320m From FTTC Cabinet???

The cabinet is in place but no availability yet contacted openreach recons march 2013 they said awaiting power and other works.

Done a line quality test came up "A" quality 40ms ping rate on my existing dsl line. The housing estate is 5-6 years old so fairly new used google maps to check distance which estimated around 330 Meters from my home to FTTC cabinet.

Would 80meg be over ambitious.

I would say yes. I'm around 50m away and I've had times where my connections gone below 80Mbps (quite rare but does happen)

This being said I had 40Mbps and then upgraded to 80Mbps and honestly for web browsing, youtube, iPlayer, Love film, Skyping etc I noticed no difference. So whatever speed you get it's bound to be good enough.

In reply to a post by Housey1:

The cabinet is in place but no availability yet contacted openreach recons march 2013 they said awaiting power and other works.

Done a line quality test came up "A" quality 40ms ping rate on my existing dsl line. The housing estate is 5-6 years old so fairly new used google maps to check distance which estimated around 330 Meters from my home to FTTC cabinet.

Would 80meg be over ambitious.

Doubt you will see the full sync rate of 80mbps although the BT guesstimate(adsl checker) would probably be giving around 65-70mbps for a D side of 300-50m in length

Edited by tommy45 (Sun 16-Dec-12 04:09:03)

It's quite possible, there are 1 or 2 that get the full speed at around 450 meters, where as I get 45Mbps at the moment, which in real world equates to about 40Mbps speed tests. Most people at 450 meters seem to get around 60Mbps, so you at around 350 meters should get more.

I would hazard a guess that you'd be around 70 - 80 mark, but as ukhardy07 says, even 40Mbps seems plenty fast enough, although more would be nice.

Well i am just over 400M from my cab and sync at 80 / 20

on a speed test i get 75.16 / 16.64 and ping 17

so happy days here

Yep my bt whole checker comes up this on speed estimate Falkirk

Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 31st March 2013. Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed between 55.7 to 61.3 Mbps and upstream line speed between 18 to 20 Mbps.

Anything less than 60 would probably stay at an 40 meg package, consider myself fortunate the service will be available soon.

If you are looking at infinity it offers 80Mbps and not a 40Mbps option. This is at the same price as the old 40Mbps option way back when infinity began.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

If you are looking at infinity it offers 80Mbps and not a 40Mbps option. This is at the same price as the old 40Mbps option way back when infinity began.

There is the £18/month product with 40GB of usage which is limited to upto 40/10 (or 38 / 9 as BT advertise).

The unlimited usage is upto 80/20 (or 76/19 as advertised) for £26/month

Both prices don't include line rental or any special offers.

Gonna go unlimited BT charge a hefty £5 every 5gb you additionally use over and above the 40gb allowance.

Might as well plus you get the extra speed increase

Any reason for choosing BT? Damn expensive!

Bt get the first orders when the FTTC is live, more of a wait if your with other providers.
Moving my line from sky on the 15th december to BT this should speed up the transfer when infinity is live.

Hate the wait.

Edited by Housey1 (Mon 17-Dec-12 00:44:38)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Any reason for choosing BT? Damn expensive!

Are they expensive? For unlimited I find them hard to beat especially when looking at an 80Mbps product.

You can get cheaper with offpeak and onpeak usage etc (but not really ideal for lots of people).

I think he is comparing to plusnet who is just about the cheapest FTTC service out there, on an average price BT arent too bad assuming ok with dynamic ip.

Also I dont consider £26 a month a lot of money for broadband, I rather see some other isp's underpriced. Also consider the cost of line rental of BT when paying a year up front, Average £4 a month cheaper than other providers.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Any reason for choosing BT? Damn expensive!

Are they expensive? For unlimited I find them hard to beat especially when looking at an 80Mbps product.

You can get cheaper with offpeak and onpeak usage etc (but not really ideal for lots of people).

Plusnet seem to have just gone cheaper - £20 for unlimited 80/20 (full announcement due on Wednesday).

I'm 400 metres (assuming Google Maps have their distance correct), and *just* get 80/20 (modem reports 80/26 as the attainable).

