Phone line straight into exchange, Fibre poss?

OK as it stands right now i'm in a part of London where your lucky to get 5mbits and there is no sign of cable or fibre (as far as cabinet is concerned) however a couple of years ago when i had issues with my line a couple of engineers told me my phone line was a direct link into the exchange, no green cabinet and no over head poles or anything like that.

Now i'm first to admit I know nothing about fibre but is it a simple case of rerun the fibre from the exchange to my block of flats (very small block only 4 flats) or am i p1ssing in the wind here my exchange is Bermondsey.

Who would i contact given OpenReach won't talk to anyone.

All1

You have what is called an EO or Exchange Only line (as do I). I regret to say that the chance of your getting a decent connection in the near or middle future is pretty low as enabling EO lines is very low on BT's priority list and being in London there is no BDUK funding available to help.

You can check whether you are on an EO line or not using the BT whoesale ADSL checker.

If you are on an EO line you will see something like:
Telephone Number 0207587xxxx on Exchange VAUXHALL

whereas if you are connected via a cab you will see something like:
Telephone Number 0207582xxxx on Exchange VAUXHALL is served by Cabinet 18

Edited by MCM (Fri 29-Nov-13 01:43:47)

Thanks for the info MCM, yes i'm like you then on an EO line no cabinet, oh well so much for this great city, when places like Cornwall are way faster.

All1

One way that BT (say) they'll be able to fix EO lines: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/06/bt-prep...

Other than that, there is development of technology that can dynamically manage frequency allocation within a bundle of cables to manage crosstalk (this is the problem with both EO lines and getting faster VDSL).

But you're right, the sheer number of EO lines in Central London is a major problem, and in addition they can be surprisingly long (I'm on a 36dB attenuation line. SamKnows says to Southwark, but I believe it's really Colombo House aka Southbank)

In reply to a post by mpellatt:

One way that BT (say) they'll be able to fix EO lines: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/06/bt-prep...

Which is what BT are already doing as part of several BDUK funded projects however London has no BDUK funds so we're out of luck and the mayor is only interested in helping small businesses. BT have quoted us £25K+VAT to carry out a network rearrangement and the installation of a PCP and FTTC cabinet to serve the development of 75 properties where I live I SW9.

Lucky you with only a 36db attenuation, the average around here is 42db - and yes I know that's a lot better than some get including many in Rotherhithe.