Will I be allowed to benefit from fibre (FTTC)?

I am about 7.5Km cable length from Miserden exchange (01285). My cabinet is about 4.5Km from my house. Looking at the BT superfast website, Miserden is FE, so they intend to upgrade it.

Perhaps they will bring fibre to my cabinet, presumably we can't find this out?

Even if they do, reading your summary it seems that the chart only shows distances up to 1.5Km from the cabinet, giving 15Mbps.

My question is simply whether I will be allowed to buy the service, since I assume that at my distance I might manage to get say 2Mbps? That would be high speed for me, since I get only 0.5 or 0.75, and I would happily pay however much it is. Or will they refuse to let me?

At 4.5km from your cabinet fibre is unlikely even to match ADSLx I'm afraid. If you aren't on an LLU phone line then this checker might tell you something.

What's "FE"?

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 27-Dec-13 22:21:43)

If the estimate is that you can get something out of FTTC then you will be able to order it, but note that VDSL2 degrades faster than ADSL2+ over long distances.

If you are unlucky but still lucky enough to be served by a cabinet that has FTTC then you will be able to order FTTPoD if and when that is available, but note that it is expensive.

That checker tells me what I already know - that 1Mb is the limit I can expect, which is optimistic for my house.

FE=Future exchanges - With dates to be confirmed nearer the time. (i.e. they intend to do it.)
There is a list of different status codes for each exchange on the BT website here (put in a postcode):
http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/the-big-build/

So how will people in places like me ever get even a basic 2Mb service?
(Most people here can't even get a 3G service (hills).)

Have you looked into satellite broadband?

Try tooway there are others but can't think of them at the moment.

Edit:Corrected URL link

Edited by R0NSKI (Sat 28-Dec-13 11:18:30)

Growl - don't forget that if they 'stick to the promise' of the government (ho ho...) your local authority will be paying BT to give you at least 2mb - somehow, so I would NOT recommend looking at alternatives just yet.. You could try looking at the LA website to see.

Actually, .5mb is pretty good at your line length - many have just dial-up at that distance. Also do NOT trust the BT line checker and its 'promised speeds'.

In reply to a post by mikejp:

Growl - don't forget that if they 'stick to the promise' of the government (ho ho...) your local authority will be paying BT to give you at least 2mb - somehow, so I would NOT recommend looking at alternatives just yet.. You could try looking at the LA website to see.

Actually, .5mb is pretty good at your line length - many have just dial-up at that distance. Also do NOT trust the BT line checker and its 'promised speeds'.

I'm not sure there is even a promise to give 2Mb to every house is there?

I had to pay BT £1700 a few years ago to buy a new cable which I dug in myself in my garden to run to the house, to get my 0.75 or 0.5Mb.

As far as I know the political statement remains

"BDUK is responsible for managing the rural programme, whereas local authorities and the devolved administrations are responsible for individual projects, as set out in BDUK�s delivery model. Our ambition is to provide superfast broadband to at least 90% of premises in the UK and to provide universal access to standard broadband with a speed of at least 2Mbps."

NB 'Ambition' and the statement comes from the government.........................

We have an ambition does not seem the same to me as We promise.

I expect the result will be a PR statement saying "BDUK is an incredible success story - we achieved a staggering 99% success."

The remaining 1%, which will I expect include me, is actually a lot of people. Far more than the number affected by the recent floods or powercuts for example.

I will wait and see what happens. The project in my area is supposed be finished by the end of 2015. It all depends here on whether they put in additional cabinets in new locations more distant from the exchange. If there is then no prospect of that happening, I will probably go to satellite at £500 a year.

Indeed, as I said. The slide of government policy over broadband has been awful - we have gone from 24mb+ to 90% to "well, at least 15mb at peak times" and from a USC of 2mb to an 'ambition'. Perhaps worth remembering come election time?

The win-win for HMG is that people only remember the sound bites from Hunt, Cameron and Vaizey and by the time folk realise it has not happened as they 'thought' it would.........................

Does anyone know if they are ever currently putting in additional cabinets that are not next to existing cabinets? (I.e. in order to provide service to those with long cable runs to the existing cabinet.)

Or is this just a potential project for after 2017?

My understanding of BT's FTTC is that since your line is fed from 4.5km away they would need to place a new 'old' cabinet nearer to you first, connect your telephone to that and then construct a new 'new' cabinet nearby to enable the broadband to be fed onto your telephone line (having run fibre out to the new 'new' cabinet = lots of digging!). I may be wrong and there may be another way to do it in which case one of the experts will tell.

In reply to a post by Growltiger:

Does anyone know if they are ever currently putting in additional cabinets that are not next to existing cabinets? (I.e. in order to provide service to those with long cable runs to the existing cabinet.)

This isn't a thing that they are doing within the commercial rollout, and haven't yet done so within the BDUK rollout.

However, one village is known to have subsidised an upgrade in their own area, where the two FTTC cabinets are to be located (or perhaps already have been) with the SCP (secondary connection point) rather than the normal PCP, in order to gain the extended range. Unfortunately, SCPs are rare in the network.

But there is at least news of new solutions appearing on the horizon, though we have no idea how the new solutions are to be used.

One presentation, from Openreach NGA manager to Lancashire county council, lists some things for coverage of the final 3%. See pages 11 and 12 of this Lancashire presentation.

Another presentation, from a chief engineer in Openreach responsible for access-network strategy to NICC on their open forum day, The presentation is here, on NICC's website. Page 9 has some solutions (FTTPoD, FTTdp, and wireless for rural access), while page 18 mentions some "BDUK infill" solutions, including "NGA Amplifiers", an "all in one FTTC cabinet" located deeper in the network than the standard PCP one, wireless cabinets, and more.

Who knows when, or even if, any of them will get deployed in reality. But it is good to know that solutions are being thought of - it means they are starting to think about the final 10%.

Thank you, that was very interesting. It is good to know that there is some hope over the horizon.

Edited by Growltiger (Mon 30-Dec-13 23:11:54)