The attainable has dropped a little over the year from 83/25 - probably due to neighbours getting connected - and the prediction was 55/18.

When you get connected to fibre is it easy to find what you attainable down load rates could be or is that something thats hidden info on the modem.?

It's hidden in the modem and you'll never actually achieve the max attainable anyway. It's a figure given so many factors being perfect (which they never are).

At best it should be used as a guideline

It is hidden in the modem, which needs to be unlocked to be visible.

Details of unlocking are here

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

At best it should be used as a guideline

But to be honest its useless info!

It's useful if you are on full 40/2 or 40/10, to find out what you are looking at by moving to 80/20. Or when deciding to re-sync to gain speed, as the attainable moves around constantly during the day.

That decision is dependent on both down and up values, as the actuals, in my case at least, normally move in opposite directions. That's for the usual marginal changes. If there is a big change likely, they of course move in the same direction.

Then of course by unlocking you get all the other stats as well.

In reply to a post by Housey1:

Bt get the first orders when the FTTC is live, more of a wait if your with other providers.

No chance! That's you just thinking they probably can. OfCom would go sky-high if that could be shown to happen as a BT Wholesale or Openreach policy.

Moving my line from sky on the 15th december to BT this should speed up the transfer when infinity is live.

Infinity is only available from BT, so that's fairly obvious. FTTC is available from all other major suppliers at exactly the same time as Infinity is available, barring Sky and TalkTalk who occasionally lag by a few days. Or very occasionally a long time. It's the luck of the draw where you can order from first, but for all the BTW based ones it's usually the same time. There have been cases reported here where BT were well behind the others.

On the other hand, IIRC it is one of the posters in this thread that recently ordered Infinity before any indicator showed the cabinet as live.

I don't think that is a major way to decide when looking at a price difference of £72 a year , allied to broadband support you can actually get sense out of as opposed to BT's apparently often incomprehensible and unhelpful Indian call centres.

I do have my line rental with BT, but not my broadband. I agree moving that early is a good idea, if you don't want Sky FTTC.

PS!!!!!

I've just noticed this is all academic at the moment. Your exchange isn't scheduled till March 2013, and that's a highly unreliable date anyway. Will Sky let you stay on SMPF, (partial LLU), that long or probably longer? Or is it a Sky line with something like O2/Be broadband where I agree there is no problem.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

It is hidden in the modem, which needs to be unlocked to be visible.

Apparently Sky provide some stats in the user control panel. I doubt if that's one of them though.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

It is hidden in the modem, which needs to be unlocked to be visible.

Apparently Sky provide some stats in the user control panel. I doubt if that's one of them though.

All you get in the Sky router is the sync speed when the router was last rebooted.

Ah, k.

Fed back through the MER link I assume.

I think the key point is that ofcom have to prove it.

If I was running BT I woul likely find a way to get preferential treatment, but thats me maybe not everyone is the same.

Note I emailed the BT ceo and got a fast tracked install, a sky customer tried the same but the BT ceo couldnt help him.

From first glance it appears to me that normal install bookings dont have any preference, but if a complaint is made by a BT retail customer and it gets high enough then I think things change.

Also I noticed based on reports made by BT retail customers they dont have as much issues getting engineers out to deal with faults and fee's afterwards.

So whilst you are right on the legislation I am not so convinced on the reality.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

It's hidden in the modem and you'll never actually achieve the max attainable anyway. It's a figure given so many factors being perfect (which they never are).

At best it should be used as a guideline

Mine is usually lower than the actual sync anyway, lol.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

Note I emailed the BT ceo and got a fast tracked install, a sky customer tried the same but the BT ceo couldnt help him.

From first glance it appears to me that normal install bookings dont have any preference, but if a complaint is made by a BT retail customer and it gets high enough then I think things change.

The truth is that Openreach *do* offer expedited installation, and *do* offer support at reduced timescales, compared to the norms for plain residential work. OR offer the facilities to *any* CP, who can then choose whether to take advantage or not. And, of course, they charge for the privilege - and most ISPs don't take them up on it.

