DSL Checker Madness - A rant

I have been waiting to upgrade a friends ADSL based service to VDSL once the exchange and cabinet were commissioned.

Earlier this year, ahead of expectations, everything was ready and the checker gave forecasts of something like 16 to 10 (Clean) and 14 to 5 (Impacted). His current ISP does not offer and FTTC services so a move was necessary. He enquired about terminating service and was told that there was no way he could retain his ISP based email address after the service was terminated - even at a cost. With 20 years of contacts, a lot of whom still used the ISP email address he needed to move all his family across.

He obtained his own domain and email - then started the transition - which took nearly two months doing some every day. When it was nearly complete he asked me to inititate the transition.

A few days previous, I had called BT to get costs of the business service - as it would be sub-15Mbps and knowing the line length from the cabinet probably towards the sub-10 mark. Current ADSL speeds are down at 1Mbps with a 9km line so even 5Mbps would be a great improvement.

So, I then go to the checker and find that his house no longer has an entry for FTTC - although it still shows FTTPoD! Calls to BT say, sorry not available and no one can say why.

So, I do some investigations on other "local" houses. The lines leave the cabinet and travel a short way underground before becoming overheads for the rest of the way. At a fork in the road, 6 lines go right and another 6, including his, go left. When I measure the distance from the split to his house and to the first house in the other direction, the lines are of similar length within a few metres. That property sees speeds of 8 Mbps and just over - however the checker says not available on both phone number and full address, rather odd. A property further along has predicted speeds of 19-12 and 16-6 on the checker - they receive a similar 6-8 Mbps. And we know they are all on the same cable as they all lost service at the same time when one was stolen and then renewed.

WHY? Why is the checker so inaccurate or failing to display correct forecasts? And yes there is still space in the cabinet - houses very close by can still order.


OK - rant over and time see who I can nudge!

Hmm, I have seen a few addresses that was posted on here that have had no FTTC nor FTTP however did have FTTPod, and if I recall (might be wrong) it was an error in the BTW Database.

The way I see it for FTTPod to work you would need to have access to FTTC.

Have you tried BTOR's Where and when page?
What does that say for their address and or phone number?

Paul

You can have FoD for order so long as connected to a cabinet, but long lines do not see FTTC option. Since its a long line the FoD price will be full price, i.e. lots of fibre to blow/install to reach you.

It is possible for the line on the split to be in worse condition and thus Openreach have pulled the estimate, or one of the 6 ordered and it did not work, thus estimate has had feedback applied.

You are basing this on the BT Wholesale checker at http://www.thinkbroadband.com/btavailability.html rather than the BT Retail/BT Business ones which tend to overlay a different picture of not liking to supply slow lines.

It is something that the ISP who have access to the openreach range figures to figure out and push through. To be honest BT Business is not the right people to use when things are behaving like this someone like AAISP is who you need on the case.

I was more getting at that you need to be connected to a fibre cabinet to be offered FTTPod, basically addresses not connected to a fibre cabinet (i.e. only ADSLx via PCP cabinet) wouldn't be able to get FTTPod, that's what I meant.

Or am I wrong again

Paul

Yes, there could be a difference in each direction. However, given that VDSL will be using the lower frequencies, experience of ADSL should give something of a pointer. With ADSL houses in the other direction had similar slightly worse speeds. And now after some tweaking ADSL is probably above the normal for the line length. The whole line has recently been checked end-to-end and at each junction/joint and given a very clean report.

None of the neighbours have tried to order - there are just four cottages.

Previously, every checker, be it the BT Wholesale or various retail/business ones all gave a yes.. And now, they are all blank - even for one which has a reasonable service with Openreach saying E(xploring) S(olutions) - the same as the friends house.

It is just frustrating.