FTTC enabled in cabinet; but told BT Infinity not available?

I'm planning to move to a new apartment, and checked beforehand with the postcode on the BT Infinity checker that it was eligible, and it said that it was. Also the DSL checker page says that FTTC is available there, giving 69.5 to 80mbps downstream.

However, someone else has moved into the same block of apartments, and despite also being promised that they could get FTTC (via EE, in their case), they've now been told that 'the cabinet is not ready' and have been given no explanation as to why this differs from OpenReach claiming the cabinet is fully ready, nor any timescale for when it would be resolved.

So I have BT swearing that I can get Infinity, and telling me to order, and I have someone already in the property trying to get Infinity and being told it's just not possible. Naturally I'm reluctant to send BT my money just yet.

Sadly there appears to be no way to reach a human at OpenReach; I've used their contact form but the prospect of waiting 10 working days for a reply is not really good enough.

Is this sort of thing a common issue? Can there be situations when the cabinet is fully enabled with FTTC but you still can't get anything above ADSL?

If anybody is able to check these things, it's postcode NG7 1BP, cabinet 126 (which appears to be a pair of cabinets, one old, one new).

If I enter that postcode into the DSL checker here - https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ - It says no FTTC

The postcode checker is unreliable though - ideally you need a full address, or a phone number.

Could be the FTTC cab is full, or one of the cabs isn't enabled?

Flats on Tunnel Road?

It is possible that the cabinet has hit a delay and the checkers have not updated, i.e. went live, they found a problem but not all the databases have caught up.

ISP has routes to Openreach to check and find out what the issue is, and that is why they charge more than the wholesale price to do this stuff for you.

Do the properties have a working telephone line already? And does this agree speed wise with the address check and cabinet number?

Given the full address and telephone number of someone affected it may be possible for me to pester, but only do this once the ISP and other contact methods have been exhausted.

Thanks for the quick response, much appreciated.

I also get the same negative result if I enter the postcode; yet if I enter the full address, it gives a positive result.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18854502/bt_infi...

It is common for postcode only look ups to fail.

Hence why I asked about telephone number and address

If cabinet is full it should switch to a holding message, but this may have happened and the checker change is still percolating.

Checking by postcode alone is useless

Yes, flats on Tunnel Road (see my other post for the cabinet details).

Our attempts to get any information about this have failed so far. BT refuse to contact OpenReach on my behalf, saying they just use their database which assures them that everything is fine, and EE are fobbing off the other resident saying that the cabinet supposedly isn't ready, despite every one of BT's various checkers saying that it is. (Maybe BT would be more helpful if I was an actual customer... but why would I pay for a service that I don't even know I can get?)

The properties do have working BT lines, but they have only been used for ASDL up to now as far as I know. The other resident, on EE, gets mixed signals:

- If he uses this checker (www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/broadband/infinity) with his number, it says Infinity is not available.

- But if we enter his number into www.dslchecker.bt.com , it comes up with the exact same info that I have for the property, ie. Cabinet 126, everything switched on and good to go.

I'd be happy to chase this up myself if there were any way I could get through to someone at OpenReach rather than just the offshore BT call centre who assume everything is fine based on examining OpenReach's database.

In which case given address and telephone number of a property affected I can chase the right people in Openreach and maybe get an answer, need to email [email protected]

Details will only be used for this purpose, no odd attempt to garner marketing information.

Or email Bill Murphy, Managing Director of Next Generation Access. He had email me of my exchange is soon to become FTTPoD but it will not plan to add FTTP.

I suggest you edit out the full address and upload a new version of the screen shot. Or easier and just as good, delete the link from here and copy/paste from the checker, minus the address.

I blurred out the precise house number. I don't think it's a big deal anyway - that isn't my current address, but my current one is not secret if someone really wanted to find it.

its could also be either the develpment is servied by more that one cab of which one is in enabled and one is not -- or the development is EO and not served from a cab at all

Hi, this is the second person involved in this saga posting BTW!

I'm not sure what you mean by "EO"?

Are you also saying that the information saying at least two of the flats in the same block are served by the same cabinet is incorrect?

Is there a way of checking this or finding out whether it's not served by a cabinet at all?

