FTTC - Newtown, Powys

Afternoon,

I have been having a bit an off conversation with BT and a few other ISP's over the availability for fibre broadband at my premises. It seems the exchange and various cabinets around the town have been upgraded to fibre since the begining of the year. I have also checked the Superfast Wales site and it also states fibre is enabled at my property.

This is where the confusion starts as the quoted speeds from BT and sky are around 2-4mbps connection, slower than my current ADSL broadband. BT say I am connected to cabinet 5 which is over 1.5 miles away from my property, but there is a cabinet somewhat 200 yards from my front door. Over the past 2 days BT have installed a new FTTC cabinet next to the old cabinet at the bottom of my road and it states on the roadworks live map that BT are laying cables over the next week. I have checked on the BT wholesale site for my address and various other addresses around this cabinet but all of them seem to be connected to Cabinet 5 in the town centre 1.5miles away.

I am confused as to why over 100 houses are connected to a cabinet 1.5 miles away when there is already a cabinet at the entrance to the estate and it has been recently upgraded. There are no other houses for at least 5 miles that would be connected to this new cabinet. Is it at all possible I will see some sort of increase in my speeds?

Superfast Wales say that the cabinet by my house is being upgraded but none of the houses around it are connected to it. It makes no sense.

My postcode is SY16 2TA if that is of any help.

Thanks.

Adam

So has the plastic cab at https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.5236669,-3.2937704... being replaced by a new metal cabinet and a second cabinet (the second one having air vent slots in it).

The roadworks.org gives a strong hint, as it is talking about PCP19 which is actually a new cabinet for the exchange, suggesting that the existing cabinet is a sub cabinet from 5 and you will eventually find your phone number shifting to cabinet 19 once it is all up and running.

As above except I believe the new cabinet maybe and all in one.

Edited by deleted (Tue 15-Sep-15 19:25:52)

The existing plastic cabinet present in the map image is still there. A new larger green cabinet has been installed about 1 metre from it. The new cabinet is a darker green and has air vents.

So do you think the new cabinet will be FTTC, and then the adjoining housing estate will be connected to it instead of cabinet 5?

Thanks for the replies

In short yes. So keep an eye out for more work, e.g. fibre blowing etc and the checker changing to say cabinet 19

The cabinet has now been installed and judging to example pictures on the internet is seems to be a Huawei all in one cabinet.

Does that mean the old PCP cabinet will be removed?

Does that mean the old PCP cabinet will be removed?

I sussepect you will have the pleasure of seeing that for many years to come.

Bit of an update, the new cabinet has been installed and Openreach have been there for past 2 days working around the new and old cabinets.

They have cleared up and gone now and have just sprayed NOT IN USE on the old cabinet. I've checked the BT checker and I am still down as Cabinet 5.

Is there any time period for BT to switch us over? Is it likely they will switch us to the new cabinet?

My regular broadband has now gone even slower over past 2 weeks. Topping a massive 2.2mbps.

If the old plastic one is marked not in use then the copper has been moved across already. The checkers do not update in real time, but will take a few days to reflect

The copper can go through the new cab even if the FTTC is not live, i.e. designed that way so if there is a power failure and cabinets batteries run out you can still make emergency phone calls.

What are the chances that it won't even be fibre activated?

Pretty much 0%, just a matter of time

Hallelujah!! The cabinet is now showing as 80/20 FTTC but still saying cabinet 5.

I currently have sky broadband but sky is saying Fibre is not available????

BT, EE , talk talk and a few others are all showing 80/20 is ready for order.

Do sky take a while to update their systems?

What would everyone recommend for a 2 person household, 2 smart TVs with Amazon Fire sticks, sky on demand, 2 iPads and a PC? Regularly watch Netflix in 2 separate rooms. Is 40/10 sufficient or shall I go with 80/20?

Thanks

40/10 is definitely enough for handling all of that (I assume everything won't be downloading all at once), but if you have the extra cash to spend you may as well go for the 80/20 speeds.

I've ran 5 devices streaming 720p and 1080p HD streams all at once on a slow FTTC connection (19 Mbps download) so you should be fine. The issue is usually more to do with the congestion in the ISP network these days.

On the cabinet 5 message, it can take a couple of days for the checkers to sort themselves out, so give it a bit longer and see if the cabinet number switches to the new one.

Can anyone shed any light on why sky is the only operator who can't offer me fibre? I am currently 2 months into a sky broadband contract and don't really want to change providers and incur penalty charges but I can't live with 3-4mbps when I can now get 40 or 80.

I've contacted Sky and requested an upgrade as the cabinet is now showing as live but they are saying I can still only achieve ADSL broadband. I then went on their website and tried a few addresses of neighbouring properties and all of them can get Sky Fibre. It seems only my house and the 1 adjoining it are the only 2 houses on a 30 house estate that can't get Fibre from Sky.

I'm baffled. Sky were no help as they just run the same checker as I did on the website, I mentioned all my neighbours can get it and they said they knew that but didn't know when I could.

Strange.

