Are the dates from [email protected] reliable?

Hey, most of my town can get BT infinity since last month, my cabinet is still unavailable, I emailed openreach and here is what they said:

Dear Sir

We are currently waiting for the power utility company to connect power to the fibre cabinet. Unfortunately, some of the work is required overhead and we have to wait for a specialised team to become available.
As such, we do not expect the cabinet to go live until around August �13.

Can anyone tell me if these dates given are always accurate? Do they sometimes come earlier? Or is it usually later?

-Jack

P.S Can someone also tell me if that means August 13th or August 2013?

Edited by deleted (Mon 20-May-13 18:57:20)

Throw a pile of coins in the air, how many fall heads up?

Same answer, we don't know. It could be delayed, it could happen on time, it could be early. While there are contracted response times for power, sometimes things happen that mean dates slip

The August '13 will be August 2013.

Ah! Thanks for the help.

In my area I've seen these vans labelled "Murphy" I googled them and they are a power company, I saw one of the vans parked outside my FTTC cabinet, are these the people that do the power for BT?

Here is their website: http://www.murphygroup.co.uk/

-Jack

Openreach use a variety of contractors for their part of the work, as do the power companies. Only way to know often is if they put up a 'working on behalf of' sign.

A lot of the Openreach contractor vans also have a working for sign on them these days too.

I don't believe they did have a BT sign on them, but they seem to be a pretty big company, I saw a van with "MJ Quinn working on behalf of BT" today but they were probably just installing fibre into somebodies home.

check out www.roadworks.org navigate to your postcode then select the planned works check box, see whats going on around your area.

Very helpful link! I think I've found future roadworks on my cabinet, here is what it says:

Works Start: 02 Jul
End: 12 Aug

High impact, delays likely
Description : RC for UKPN cabling works TRO sent to RC's 16/04/13...
Current status: Forward planning
Traffic lights, etc: Road closure

Here is another one closeby with a lightning bolt as the thumbnail:

Works Start: 26 Jun
End: 20 Aug

High impact, delays likely
Location : JOINT BAY 5/6 OPP DELAMERE 30M FROM *******. c\w....
Description : Capital Programmes:PROJECT::EXCAVATING JOINT BAYS/132KV CABLE LAYING...
Current status: Advanced planning
Traffic lights, etc: Road closure

Can anyone translate in plain English the "description" line for me?

-Jack

Edited by deleted (Mon 20-May-13 19:41:57)

If you post the postcode for where the cabinet is then people could take a more informed look.

In my experience with our local cabinets, any power work relating to the cabinets was still shown with a telephone symbol, although this may not apply everywhere.

I would assume the reason It isn't a telephone symbol is because the cabinet is already installed and they just need to supply power to it, as said in the email.

There is nothing more to see on the page but that :/

Even when the cabinets where installed they still show as a telephone symbol, at least around here.

Take a look on Roadworks.org for CT88RS, you'll see a few around there scheduled for power connection, all show as telephone symbols.

Round my way they show power symbols. This is from one of them:

Location : R/O 2 Robsack Avenue. f\w.

Description : Connections Unmetered:INDIVIDUAL SUPPLY: (APPROX DEPTH 450mm):401304468 - 0001. New Service to BT Cabinet & 61m trench (for cable ID).

Current status: Work in progress

Traffic lights, etc: None/signing only

From personal experience, they're the most honest and accurate version of the truth that's available.
Things can still be delayed, but this will be what OR is expecting to happen.

Well there you go then! There's hope for me! On the dates it shows the roadworks will last a long time but I highly doubt that, I assume it is between the two dates, so maybe infinity will be earlier than I expected!

Unless it means they'll start the roadworks, pack up, and finish another time.

Here is a photo of the cabinet where it clearly shows they've dug up the road and routed it somewhere, I would've thought this would be the power. Someone let me know why they needed to dig up the road.

Cabinet Image

I also spoke to a person on the BT Live chat in a few months ago who told me there was a snag with the cable on my cabinet and that I could get Infinity now if it wasn't for it, she was obviously lying because Live Chat employees always tell me they know nothing, she was just trying to be helpful.

Thanks for your help so far guys!

-Jack

Edited by deleted (Mon 20-May-13 22:47:25)

I don't think either of those two roadworks you posted are related to your cabinet, they make no mention of nga or bt works, one looks like it could be a high voltage cable.

It looks like that picture is going to have that trench dug out again, hence the paint.

You could have it dug up for the following.

Fibre optic cable
Tie cables to PCP
Power connection
They've made a mistake with any of the above - it happened to one of ours.

Lol, I doubt it. They aren't even be accurate when you're ordering a leased line. Throw BTw into the mix and it's not going to improve in accuracy.

I was wondering about the paint, that probably explains why the person on the BT Live chat told me about the the snag with the cable, maybe she was legit. If they'd installed it correctly I would've got fibre optic now, grr.

There is a cabinet much closer to my house which has been enabled for infinity, does anybody know any cases of people being able to swap cabinets? The telephone pole is on my driveway if that helps my chances in any way.

I think that in my case it is possible seeing as a house down the road from me is connected to the same pole but is on a different cabinet which is enabled, I'm not too sure how the phone lines work but I just want to know if It's possible, and even if It's expensive I want to know!

-Jack

A "network rearrangement" to provide you line from an alternative would be very, very expensive.

The provision of two lines from the same pole from different PCPs seems odd but I am sure it will have happened before. It is possible that one PCP became full and a new one was provided (probably some years ago).

If you ordered a new line it "may" be provided from the closer PCP but wouldnt like to say whether there is a process to order?

Is this the link for network rearrangement? Doesn't seem too expensive: http://www.bt.com/pricing/current/Exch_Lines_boo/2-1...

That is the cost for moving just the final drop wire from last pole to the property.

You need to look at http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricin...

This list may make you reconsider the not too expensive comment.

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricin...

I think i'll wait...

£330 for drilling a hole in an external wall, be very nice if someone paid me that for drilling a hole