OR also offer expedited work when previous appointments have failed - but they're under certain circumstances only, and require the CP to have followed an escalation path - which, of course, takes time.

So what could the BT CEO have done? Remember that he's boss of multiple entities here, so could be having an effect in any of them.

He could force Openreach to do something about the problem, and expedite the work by short-cutting the escalation path. He *could*, but he might find the shiny shoes of Ofcom giving him a good kicking if he interfered with the principle of EOI.

Alternatively, he could order someone within BT Retail to just pay the extra fee for an expedited appointment, so that Openreach react faster. Perhaps the Openreach escalation procedure would later catch up, and refund the fee, but who knows.

If other ISPs have a principle of *not* paying to expedite (and taking it on the chin if they don't get a refund), then they have to wait for the standard escalation process to grind away.

For example, I too ended up with an expedited install of FTTC, which happened the day after it was ordered... but the appointment only got ordered after a month of going through the escalation processes.

If things don't happen for Sky customers, it could be because Sky wait for the process to grind on, rather than pay extra to sort it out quickly.

yes and the fee to sky is real money whilst for BT its paper shuffling.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

yes and the fee to sky is real money whilst for BT its paper shuffling.

To the Group CEO it is paper shuffling.

To the BT (Retail) CEO it is a negative on his internal accounts and ultimately, (in total), his targets, performance reviews, salary/bonuses etc. Exactly like the Sky guy.

Currently with sky at the moment, planned BT to take the line over on the 15th January and BT said they can't promise keeping the same phone number.

Falkirk had previousley been set for exchange activation on December 2012 so it has been put back 3 months. After all the green cabinet is installed awaiting power and other works.

Can FTTC cabinets accept orders prior to openreach AO status at exchange?

Have you considered waiting for Sky Fibre. I have this and it's totally unrestricted. No restrictions on peer to peer etc.

It took an extra 24 hours for Sky to enable my local cabinet over BT. At this stage I was able to order. I rang Sky up and got £50 free install and a discount on my package.

Worth a shot? Less hassle?

You said 15 December on the 17th .

As you are already with Sky, surely that's easier, and cheaper? And guarantees to keep the number!

Twice have moved back to sky for broadband 1st time phone line connected no broadband connection and it went on for weeks ended moving back to bt.

2nd time similar issue however the wait was shorter.

Just don't want the hassle on delayed connection I have had in the past.

Also sky has a hefty £50 activation fee ouch.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Have you considered waiting for Sky Fibre. I have this and it's totally unrestricted. No restrictions on peer to peer etc.

It took an extra 24 hours for Sky to enable my local cabinet over BT. At this stage I was able to order. I rang Sky up and got £50 free install and a discount on my package.

Worth a shot? Less hassle?

Definitely less hassle as I embark, tomorrow, on my second fibre install with Sky in 6 months. I got a free install first time round this time I'm not sure because I had to pay £50 up front although some have said it get's reimbursed.

well if i get free install possibly more worth staying with sky.

yes they can.

In reply to a post by Housey1:

Bt get the first orders when the FTTC is live, more of a wait if your with other providers.

Kidding arent you, with an independant ISP two years ago it took from order to up and running 5 working days.
Migrating to BT took well over 5 weeks plus a weeks delay for the FTTC swap over.

Down to the nitty gritty, i am no more than 300 yards from cab and only get 41meg throughput with 7 meg upload on a good day. 'Promised' speeds were 58 and 20 which at time was deemed cautious. BT not interested 'you have a good line' and dismiss other reported issues after a week.
41meg down you would think i could actually watch a youtube video in hd, not so the last few days along with routing issues again pages time out.

switching to bt for me was flawless 2hrs down time and around 3 weeks since i placed my order.

In reply to a post by hareng:

41meg down you would think i could actually watch a youtube video in hd, not so the last few days along with routing issues again pages time out.

That's your ISP - are you still with WebTapestry as in your profile? Try a bigger company.

