FTTC installs without faceplate: dodgy or experimental?

There have been a few reports on Infinity forum recently of installs that didn't use a proper filtered faceplate, but a hack job with a filter. eg
http://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Infinity/Installation/...

also similar on this forum
http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/f/4234093-hmm...

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I know Openreach have been trialling customer install for FTTC. Is this part of the experiment on unfortunate guniea-pigs, or is it just completely lazy installation (probably by contractors)?

(Repeating my question from Infinity forum because of the different audience here.)

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5213-openreach-in...

No widespread replacement of the interstitial plate has been announced, so the installs might be where an engineer was part of that trial and is just doing what they were told last year.

Some microfilters may not have the right value capacitors to ensure high frequencies are filtered out sufficiently, but I would only panic if speeds were below estimate.

Had a quick look at that posting, and can concur they do leave ADSL plates in situ, but the BT engineer did check mine first to make sure it had the capacitor or whatever & been wired up correctly , mine is an ADSL Nation plate by the way.

I posted on another site that I don't think that plug-in filters are a good idea, and that when they come down to self installs, then if the user has a basic NTE5 master the ISP should supply a filter plate as part of the deal, but if the user has old style masters/incapable of fitting plate then an engineer install is required.

If you haven't read SIN 498 I recommend Section 2.4 and the whole of Section 3. Filter requirements are covered in excruciating detail in 3.2.6.

Thanks for the suggestion, I had actually downloaded that in order to quote from it in my Query to AVM regarding the Fritz! 7390 and vectoring, but most of it is gobbledegook to me

There has always been problems with in-line filters for some people, and that was why I made the comment about i-plates being supplied etc.

I suspect vectoring is going to be dodgy across mismatched chipsets. As alcatel, HG, ECI etc. are developing different approaches to vectoring. Similiar to how SRA was problematic, the only uk isp that ever got SRA working it only worked when the router/modem was the right chipset (conexant).

Also its looking more and more likely this will be HG cabinets only now have seen pictures of M41's inside BT cab's it does seem BT still lack forward thinking.

I've had a reply back from AVM and they are passing my query to the product team to see if anything can be done firmware/software wise. They have a new router/modem coming out later this year, the 7490 which can handle vectoring, but I don't know what chipset it uses,

According to my 7390 the DSLAM it is connected to is Infineon.

I like the features of the Fritz!Box but haven't bought one as they are 'old'.

So I'm looking forward to the 7490.

More details here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI595WrEAh8

Careful with your terminology . You seem to be mixing them up. You and I, and many others here, know what you mean, but people who don't already know could get confused.

The i-plate is an interstitial ring wire filter that does nothing else.

A filtered faceplate (as per your previous post) would require reconnection of any extension phone line to its IDC connectors, with an IDC/Krone tool.

The OR-supplied VDSL2 filter is another interstitial unit, which allows extension phone lines to be left as is on the existing faceplate.

you on a ECI cab.

the fritz 3370 has the same chipset as that cabinet and also its a newer gen fritz model (so may have vectoring capability) but of course it has no phone features which I think you said you require so useless for you.

Is it possible to have your fritz behind an openreach ECI modem? Might be pointless question tho if ECI cabs dont get vectoring.

Edited by Chrysalis (Wed 01-May-13 18:08:16)