Native FTTP

I have been checking for a long while to see when I can get Infinity. I have now found out after a bit of research that I am in a native FTTP area. My house it seems was built after the rollout in my road. BT are telling me that my cabinet is full but this does not seem to be true as I have asked a neighbour to check if they can get the service and they can order. It appears that the infrastructure was put in place by my house developer as there is a BT manhole outside my house (empty) and ducting from the manhole to my property. If every other property in my road has FTTP then Openreach are never going to provide more capacity as nobody else will be requesting it. Surely they just need to extend from nearest manhole to mine ? Any idea what I can do ?

Cabinet full? That makes no sense as FTTP doesn't come from a cabinet. Sounds like it just requires someone to manually investigate this for you at BT (if that's who you choose to go with) and query it with Openreach.

I have native FTTP in my area so I guess my only choice is BT ? I have tried BT sales many times but they keep telling me I can not get an Infinity service and can not tell me when I will ever be able to get a service. Would Openreach just have to install a new node in the manhole outside my property ? Would they do this for just one house ? Who should I speak to at BT ?

Try call to ZEN or AAISP

they both sell FTTP and maybe can help you.

Don't worry had BT Retail twitter account claim they don't sell an Infinity 3 or 4 product (the faster FTTP versions)

Get another ISP to do some checking for you.

It may be if there has been high take-up that the fibre manifolds in the pavement are full, and there have been some issues in Milton Keynes where even number houses can get it, but odd cannot, i.e. FTTP roll-out was cancelled and some jobs left half done.

if house was built afterr FTTP deployed then the systems wont recognise there is fibre at the DP but not fibre form DP to premise -- is it a single house or development

Edited by deleted (Tue 18-Nov-14 22:31:21)

It was a small development of 3 houses. Other 2 houses checked if Infinity was available but because checker said it was not ordered Virgin. I would much prefer Infinity because of the faster upload speeds as I wish to use cloud storage for large files.

I wonder if the builder just forgot to tell Openreach he had completed the infrastructure. Are there pull-ropes through the ducts? (I think they may be blue).

Yes I have the blue rope sticking out of the ducting. How would I make BT or openreach know this. I asked if they could at least survey but they said no.

I would suggest speaking to someone like AAISP/Zen as they can lean on BT Openreach and ask them to investigate,

Or email me [email protected] and I'll pass on to Openreach.

Need full address and telephone number if one is active at property. Also if you have a neighbour who is actually using FTTP then their address would be useful.

Thank you, I have sent an e-mail.

Today I received a call from BT customer care team. They said that they had now received confirmation from Openreach that I am in a native FTTP area and that I will be able to order a service. At the moment they do not know when but will get back to me. Will update with progress.

In reply to a post by putersaysno:

... now received confirmation from Openreach that I am in a native FTTP area and that I will be able to order a service. At the moment they do not know when but will get back to me. Will update with progress.

Keep your eye on the checker (daily/weekly) to see when your FTTP becomes available.
(If you haven't got a BT-based phoneline you'll need to enter your full address and postcode instead)

You may be interested to know that the PlusNet FTTP Trial has now been re-opened to existing customers (in other words you would need to sign up for ADSL first, then apply to go on the trial).
See here

My problem is that FTTP is already in my area and the rest of my road can order it. Unfortunately my house was built after the rollout so there is no fibre built to my door. I would like to think that Openreach would have thought about such things like new builds in a FTTP road and it would be easily extendable.

Signing up to Plusnet might not be the best move as they cancelled their trial once already and I can not do anything until the fibre is built to my door.

In reply to a post by putersaysno:

My problem is that FTTP is already in my area and the rest of my road can order it. Unfortunately my house was built after the rollout so there is no fibre built to my door. I would like to think that Openreach would have thought about such things like new builds in a FTTP road and it would be easily extendable.

Presumably the copper telephone cable to your property is not overhead via a pole? If it was, then it would be a simple matter of looking at the pole to see if there was a 'bottle' shaped FTTP manifold on the pole, and if so, probably just a matter of getting BT to update their database.

Hopefully MrSaffron's prodding of Openreach last week will bear fruit.

In reply to a post by putersaysno:

Signing up to Plusnet might not be the best move as they cancelled their trial once already and I can not do anything until the fibre is built to my door.

I think it would be a pretty good bet that PlusNet have re-opened their FTTP trial due to the fact that there were quite a few disappointed customers who have recently had FTTP made available in their area, but who could not then order from PN. There have been several who have asked and been allowed to go on the trial since it ended.

Good luck in your quest for FTTP!

