Waiting for fibre

Hi there just wondering if anyone out there knows when my cabinet is going. I live in a small town called callander and it has just recently been fibre enabled as of november 2014 and one cabinet started taking orders right away. MY cabinet (2) still isnt taking orders. An openreach engineer was at it on the 20th of december i believe and powered it all up as i can hear the fan running when standing next to it. So i thought it would be accepting orders just after new year once they had probably updated websites etc. it still isnt accepting orders and its been powered up since the 20th. postcode is fk17 8dq. Any help would be greatly appreciated. p.s before anyone asks i have definitely connected to the cabinet as it is just outside my house and i have checked bt's website + i have checked all the streets around it on the openreach site and they get the same message.

Sorry no dates from me - over to other crystal balls

I haven't got access to any current information either, so absolutely no answer from me - I just wanted to point out that hearing the fans, whilst obviously pretty much confirming that you'll get fibre sooner or later, is not necessarily an indication that it's imminent. My cabinet has been accepting orders and workking for something like a year now, but its fans were clearly humming away for over 6 months before there was any official news from anyone (aside from the plans in the 2011 leaked spreadsheet, which didn't give a proper time indication anyway, just the "phase", which doesn't tell you much in a lot of cases). Based on my town's fibre development and several nearby towns, as well as anecdotal evidence on here, it seems that if your cabinet is one of the first few to physically be installed, it might be powered up within days; but Openreach will wait, until, say 6 or 9 cabinets are physically fibred and powered before they change the status to "Accepting Orders". It depends on how many cabinets are being classed as the single fibre development for whichever footprint your cabinet is involved with. In my town there were originally 10 out of 15 cabinets planned for the commercial rollout. 3, including mine, were up and humming but OR waited the 6/7 months until they came back to the area and installed another 3, which were powered almost immediately, before they then went straight to "Accepting Orders" for all 6 in that same week(ish). The point is, if you're part of the commercial rollout (as opposed to BDUK or council/county/private funding, etc.) then it will probably be a bit of a wait if your cabinet was one of the first to physically appear, but if it was one of the latter to appear in a different patch of visits from OR then it might be done before you realise it. Knowing the "footprint" in which your cabinet is included is the key to working that all out, if I'm correct and not just generalising, but very few people could tell you that. You've ribbled nibbled in the right place though.

I think BDUK cabinets are different, in that they'll be rushed, because OR have deadlines to meet after winning the contract in the area. Others will know more about that.

Edit: Sorry, similar reply to the other thread.

Edited by deleted (Sat 10-Jan-15 07:37:27)

Thanks for the reply Saffron and gazzy. Yeah my town comes under the dbuk funding. My cabinet was the first installed and sat there for about 9 montths or so before it was powered up. People were constantly out at it all the time. Then 2 cabinets were installed really fast and powered up instantly and accepting orders. Just frustrating as mines still isnt. There is only about 5 cabinets in my town i believe. But yeah i thought since bt openreach were getting funding that they would want to complete the job as fast as possible and get it ticked off, Just seems a waste to have a cabinet sitting there powered up for weeks and weeks and not be accepting orders.

All it takes is one duct in the middle of a busy road junction to be blocked and need road works and you can see long delays. Also with the BDUK contracts there is no time for teams to be sitting around - if there is a delay they rush off to do the next cabinet on their list.

What does blocked ducts mean? months after cabinet was installed and they fished the cable through to it etc i saw them back a month or so later digging up the main road to the cabinet. They dug it up in patches most of the way down to the exchange and it was finished couple weeks later. I assumed this was something to do with blocked ducts upon reading what they normally do. However i still dont know what the term blocked ducts means, trying to google it atm

Something in the way of the cable going through the tunnel under the road?

The cable can't get right through? They have to unblock it so the cable can run through?

Just a guess.

Bracklin Rd? Guess might be something happening 26/1 to 6/2 then final Cabinet commissioning testing/certification needing done. Could be another 6 weeks after.

Edited by deleted (Mon 12-Jan-15 17:57:33)

The duct is like grey plastic drainpipe, running underground between chambers. The copper or fibre cables then run inside the duct, from chamber to chamber; any joints in the cables are usually within the chambers.

The duct is meant to provide a nice empty space for the cable to be pushed/pulled through. In the case of fibre, the "cable" normally sent through the duct is actually another, smaller, duct generally known as a sub-duct. The fibre would then be "blown" through this using compressed air.

A blocked duct is one where the cable cannot be pushed through. Perhaps the ground has shifted, and the duct has broken and become misaligned. Or perhaps some silt has washed into the duct from a waterlogged chamber, clogging the duct. Either way, the roadworks are to get to each blockage and fix it.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

A blocked duct is one where the cable cannot be pushed through. Perhaps the ground has shifted, and the duct has broken and become misaligned. Or perhaps some silt has washed into the duct from a waterlogged chamber, clogging the duct. Either way, the roadworks are to get to each blockage and fix it.

Or as often happens, "cowboy" contractors for one of te other utilities come along, excavate a hole, smash the BT duct and do nothing about it. Cables are intact and BT do not turn up on a fault report so they assume it is fine and do not want to pay for repairs. Back fill and "make good rough and ready" before disappearing. Months later, BT has a fault and guess what - they have to excavate to repair the damage caused by the cowboys!