Can a comunity get things changed?

I live in a small comunity about a mile from the FTTC cabinet. To get to our group of houses, there is a few hundred yards of burried cable then the rest is O/H. When it becomes O/H there are a number of spurs to farms and buildings along the way. It looks as though every pole has a joint so ineviatbly, service is degraded at each hop.

I have an ATTN of 33.5db but the actual sync speed is 8mb max. According to the physics and calculations, I should be getting at least 15mb. My SNR also fluctuates wildly - worse at night - but a number of Openreach engineers have reported the line as "perfect".

I have to conclude that the only way to get a decent service is to have a more direct connection.

So, in short, I wanted to know whether communities can get together to get better cabling and how to go about it. I have rummaged around the Openreach site to try to find a contact but as is normal these days, they send you round the houses on their site in an effort to never having to engage with customers!

Any advice as to how we could get together and get better connections?

Thanks

Is that 33.5dB attenuation with an FTTC service or an ADSL2+ service?

Network Rearrangement is probably what you are after, but big question of whether that would be worth the cost, as it will not reduce the mile distance, just possibly optimise the speeds.
https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/contactus/alte...

At a mile or further and suspect its further with a 33dB attenuation, the difference between 8 Mbps and 12 Mbps on VDSL2 is very marginal. If the SNR margins are varying then suggests a local noise source may also not be helping. For ADSL2+ services using an AM radio to hunt out the likely source, if VDSL2 you may also want to use a Short Wave radio if an AM search shows nothing.

Every pole may have a joint, however that does not mean your connection has one. even if there are joints, provided they are well sealed then they should not cause any degradation.


as for noise, are there overhead power cables closeby?

In our case we got a firm no from Openreach.
This was because there were other customers on the same cabinet beyond us that would have seen very little benefit from any upgrade.

There is a specific Openreach page for community broadband

http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/the-big-build/F...

In reply to a post by chilting:

In our case we got a firm no from Openreach.
This was because there were other customers on the same cabinet beyond us that would have seen very little benefit from any upgrade.

Not sure what you mean. I had a speed estimate from 8.1 to 15.0 begfore I signed up. Having got a "good" seped from ADSL (for the distance!), I expected the FTTC to be at the top end also but it barely scrapes in at the bottom. However, I kept the service as it was still a couple of Meg better than the ADSL link. Out here, every Meg is valuable!

There's about 50 yds from my house underground, then up the pole and O/H for 1/2 mile or so.

In reply to a post by TheEulerID:

There is a specific Openreach page for community broadband

http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/the-big-build/F...

Thanks for the pointer, I have filled out the request. However, it's worded as if it's for people that have no fibre connections so I doubt that a request for an upgrade will be taken seriously.

Still, if you don't ask, you don't get!

Cheers

Do an accurate measurement on Google Maps / Earth - with that figure it is easier to give a better estimate to see if what you are getting is reasonable for the distance.

Edited by MHC (Thu 08-Oct-15 16:14:09)

The distance from my house to the road is 50 yds, the distance along the side of the road is 1.2 miles plus another 10 yds at the cabinet end to cross the road. I would estimate that half of the cable is O/H.

Rgds

Edited by deleted (Thu 08-Oct-15 16:22:59)

The line extends for another 3km beyond us. Total lime length 5km.

We wanted to swop to a closer cabinet but that would have still meant that some customers would have been 4km from the cabinet we wanted to transfer to. Any changes to the layout of our service would still have left customers at the furthest distance from the cabinet below the 2Mbps USC. Openreach said that this was not acceptable.

So just under 2km - 33dB is in the right ball park for that distance and it should give around 12-13 Mbps on attenuation or about 15 on distance. However there are a lot of factors that can affect that part - gauge of copper, actual underground routes, link from FTTC cab to PCP distance ...

So, your speed of 8Mbps is little low and I would suggest that the cause of that is high levels of noise. Overhead is more susceptible than buried and as I mentioned before overhead power and transformers can also have an adverse effect.

you could have asked openreach about co-funding a cab closer to you

I gave up on Openreach and BDUK. Nothing positive will be done in our area the infrastructure is very poor and badly arranged with multiple cabinets and exchanges serving a large area beyond the reach of FTTC. The ducting is terracotta pipes under the old shingle surface down narrow sunken tree lined lanes.
We do however have one big asset overlooking us - The South Downs.
Hopefully in the next few months we will have a Fixed Wireless service up and running.

I think they will look at it. Just being on an FTTC enabled cabinet doesn't mean the service is acceptable. However, a warning, it will not be cheap.

A generalisation of what is possible for a not so remote community, of say 24 houses, to improve their speed would be nice to know. Their have been reported instances of DIY fibre laying to improve local services but how it is all connected up, and by whom, is never mentioned.

Enquires to BT only seem to indicate part funding a local cabinet for eye watering sums of money or perhaps sharing a leased line but even then, the monthly fee for anything decent would run into several hundred pounds for each user per month.

Being stuck on around 5Mbps is only just acceptable for 2015 but a modest increase to 30Mbps would open up very many more opportunities to experience the internet without frustrations.

Wireless connectivity solutions might be wishful thinking particularly if you are in a no service area. So is the OP stuck with what he has now for perhaps many years to come, if ever?

Down here in Bath, there is a tiny village Claverton,about 70 houses, they paid to have fibre installed,ducting, overhead fibre & cabinets,cost was around £48000.

http://www.clavertonpc.org/images/stories/minutes/23...

http://www.btplc.com/BTToday/NewsList/Villagecofunds...

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2015/05/tiny-so...

Somebody at the local council running the BDUK project will have an email address for a BTO person you can contact in your area, or at least responsible for such work in your area.