Fibre no longer available

I am moving house to Elstree and had researched the broadband availability at the house. The house is at the edge of the town backing on to a rural location. Towards the town, about 300m from the house there is a fibre cabinet next to an old cabinet. Given there is not another cabinet in the area, I assumed I was connected to this one.

Since I started looking at the house, websites such as BT, everything everywhere, etc have said I am on an FTTC enabled cabinet but reported 13Mb/s (which seemed odd given how close I am to the nearby cabinet). As of today, however, the websites say I am not connected to a fibre cabinet and I spoke to Zen who checked BT's databases and while my exchange is fibre, my cabinet is not. Obviously this is confusing/frustrating. Zen told me I am on Elstree cabinet 2.

I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on the situation and particularly the following questions:

1) Can I find out where Elstree cabinet 2 is located so I can confirm whether there is a different cabinet?

2) Can I find out when Elstree cabinet 2 will be FTTC enabled?

2) Can ISPs connect to fibre aggregation nodes at BT FTTC cabinets and use BT's backhaul from here? If I am not connected to the closest cabinet, could I just install fibre for myself or setup my own mini/community ISP for the road by installing fibre from the closest cabinet to the house and then distributing it to anyone else on the street who wanted it? I had been planning to get FTTPoD but if BT won't let me do it because if their existing network route, I could have it installed - I recognise it will be expensive but given the rural location, it should be quite straight forward to install with the cable only needing to go under (or over?) one road (assuming the fibre aggregation point is next to the cabinet).

Many thanks,

Brian

Elstree cab 2 is live and has been for some time, and i would guess there is still capacity left on the cabinet.
CPs can only take backhaul from the handover point which is in Elstree exchange.
You may be able to get FTTP on demand at some point in the future, which builds the FTTP network from the aggregation node (not the cabinet) if your pockets are deep enough

The best checker to use is the BT Wholesale one, using a telephone number.

The address checker gives good results with a correct address, but the postcode checker is not always accurate (a postcode can be served by multiple cabinets).

So how did you check before?

Your cabinet might still be supplying FTTC, but BT have temporarily run out of capacity. If that happens, the checker gives results that look identical to there being no FTTC at all. Capacity problems can include the copper tie cables back to the PCP or linecards (Openreach don't fully populate the cabinets from day 1, so need to go back when capacity is needed). The cabinet could be entirely full too - in which case you need to wait for a new cabinet.

Q1: With a 10Mb prediction, it suggests you are probably over 1km away from the cabinet, or you are connected to a closer one using aluminium rather than copper.

A copper line of 300 metres would probably give a prediction of 50-60Mbps.

Other than that, I can't help with Elstree directly

Q2: Yes. Email nga.enquiries at openreach.co.uk
That should give the current situation.

Q3: There seems to be a heap of mis-understanding there, that all eventually leads to an answer of "no".

BT won't let you install your own fibre, and then make use of it as part of their own access network. If you want to make use of their access network, then you have to pay for them to provide the copper or fibre (as FTTPoD) as part of a contract with an ISP.

Their current rules for FTTPoD are that you must be served using a cabinet that has been upgraded to FTTC. Their pricelist shows that you will be charged the distance-based installation charge based on the "radial distance to the relevant aggregation node," while elsewhere it mentions that "96% of premises are within 2km of the nearest AN". However, it isn't clear whether they will charge you for the nearest AN or the one associated with your cabinet.

If you lay your own fibre to the community, then you need your own location to house the active electronics, and need to fund a different way to connect it back to the internet back at some co-location site, probably using some equipment you'd own/rent there. BT's standard access network (FTTC, FTTP or FTTPoD) isn't going to provide the backhaul for you, and a standard ISP isn't going to carry your data.

Thanks very much for both replies. I can see where Elstree cabinet 2 is now and it is clear what they must have done. Cabinet 2 backs on to fields and the (three!) telephone wires in the house come from this cabinet across the fields which, on a straight line basis, is around 600m. This is instead of using the closest cabinet (here: http:goo.gl/maps/AsJhK) which is 300m away.

I have always used the actual telephone numbers to check availability so the cabinet must have run out of capacity.

I will see if Openreach will give me any colour on the cabinet situation over email. Hopefully going through fields means FTTPoD is easy although I'm sure it probably means problems which I can't foresee!

Thanks,

Brian

The cabinet might be across fields, but you can bet that the wires are likely to go the long way around, following the roads - especially if they are underground.

Very odd and strange photo in google map for BT Openreach to put FTTC cabinet in the field with all trees! How odd! They normally put FTTC cabinet by the side of the road.

It is by the side of the road, there just happen to be a lot of trees around.

In reply to a post by bdo21:

I have always used the actual telephone numbers to check availability so the cabinet must have run out of capacity.

You have said "I am moving" and stated "telephone numbers.

Have you actually moved now while previously you were using the previous occupant's number?

Change of telephone number may not have filtered down through BT systems and the number you currantly have may be testing against a previous location.

What does the BT tester says about your address?

I haven't moved yet - I've always been using the current owner's telephone numbers (which are all still active). I assume the cabinet has run out of capacity - all the ISP websites say fibre is not available. I guess I'll just have to wait