EO = Exchange Only.

It is possible some phone lines are from the cabinet, and some direct from the exchange. The phone number check and the address check in the BT Wholesale checker used are nearly always correct, and the line above the table gives the cabinet info. If that line doesn't show the cabinet it is fair to assume the line is EO.

Very occasionally the database used by the checker is incorrect.

Postcode checkers are unreliable because two properties next to each other can be served by different cabinets and the database lookup only handles one.

Thanks, that explains the situation!

If I use the following link:

https://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/broa...

...and enter my postcode I get "Great News! You can get fibre optic BT Infinity:"

but I enter my phone number I get "You can enjoy BT Broadband now. BT Infinity isn't currently available to you"

If I use the following link:

https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

I get the same as Kylotan: "Telephone Number blah on Exchange NOTTINGHAM LONGBOW is served by Cabinet 126"

I've been told previously the phone number check (and as you have stated) is the more reliable.

Does this at least confirm that it's a phone line from the cabinet and not directly from the exchange?

Confirms nothing with 100% certainty.

Don't believe that postcode is EO just something up with checkers or cabinet is delayed for some reason. Email is with BT Group and will post answer for all once I have one.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Confirms nothing with 100% certainty.

Don't believe that postcode is EO just something up with checkers or cabinet is delayed for some reason. Email is with BT Group and will post answer for all once I have one.

Thanks and sorry for any spamming, before I moved house I'd rejected several places due to the lack of "proper" broadband, to move and find out the opposite is pretty frustrating. 8-(

And this is cabinet 126, looks pretty old and rusty!

http://imgur.com/Bi3bEgW

And should be a nice shiny fibre twin within 100m

It's directly across the road from that one, if I recall correctly.

Yes, this is the other cabinet on the other side of the road:

https://imgur.com/V3ORMWZ

There is an issue with the cabinet and they are working on getting things into the state where orders can begin.

Hopefully should get another email once its all good.

Believe orders should go through now - so time for people should try again

Thanks again, I've placed an order for fibre broadband from EE and at no point did they tell me I couldn't have fibre broadband, so I'm taking that as a good sign... 8-)

It seems I spoke too soon, the "regrading" from ADSL to Fibre took place on the agreed date, I swapped out the old Mk 1 router for the newer Mk2 router (with 5GHz wireless) and everything was working fine, brilliant speeds and much better wireless connectivity.

Until 10ish on Saturday morning, I was literally in the process of running an ethernet cable through the flat from the router to a different room when the broadband died before I could even connect the cable to the router.

I spent an hour on hold to EE to go through the usual motions of checking the router and they confirmed there was a fault, saying that someone would ring back later that day.

No-one rang back so I rang EE again this morning (9am on Sunday seems to be the best time to get straight through!) to go through the checking process again, they have now booked a BT OpenReach engineer and we're going to be without broadband until then at least I would assume.

I have got them to give me at first one and now two months free broadband after this whole debacle so at least I'm not paying when I don't have broadband.

If I was feeling cynical I'd say that EE let the order go through knowing there was still an issue, knowing it wouldn't be something they would have to fix?

I'm now wondering whether the cabinet (as previously confirmed) is fine, but there is a fault in between the cabinet and the flat, a fault in the copper cables which has only happened since it was being used at fibre speeds (just a guess).

Does the phone work ok?

Yes, the phone is working okay.

I've got a red broadband light which then changes to flashing orange for a little while before going back to red again, this process keeps repeating.

The only practical thing EE suggested was to try switching the micro filter for the spare one which came with the router, which didn't help.

The setup hasn't changed since Thursday when the fibre broadband came online.

Router is trying to sync due to no broadband signal or very intermittent

Thanks, is there anything else I can try myself or should I just wait for the open reach engineer?

You could try the modem in the test socket

Cheers, the micro filter is connected to the test socket and it's the main wall socket in the flat.

There is the phone (which is still working) connected into the micro filter and the DSL cable.

That's about all you can do then. When's the engineer booked for?

The open reach engineer is booked for Friday but I haven't had an automated call from Open Reach confirming the appointment yet?

