MYHUD cabinet 164 mystery

Hello,

I'm moving to a new build estate (built 2004) in Huddersfield which currently only gets 3.5Mbit 21CN and frustratingly is an island of non-Virgin Media in a sea of Virgin Media.

BT DSL Checker says: "Address XX HANBY CLOSE, FENAY BRIDGE, HUDDERSFIELD, HD8 0FE on Exchange HUDDERSFIELD is served by Cabinet 164"

FTTC When And Where says: Under Review (UR)

Older houses across the street are served by FTTC enabled Cabinet 72 (See 1 Fenay Bridge Road, HD8 0AY).

I would assume the telephone lines in this estate are all shiny and new, there is a very close cabinet enabled for FTTC and this estate is one that sticks out like a sore thumb in Huddersfield with no VM - so surely this cabinet is should be a slam dunk for BT to enable?

Anyone have any ideas what the status is and why? Cabinet streetview picture: https://goo.gl/maps/Gf9Fr

As I explained in another thread earlier today, superfast broadband in new builds really requires developer co-operation and ideally financial contribution.

Having another nearby cabinet enabled merely means that there is an aggregation node in the vicinity. It doesn't mean there's a straightforward duct run to run fibre between that aggregation node and your cabinet, nor does it do anything for the other costs of providing FTTC (buying the FTTC cabinet, physical installation, installing tie cables between the FTTC cabinet and the cabinet it serves, and providing power to the FTTC cabinet).

An additional problem is that Openreach's commercial FTTC development is largely complete - those areas that were not built when planning for the commercial rollout was in full steam are much less likely to attract commercial planning resources and funding now. Openreach's planning and installation resources are heavily committed to the BDUK projects at present. Most if not all of the BDUK money is already committed (though I have faint recollection that Kirklees opted out if BDUK). You might get some help from the counci whether or not they opted out of BDUK. You will never know unless you ask the council, though l wouldn't holding your breath.

Unless the developer or the residents approach Openreach with an offer to pay a sizeable portion of the costs involved in deploying FTTC, I would not think it that likely that your cabinet will be enabled in the foreseeable future.. As you and other residents have moved in, the developer has their financial return and is very unlikely to duo anything to help, so it may well be up to the residents to work with Openreach if they want anything done.

Thanks David, this estate was built in 2004/2005 - so I don't know if can really be called "new build" anymore. What is the usual state of play when an estate is over ten years old?

Others have more detailed knowledge than I do of the history, but I suspect that your development is old enough to have received some consideration both in the Openreach commercial rollout and in any state aided project.


Unfortunately decisions have to be made about what is enabled and what isn't. I'm aware of similar oases elsewhere - Bedford cabinet 120 is an example (postcode MK42 9EX is close). Borough Hall is just up the road, the hospital is immediately opposite, whilst the areas on the Kempston side and around the railway depot across the river are residential. Unfortunately, the cabinet is on Palgrave Road a few metres off Kempston Road (on your left as enter the development), a fair way from the flats in Britannia House and Wheelwright House that make up the majority of the addresses. From an FTTC point of view, it would be better in between Wheelwright House and Britannia House.

For a long time Bedford cabinet 120 was slated for the end of the commercial rollout, but appears to have been dropped, possibly because the distances from the cabinet mean those living in the flats wouldn't get a huge speed increase over ADSL. It has never been part of the BDUK plans, so far as I know.

Unless anyone knows any different, there are now no plans to bring FTTC or FTTP to SMBD cabinet 120.


If you are fortunate enough to have enabled properties across the street, one option might be to get a co-operative person nearby in the enabled area to allow you to install and operate a second line there (outgoing calls barred) at your expense so that you can enjoy FTTC via a point to point wireless link, paying a few tens of pounds (or beers) annually for the electricity used to run the equipment. It's not ideal, but might be better than what you have.

I chased BT and got this response:

Unfortunately your property is not currently included in the network roll-out because after our initial survey, it was established that this cabinet would not be viable for Openreach to upgrade.

I asked what the reason was and they said:

This is because it serves too few premises. After the initial survey we found that this cabinet was not viable for Openreach to upgrade.

I count 240 homes. Not sure if that is a lot or a little to be served by a single cab?

