Fibre coming to my exchange

Hey

I haven't been able to find out any information anywhere else - 'When and Where' BT site just loads up a questionmark when I enter my details.

My exchange is in a village that serves around 600 properties. I'm led to believe that 300~ of these are Exchange Only (I am exchange only). With the rest split between 2 normal green cabs. We had a lady come and chat at the village hall over 1 year ago saying that around half the village would have fibre in the last part of 2015.

Anyway... there are now road works happening between the exchange and a few of those BT slabs in the pavement the other side of the road. They have finished digging the road and tarmaced it over. They have also dug out what looks to be the foundations for a cabinet which is about 100metres from the exchange. I found this on roadworks.org:

pcp3 10 DAY POWER AND DSLAM:STREET CABINET & POWER INSTALLATION. Excavate to lay approx 3m BT ducts, Lay concrete plinth, Stand cab. Excavate to expose low voltage cable for Power Connection and lay approx 16m duct. POWER engineer to carry out inspection prior to jointing. POWER jointing team to insert cable and execute jointing works. Reinstate, Check and clear site.

Does this mean fibre is coming? If so, any idea if it is for the Exchange Only users? The cabinet foundations they have dug are no where near the 2 normal green cabinets.

agnits

What's your exchange name or postcode? If what you believe to be an FTTC cabinet is sited over 100m from the existing PCP's then that's probably a good indication of an EO cab

Edited by deleted (Wed 27-May-15 21:22:09)

EAGMS

In short , yes. There should be 2 new cabinets appearing near here

That is pretty much where they are digging

The Fibre cab went in today next to the new PCP cabinet. I would have thought a combi cab would have been better?

The cab looks to be Huawei 96/128, (will grab some pics later). Seems a bit underwhelming for 300~ EO lines?

I would have thought a combi cab would have been better?

Combi cabs can, I believe, handle up to 96 lines and would therefore be far too small if there are c300 EO lines.

128 lines, but still too small

Thanks Ribble. I knew it was low but didn't have the precise number to hand so plumped for 96. We're waiting for BT to install an all-in-one to serve our development of 75 properties in central London and am pleased to read that it is 128 as several of the properties on the development have two or more lines and until now had thought we might be a bit close to the limit.

Here are the pictures. I'm guessing if the cab can only handle 128 customers then it will fill up pretty fast?

Is it possible to have 2 Fibre cabs connected to a normal(PCP) green cab?

Picture of both new cabs

Fibre cab

Edited by deleted (Mon 01-Jun-15 20:32:09)

Is it possible to have 2 Fibre cabs connected to a normal(PCP) green cab?

yes

Just a quick update.

I am now connected to the pcp cabinet. BTw had a contractor cut the EO lines and join them to the pcp. - My line went from syncing at 24mb/s with an 8SNR to syncing at 20mb/s with a 3 SNR. Not sure what they messed up, but anyway...

Roadworks to connect the Fibre cab to the spine have been and gone a couple of weeks ago, from what I can tell they were all carried out.

How long do these cabinets usually sit before they go live for accepting orders? I would have thought the turn around would be quick as they aren't generating income just for looking pretty/shiny/new.

Better Broadband for Norfolk said by the end of September but I'm yet to see an estimated date up on the BTW dslchecker site.

Can anyone on here give any more info on what is happening?

Dan

For BDUK area cabinets you don't usually see an ETA on the Wholesale checker. This is so the council can do a big fanfare surprise announcement in the local press if they want.

How long will the wait be, anything from a week or two, to any number of months, depends on the progress of power, earthing, fibre, commissioning tests.

As far as I know the power etc was done ages ago, there is a "Live Electric" sitcker on the side of the cabinet which has been there a long time.

How will I know when the Cab goes live? Will it suddenly appear on the BTw dslchecker?

Dan

For all the fibre cabinets that have been done in my area they had silver locks when they were commissioned and then a week after it appeared on the btw checker so it will be accepting orders.

It's worth noting though this varies and some fibre cabinets don't always get a silver lock.

But best guide is availability appearing on https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

The network re-arrangement might have just increased the length of the loop somewhat and that could explain the reduced speed. You can't really install a cabinet without inserting some slack cable somewhere.

Its gone live just now

WOOHO

Edited by deleted (Fri 25-Sep-15 16:14:31)

LOL

Have you ordered now as well?

(A request on behalf of all - much as I and no doubt we all are pleased for you, please could you substantially shorten your "OOOO". It completely screws up most people's browsers. In Flat mode it's a nuisance, in Threaded mode it drives thing potty, especially as the thread gets more posts ).

Yes all ordered and Yes certainly, should be displaying correctly now.

The only downside is I am currently contracted with Plusnet for the next 6 months on ADSL2+.

I've managed to wangle them 12months on 80/20 (they won't offer me uncontracted). Then I'll switch to AAISP.

Just because its cheap doesn't mean its good value!

Plusnet 80/20 works, but can be poor for perfectionists. I left in August, for AAISP incidentally, as I was very unhappy about what has happened to the support system as a whole this year. (Forum reps excepted - they are good but having to sort out mundane matters that should not need them, on top of the serious problems they are there to sort out).

Keep Pulse8broadband in mind for your landline when you move. It doesn't have "Anytime", but you don't need it at their prices.

Re the WooHoo, thanks . I expect you saw the effect yourself after I posted. But I'm sure it would look good with a little more than it now has .

Yeah I've seen some fibre speed threads get ignored on the forum and I don't really agree with the direction the company appears to be heading in. Although the CRT people I have dealt with seem really clued up.

I would be happy to pay more for a better service. I think that is because living rurally its always been pants and in my household it is the most universally used thing. I'm not interested in saving £2 when I could just turn a few lights off, but there is clearly a market for it.

It is a bit weird it went live the same day I whinge. I better buy a euromillions ticket.

So I'm having an engineerless install done. Pnet have sent me out the modem and it is an ECI one. My FTTC Cab is Huawei, does this matter?

I've since read that interleaving is set at the cabinet and that you can't have this turned off by your isp. If it does come on at install time for whatever reason is it likely to turn itself off again? Is there a time range which it does this over? Will I need to reconnect? Is it worth me sticking a note on the Cab asking to set it to 0/off if possible?

I was looking into something like this longterm so I don't need multiple devices plugged in.

http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/cat-15_Ar...

Does anyone know how the modem/router performs (think its broadcom chip)? Or have any other recommendations? - I currently use the W8980 but it doesn't support VDSL.