Conflicting Info - Fibre Availbility?

My exchange Atherton (LCATH) is not due to have fibre enabled until the end of the year as far as I know.... but every now and then I check BroadBandChecker to see if it can narrow down the month.

Anyway, today, I check my online BT phone bill..and thought, while logged on, i'd check what services were available to me. To my shock, it said I could have up to 56meg download, and 20 meg upload. Still in shock, and not believing it... I went to check plusnets website, and again that says I can get fibre.

I'm guessing, as they're part of the same group or whatnot that they might be using the same 'line checker' software....so how accurate is this information? Id like to think that BT know whether BTs own phone line can get a service, but you never know..especially when the Openreach site still says end of 2013 :-/

Would appreciate some feedback. Thanks.

Postcode checking can be wrong, so a check that uses the full phone number is likely to reflect the true situation.

Proof is if you can order it.

Every ISP ultimately queries the same database for fibre availability & estimates - that belonging to BT Wholesale. So it is a case that what this database is saying is the common feature, rather than the software to perform the check.

You can query the database directly: Try here

As Mr Saffron says, the checker works best on your phone number. Next best on your full address, and least well with just the postcode.

If you've used your number in both BT (Retail)'s and Plusnet's sites, it is highly likely to be orderable.

Thanks for the reply. I checked that site you provided:

WBC FTTC Up to 56.3 Up to 20 -- Available

....so I guess it's time for me sign-up, woop woop \o/

That's a tad higher than my predictions... and I currently get an 80/20 sync.

The attainable speed has been going down gradually over the last 12 months, as more people sign up and create more crosstalk & interference. But it is nice performance while it lasts...

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

Every ISP ultimately queries the same database for fibre availability & estimates - that belonging to BT Wholesale.

Including TT and Sky? (It wouldn't surprise me, and it would explain some order cancellation posts we see for Sky).

I do wonder about those cancellations

It's a good question about where BTW get their information from - presumably Openreach - and how often it gets updated. Sky & TalkTalk ought to base their data on the Openreach stuff directly, with their own spin - but even then, the estimates shouldn't change even if availability does.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Including TT and Sky? (It wouldn't surprise me, and it would explain some order cancellation posts we see for Sky).

I believe they use the same OR database, but neither provide a website for public queries on products available.

From openreach and then feed in data they get from their own hardware

With equivalence inputs, actually the LLU providers query Openreach and can build their own intelligence on top.
BT Wholesale do this and hence why they can give different numbers sometimes.

Essentially if the LLU or BT Wholesale want to provide a better estimate they can feed back data from the customers they do have.

Edited by MrSaffron (Fri 19-Apr-13 21:10:00)