Edit: typo

Edited by Rastus (Tue 25-Nov-14 16:15:42)

My copper cable is overhead by pole. It appears that when checking DSL checker for all other houses in my road that feed is UG so no FTTP manifold on the pole. There is trunking from my house to empty DP outside with blue rope ready to pull through cable for fibre. I am guessing that there is a fibre manifold in the DP 50 foot down the road that connects to the DP outside my house.

It has been known for there to be database errors ...
e.g. a friend of mine lives in a street where further along the road a FTTP manifold can be seen at the top of the pole. The poles in his part of the street have had ducting complete with pull-ropes installed to their bases (but no fibre tubing pulled through as yet), and until recently the checker said FTTP was unavailable even though the addresses further along and served by the pole I mentioned above with the manifold fitted have FTTP available. All the addresses are served by the same cabinet for their copper services and all are overhead.

When this was chased up with Openreach (via the local Superfast organisation) the database got updated after a few weeks to show that FTTP was available to them, but confusingly it says for the affected properties "Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG Feed Not Evaluated." Strange ...

My friend spoke to an Openreach engineer who was doing some sort of checking/inspection of the pole opposite his house (which supplies his copper cable) and queried the situation; The engineer suggested that that part of the infrastructure had probably been missed!

I have received a message that my property will be added to the manifest record and it should be possible for me to order in a few weeks. Will update my progress. Thanks to the people who have helped me.

Excellent news for you, that certainly sounds like a step in the right direction!

In reply to a post by putersaysno:

Signing up to Plusnet might not be the best move as they cancelled their trial once already ...

Just to add what I said earlier about the PN FTTP trial closing previously; in case you weren't aware, it was only closed then to new sign-ups - the people already on it remained on it and retained their FTTP.

I strongly believe that having closed it once they probably realised that was a backward step with more and more FTTP gradually becoming available, and that they were excluding an increasing percentage of their customers from upgrading. The logical way forward would be to now keep the trial open until they are ready to introduce an official range of FTTP products similar to the BT offerings (presumably keeping the prices below BT as with the prices of the present trial products), and with the potential of attracting new customers.

Anyway, good luck with your FTTP progress.

Telephone Number xxxxxxxxx on Exchange ASHFORD is served by Cabinet 21
Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Downstream Range(Mbps)

Availability Date

WBC FTTP Up to 330 Up to 30 -- Available

WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 12.5 -- 11 to 13.5 Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 12.5 Up to 1 11 to 13.5 Available
ADSL Max Up to 5.5 -- 5 to 8 Available
WBC Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Other Offerings
Fibre Multicast -- -- -- Available
Copper Multicast -- -- -- Available

This is what the DSL checker shows now. Put in an order for Infinity 2 this morning, install date of 12th of December. Thanks to Andrew for his information. Seems that if the BT Putersaysno and you think they are wrong you should pursue them and Openreach.

Congratulations!

Keep us informed on how the install goes - hopefully it will go smoothly. FTTP installs take 2 visits, although normally you would only need to be present for the second visit for the internal stuff.

Openreach engineers fitted a small brown box to the front of the house and fibre / cable was supplied overhead from pole. I now have 2 wires from the pole to my house, 1 wire to each side. Do I need both the fibre & copper wires ?
Second installation appointment was cancelled from the 12th of December & has been put back until the 16th.

Voice will often still come down the copper pair, it can be done over the fibre using Fibre Voice Access but depends on what the retail provider has ordered.

They also do not usually rip out existing copper, because of the fact that lots of people still want the copper e.g. redcare alarms etc

AFAIK, I've seen somewhere that BTOR sometimes use a 'figure-8' type cable which basically consists of a wired cable containing the copper conductors and strengtheners, whilst the other half of the '8' consists of a tube through which the fibre would be blown.

Using that would obviously mean there would only be one overhead cable from the pole to your house, but I guess it would depend on various factors whether this type of drop would/could be used, e.g. where the existing copper enters the building in relation to the fibre entry point.

Maybe TBB member Zarjaz (who installs the stuff!) will see this and comment.

I thought that overhead fibre was delivered in a cable that came with copper too; the old cable can be removed, to reduce the total loading on the top of the pole.

Edit. Grr. Must use refresh more often ...

Edited by deleted (Sat 06-Dec-14 14:23:38)

Figure 8 stuff is what I've seen the most of, but probably like all these things there are variations.

Sounds like the two separate feeds may be coming from different poles, hence a copper feed from one and FTTP from another. Maybe the DP with the copper feed is a joint user pole, having electric up it too ? Who knows without pictures.

Openreach will leave a copper pair to the premises, as at some point you or another owner may wish to use a service provider who does not use fibre to provide service.

2nd install took place yesterday and getting speeds around 80/20. Phone is also Fibre. I was told by the engineer that I could ask for copper wiring to be removed. Overall happy with the way the install went.

Very glad to hear it.