Superfast Surrey and Exchange Only Lines

Been annoyed that the ~500 Exchange Only (EO) households on my estate in Caterham are not part of the Superfast Surrey project and, according to BT Openreach and Virgin, are also not part of their cabinet plans either.

So I did some digging. E&OE.

I suspect that Superfast Surrey and BT have agreed that the vast majority of Surrey's EO lines come under the BT commercial rollout based on VDSL2+ Vectoring tech being approved and rolled out in 2014. If I'm right this is bad news for those with EO lines longer than 1.5km (me included).

I also think Superfast Surrey's 99.7% target is so overly optimistic that it cannot be believed. If true it means just ~1,600 Surrey premises won't have access to Superfast Broadband by the end of 2014.

So basically I'm not getting unlimited Superfast Broadband, be it 15Mbps, 24Mbps or more, any time soon.

Based on figures I found via Google:
475,670 dwellings in Surrey (http://www.surreyi.gov.uk/get/ShowResourceFile.aspx?ResourceID=1124)
61,900 businesses (http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/527050/Economic-overview-slides.Feb-2013.pdf)
84,000 of the above to be reached by the £35,200,000 Superfast Surrey Project (http://www.superfastsurrey.org.uk/faqs/)

Anyone on E0 lines are doomed..... for not getting FTTC.

Unless BT decide to implement an exchange FTTC cabinet and activate these lines. If I were in your situation I would run a start to run a local community initiative to get the Exchange FTTC enabled

Good idea Ian. I've since got it in writing from BT's CEO Joe Garner that we're not getting Superfast Fibre Broadband and also from Surrey County Council stating the same. I can use these to go to the local press (all interested).

On a related note, despite everyone saying we're not getting it, a new cabinet, reference below, has popped up about 300m along the route of our EO lines.

CCC 7/7 Cabinet 21446
(PCP29) BDUK. SIDE OF 16 TO OUTSIDE 16 WESTWAY ON, MONEY ROAD....

Any idea who this cabinet is for?

if you sare that far away from the exchnage (greater than 1.5km) you could see if community wanted to fund a new pcp and dslam near entrance to estate -- it can be done -- there are a nyumber of communitires already doing it -- see openrreach FAQ's -- not majorly espensvice -- only concern would be the nubmer of premises that mighgt need to be coverered - but it is quitew bespoke

Edited by deleted (Thu 17-Jul-14 07:42:15)

In reply to a post by bbjiggy:

CCC 7/7 Cabinet 21446
(PCP29) BDUK. SIDE OF 16 TO OUTSIDE 16 WESTWAY ON, MONEY ROAD....

Any idea who this cabinet is for?

Is that not a green cabinet on the side of Money Road? (I can't see clearly as on phone and can't zoom in)

I susspect Cab 29 is one of several cabs to provide a solution for E/O lines

Edited by deleted (Thu 17-Jul-14 19:36:07)

I susspect the cab shown on streetview is a cable company cab

Superfast Surrey are also not upgrading approx 500 exchange only lines, all new build flats, in Epsom town centre. They told me that I was "in a commercial rollout area" despite my email containing quotes from NGA Enquiries and CableMyStreet directly contradicting what they were saying.

Their 99.7% target is based on the concept of "areas", where they can just draw squares on a map and declare all properties in the square as receiving a commercial superfast service, despite BT's EO problem and VM's policy of not serving flats at all.

I've moved out of the area luckily but I wasn't able to get anywhere in my email battle with them.

In reply to a post by IranianGiraffe:

Is that not a green cabinet on the side of Money Road? (I can't see clearly as on phone and can't zoom in)

In reply to a post by Ribble:

I susspect the cab shown on streetview is a cable company cab

The one on Street View is a Cable TV cab yes. The BT one is new and to its left. More details here:

http://roadworks.org/
CR3 5TF; Next 12 months

Ah ok like I said I was on my phone so could just about make out what looked like a green cab so sorry about that.

Ribble has said (in a roundabout way) that it's a cab for EO lines with others to come as well so hopefully you will be in luck.

Update: my EO line has been re-arranged to a new cabinet (no. 29) outside the exchange building. It's still over a mile away so not likely to get VDSL but it's worse than that:

My ADSL speeds have dropped from 11mbps to 7mbps.

