Do I need to swap my faceplate back?

BT have finally got round to activating our cabinet and so we've got a managed install booked in for early September.

Part of the install is replacing the BT faceplate but a few years ago we swapped ours for an ADSLNation filtered faceplate. I still have the original BT NTE one kicking around tough.

If I leave the filtered faceplate on, will the engineer be okay to replace it or will they kick up a fuss about a faceplate being replaced by a non-engineer? Would I also be okay to keep the faceplate if I give them the old NTE one?

If it's a problem I'll just swap them back over and put the NTE one on a night before - would rather I didn't have to though.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

There will be no fuss as the faceplate is your side of the demarcation point, which is the test socket the faceplate plugs into. So you can relax on that point.

If it's an Openreach engineer they will probably replace yours with a new VDSL2 filter plate with a standard NTE5A on the front. It's a bit bulky but you may find it acceptable. Do you have extensions running off it?

Frequently they bin or take with them the one you have, but will let you have it if asked. To them it's just junk and taking it away is part of tidying up.

If you don't like the bulk you could even reinstate it as now, and not use the new faceplate. But the new filter is better than the one inside yours. Best is to accept the bulk. But! If you do that you may as well have a self-install.

An alternative is to sweet-talk the engineer into leaving it as is! In the early days this often happened. Again, a self-install.

Importantly, are all extensions wired to the back of your faceplate, or is there an earlier junction box they run from?

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 19-Aug-15 22:41:31)

Officially the back half of the master socket is the demarcation point, you can fit whatever faceplate you like to the front. To make sure the engineer doesn't remove your faceplate it would be wise to remove it before hand. He should fit a new MK3 faceplate filter - then you've still got yours as a spare.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

There will be no fuss as the faceplate is your side of the demarcation point, which is the test socket the faceplate plugs into. So you can relax on that point.

If it's an Openreach engineer they will probably replace yours with a new VDSL2 filter plate with a standard NTE5A on the front. It's a bit bulky but you may find it acceptable. Do you have extensions running off it?

Frequently they bin or take with them the one you have, but will let you have it if asked. To them it's just junk and taking it away is part of tidying up.

If you don't like the bulk you could even reinstate it as now, and not use the new faceplate. But the new filter is better than the one inside yours. Best is to accept the bulk. But! If you do that you may as well have a self-install.

An alternative is to sweet-talk the engineer into leaving it as is! In the early days this often happened. Again, a self-install.

Importantly, are all extensions wired to the back of your faceplate, or is there an earlier junction box they run from?

Thanks, I'll probably just ask the engineer to leave my current faceplate with me and get him to install a new VDSL one. We only have one extension in the house, which I believe just runs back to the master socket. If removing this entirely helps with speed then I'd be happy to do that as we never use the extension. We'll need all the help we can get being 1500m from the cabinet.

The extension won't cause a speed loss .

Good luck with the speed.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 19-Aug-15 23:35:22)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The extension won't cause a speed loss .

Good luck with the speed.

That's good to know, I'll just let the engineer do his thing anyway.

I don't really know what to expect seeing as the BT checker is showing 80Mbps estimated for my postcode and phone number. Seems to be a bit of a bug with the wholesale estimate I think. The neighbours seem to get a more sensible estimate of 20.3 - 13.5Mbps (Clean).

Does the BT checker factor in copper gauge/quality at all? I'm currently getting 7Mbps on ADSL2+ on a line that's around 4200m long so I'm assuming the copper is pretty decent, will that be factored into BTs predictions or can we expect a little bit more than the checker suggests?

Never use the Postcode option. Most reliable is the phone number. Next the Address.

You need to look at the cabinet number for them and you. That could affect it. You don't need to ask them.

Use the Address option and just put in the Postcode. Then click Submit. That gives you a dropdown list of all addresses on the postcode and you can check any you want. Then click the back button on your browser to check another.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Never use the Postcode option. Most reliable is the phone number. Next the Address.

You need to look at the cabinet number for them and you. That could affect it. You don't need to ask them.

Use the Address option and just put in the Postcode. Then click Submit. That gives you a dropdown list of all addresses on the postcode and you can check any you want. Then click the back button on your browser to check another.

Sorry, I meant to say address.

Postcode only doesn't show any services.

Putting in my address or phone number returns the following:

FTTC Range A (Clean) 80 76.9 20 20 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 80 74.4 20 19 -- Available

Putting in my neighbours address returns:

FTTC Range A (Clean) 20.3 13.5 1.3 0.8 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 15.5 5.8 1.3 0.6 -- Available

All houses in the village are served by Cabinet 2.

It has been known for this to happen with one house being close to the cabinet on a short connection, then the cable cross the street and go down that side and come back over and up to the neighbour . Try a few relevant ones.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

It has been known for this to happen with one house being close to the cabinet on a short connection, then the cable cross the street and go down that side and come back over and up to the neighbour . Try a few relevant ones.

We're 1470m from the cabinet as the crow flies so I guess that is the absolutely best case distance. By road it's 1510m.