Fibre in Radstock exchange - but not in my cabinet

Hi all.

I am about to move into a property served by the Radstock, Somerset exchange.

OR's fibre checker states that the exchange is enabled for fibre broadband but only in some areas.

Upon a proper inspection of my postcode on Kitz.co.uk checker it states that I cannot receive fibre as there are 2 cabinets serving my street (cabinet 1 and p1) It looks as though my new tel number is associated with cabinet 1 and not the new p1 cabinet (according to kitz only 14% have access)

Is there anything I can do about this to get my tel number switched to p1 to receive fibre or do I have to wait until everything is associated with p1 (sorry, not sure how this works)

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Craig

There appears to be just the one cab p1 and having two cabs one labelled 1 and the other P1 would be highly unusual if not unique. There is however an bundle of exchange lines listed as Exchange 1. What does the BT Wholesale checker give for your line, if it doesn't recognise the number use the address checker, enter your post code and then select your address from the dropdown box.[

You can check your cabinet here.

https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm

Thanks mate, yes - done that and here is the result...

BA3 3PH Fortescue Road Radstock, Bath, Avon 156m ADSL ADSL2+ FTTC Available P1 14%

BA3 3PH Fortescue Road Radstock, Bath, Avon 156m ADSL ADSL2+ Exchange 8 85%

So 2 cabinets serving my street - one has FTTC available, the other doesnt. Why cant we all be on cabinet p1? Is there anyway around this to get the 85% onto P1? Again, sorry for being stupid, but I dont see why we cant have fibre..

Thanks

In reply to a post by ciobbath:

Thanks mate, yes - done that and here is the result...

BA3 3PH Fortescue Road Radstock, Bath, Avon 156m ADSL ADSL2+ FTTC Available P1 14%

BA3 3PH Fortescue Road Radstock, Bath, Avon 156m ADSL ADSL2+ Exchange 8 85%

So 2 cabinets serving my street - one has FTTC available, the other doesnt. Why cant we all be on cabinet p1? Is there anyway around this to get the 85% onto P1? Again, sorry for being stupid, but I dont see why we cant have fibre..

Thanks

No, there is only one cabinet serving your road and that is cabinet 1 which is the same as P1, and the rest of your road are EO (Exchange Only) lines which doesn't use any cabinets and they are connected directly from the exchange to the home via a closest chamber/pit.

The P stands for PCP Cabinet, i.e. the green phone cabinet.

Paul

Edited by PaulKirby (Tue 09-Jun-15 16:18:36)

Hi Paul, thats great, thanks for clarifying.

Is it upto Open Reach then to transfer the EO lines to the cabinet or am I stuck with this.

Thanks

In reply to a post by ciobbath:

So 2 cabinets serving my street - one has FTTC available, the other doesnt.

Note that you are being told that 14% are connected to cabinet 1, while 85% are not connected via any cabinet at all. These are known as "exchange only" or "exchange direct" lines.

In reply to a post by ciobbath:

Why cant we all be on cabinet p1?

Because that is the way that wiring has developed over a century plus?

Perhaps your cables don't physically go near cab 1. Perhaps the ducts go the other way along the street. Perhaps cab 1 isn't big enough. Perhaps your wiring was put in place before the GPO started to use cabinets.

In reply to a post by ciobbath:

Again, sorry for being stupid, but I dont see why we cant have fibre..

The simple answer is because your line doesn't go via any cab at all ... and it costs money to re-route lines via a cab, or to provide an entirely new cabinet. That money is enough to make it commercially unviable (ie BT won't make enough money from your subscription to pay for the work that needs to be done).

In this case, cab 1 was upgraded as part of the commercial rollout, and there have been *no* cases of re-routing done in the commercial rollout, and *no* cases of adding an extra PCP (to convert EO lines like yours) in the commercial rollout.

However, the financial case for these two activities changes in the presence of BDUK subsidies, such as those provided by "Connecting Devon & Somerset".

In reply to a post by ciobbath:

Is there anyway around this to get the 85% onto P1?

There is indeed a way around it. It might be to put you onto cab 1, but it is more likely to add a new PCP outside the exchange, and move EO lines onto that one.

If it is to be done, then it will be part of CDS ... and those will be the people to contact to find any further information. If it doesn't happen now (in phase 1 of CDS), then it might still happen in a future phase, as more funding gets added.

In reply to a post by ciobbath:

Hi Paul, thats great, thanks for clarifying.

Is it upto Open Reach then to transfer the EO lines to the cabinet or am I stuck with this.

Thanks

Erm, it depends...
It seems it was a commercial fibre upgrade that went live on 25th January 2011, so if they was going to move the EO Lines they probably would of done it by now.

It also depends on whether they think its viable or not i.e. would they get a profit or at least what its cost doing so etc.

You may be lucky and get moved over to cabinet 1 or maybe a new cabinet for the remaining EO Lines in the near future, not knowing the size of that cabinet would make it hard to guess if there is room in there for the EO Lines around that cabinet, I think it was about 517 give or take lines so far, we have a cabinet with around 894 lines, so you might be lucky.

The issue in having all the EO Lines all moved over to a new cabinet would be slow speeds due to some lines being very long from the new cabinet etc.

But like I said you might be lucky.

I guess you could try emailing BT Openreach asking if they have plans to move you over to a cabinet to get fibre, it doesn't hurt to ask.

Oh yeah, you might be covered by the BDUK Connecting Devon and Somerset which currently say the following:

BA33PH

Your postcode is not covered by our current programme's 90% superfast target for the end of 2016. However, Connecting Devon and Somerset are bidding for additional funding to extend superfast coverage to 95% of premises by the end of 2017 and are also investigating alternative solutions for reaching the final 5%. Related announcements will be made in the future.

So you may be lucky later on.

Paul

Edited by PaulKirby (Tue 09-Jun-15 16:54:28)

I guess you could try emailing BT Openreach asking if they have plans to move you over to a cabinet to get fibre, it doesn't hurt to ask.

Openreach don't move EO lines as part of their commercial rollout. To date Network rearrangement where EO lines are moved to cabs has only occurred when funded either by BDUK or privately. The OP needs to contact their relevant BDUK project (CDS?) rather than Openreach.

In reply to a post by MCM:

I guess you could try emailing BT Openreach asking if they have plans to move you over to a cabinet to get fibre, it doesn't hurt to ask.

Openreach don't move EO lines as part of their commercial rollout. To date Network rearrangement where EO lines are moved to cabs has only occurred when funded either by BDUK or privately. The OP needs to contact their relevant BDUK project (CDS?) rather than Openreach.

Ah, well I didn't know that, its where BT choose and pay half the cost of commercial upgrade, I thought asking BTOR via email may of got a yes or no for a date in the future even if it then become covered by BDUK CDS in the future like 2017 BTOR might know due to its them that's doing the actual work.

Paul