For my original Open Reach appointment I received a call a couple of days before confirming the appointment time was still okay, I confirmed that it was. This was for the morning slot 8am-1pm.

When I rang EE to find out whether the engineer was coming for that original appointment day they told me the appointment had been confirmed for 1pm-6pm, which it hadn't been.

Should I be worried my appointment which should be booked for tomorrow hasn't been confirmed yet, I'd rather not have another week without broadband? (Although saying that I don't know what I would do about it if EE had failed to actually book the appointment or Open Reach had 'forgotten' about it)

Edited by deleted (Thu 02-Oct-14 09:49:17)

I needn't have worried, the open reach engineer turned up nice and early, gave me a courtesy call to say he was working at the cabinet and fixed the problem shortly afterwards. Phew.

More please BBC!

Sorry to reply to a really old thread, but found this really useful. and am having same problem as above.

I am moving into a new home which currently had fibre broadband i believe. I found the number of the person who lived there currently on the internet (looked the address up, and typed in the number on the BT Site to try and get infinity broadband.) it said they already had infinity, and at the max speed. So i've now placed a deposit on a flat and wanted to look at moving in, setting up broadband ready. I use the internet a lot and a good internet connection is important to me.

I went onto the BT site today trying to order broadband and it's now saying it's not available at all - and only 4mb broadband standard slow speed is available. I'm definite this is probably because there's an active line due to be shutdown on the 11th, but i tried calling BT support and they said there's nothing they can do about it.

They said its highly likely the "cabinet is full" - when i try looking at an address two doors down it says yes you can get infinity. Also according to the sites above where i checked the postcode it says its the same cabinet??? so how can it be full if two doors down allows it?

Is there anything i can do to get through to either openreach or BT to sort this out, i wanted to pre-order my internet so it'd be setup once we moved in rather than waiting around for ages for it to work.

Obviously due to DPA and all that they won't actually tell me what the person before me had, even though i'm definite they had infinity!!!

When someone moves out their number becomes useless and when you say postcode, are you using the address checker at https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html (don't use pure postcode as that can give oddities sometimes)

When moving in providers should be ordering against the full address, rather than the old number which will be in stasis/limbo

i tried using the full address - i can give you that address if you want. it still says not available. It was available a week ago on all sites i checked.

I checked the house 2 doors down and it said its available, but for the house i'm moving in (on the same cabinet on that site) it said not available. I don't understand why to be honest, i just wanted to get it sorted before i moved in!

In reply to a post by jasonht:

I am moving into a new home which currently had fibre broadband i believe. I found the number of the person who lived there currently on the internet (looked the address up, and typed in the number on the BT Site to try and get infinity broadband.) it said they already had infinity, and at the max speed.

If you mean this checker

FTTC Range A (Clean) 60 40 16.2 9.9 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 50.2 30 15.8 7.2 -- Available

WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 4 -- 2.5 to 6.5 Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 4 Up to 0.5 2.5 to 6.5 Available
ADSL Max Up to 3 -- 2 to 6 Available
WBC Fixed Rate 1 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 1 -- -- Available
Other Offerings
FTTP on Demand 330 30 -- Available
Fibre Multicast -- -- -- Available
Copper Multicast -- -- -- Available

all that does is say what is available at that point in time. It doesn't say anything about what is installed on that number at that address.

Availability changes day by day in some places. What does it say now for the address? As you say it's a flat, a useful trick is to just enter the postcode in the Address Checker not the Postcode Checker, and when you submit that it gives you a dropdown list with all the Flat numbers at each address.

It may just be the database going through its sometimes confusing steps from a line cease down to being a clear and available to order property.

After a cease it can take a couple of days to settle down sometimes.

Hi - when i say flat, it has its own number, it's not a shared number or anything else. its number 25 - i will happily pm a postcode if that helps.

I know the full address but not the phone number obviously as im moving in in october.

I honestly think its just because there's an active line currently which is being ceased on the 11th, as andrew said above. i will be checking daily though and maybe order it if it becomes available just so i save my spot!!!

It definitely doesnt allow anything for my address but the next door address works fine, either side it says i can get infinity, i assume it must just be a technical glitch because of the line ceasing..