Early FTTC or being too hopeful?

Hi All,

Within the last few weeks it was announced that Kent KCC has signed with BT for the BDUK Project.

Im on the Hawkinge exchange and am hopeful that FTTC will eventually be installed here under the BDUK Scheme.

I was not expecting any movement on this until 2014 realistically.

However looking on roadworks.org

For my local cabinet and a few others in hawkinge this entry for BT works has appeared. Due to happen in the next few days

STREET CABINET INSTALLATION. Excavate to lay duct, lay concrete plinth (3 days to set) and stand cabinet, check & clear site. Approx 10m Of Duct In F/Way

These are right next to the existing cabs.

Does this sound like FTTC cabs coming early or am I too hopeful?

The BT checker does not mention FTTC nor does openreach for this exchange, I just though it was a coincidence

Same thing I asked the other day for my town: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/t/4223616-re-...

And yes that should be FTTC.

I would say this pretty much means that the FTTC cabinets in your area are being installed....just remember that the install of the cabinet is only one part of the equation...my cabinet was installed in July 2012, but only started accepting orders in March 2013 (although other cabs in the same town were also installed in July 2012, but started accepting orders in October 2012).

Work has started today and engineers confirmed it is FTTC Cabs being install - so good news

Still the openreach site and adsl checkers indicate no plans for FTTC for the Hawkinge Exchange so seems slightly odd. But not complaining least its progress.

Well now 3 FTTC Cabs have appeared around the village.

However the BT Openreach Where and When page still says the Exchange is not in current roll out plans. The BT DSL Checker does not mention fibre either.

Emailed openreach no reply (after 3 weeks) and the local BDUK Contact KCC say nothing has been commissioned for Hawkinge.

So im pleased cabs are appearing but seems a little strange as to a live date, and who is commissioning this i.e BT Commercial, BDUK or a Private Scheme

The live date will come in a few weeks/months when openreach update their checkers, the where and when site will proably update for all the exchanges in kent.

Openreach will not reply to you if your exchange is not in their plans on the where and when site.

Bagnor in Wales had quite a few cabs appearing before the annoucements by the supefast wales project, so its just Openreach getting on with the Kent project.

Spotted 2 of them on Aerodrome road.
Where's the 3rd one?

I'd assume BDUK but seems strange it happened so quickly after signing of the contract.
Hawkinge wasn't on the scheduled list on 'this' map.

Need the one by the traffic lights to go in for me

The other one is at the end of page road Corbett drive area.

Unfortunately from speaking to the KCC BDUK people via email and Openreach - apparently these 3 cabs were installed by BTs contractors for the area without approval and it sounds like they are likely to sit there for a while without much else being done. No fibre has been run from the exchange to these cabs.

BT gave me a estimated date of go live of Sep 2014 - hopefully that's worst case and it will be earlier.

Im apparently on CAB 6 which is on Haven drive even though the Page road Cab is much nearer.

At least some work has been done but if what I was told by KCC/Openreach is correct it is still quite some time off before services will start to go live.

Thanks for the info. Bit depressing but at least you have it confirmed that it is scheduled.

Well I see today that they have started work on my cabinet by the traffic lights.

Hard to believe the contractors are still working unapproved so maybe things are moving quicker than expected?

Fingers crossed!

In fact Roadworks.org shows a further 4 being done which is probably most, if not all, the remaining ones.

Hiya,

Yep it does look promising.

Last week when I walked past the cabinet near me - it was opened and the engineer was connecting the fibre into the cabinet. This week when I walk past it - it appears to be powered up as you can hear the fans running.

Ironically despite being the nearest cab to me by far its not the one my line is connected to. But that cabinet is being installed this week near haven drive.

As you say from roadworks it looks like all cabs will be installed in a few weeks. So at least from a CAB pov they will all be there.

Still a bit odd as it wasn't part of the commercial rollout and KCC for the BDUK project said 2013 is surveys and no actual work will start until 2014. Still not complaining.

Im hoping it might be live this year now with the progress - maybe similar timing to the cheriton exchange going live.

The cabs are those that do not meet the commerical criteria first time round but would likely be enabled in a later round.

With the county tender awarded these cabinets will be enabled as they are a 'quick win' to increase coverage in the grey area's before the main deployment begins in the white areas that need public subsidy.

Just got a reply from the NGA email address saying the predicted go live date for Cab 3 is February 2014.

Thank you for your enquiry about fibre broadband at Hawkinge exchange cabinet 3. This cabinet and other cabinets were not part of the Openreach commercial rollout of fibre broadband. However, Kent county council have appropriated funding from the UK governments BDUK initiative and in partnership with BT, are enhancing the Openreach commercial rollout of fibre broadband by upgrading this cabinet. The cabinet is currently predicted to go live in February �14.

Hope thats worst case alot of these cabs are powered now you can here the fans etc.
Odd if they want them running with no customers until Feb.
Cheriton is enabled now (6 months early) which could be a help if they are connected.
Im still hoping before end of year.

Would be nice if they updated the where and when page - still says not in plans when it clearly is.

New entry on roadworks.org for several roadworks for "installing BDUK fibre cable" towards end of month sounds promising. Must be almost the final stage - I hope

Decided to send a mail off to KCC as NGA referred me back to KCC for further info.
Received the following feedback.

Openreach are telling them that there are 2 cabinets left to do.
The fibre still needs to be run to the cabinets.
Current estimate is QTR1 2014 for the exchange to go live with most of the cabinets going live at the same time.