W. Sussex BDUK Phase 2 cabinet about to be installed?

Hi there,

The CEO of West Sussex County Council has told me* that the cabinet that serves my house is earmarked for Phase 2 of their BDUK funded project... all of which of course is 'subject to survey'. Given that our cabinet is just a few metres from the fibre that serves there rest of my village I can't imagine the survey saying it's not possible.

(The reason for BT not upgrading our cabinet when the rest of the village's were was because our cabinet only serves 62 properties)

I was told me that the survey for my cabinet was due to take place this month and this week I noticed spray painted marks on the pavement.

I'm not sure how to embed this picture within this post so please follow this link to see a photo. Where the white box is marked out is the closest pieces of hardstanding to where our existing box is, so if it is for anything else it's a bit of a coincidence. I understand the LV is marking out 'low voltage' - possibly street lighting, which makes sense as there is a street light in that direction.

Can anyone say if the markings mean an FTTC box is coming anytime soon?

I'd also be interest to know if any one knows how these roll outs happen, i.e. do BT complete all the surveys in each phase, regroup to decide which can be done, then plan the actual engineering and installation; or do they do the survey, if all is good start the installation?

After such a long wait for a crazy decision that BT made I'm keen to know if us finally getting fibre - albeit cheap FTTC - is actually within sight, or if its still months/years away

All comments gratefully received.

Many thanks

* amazing what response you get when you copy in journalists, your local MP and the CEO of BT!

Hi - the image link is broken... Where exactly are you please?

Who was the CEO of Wscc that responded? Wscc no longer have a chief exec as the old one left a month or so ago and is not being replaced.

And as the other poster said, your link doesn't seem to work (and you can't post images directly here so so need to use something like Google but maybe the permissions are wrong on the file)?

link works for me , but have to sign into google to view.
Given that the OP has already been told its due for site survey then its a certainty the markings (which appear to show DSLAM position and LV cable path) are for FTTC.

In reply to a post by Ribble:

link works for me , but have to sign into google to view.

It would be helpful of Google if they told you that - it shows the image name but with a broken image icon below. and a very large empty placeholder. There is a Sign In link but not shown as required...

Hi Tony,

Apologies for the broken link. I'm not sure why this is as the sharing option is set to "Anyone who has the link can access (no sign in required)"

FWIW I just tried accessing the photo in Safari. I got the same issue - broken image. I guess when the chaps at Google say "anyone can access" what they neglect to say is "as long as you're using Chrome"

After looking at the e-mail I sent it was in fact to Louise Goldsmith who is the 'Leader' rather than CEO. It was Louise Goldsmith who sent local parish councils letters to say that their parish was to be included in Phase 2.

I'm in Cuckfield, but connected to Haywards Heath via Cabinet 38.

Hope this helps, and hope I get fibre soon - our ADSL line has got worse recently, dropping below the threshold to properly access iPlayer.

Thanks,

Tom

Edited by deleted (Mon 24-Mar-14 15:03:08)

Yes, so you essentially sent the letter to a leader of the current political body rather than to the civil servants. Politiicians will tend to pass these things on as they are directly voted by us members of the public.

I believe that Councillor Goldsmith is actually the political lead on the West Sussex BDUK project so has more than a passing interest.

Edited by ian72 (Mon 24-Mar-14 16:30:42)

Hi

Well I was using Firefox so tried Chrome - but still broken, until I login to Google of course which I try and avoid doing as much as possible... Anyway, it certainly looks like a fibre install is happening there. Our cabs were stood for nearly a year before they went live though so keep your fingers crossed. It's great when you do get it! I went from 8 or so on ADSL2+ to 56 initally but down to about 49 now due crosstalk and some evening congestion as new installs get added, BT estimate was 35 but now dropped to 32 or lower so not complaining (yet).

Apologies again for the pithy Google experience. I know what you mean about them and their all seeing algorithms... I thought (and we all know what that did!) that it was a sign in free process to view the file.

Thanks for coming back to me WRT the markings. Hopefully we're at the point of no return, and that 21st century technology will finally be with me.

Well, I say 21st century technology. Of course we all know that FTTC isn't, but compared to ADSl I guess it's at least a good effort.

Will just then need to find an alternative ISP - I'm damned if after all this delay and taxpayer subsidy I'm going to give BT my money!

Thanks again,

Tom

Edited by deleted (Mon 24-Mar-14 22:15:37)

Hello
Our village West Chiltington is in phase one of the WSCC BDUK roll out. The best source of info is Roadworks.org supplemented by the WSCC Highways roadworks text info [not map]. Things actually happened very quickly just after we got the first scent of an upgrade. The roadworks info changes very quickly and can even disappear. They are installing our cabinets at the moment and we only learned that we were in phase one in mid January 2014. how long we will have to wait untill they are switched on is another matter.