Does the BT checker say you can get FTTC? www.dslchecker.bt.com

Yes it does. It when live Monday.

80 download 20 upload. The cabinet is about 100m away from my house.

And you pay Sky for the phone rental?

Yeah I already have Sky Talk and Sky Broadband.

And the other properties that Sky say can get fibre are on the same cabinet? If so then its down to Sky to overcome their computer says no phobia.

If the wholesale checker was wrong and not showing FTTC availability at the address then it would be understandable and even then Sky can pressure Openreach to fix it.

Yes all the neighbouring properties are on the same cabinet.

House number 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 can all get sky fibre.

Numbers 9,10,11 can't get Sky Fibre.

I've just spoken with Sky again and they are adamant I can't get Fibre, they checked neighbouring properties and admitted that they all can but did not shed any light as to why the other 3 houses can't.

Might just have to switch to BT.

Bit of an update, I've moved to BT and placed an order yesterday, all went through smoothly.

Recieved a call this morning from BT saying the cabinet is already full for fibre orders and I am now on a waiting list. No indication of time or anything.

Give up.

Is anybody able to offer any advice on this please?

The DSL checker says FTTC is available and when I originally ordered BT it said infinity 1 & 2 were available, hence why I placed an order.

BT have now cancelled my broadband order but have informed sky I am moving to BT. My internet will now cease with Sky next week and I will have no broadband as BT are saying FTTC is not available. No explanation, 1 salesperson said cabinet is full, next one says fibre is not available, next one says the cabinet needs repair.

At a loss now really.

Can see

Address PRIMROSE DRIVE, NEWTOWN, SY16 2TA on Exchange NEWTOWN is served by Cabinet 5
Featured Products
Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)
Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)
Downstream Range(Mbps)
Availability Date
High Low High Low
FTTC Range A (Clean) 80 80 20 20 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 80 76.7 20 19 -- Available

Looks like speed estimates have updated but the cabinet number has not, ISP should be able to figure this out, but as most people will go by computer says no then not too surprised. Email me [email protected] with your details and will pester Openreach/BT to see if it can be sorted out.

Thank you, I have sent you an email.

My service is due to be switched from Sky to BT on the 12th November. But as it stands I will not have any broadband from this date as BT have cancelled the broadband order.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

If the old plastic one is marked not in use then the copper has been moved across already. The checkers do not update in real time, but will take a few days to reflect

The copper can go through the new cab even if the FTTC is not live, i.e. designed that way so if there is a power failure and cabinets batteries run out you can still make emergency phone calls.

This "Plastic" PCP type cab , maybe really made from cast iron, infact until recently all the PCP cabs where cast iron just like several similar looking PCP's are around my area, plastic yeah ok

Edited by tommy45 (Sun 01-Nov-15 19:25:07)

Fibreglass rather than plastic

In reply to a post by Ribble:

Fibreglass rather than plastic

the one ,same shape that my line was connected to, was cast iron, definitely not fibreglass or plastic, both don't rust

I have managed to get through to an English person at BT to discuss my order, it seems the order is still in the system but the broadband order was cancelled as some equipment has failed in the newly activated FTTC cabinet.

Anyway BT have said the phoneline will be activated on the 12th and Openreach will repair the issue there and then and check the line. BT will then need to re-order the broadband on the 13th and it all should be working a few days after.

Not holding my breath.

Mr Saffron - Any joy with your contacts? Thanks again.

Email sent this morning and have had an ACK but takes a little while usually.

I susspect the new all in one cab 19 is not completed.I reckon there there may have been a data error with cab 5
(This was SCP 5/1).

I've had some info from Mr Saffron on here that the cabinet has had some issues and it has been added to the remedial action list with some estimated dates of January 2016 for the works.

With this info I have spoken to BT who have said this is not the case. They say the cabinet is fibre ready and once my phoneline has been switched from my current provider they will re-issue the infinity order and it all should be activated 24-48 hours later. I have a feeling they are just saying this to stop me from cancelling my order but I can't be without any form of internet from the 12th of this month.

Is there a chance the engineer will fix any issues on the 12th at the cabinet or are they just telling me a pack of lies and I am likely to be ringing them for the next 4 weeks asking when my infinity will be activated?

Think it unlikely it will be RFS by the new year.

I was given a date in the New Year too and generally consider that source more reliable than BT Consumer

Perhaps if you can get written confirmation of a deal like Infinity working within 1 week of current order day, or I have ADSL2+ free until Infinity arrives and Infinity 1 Unlimited at £10 per month once it goes live (i.e. about their best pricing) then move, otherwise if it was me would be staying where I am, unless that provider is also having congestion issues.

Edited by MrSaffron (Tue 03-Nov-15 14:40:05)

It seems the information from you guys on here is spot on. I've spoken to an advisor at Superfast Cymru who have been in charge of the roll-out in Wales and they have stated the cabinet was comissioned but has a fault and is not currently accepting orders for fibre. The cabinet is due to be fixed but they have no fixed dates so can't advise on that.

Time to cancel my BT order then and try again in the New Year.

Thanks for your help.