BT Fibre roll-out to rural areas (or not!)

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of guidance (because BT are so unforthcoming!)

We live in a small village in Kent (80 properties) which has a cable about 2 miles back to the exchange (BT won't tell you were the cable runs). As you'd guess our broadband connections have always been next to useless (0.5 - 1 Mbit). We've been trying to find out when/how/if we're ever going to get fibre broadband.

Then BT announced that fibre cable had been run to our roadside cabinet, but we didn't get too excited because we were still not offered Superfast Broadband.

Following an investigation (including the support of our MP) we were told that the box in our village is an SCP (secondary cross-connection point) and BT has only run the fibre cable as far as the PCP (primary cross-connection point) which serves our village.

Unfortunately the PCP to which they refer is 2 miles away from the village (close to the exchange!). So, the upgrade so far is useless to us.

My question to is � can BT run the fibre cable to an SCP? If not, could they upgrade our SCP to a PCP (so having Exchange to Existing PCP; Existing PCP to New PCP; New PCP to houses) or can you only have one PCP in each 'loop'?

Can anyone help?

They would have to re-engineer the SCP and create an PCP instead, and bypass the existing PCP. Then provide an FTTC cabinet . They could ( depending on the number of lines) replace the SCP with an all in one cabinet, but would still need to bypass the existing PCP.

Edited by deleted (Sun 03-May-15 16:06:25)

This was exactly the situation in the Oxfordshire village of Binfield Heath.
The village was fed from two SCP's as child cabinets run from the main PCP which was already converted to FTTC status...and was a long way away.

The solution was exactly as the previous reply but note that
1. It was paid for by the villagers themselves raising the money - a lot of it.
2. I think there was no ductwork between at least one of the SCP's so a complete new trench/duct work system had to be laid in prior to blowing in the fibre which would have cost a fair few ££££'s.
3. I think they were fortunate in the the two SCP's were very near to 240V power access so that aspect of converting them to FTTC status was not a problem: and sometimes the cost of getting power to the PCP due to be FTTC'd can be a great deal of money

Edited by deleted (Sun 03-May-15 16:22:46)

Are you able to get VFast wireless service, a good number of rural parts of Kent can

Until Kent CC aims for 100% superfast it is a case of lobbying and making your case stronger than the other areas that might be easier and cheaper to enable OR finding an alternate source of funding e.g. the 80 properties pay, but at a rough guess of £20,000 to £30,000 for the work might be a tall order.

Ribble, Zom22, MrSaffron, many thanks for the clarifications and advice given.

The clarification about not being able to simply upgrade the SCC to a PCC fed from the existing PCC is a bit depressing as that would have been the simplest solution (and therefore the cheapest and therefore the most likely to be done).

Mr Saffron suggestion of VFast as a possible alternative is valid. VFast are indeed the solution used by probably 10 of the 60+ houses in the village (me included) and they offer an excellent service. Unfortunately, being a microwave solution, the deployment of the VFast solution is limited to those with line of sight connection to another user and the topography of the village (and the numerous trees) mean that is a severe limitation. So for the entire village to be connected to fast broadband the only viable solution is the BT fibre network.

So, that brings me back to the available options of either the villagers paying for the upgrade (unlikely but possible) or petitioning the authorities that be to ensure that we're not continually dropped off the list of BT fibre roll-out due to high cost/low numbers.

KCC have already advised that we are not on the current list of fibre roll-out using public funds (money all spent) but they also advised that they did not know the costs associated with an upgrade for our village as they had empowered BT to make the decisions with regard to where to upgrade on the basis of 'best use of public funds'.

So, any advice on how/where to get a costing from BT to upgrade our village to fibre? Plus any advice on who best to petition to make things happen?

internesting response from KCC

there are a number of commnities that have self funded scp/pcp including one currently in Kent

depends on how mana premises connected and what the network infrastructure cost FYI Binfield heath had 2 SCP nearly 1.4 miles apart

cost will only be povided for Prviate funding

see openreach FAQ's / rural broadband / not on a plan

Edited by deleted (Mon 04-May-15 18:38:06)

Many thanks for all your help. At least we now know the requirement, the process and the options. Thanks again

In reply to a post by PConnon:

Looking for a bit of guidance (because BT are so unforthcoming!)

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/i/6933.html

I have no further comment at this time

In reply to a post by PConnon:

VFast are indeed the solution used by probably 10 of the 60+ houses in the village (me included) and they offer an excellent service. Unfortunately, being a microwave solution, the deployment of the VFast solution is limited to those with line of sight connection to another user and the topography of the village (and the numerous trees) mean that is a severe limitation. So for the entire village to be connected to fast broadband the only viable solution is the BT fibre network.

I have to agree with this. I had a survey for my new address (a couple of other properties within 50m or so of my property have the service) but I do not have a good enough LOS to a transmitter for them to provide a service - this is the problem with wireless in rural locations, there are often lots of trees so it's not always a viable service!

I'm awaiting a response from VFast for a non-standard installation (to connect from the bottom of the garden) but it's been 2 weeks since my original survey and they have not provided me with a solution as yet (even after chasing). Personally, as they pride themselves on offering an alternative solution to BT in rural areas they should be doing much more to help customers like us.