Birmingham Exchanges

Has been some updates the past few days

FTTC dates have been revised from end of 2013 to September

check on fttc where and when website for more info

Which ones? The only change I've seen is Midland getting pushed back from the end of June to December.

sheldon, stechford, acocks green

Also Springfield (Hall Green).

It appears outside Springfield they were blowing some cable already! Barely two weeks since they started installing the cabinets.

Acocks Green, looks like they were doing some stuff up near the Swan

I live 2 miles from there

by BP Garage

get me some photos d00d !

After asking for details on a few addresses/what's going on in the city centre, I just got an email back from Openreach saying rather uselessly:

I am sorry but as we are Openreach we only have access to our systems and they work on an individual exchange/cabinet, the info you can see on the Broadband checker will show you if Fibre is going to be available this fiscal year end of 2014 which will cover 60% of the UK the next phase if funded will cover up to 90% of the UK.

If on the Broadband checker you do not see FTTC or FTTP then the chances are that it is not in the current phase.

*slowclaps and frowns*

KRO Indeed. BP Garage near the Swan?

I know. More Sheldon that is isn't it?

Well Im afraid I got nothing for that.

But in Hall Green

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjdean/9159714303/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjdean/9161940642/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjdean/9159694959/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjdean/9174462298/

It looks like they've fitted cabinets to

Petersfield Road
Stratford Road (opposite Fox Hollies Road)
Hamlet Road
Lakey Lane
School Road (Junction of Fox Hollies)
School ROad (Junction of Finmere)
Springfield Road
Brook Lane (by Wake Green Road)

New cabinets appear to be being installed
Highfield Road/Robin Hood Lane
Cole Bank Road

There's a few other cabinets that haven't been touched yet including top end of Highfield Road, Green Road, and Stratford Road opposite Doctors Surgery.

I can't find any more cabinets though.

Cabinet Numbering system seems to go up to 27 for CMSPR.

Cabinets completed so far appear to be connected to power and the holes being filled in quite nicely. Can't hear any hum so don't appear to be live for fibre yet. It's only been a couple of weeks since I noticed this. And we've got all this spring up in no time.

Hopefully they're a bit quicker fitting the fibre.

Simon

thanks m8

very interesting

might get on my bike and have a mooch about, easier than driving lol

hi guys i live in acocks green just ! they are fibre cabs popping up all over AG. 2x fttc on victoria rd near aldi warick rd. dolphin lane , shirley rd by doctors. oakhurst rd . cabs. olton b east juction gospel lane. all up gospel lane by skate park and my cab 66 by post office gopel lane opp leysdown. i thought they would forget about my little very very old cab. it took only 2 wks to install new fttc cab.last week i saw the bt engineer while working on my pcp. 800 lines in that sml cab. inside 3 lines of 250 lines. bt bloke manged to condense these 3 lines into 2 lines. he needed to fit 1 nga strip in spare space. (sorry donot kown tech terms for last few sentances lol.) bt checker NOW shows fttc in sept 2013. norm spedd for me 3.5- 4 mps. new quote 50+ .that would be great. sorry 2 ramble on. fttc progress is quite quick as u can see. i cannot wait !!

Edited by deleted (Sun 07-Jul-13 12:11:51)

fingers crossed m8

Anything live where you are? I think I saw them installing fibre, but not seen any indication of anything going live.

How are you getting speed estimates at the moment?

Thanks
SImon

you wont unless your exchange is enabled for fttc

it is harder to calculate as it is not down to line distance but distance from your cab

one of the roads off the cov road is now having big holes dug up next to each lampost

In reply to a post by Stanman_24:

one of the roads off the cov road is now having big holes dug up next to each lampost

I think you might be optimistic in thinking this is related to fibre.

Birmingham are also upgrading Street Lighting to more energy efficient ones.

Holes next to each lampost may be related to this.

My understanding during the FTTC installs, is that BT install a new green cabinet next to the existing cabinet, dig a trench for power and a trench to the nearest BT hole in the ground laying trunking for each.

So fibre comes from the exchange through existing trunking to the hole and then off to the FTTC.

Course I could be completely wrong.

But I think the fact that there are holes by each lamppost, suggesting it's a lighting upgrade you see there.

Simon

I've just checked the DSL Checker, and it's now showing FTTC and estimated speeds. Still not available for ordering yet however. Still shows September 2013. However I did see some workmen by the cabinet on School Road, Hall Green on the way into work.

Ooh. Fingers crossed

yes led upgrades

waste of time and money

have they not heard of traffic calming instead lol

Projected to save 2m a year which isn't too bad and they really are pretty good.

KRO by the way. SOTV.

cant say sotv

it has been banned by saffron

I got a t-shirt printed with it on. back on topic though, im still keeping an eye out for FTTC in Hall Green. Im excited by the prospect of men working on the cable ducts under ground and the rapid progress with installing the cabinets.

no hum yet from the fans, and no stickers on the cabinets for "Fibre is Here" or whatever the slogan is.

I'd love to get some kind of internal memorandum suggesting at least when they intend to blow the fibre to cabinet 13 in Hall Green.

Simon

new cab has gone in on wagon lane sheldon

I saw some more roll of cable outside Hall Green exchange, but didn't see anyone laying cable. This is getting excruciating now. I think there's quite a few more boxes to upgrade en route.

they installing the pipework for fttc in sheldon on the Coventry road, the cabs have already been put in place on the smaller residential roads

Edited by Stanman_24 (Tue 30-Jul-13 10:30:41)