Yardley Gobion exchange, what next?

Hi all,

So I've been patiently (yeah right...) keeping up with the superfastnorthamptonshire , watching what's been going on with may particular exchange (Yardley Gobion (SMYG)) and out of the 5 cabinets that it's connected to, only 2 are being enabled in the 'first phase'. Cabinet 4 (the one I'm connected to in Potterspury) and cabinet 2 in Yardley Gobion itself. The work on Cabinet 4 appeared to complete 3 or so weeks ago and cabinet 2 last week. So what would be the process and expected wait now? As far as I can tell (checking Samknows regularly) the exchange isn't fibre enabled yet so, I guess that is the next stage. Then blowing the fibre down to the cabs?!
Since living where I am, over the last 2.5 years I've watched my ADSL sync rate fall from 11.2Mb/s to 9.7Mb/s and even a change from Coms to Xilo recently hasn't rectified that. So I'm about ready for a move to a 21st century broadband service!

Any advice and/ or information would be greatly received.

Cheers,

PAul

Don't rely on SamKnows for exchange info, best is to track the cabinets you are interested in using https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

Cabinets can LOOK all done, but still be a few months away as the other work e.g. blocked ducts a few miles away may be impacting on its go live date. Also for smaller exchanges the fibre may run NOT to the exchange but a larger parent exchange 10 miles away.

Out of interest, what would qualify as a 'smaller' exchange? Mine supplies 1200 premises'.

I've been checking the BT site practically hourly so that one's covered too!

As far as I can tell, the cabinet(s) aren't powered up as they're silent. Number 4 is definitely connected to a power line though as I've seen the manifold in the ground. I'll guess they'll power it up when they connect it to the fibre.
I've also been checking Roadworks.org and there is no mention of works in the area, to lay or unblock ducting, all the way out to a year today. It's frustrating that only parts of the big picture information are available!

Paul

As a guide my cabinet took four months from standing and looking all done to going live, did spot various works heading back to the exchange in that time period.

1,200 premises is pretty small given 5,500 exchanges cover some 27,000,000 telephone lines. Guessing that you will actually have the fibre served from Wolverton.

BTW really only need to check availability weekly

Interesting. So Wolverton is in Buckinghamshire and my cabinet is in Northamptonshire. So who would foot the bill for the ducting work etc?
This is the deployment map for the initiative for reference.

Wolverton is fibre enabled and has been for sometime I suspect.

With regards to checking the BT site, only checking weekly goes against every grain of my obsessive being!

Paul

In reply to a post by youngsyp:

With regards to checking the BT site, only checking weekly goes against every grain of my obsessive being!

Paul

Setup a page watcher and you'll never need to check again, you'll get an email when anything changes.

Making your exchange a fibre head end might be more expensive than the ducting to the other exchange. Depends on what existing ducting is available in the area, but not unusual for 8 to 10 exchange worth of cabinets to be served by one master exchange.

Who pays - well your project will pay to link your cabinet or enable exchange based on the gap model that is in place for the contract.

The maps tell you nothing about where the hand over node will be, if they wanted it could be 20km away

Yes, that's an interesting one. As mentioned, at this stage, there is no planned work to lay any ducting between any exchange and my cabinet. So it's another case of wait and see.

Interestingly, Paulerspury exchange (EMPAULE), just up the road, has been fibre enabled and that serves just 500 odd properties. Even though Towcester (EMTOWCE), that serves 5000 properties, is around 4 miles away, straight up the A5.

If anything, I'd have thought serving 'our' cabinets from Paulerspury would be more cost effective and physically easier due to proximity and location. But who knows, that could be way off the mark.

Paul

Hi,

Curiosity is getting the better of me again... Would anyone with insider knowledge be able to shed some light on whether the exchange is due to be enabled or not? And when please?

Thanks in advance,

Paul

Your first post has the current state of play, i.e. some cabinets as for the when down to the project to release that information.