So not only was I unlucky enough to be on an EO line in the first place, but when I am finally moved to a cabinet, it's too far away, and my ADSL speeds have plummeted 40% as a result.

Curse you BT !

- so you were getting 11 meg on EO and you compained

Hell yeah - my business was planning on increased upload speeds. But it was more about being given a date for VDSL that got pushed back before finally being cancelled that annoyed me.

Would you not have complained then?

Are you sure are that the new cab outside the exchange is PCP 29?
I think that is either 15 or 28

Edited by deleted (Tue 09-Sep-14 08:11:46)

Ribble - you're a genius.

Double checked my old notes and it seems the new cab I mentioned earlier in the thread is PCP29
"(PCP29) BDUK. SIDE OF 16 TO OUTSIDE 16 WESTWAY ON, MONEY ROAD...."

It's approx 650meters to walk the route so I'm hoping, based on the fact my considerably longer EO line was capable of 11/1 ADSL, I'll get 40/10 with little issue.

Thanks again Ribble!

You could go round and see it for yourself.

In reply to a post by bbjiggy:

It's approx 650meters to walk the route so I'm hoping, based on the fact my considerably longer EO line was capable of 11/1 ADSL, I'll get 40/10 with little issue.

Does that extend the overall route back to the exchange, and explain the drop to 7Mbps?

My first FTTC connection was 650m to the cab; when I was on a 40/10 package and receiving 40/10, the modem reported the max attainable was 60/16. That was only about 9 months after the cab was installed, so I expect crosstalk will have dropped that somewhat by now.

The route hasn't really changed much. I did notice they changed my DSLAM around the same time:

BEFORE
DS Actual Rate : 10900343 bps US Actual Rate : 944000 bps
DS Attainable Rate : 11076000 bps US Attainable Rate : 1154704 bps
DSLAM CHIPSET VENDOR : < TI >

AFTER
DS Actual Rate : 8056000 bps US Actual Rate : 964000 bps
DS Attainable Rate : 8088000 bps US Attainable Rate : 1255400 bps
DSLAM CHIPSET VENDOR : < TSTC >

In reply to a post by Ribble:

You could go round and see it for yourself.

It's on my way to work so I know the route quite well. Here's a pic from this morning.

http://s29.postimg.org/e59wqj7xz/IMG_20140915_070935...

Just the power and testing to go:

Location : (PCP29) BDUK RELATED WORKS. OUTSIDE 16, WESTWAY....
Description : Install 3m of 1 way power duct in Footway,Performing an 1excavation to expose existing power cable

Location : (PCP29) OPPOSITE ACROSS CARRIAGEWAY TO OUTSIDE 3, MONEY ROAD...
Description : Install 3m of 1 way power duct in Footway,Install 6m of 1 way power duct in Carriageway

Good news! Our new cabinet went live about 10 days ago and we ordered FTTC very soon after.

It was just connected today by a competent Kelly Communications engineer who also rearranged our master/extension sockets and fixed a crackly line to boot.

Speed is 80/20.

I'd like to take my last post back please.

Line has become almost unusable now. Very noisy, keeps dropping out. Also noticed the new master socket screws are not long enough to hold it to the wall plate so it's actually being supported by just the test socket.

Bah!

Hi. Been involved a bit in pushing for FTTC everywhere locally, incl the new box 29. interested in experiences from you and others and good it finally went live in early Oct. Does anyone know what EO lines boxes 15 & 28 serve in terms of general area. They are new pairs of boxes at exchange, so assume the lines must serve a couple of areas in Caterham Valley?. Other activity thanks to Superfast Surrey is a box being installed outside Waitrose ( Box 19), to link to the old cab outside NatWest. Told that is due for service this quarter and covers Croydon Rd....

What do we have to do to get the Caterham Exchange able to support FTTP (330Mbits) is the next critical question....

Update: 12 days after the fault BT Openreach have fixed it and speeds are on the mend - getting better each day.

Basically the contractor who installed the Superfast Broadband disturbed an old fault and we were running on only one wire. Phone didn't work at all 99% of the time but broadband limped along.

I say limped along, that one thin copper wire gave approx 15mbps symmetrical speeds which I find amazing.