I'm 450m from FTTC cabinet and I get 45meg - but "high"er pings than other people - but I don't lose the connection, and zero problems with YouTube or any other site.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

I'm 450m from FTTC cabinet and I get 45meg - but "high"er pings than other people - but I don't lose the connection, and zero problems with YouTube or any other site.

At my last place I was about 300m from the FTTC cab and was getting 72 meg. I'm about the same distance at my new place but I'm waiting for the OR engineer to turn but it should be similar I hope.

Suppose main factors that effect sync speed.

1. Length of copper wire.
2. Ageing
3. Many cable connections along the way (Signal attenuation at every connection especially bad ones.)
4. Electrical interference from mains.

Even on similar distance to the cabinets seem to produce an array of connection speeds which will be affected by 2, 3 & 4 of the above.

Well I'm connected now but I'll have to wait until my line gets regraded to the 80/20 package. I can't believe Sky still put new fibre connections on the 40/2 package first.

It's currently syncing at 40000/2000.

I will be interested what you final connection speed will be,

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by Housey1:

Bt get the first orders when the FTTC is live, more of a wait if your with other providers.

No chance! That's you just thinking they probably can. OfCom would go sky-high if that could be shown to happen as a BT Wholesale or Openreach policy.

Moving my line from sky on the 15th december to BT this should speed up the transfer when infinity is live.

Infinity is only available from BT, so that's fairly obvious. FTTC is available from all other major suppliers at exactly the same time as Infinity is available, barring Sky and TalkTalk who occasionally lag by a few days. Or very occasionally a long time. It's the luck of the draw where you can order from first, but for all the BTW based ones it's usually the same time. There have been cases reported here where BT were well behind the others.

On the other hand, IIRC it is one of the posters in this thread that recently ordered Infinity before any indicator showed the cabinet as live.

I don't think that is a major way to decide when looking at a price difference of £72 a year , allied to broadband support you can actually get sense out of as opposed to BT's apparently often incomprehensible and unhelpful Indian call centres.

I do have my line rental with BT, but not my broadband. I agree moving that early is a good idea, if you don't want Sky FTTC.

PS!!!!!

I've just noticed this is all academic at the moment. Your exchange isn't scheduled till March 2013, and that's a highly unreliable date anyway. Will Sky let you stay on SMPF, (partial LLU), that long or probably longer? Or is it a Sky line with something like O2/Be broadband where I agree there is no problem.

QUOTE

"No chance! That's you just thinking they probably can. OfCom would go sky-high if that could be shown to happen as a BT Wholesale or Openreach policy."

Every chance!"!!!!!


Was told by this lady at TALKTALK head office BT have every right to not offer service to non bt customers for x number of weeks, and if cab reaches capacity so be it.????


Colleen McGilligan
Manager, Chief Executive's Office
Tel - 0333 003 1163
E-mail: [email protected]
TalkTalk Group / Stanford House / Birchwood / Warrington / WA3 7BH

In reply to a post by Housey1:

I will be interested what you final connection speed will be,

It switched to 40/10 (syncs at 40000/10000) overnight and if it follows my last fibre install with Sky it should change to 80/20 some time over Friday/Saturday.

going by some other postings they gradually increase speed in stages over next few days.

In reply to a post by omgFTTC:

Was told by this lady at TALKTALK head office BT have every right to not offer service to non bt customers for x number of weeks, and if cab reaches capacity so be it.????

This sounds like some sort of (likely obfuscated by marketing speak) justification for a delay in TalkTalk getting their link to the FTTx exchange equipment rather than end user connections.

izools has come up with a similar explanation here - there is extensive discussion in the posts following.

In reply to a post by David_W:

In reply to a post by omgFTTC:

Was told by this lady at TALKTALK head office BT have every right to not offer service to non bt customers for x number of weeks, and if cab reaches capacity so be it.????

This sounds like some sort of (likely obfuscated by marketing speak) justification for a delay in TalkTalk getting their link to the FTTx exchange equipment rather than end user connections.

izools has come up with a similar explanation here - there is extensive discussion in the posts following.

Before anyone else joins in about this, the link David_W gives is to a thread by omgFTTC specifically about his problem. Probably best to post there if you have a comment rather than let it derail this one .