EOL in Kent

Hi,

I had not heard the dread words 'exchange only line' until yesterday. I have been waiting for fibre for ages as the roads were dug up months ago but yesterday BT OpenReach said I was live and accepting orders. Hurrah, except no provider could provide fibre. Today I managed to get confirmation that I (like 100 other households in the village) have an EOL and will not be getting fibre for the forseeable future.

Has anyone got any idea if BDUK/Kent will be doing anything about EOL households?

Thanks,
Bob

If you give your exchange / postcode someone may be able to help.
Also, have you entered your postcode in the Making Kent Quicker page?
http://webapps.kent.gov.uk/KCC.BroadbandChecker.Web....
I don't know how reliable the info is from there, but worth a try.
I'm on an EO line in a Kent village but it seems like I might get fibre one day - so it's not necessarily a definite no, but I guess every exchange etc. is assessed on a case by case basis.

How about alternatives?

Fixed Wireless Access from Vfast Internet - http://vfast.co.uk

Thanks. My exchange is Pembury, the postcode TN2 4HL

I have checked the KCC website, they say I should get fibre but then cover themselves with ifs and buts.

None of these websites (OpenReach, BDUK, county council, ISPs) seem to acknowledge that there is such as thing as an exchange only line. It seems a bit odd as it must affect a lot of households.

Edited by deleted (Sat 03-Jan-15 16:07:39)

Thanks, I had not heard of vfast before.

BDUK Kent do appear to be intending to address some EO lines.

For example, our village exchange (NDBOU, exchange location ME13 9AP) has also just gone live for FTTC, bang on schedule for phase 4. I believe there are quite a number of EO lines in the village, including every one in my postcode. According to the Kent website we are due to get FTTP in the next phase of the rollout, phase 5, planned for deployment during January to June 2015. Fingers crossed.

Unfortunately SamKnows is showing the Pembury exchange as not scheduled for FTTP, but I guess that doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility of another cabinet being put in for the EO lines.

In reply to a post by 5km:

How about alternatives?

Fixed Wireless Access from Vfast Internet - http://vfast.co.uk

Anyone know anything like this that covers Bedfordshire? I'm stuck in a no internet zone!

Hi Bob,

You appear to be scheduled as part of the Phase 4 rollout which is probably starting sometime now.

As far as I know the work that was just completed in Pembury was Phase 3 (I live near the Rec and was able to place an order just before Christmas against Cab 3 on Lower Green Road). The ability to order went live about 5 days after the work finished. Phase 3 was July to Dec 14.

I was avidly checking kent.roadworks.org for months to see when the work would start in/around Pembury. There is an option on roadworks.org to show future roadworks and BTOR seem to post their schedule about two weeks ahead. There is nothing showing for your part of Pembury yet near the exchange but it is worth checking back every week

Stuart

By the way, have you looked at the new interactive map on the Making Kent Quicker website -putting in a postcode shows individual properties. For your postcode it looks promising - there is a patch without fibre, presumably the EO lines, but due to be enabled by the end of 2015.

Is that postcode your postcode, or the exchanges.

I think the EO on Pembury may be addressed by the addition of a new cabinet and FTTC twin cabinet 8 I think.

Wow, thanks, I had managed to miss that somehow. End of 2015 is something to look forward to.

My postcode.

They could always put FTTP to my house if they like

Thanks Stuart.

Will they have to do any roadworks for EOLs? I thought that if the lines go into the exchange already it would be all on BT's premises. I did fear that they weren't going to address the EOL issue at all so it is nice to know that we are being scheduled for 2015.

If it was going to be fttp then usually no changes are made to phone side. Believe it will be fttc

Sometimes they need roadworks, sometimes they don't

As MrSaffron says, the www.roadworks.org site simply shows the civil works for any utility including Openreach. Works can vary from installing new ducting to accessing manholes to repair cables.

Works associated with Fibre/BDUK works can be identified by reading the description of works. Sometimes it states Fibre/BDUK but it will never have any 'go live' dates of cabinets.

I'm not sure they will do FTTP from Boughton. I expect just a cabinet next/outside the exchange.

I wasn't getting anywhere seeing if they would do anything about lines too far from the cabinet in Oversland.

In reply to a post by bobd91:

Thanks. My exchange is Pembury, the postcode TN2 4HL

I have checked the KCC website, they say I should get fibre but then cover themselves with ifs and buts.

None of these websites (OpenReach, BDUK, county council, ISPs) seem to acknowledge that there is such as thing as an exchange only line. It seems a bit odd as it must affect a lot of households.

I'm in Pembury High Street and a BT engineer is coming to my house to install fibre modem this week. My postcode became AO (accepting orders) on or around 25th December 2014 and requested a switch over immediately. BT engineer date was confirmed on 30th.

Well the Boughton exchange is slated to get both FTTC and FTTP.

It woud make sense to use FTTP - there are a lot of properties fairly densely distributed within a few hundred metres of the exchange with EO lines. I think the unkown is whether we will all get FTTP or whether it will only be some.

The interactive map seems to show Oversland as fully enabled, but presumably properties connected to a fibre cabinet but too far from it for service are being smudged over in the data.

The council have just got a new tranche of funding for more BDUK work, and do seem determined to get every household in the county onto fast connections one way or another eventually, so I guess the unlucky few will get there in the end, although not much consolation now.

Edited by deleted (Mon 05-Jan-15 13:10:50)

Slightly envious in that I placed an order on the 23rd for Pembury and the earliest date for an OR engineer visit at the time was 13/1.

Not exactly sure what the engineer is going to do as I already have a valid faceplate and VDSL modem.

Stuart

Are you simply migrating an existing fibre connection to another ISP?

Fibre available but slower than ADSL:- http://t.co/gYHSqvjjmH

Ouch!

Maybe it depends your on ISP?

I'm having mine done tomorrow

No. I am currently on ADSL2+ with TalkTalk Business but using my own router (Billion 8800nl) which is also VDSL compatible.

I have not used an ISP supplied router in years as I prefer to run in modem only mode and hand off capabilities to a separate security gateway.

I updated my master socket face plate a couple of months ago.

Stuart