FTTC availability via non-BT providers?

Openreach have been camping around what I assume is a FTTC cabinet they installed at the end of my road for a couple of months now. Local politicians have been trumpeting their triumph at getting BT to upgrade our local exchange (THTG), so it can only be a matter of time before faster speeds can be mine...

What I want to know is, when the service goes live at my exchange, will fibre-based broadband be available via providers other than BT from day 1? I'm with Plusnet (I know, they are a branch of BT really), and I don't want to switch because they've been really good for me.

The Plusnet website won't let me pre-order a fibre service, but BT are already junk-mailing me about their Infinity offering and I think Plusnet may be missing a trick.

Does anyone have experience of FTTC introduction and can advise how quickly one can get switched to the faster service using a non-BT ISP?

In reply to a post by scottme:

What I want to know is, when the service goes live at my exchange, will fibre-based broadband be available via providers other than BT from day 1?

Yes. Next question?

What I want to know is, when the service goes live at my exchange, will fibre-based broadband be available via providers other than BT from day 1?

Yes.

Where are you, Bramley or Sherfield-on-Lodden ?

In reply to a post by scottme:

The Plusnet website won't let me pre-order a fibre service, but BT are already junk-mailing me about their Infinity offering and I think Plusnet may be missing a trick.

Missing a trick junk mailing you you mean?

Neither can sell you Fibre until it is available at your cab and when it is either will connect you to it equally.

As others have said any ISP should be able to supply you with FTTC as soon as the cab is live, with the exception of Sky & TalkTalk, they may need to time to put in their links at the exchange.

Just keep checking on the BT Wholesale checker with your phone number and when it says FTTC is available you should be able to upgrade your Plus Net product. It may also being giving you an estimated speed as well.

Thank you - I will keep checking. It would be nice though if ISPs would alert their existing customers to the imminent availability of fibre.

BTW I am in Sherfield, about 500m from the exchange building.

Supplementary question: I am currently using a Draytek Vigor2710Vn ADSL2+ modem/router, with builtin VOIP. WIll that work on fibre, or will I have to use a different, ISP-supplied router?

In reply to a post by scottme:

It would be nice though if ISPs would alert their existing customers to the imminent availability of fibre.

That isn't really practicable as they only know for certain when that checker you've been give updates for the individual cabinet.

If BT Retail know better than that and other ISPs don't, then OfCom would no doubt not be amused.

I am in Sherfield, about 500m from the exchange building.

Cab 10 then, most likely, to be found here.

In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

with the exception of Sky & TalkTalk, they may need to time to put in their links at the exchange

I've heard about TalkTalk having their own (MSAN?) equipment at the exchange to connect to their own backhaul and the fact that installing it takes time, but can someone explain exactly if this really affects FTTC provision time frame for the customer?

The suggestion is that TT only start the process to add their equipment once BT have 1. enabled the exchange and 2. started connecting people - which would seem to give BT a (month long?) monopoly and a tremendous competitive advantage at every exchange.

If LLU is already available with Sky/TT then they will already have their equipment /back haul in the exchange and will need to purchase the link to connect to the FTTC equipment.

If Sky/TT drag their feet installing it then that is up to them. It doesn't give BT a monopoly because there are dozens if not hundreds of other ISPs that use the BT back haul which you should be able to order from as soon as the BT Wholesale checker says you're good to go.

At the time that I switched from O2 to Plusnet to get FTTC, BT told me that they could not provide it themselves and didn't come back to me saying it was available from them for over 6 months longer.

Edited by deleted (Sun 12-May-13 10:30:59)

In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

hundreds of other ISPs that use the BT back haul which you should be able to order from as soon as the BT Wholesale checker says you're good to go.

I assume you're exaggerating for affect? How many FTTC ISPs are there available to the average residential customer?

So to go back to the time scales question, if TalkTalk are, say, a month later offering FTTC at each exchange it is only because they have dragged their feet? That seems like an incredibly inefficient way to run a business

No, I was not exaggerating for effect, there are dozens (may be not hundreds, but I bet it's close). A little bit of Googling turned up this list, dated February stating there are over 60 that can supply FTTC, and there's ones I know of which aren't on that list.

I don't think TT run their business very well anyway, very poor customer services to start with. My works ISP has just changed over to using TT business back haul, back in November I was told we would be able to change to FTTC in January/February after the change over. Well the change over happened in February, and the availability of FTTC keeps getting put off, something to do with TT, our cabinet has been live since last October. Since speed is not an issue I have not bothered changing ISP at the moment.

In reply to a post by Alexir:

In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

hundreds of other ISPs that use the BT back haul

I assume you're exaggerating for affect?

In the latest quarterly results for BT, it shows that they supply wholesale to 1400 CPs (Communications Providers)

Not all of these will be residential broadband suppliers, but it shows that there is a broad choice for various products.

In reply to a post by scottme:

Supplementary question: I am currently using a Draytek Vigor2710Vn ADSL2+ modem/router, with builtin VOIP. WIll that work on fibre, or will I have to use a different, ISP-supplied router?

You don't need to use an ISP router but you are supposed to use the OpenReach supplied supplied VDSL modem.

There is no obvious advantage in replacing the OR modem IMHO. The router used needs to have a WAN connection and needs to be able to handle the speed of the VDSL connection.

The Draytek 2710, like all Draytek products, is a fine ADSL modem / router but unlike others (like the 2820) it does not appear to have a WAN 2 connection to allow connection of a modem.

It is also liable to have difficulty routing data at FTTC speeds. If you need the VOIP and similar facilities of the router you can obtain any router with the facilities and it does not require abuit in ADSL modem (a "cable" router).

In reply to a post by Alexir:

In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

hundreds of other ISPs that use the BT back haul which you should be able to order from as soon as the BT Wholesale checker says you're good to go.

I assume you're exaggerating for affect? How many FTTC ISPs are there available to the average residential customer?

Any ISP that sells non-LLU ADSLx can sell FTTC if they wish.

So to go back to the time scales question, if TalkTalk are, say, a month later offering FTTC at each exchange it is only because they have dragged their feet?

Yes. Sky too.

That seems like an incredibly inefficient way to run a business

Indeed!

In reply to a post by greenglide:

The Draytek 2710, like all Draytek products, is a fine ADSL modem / router but unlike others (like the 2820) it does not appear to have a WAN 2 connection to allow connection of a modem.

There is also the throughput issue if the FTTC is a fast connection. I ditched my 2820 as it limits you to about 42megabit.

Thank you very much; helpful response.