Fibre delayed by a year?

Thought for a long time I'd never get fast Broadband where I am. Then about 8 months ago very much to my surprise my exchange (ebchester) finally got on the list for fibre. It was then changed from Future Exchange to Coming Soon with a date of 31/12/13. Great fibre for Christmas Then I was told my cabinet wasn't viable, back to thinking I'd never get fast broadband A few months later Openreach decided they were wrong earlier and not only would my cabinet be upgraded but I'd have fibre by October to November 2013. Also because I live right next to my cabinet I should get max speeds! Great extremely fast fibre Broadband before Christmas

Anyway today I checked and its now gone back to Future Exchange with a date of "End 2014". I hope to god this is just a delay into early 2014 and they're just using end of 2014 to be conservative. Because after all that to only be 1-2 months away and then have it go back to 1 year+ would be horrible!

I've contacted Openreach and I'll post their response here for anyone else who may be interested.

Edited by DonnieDio2000 (Tue 08-Oct-13 13:35:46)

The Openreach Where and When does for some counties also include the council project information so the ebb and flow may be down to changing timelines on that project, presume its Durham that is your area.

U're not the only one, mine is set back until Spring 2014 suppose to be March 2013 then November 2013 and now put back to March 2014.

The 2014 will be for all the cabinets that are planned to be upgraded should be completed by then, it's very likely yours will be done before this date. Though you could be waiting until the end, just think of all the other people with slower speeds than you and who will not get access to faster broadband for many more years to come.

Edited by ryant704 (Tue 08-Oct-13 16:36:56)

I checked on the Openreach rollout plan list and it specifies May 2014 for my exchange, the site map still says "End 2014" but hopefully the list is more accurate?

OK Openreach finally got back to me last week. Apparently they expect my cabinet to start accepting orders by January 2014. Also the DSL checker has now been updated with FTTC details for my house. Says my speeds should be up to 80mbps down and 20mbps up.

So it seems I should have it sometime between January and May next year, looking forward to it

I've been taunted by Openreach since about 2011. Every year it's said "by end of 2011, 2012, 2013 etc". I came off holiday in July and it said for the first ever time, an actual date "RFS by 31st December 2013". Woohoo! I thought. Then a few weeks back it's changed again to "by end of 2014".

To top it off I live a reasonable distance from the exchance, if I was as near as you I wouldn't be that bothered.

I'm not very close to my exchange, just right next to the cabinet. What speeds do you get currently?, just out of interest.

Edited by DonnieDio2000 (Mon 04-Nov-13 21:47:38)

Ah, I see, apologies, thought you were near to the exchange.

I get about 6mbps which is enough for legacy type Internet usage, but not up to multiple IPTV etc. Plus I work from home, I'd like greater upload speeds.

I'm a few km from the exchange and get 4Mbps. Usually fast enough when I'm using it myself, but not nearly fast enough when its being shared. Not so bothered about upload personally. I'd just like to be able to leave something downloading at a decent speed and browse the internet without someone shouting from downstairs that Netflix won't load

Bit of an update, today they finished installing a fibre cabinet at the bottom of my street and connecting it to the telephone cabinet accross the road. Estimated availability is May 2014, so it shouldn't be long now.

Edited by DonnieDio2000 (Sun 02-Feb-14 20:20:45)

Happy days to come.

In reply to a post by DonnieDio2000:

Bit of an update, today they finished installing a fibre cabinet at the bottom of my street and connecting it to the telephone cabinet accross the road. Estimated availability is May 2014, so it shouldn't be long now.

Just don't get your hopes up like I did. The cabinet I am connected to had the fibre twin built in November 2012, yes 2012!! It's original date for service was March 2013...... still waiting. It just gets a new date every few months. The current date is tomorrow (based on bt wholesale checker) however when I check tomorrow it will probably say December 2014!

To they guys getting people getting 6mbps..... I get 2.25 Mb/s down and 0.32 Mb/s up! which is not good as upload lots of youtube video's!

I have resorted to finding good bt hotspots to upload my videos now from my laptop from within my car.......

Have you emailed Openreach to ask them what's going on? (probably have being on here but just thought I'd ask). I emailed them a couple of weeks ago and they replied on Wednesday to say that they expect my cabinet to start providing the service in April.

In reply to a post by DonnieDio2000:

Have you emailed Openreach to ask them what's going on? (probably have being on here but just thought I'd ask). I emailed them a couple of weeks ago and they replied on Wednesday to say that they expect my cabinet to start providing the service in April.

Yes I have but they give different reasons or no reasons (such as we are working on the cabinet) As I said the date has now moved to the 31/03/2014 now, no surprise to me at all. I have given up the hope of getting fibre here to be honest.

Well just checked today and the DSL Checker now says its available. Checked on Sky and TalkTalk sites and they'll both let me order so hopefully I can have it soon Now to decide who to go with. Would prefer to stay with Sky but there prices don't seem very competitive with TalkTalk or EE. Any suggestions?

What is your speed estimate from this checker? I assume you have LLU phone so that won't work. Use the Address option, not the pure Postcode one.

The TalkTalk cheap FTTC is the 2 Mbps upload variant, so if upload speeds are important you need to take their large product, which may change the economics

My results:-

Clean -

Download High - 80
Download Low - 79.9
Upload High - 20
Upload Low - 19.9

Impacted -

Download High - 80
Download Low - 71.8
Upload High - 20
Upload Low - 17.9

Checked a bit more into Sky and since its only a 12 month contract and activation is free it is actually quite competitive, given that the first 6 months of that contract for 38Mb is at only £7.50.

Would like to get 76Mb but they have no deal, just a straight £30 per month which is a bit steep. Also I only get 4Mb at the moment so 38Mb is already a very good upgrade

Edited by DonnieDio2000 (Mon 14-Apr-14 11:39:25)

Oh didn't realise, don't do that much uploading but would be nice to have a bit more than 2Mb.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/sky/package/1417.html

Today is the last day for the 12 month contracts, increase to 18 months on 15th

Andrew

Edited by MrSaffron (Mon 14-Apr-14 11:45:54)

In reply to a post by DonnieDio2000:

Well just checked today and the DSL Checker now says its available. Checked on Sky and TalkTalk sites and they'll both let me order so hopefully I can have it soon Now to decide who to go with. Would prefer to stay with Sky but there prices don't seem very competitive with TalkTalk or EE. Any suggestions?

You could always take a look at Plusnet, £20 a month + line rental (pay 12 months line rental and it's £10.49 a month IIRC) for unlimited 80/20. They are always doing deals for new customers, if you do go with them make sure they know you are coming from Sky, LLU can be problematic at times.

I've just gone for an upgrade to Sky Fibre Unlimited. 12 month contract, free activation, total cost of £29 per month including line rental. Now just got to wait for them to give me a date for activation. Sky's service is self install right?

The standard 40 Meg service is, the faster up to 76 Mbps may still be engineer install, but they'd discuss that on the phone as that is the only way to order that.