FTTC line loss threshold

As an O2 user due to be migrated to Sky I am currently looking at some of the alternatives. My telephone exchange and cabinet are both enabled for FTTC, but until recently FTTC never showed up on the BT wholesale checker for my number.

In January of last year James from Adsl24 had this response from Openreach:
"Unfortunately this line does not qualify for FTTC. I've checked with the experts who have confirmed that this circuit has a high DB line loss. Approximately 18db loss on the exchange-side and a further 26db loss on the cabinet-side. Consequently it does not meet the threshold required for FTTC. This line is somewhat unusual in that it has a relatively short exchange-side but a longer cabinet-side. It's not a scenario we see often."

I was wondering if this would still be the case and would I see a speed increase on FTTC?

The checker at the moment shows "Up to 0.1 Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)" and "Up to 0.9 Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)" for WBC FTTC. I sync at 8-10Mbps / 1.2Mbps on O2 llu (SN Margin 6.5db).

Given attenuation is largely constant for a given line length and estimate is so low then entirely possible fttc will be a lot worse than current service

Thanks for the reply; I was hoping the low estimate was due to erroneous data as the checker gives me an estimate of 2Mbps for ADSL max when I was getting 7 before I switched to llu.

How far from the cabinet are you?

I've seen lines that are 1 mile (1600 meters) from the cabinet are unable to place an order. Those marginally closer estimated to get less then 10Mbps.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/guide/fibre-broadband....

You are probably better off sticking with ADSL2+ if stable then risking FTTC that could be unstable and no faster.

I was told by an engineer fixing a fault a few years ago that the line goes this way to the cabinet. I was asking about FTTC as BT only do ADSL Max and FTTC on my exchange; so the only ADSL2+ option would be Sky.

update: turns out that is the right route for the circuit, but the majority of it is Aluminium so FTTC is a no go.

Edited by Player (Mon 07-Oct-13 14:06:13)