New to FTTC with questions before celebrations

After years of struggling with an unstable 3.5mb line (shared between 5 people), I was delighted to see my cabinet and exchange on the list of New FTTC/FTTP cabinets for w/e 11th May (this week!). I went ahead and did a search on BT's dsl checker and it does say that my exchange is finally enabled.

Before I celebrate I thought I would ask a couple of questions here first:

- Am I really enabled? You see, whenever enter my phone number in the checker it says I am, but if I use my address or postcode instead it only gives me back the terrible speeds I am currently on so which should I believe. Could be a case of them not updating their database? I am on exchange CLYDEBANK served by cabinet 43.

- The other thing I am worried about is the distance between my house and the exchange which Samknows reports to be at least 2.29km (straight line), would this cause any speed or instability issues? I say this because I will have to change providers to take advantage of FTTC and I am thinking of going with BT Infinity, but would rather have the devil I know if the quality of service will be bad due to distance. Basically I am asking if the long distance I have to my cabinet a problem to getting FTTC?

- And finally I would really appreciate any recommendations you might have for service providers, I am currently thinking of going with BT but I am open to any suggestions. I am thinking of ditching my BT landline and going with the Post Office's for phone and with BT Infinity 2 for broadband.

Many thanks for your help!

It is the distance between you and the cabinet that matters, not the exchange.

What speed does the checker predict?

How could I check the distance between me and the cabinet? Samknows only provides the distance to exchange I believe.

This is what the checker predicts:

FTTC Range A (Clean) 80 74 20 20 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 80 61.9 20 12.2 -- Available

WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 4.5 -- 3.5 to 5.5 Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 4.5 Up to 0.5 3.5 to 5.5 Available
ADSL Max Up to 2 -- 1 to 3.5 Available
WBC Fixed Rate 1 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 1 -- -- Available
Other Offerings
Fibre Multicast -- -- -- Available
Copper Multicast -- -- -- Available

That suggests you are probably 300m or less from the cabinet. Try walking it - the cabinet will have a number on it to ensure you have teh right one.

However, with figures such as those - there is not too much to worry about. Mine is A (clean) 80 to 60 and B (impacted) 74 to 48 - I am around 400-440 m actual distance and speed is never an issue.

That is fantastic news thank you very much for your reply!

Another thing, what does (impacted) mean here?

And seeing as your predicted speed is 80 to 60, can you tell me what speed you're getting at the moment, if you dont mind?

Thanks again!

Clean - a perfect line without wiring issues and crosstalk at low/normal levels

Impacted - potential wiring issues and higher levels of noise/cross talk.


I am syncing at 77Mbps and speedtests give around 72-73 Mbps

Clean means you have perfect wiring - both outside the home and inside. It implies the splitter is made an integral part of the NTE5, so all the home wiring has no impact, and that there are no spurs left attached before the NTE5.

Impacted is assumed to mean that you have some form of wiring gremlin somewhere.

Generally, the aim seems to be that an engineer installation would take care of all wiring problems, so your speeds should end up in the "clean" range (though note that speeds may change over time, they should only tend to vary within the range).

However, the assumption is that a self-install would not fix any wiring problems, so speeds could expect to be "impacted" by such issues.

I had an old line that was 350-400m long, with clean predictions of 61/20 - 80/20, and impacted predictions of 48/12 - 75/20. When first installed (by engineer) it ran at 80/20 with attainable speeds of 88/24.

Over 30 months, the attainable speeds dropped slightly until eventually the actual speed dropped too. When we left there, it synced at around 78/20.

I just went out for a walk to see if I can spot a cabinet with the number 43 (my results from dsl check) and I found a couple of them some 30 meters from my house but were unnumbered.

Would I be better off asking for an engineer to install it? Is that even a possibility? And would it be at extra cost?

Thank you all again for the helpful replies!

Are you sure they are BT cabinets? Look on all four sides for the number - normally/often painted in white.

If you have an overhead line, you can follow the poles to a point where the cables disappear underground and even then there will often be more poles to follow.

You should be able to self install, provided you know your internal wiring is in good condition.

Thats the thing, I do not know if the internal wiring is in good condition, does it make any difference that it is a new build?

How can I check if the internal wiring is in good condition? The only experience I've had was with ADSL and I have been getting 3.5mb for the couple of years I've been here.