Time to speak to your neighbours I suspect..
i.e. if they all want faster speeds and don't have access to it then getting 100+ people involved may well help, especially if they are willing to help fund it.

In Bedford (Well Kempston) one development has had FTTP installed but on others from the same developer they haven't. I have been speaking to the developer (Since I am due to move later this month) and asking for details as to how they/or if they worked with BT on these developments. Many started years ago.. i.e. 5-8 so I am interested as to why one needed up with FTTP and the others didn't.

Left knee, are you new to the estate?
I already live here and we have a long history with BT! Long story short, its not coming.
When you get chance join the neighbourhood Facebook page and you can find out all about the history on there
A few of us are working on an alternative solution so please get in touch.

Well, at least I won't be fighting BT alone..!

In reply to a post by Pgre:

Time to speak to your neighbours I suspect..
i.e. if they all want faster speeds and don't have access to it then getting 100+ people involved may well help, especially if they are willing to help fund it.

We got 229 of the 240 houses to pledge to use BTs service if they switched it on. That got them to have a relook at the figures, they came back saying they would do it for £25k.

Have you been in touch with VM since they announced they'd be investing £3 billion in infra? (Also - PM)

What I find somewhat intriguing is that of 158 cabs (it appears there are 158 although the highest cab number is 166) on the Huddersfield exchange just 49 seem to have FTTC available, FTTC is planned for another 45 and that for 64 cabs, including P164, there appear to be no plans.

[Apologies if I'm a couple or so out either way in my numbers, it was a very quick scan.]

To resurrect an old thread, the status has changed in the last month from UR to EA "Your area is enabled for Superfast Fibre but your cabinet is not ready yet so you can't place an order today. It is in our plans to be upgraded and we update this info weekly, so please check back later."

Oh well, it's progress.

As mentioned earlier, the whole of Kirklees opted out of BDUK in phase 1, so anything happening in Huddersfield is part of the commercial rollout.

From the codelook site, it appears that 42 cabinets that were originally planned in the commercial rollout are still to be done - mostly in the next 6 months. There are no BDUK cabinets on the exchange. Cab 164 remains unplanned.

Things may change ... as Kirklees has opted into the phase 2 project. I'm not sure that plans have been seen yet.

In the original commercial rollout, cabinets tended to be for 300+ properties. In phase 1 BDUK projects, an average of 200 properties isn't uncommon - so sizes down to 100, perhaps lower.

a co fund illustration was issued to community back in 2013 -- I understand
the figure would have been the gap not the cost of enabling the Cab -- may be now under BDUK -- depending on what Kirklees wanted to do under BDUk -- gpa may be less now as take up figures are better

In reply to a post by Fastman2:

gpa may be less now as take up figures are better

Take up figures were 90% back then, not sure how they could be any better now but hey-ho its progress. I made my own solution anyway, had 100+mb for over 6 months now. rest of estate is still on 2mb mind you.

I suspect there are now plans to enable cab 164 next year

Good news! ( via http://www.superfastwestyorkshire.co.uk/ )

Your location is due to be upgraded in Superfast West Yorkshire Project Phase 2 - Stage 1.

Stage 1 June 2016 - March 2017
Stage 2 July - September 2017
Stage 3 January - March 2018
Stage 4 April - June 2018

Phase 2 will take place June 2016 to June 2018. The following stages will give an indication of when your connection will be upgraded. Please be aware that as this is physical infrastructure work, there may be changes to delivery.

So there are some small works on the pavement at the top of the estate that looks like a footprint of a cabinet. The notice says its for 'essential telecommunications work' or something like that. I also saw someone in a bright orange Virgin Media vest walking up and down the road on Sunday morning taking notes. Hope it was about fibre broadband and he wasn't scoping us out to burgle.

Sweet. Hopefully all that is left now is to be first in the queue to order an FTTC upgrade when it's live!

Would be nice to get VM as well, but if I was VM I would not think the estate would be worth cabling up as they are unlikely to get anything other than cable modem only customers as Sky has had a monopoly for so long being the only pay TV provider.

I for one would be glad of the change from Sky. And with VM there's no need for a land line which we got rid of ages ago. I use an EE mifi for my internet at home. Works really well, use it for all the regular stuff and also online gaming, just not unlimited so can't really stream hi def movies.

As suspected...there is now a shiny new cabinet at the top of the estate.