How long from cabinet installed to accepting orders?

Anyone know how long it normally takes for a cabinet to go live after installation?

Where I am is scheduled to get FTTC by 31st March but no sign of a cabinet yet. From previous experience it can be over 6 months from the cabinet being installed to accepting orders. So is that March date completely unrealistic?

In reply to a post by 5km:

Anyone know how long it normally takes for a cabinet to go live after installation?

Where I am is scheduled to get FTTC by 31st March but no sign of a cabinet yet. From previous experience it can be over 6 months from the cabinet being installed to accepting orders. So is that March date completely unrealistic?

Sometimes a week, sometimes months, sometimes it's there for months and Openreach come back and remove it.

I've had an FTTP fibre aggregator sat in the manhole at my doorstep for 18+ months now and still can't order fibre...

Just a matter of waiting an indeterminate amount of time I'm afraid.

Edited by izools (Sat 19-Jan-13 10:59:17)

Wow really no knowing.

I'm in a conservation area, do BT still have to apply for planning permission? If so they haven't even done that so this isn't looking good.

In reply to a post by 5km:

Wow really no knowing.

I'm in a conservation area, do BT still have to apply for planning permission? If so they haven't even done that so this isn't looking good.

Unfortunately this is the sort of situation in which Openreach have been known to remove a cabinet once installed...

You might be lucky though!

As others have said its a waiting game.

In my location is was around 6 weeks from seeing the surveyor standing with a not pad looking at the existing green cabinet to then having the FTTC cabinet installed and Running. It was then another 2 weeks before I could order the SKY service., so in total 2 mths.

In reply to a post by 5km:

I'm in a conservation area, do BT still have to apply for planning permission?

Yep.

The March date is not a schedule. It's a possible.

Any quarter-end date is just a holding one, to say there is a chance. The date frequently gets put back three or six months (repeatedly) during the last fortnight before the end of the quarter.

Sorry .

Given that they haven't asked for planning permission it sounds unlikely, unless they have found a non-visible place to put it that doesn't break other planning regs.

conservation areas were the only places they need planning permission, however I believe that was changed and now only SSSI's require permission, so as long as you're not an endangered species........

In reply to a post by yarwell:

conservation areas were the only places they need planning permission, however I believe that was changed and now only SSSI's require permission, so as long as you're not an endangered species........

From the bottom of the article Phil:

The government aims to introduce the new changes around Spring 2013.

Not in place and not law yet. They may be waiting for that to come in and saving a few quid hence the lack of an application.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

conservation areas were the only places they need planning permission, however I believe that was changed and now only SSSI's require permission, so as long as you're not an endangered species........

Even normal areas councils can get in the way. My parents FTTC cabinet has been put to the back of the queue because the local council didn't like BT's chosen location! Grr. They only get 4meg on ADSL

In reply to a post by 5km:

Anyone know how long it normally takes for a cabinet to go live after installation?

How long is a piece of string?

It was delayed by just over 6 months here. Though when got just past the 2nd quarter, and was supposedly delayed by another 3 months, it was announced activated just over 16 days later via Openreaches twitter page.

Best thing to do IMO to keep an eye Openreaches twitter page.

We're in the same position. March 31st availability date but no new cab. Their going to have to pull their finger out to meet the date :-/

Not in a conservation area and exchange has been FTTC live for years.

I'm not very hopeful

On an already enabled exchange, so as far a Openreach care it's enabled and therefore has already been announced. They don't care about cabinet level and just fob off the government and the public with incorrect figures based on enables exchanges not actual lines that can get the service.

?
They publish "homes passed" figures, which logically can only be based on enabled cabinets, in their quarterly, half-year and annual accounts. Are you saying they are lying, and they are in fact giving the number of lines connected to enabled exchanges?

If so, some evidence of that is necessary, as the shareholders and Stock Exchange would be very interested.

I wonder how many exchanges have a single working FTTC cabinet to count as "enabled"

Hard to say. The only figures we have are ones that BT themselves have constructed.

Homes passes doesn't necessarily mean the service is available. There could be other reasons for a line not being compatible or able to order service. Errors like that probably only add up to a few hundred and are not significant in the scheme of things.

What is the problem is the dates that keep slipping and all the uncertainty of where and when/if. This is where the figures are really open to debate, as after all they are just estimates.

I wonder how the figures compare if you were to add up the lines on all enabled exchanges? Then compare that with the number BT say can get it. Would either be a shock as they'd match and therefore BT is lying or reveal just how few cabinets per exchange are getting enabled.

Well it's you making the assertion that they are lying. So do that calculation and see. Reasonably accurate figures for lines per exchange are available from samknows, and probably elsewhere.

As far as I'm concerned that post of yours was just a rant with no facts. Which is why I queried it.

Can't be bothered... lol

[/rant]

In reply to a post by 5km:

Can't be bothered... lol

[/rant]

It isn't surprising. Rants are often illogical, without reference to the facts. In this case, I agree that the facts are limited to those supplied by BT themselves, but they do seem to be sensible...

In reply to a post by 5km:

Homes passes doesn't necessarily mean the service is available. T

...

I wonder how the figures compare if you were to add up the lines on all enabled exchanges? Then compare that with the number BT say can get it. Would either be a shock as they'd match and therefore BT is lying or reveal just how few cabinets per exchange are getting enabled.

Prepare to be unshocked...

In our area (North Yorkshire) there are so few exchanges being enabled (pre-BDUK) that makes the figures easy to spot: BT tend to do "regional" press releases that mention, say, a batch of 3 or 4 exchanges - either when they have been included in the rollout plans, or when they are available. Those releases tend to have total of "number of homes" figures that are about 75%-90% of the numbers that can gleaned from SamKnows.

And the rollout plan spreadsheet (the Dec 2011 one, showing postcode coverage) itself tended to show the same kind of results - coverage of the majority. It was especially interesting to combine the data from that document with the "batchgeo.com" website, to create maps of coverage.

In reply to a post by 5km:

What is the problem is the dates that keep slipping and all the uncertainty of where and when/if. This is where the figures are really open to debate, as after all they are just estimates.

That's they key problem - getting the right information, reliably and deemed trustworthy. I agree that BT are pretty poor at this on an individual level - and absurdly bad for those who get repeatedly put back.

Unfortunately the scale works against us here, as we humans find it too easy to focus on the one delayed cabinet, and too hard to see the big picture. It is, unfortunately, too easy to extrapolate wrongly, and to start to rant in protest when we see 10 or 20 delays.

However, with BT managing to pass between a million and 1.5 million homes each quarter, that's between 2,500 and 3,750 cabinets (or 200-300 cabinets each week). We barely hear from the people on those cabinets that *are* enabled.

In our heads, the emotional response only cares about 1 cabinet - our own. The rational response over the other 2499 doesn't get a look in.