FTTC in Darlington

Hi all I have a question regarding fibre rollout in Darlington which was only added to the list a few months ago with an expected rollout date of 2014. Being a very impatient (and nosey) fellow I've noticed quite a few BTO vans going around the town in the last few days. I had a look on the roadworks site and was quite surprised to see that quite a lot of cabinets across the town are being worked on stating "Cabinet & Power Installation" etc. Could this be part of an early fibre rollout? Or am I simply jumping the gun and it is something totally unrelated. Does anyone have any clues or advice?

I walked over to one of the listed cabinets yesterday (not mine unfortunately - my street cabinet is not one of those on the roadworks map, hope thats not a bad sign) and there was no sign of any work going on but a recangle was marked out on the pavement next to the existing cabinet. Might have to have a walk over again later and see if anything new is happening.

About only reason Openreach need power is if they are installing FTTC cabinets

Roll-out is usually done in phases, with the biggest/easiest cabinets done first

Thanks. Now I'm definitely exclited

Is it normal for a rollout to happen muuch earlier than BT are stating? With them saying 2014 I wasnt exoecting any activity for some time..not that I'm complaining if it does turn out to be fibre.

There used to be a lot more dates, but people complained when those target dates were shifted forward 3 months at a time. So, OpenReach stopped putting quarterly dates down and just put everyone, who is in the rollout plans, go live date as March 2014.

I shall keep my fingers crossed then. Just hope my cabinet doesnt get missed out.

Well looks like its definitely the start of fibre rollout in Darlington, hurrah! One of the cabinets on my way way home from work now has a second cabinet installed a few feet away. However in another location the roadworks site has status of 'work in progress' but when I went past this morning there was no sign of any activity at all. Is the roadworks site usually reliable or do things change frequently?

As a rough estimate can anyone tell me how long it tends to take from first cabs being completed to BT announcing fibre is live?

Roadworks don't always happen when they should. There is no penalty to a company for failing to start one, only for failing to finish - so they won't start unless all their ducks are lined up, and happily drop roadworks if manpower is needed elsewhere.

A rough estimate for a cab is maybe a few weeks to a couple of months from first appearance, but it can actually be anywhere from a week to over a year.

The exchange as a whole usually goes live when the first few cabs are ready - this was mythically 10 cabs, but it has happened with fewer.

But cabs still keep going in after the exchange has gone live - perhaps weeks, perhaps months, and perhaps years later. There is precious little to tell you of real prospects or dates of these, save email nga.enquiries at openreach.co.uk

So cabs now appearing in Darlington. I email NGA Enquiries about my cab and they have said work is scheduled to be completed towards end of July. Roadworks.org has cab install due to start on 31/05. At which point in time will BT update the line checker to show estimated speeds? I'm keen to know what I will likely get as I estimate the cab to be around 100m from my house (give or take a few).

Roughly when the cabinet is put in, you should start to see the speed estimate though it depends when the wholesale checker is updated by Openreach.

As for what speed you can expect, being about 100m you should see about 76 down and 20Mbps up or just below that.

I like others noticed increased work by BT engineers and so I went and asked did this mean Bt Infinity coming soon ? Was told it would be going live in about a month.
As I only get 2.5mb at best and are unable to get 'Virgin' on my part of estate (High Grange) i thought great, but I'll believe it when I see it.
I have just checked and yes, today 3rd of July I can get BT Infinity. Expected speed is 56Mb down and 20Mb up !!!!. I have signed up and they are installing 25th July.

It does seem that this is only for High Grange postcodes so far as I checked other nearby area postcodes but nothing doing - but at least it is coming

That is good news. I have checked postcodes around a few of the cabinets already built, some are showing fttc availabe 30th Sept but others not showing anything. My cab is currently in progress, cab is standing but still part of the pavement dug up. However line checker still has no mention of fibre.

Noticed that there has been a lot of Openreach vans in the area, and today that there were fibre cabinets next to existing ones on Brinkburn Road & Bates Avenue.

No update on the fibre checker yet (I live off Bates Avenue), but hopefully its only a matter of weeks now!

Edited by nbrumby (Sat 03-Aug-13 12:20:00)

My cab (57) on Clifton Rd is showing 30th Sept availability date on the checker. Some cabs are scheduled for power connection according to roadworks site, but not all. Strangely the fibre where and when site still has Darlington listed as FE calendar year 2014.

Nicksteam Lane & part of Bates Avenue are now showing available on http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ - this is served by cabinet 47 at the Newton Lane end of Bates Avenue.

My house is served by cabinet 46 (in the middle of Bates Avenue) which according to the roadworks site is due to be joined by a fibre cabinet next week - hooray!