lives next door is now getting 60mb.
I have contacted BDUK but no reply as of yet. BT says there are no plans to upgrade the cab 69 nor will they connect us to the upgraded cab55.
Thanks for any help.