Cabinet upgrade enquiry

Hi,

I live not far from Edinburgh and my local Exchange already has Fibre available according to superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/ however it's not yet available at my address. We had new local street cabinet installed in March 2014 and at that time BT engineers mentioned Fibre coming to the area by the end of 2014. Year and a half later we're still waiting...


Can anyone provide any more information about the planned rollout?

I got some info about my cabinet from this page:

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.Addres...

BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER
Address XXXXX, EH25 XXX on Exchange LOANHEAD is served by Cabinet 8
Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Downstream Range(Mbps)

Availability Date

WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 5.5 -- 3 to 8 Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 5.5 Up to 1 3 to 8 Available
ADSL Max Up to 4 -- 3 to 7 Available
WBC Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Other Offerings
Copper Multicast -- -- -- Available

I've been stuck with &@!#)* TalkTalk for 2 years now hoping to switch to BT SuperFast as soon as it's available..


Thanks in advance for any replies.

Edited by deleted (Tue 17-Nov-15 20:05:02)

Suspect its a commercial roll-out cab, so generally lower priority than the digital scotlands as there are contract targets to meet

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Suspect its a commercial roll-out cab, so generally lower priority than the digital scotlands as there are contract targets to meet

It is seems to be a FTTC Commercial Project...

Cabinet P8 FTTC Planned for 31st December 2015 Phase 11a 2013-2014 Huawei EH25 9JZ

well it seems to be, however HIE doesn't say anything about it being a commercial project where normally it does, so at this point I am unsure who is doing it.
But it gives a planned date of 31st December 2015 along with several other cabinets.

Paul

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Suspect its a commercial roll-out cab, so generally lower priority than the digital scotlands as there are contract targets to meet

Was a bit bored so I did some digging and cabinet 8 does "seem" to be a Commercial roll-out, not too sure on how good BTOR's dates are, but I have found out the following:

Not too sure on these dates, due by date of 5 Month when they are still building the cabinet, and 4 Months when they are connecting up the cabinets, also 9 months when they are still doing the survey.

Does these dates seem right?

Exchange Name: Edinburgh Loanhead
Exchange Code: ESLOA
Exchange Location: (Possibly) https://goo.gl/maps/rUHNhLEeR962

Cabinet: 2
DueBy: Estimated 4 Months.
Type: Unknown
Info: Seems like they are still connecting up the cabinet.

Cabinet: 4
DueBy: Estimated 5 Months.
Type: Unknown
Info: Seems like they are still building the cabinet.

Cabinet: 5
DueBy: Estimated 4 Months.
Type: Unknown
Info: Seems like they are still connecting up the cabinet.

Cabinet: 6
DueBy: Estimated 5 Months.
Type: Unknown
Info: Seems like they are still building the cabinet.

Cabinet: 7
DueBy: Accepting Orders
Type: FTTC

Cabinet: 8
DueBy: Estimated 4 Months.
Type: Unknown
Info: Seems like they are still connecting up the cabinet.

Cabinet: 9
DueBy: Estimated 4 Months.
Type: Unknown
Info: Seems like they are still connecting up the cabinet.

Cabinet: 10
DueBy: Estimated 9 Months
Type: Unknown
Info: Currently doing a Field Survey.

Cabinet: 11
DueBy: Estimated 5 Months.
Type: Unknown
Info: Seems like they are still building the cabinet.

Cabinet: 12
DueBy: Estimated 5 Months.
Type: Unknown
Info: Seems like they are still building the cabinet.

Cabinet: 13
DueBy: Unknown
Type: Unknown
Info: Under Review.

Cabinet: 14
DueBy: Estimated 5 Months.
Type: Unknown
Info: Seems like they are still building the cabinet.

Cabinet: 15
DueBy: Estimated 5 Months.
Type: Unknown
Info: Seems like they are still building the cabinet.

Cabinet: 16
DueBy: Unknown
Type: Unknown
Info: Under Review.

I know cabinet 7 is now live.

Paul

Hello, reading this post with interest. I am on 'cabinet 7' at Loanhead exchange. I received a marketing leaflet from BT announcing Infinity had arrived on the 14th Dec 2015. I have an appalling connection speed and I immediately contacted by broadband provider to make this happen. However,. they responded with this information:

It seems that BT are being a little economical with the truth regarding their promotional material.

Our research shows that although your cabinet � Loanhead � is now fibre enabled, which is encouraging news - �This PCP has a waiters list for FTTC services�

This means that no one can currently process a fibre broadband install, not even BT!

I have raised a support request to see how the �waiters list� works and will come back to you as soon as I have an answer.

So if the cabinet was LIVE on 27th November how has all the allocation been deployed? Or is there another reason why I cannot place an order?

Puzzled.. Also if anyone has any information as to how the waiters list works that would be appreciated?

that means the card is full and is probably awaiting a new card hence watiers list -- so cab has been available but not now

I agree with what Fastman2 said, it was available but due to the up take being very quick you missed out.

Also something to think about, there is over 600 lines on that cabinet, and not knowing the maximum amount of connections a fibre cabinet can actually cater for there is a possibility not all will get fibre on that cabinet once it hits the maximum, that unless another fibre cabinet is installed near the other one.

Also try reading this PDF from BT Wholesale it has some stuff about the waiters list, its on about page 12 or 13 if I recall.

Paul

Any updates to this, at all?
On cabinet 16 of this exchange, trundling along with 1.5 meg ADSL speeds..

In reply to a post by Doccy:

Any updates to this, at all?
On cabinet 16 of this exchange, trundling along with 1.5 meg ADSL speeds..

Well I can no longer do my checks that I use to do due to BT Wholesale moaning at me, so I had to stop.

But I can see that cabinet 16 is down as "FTTC doing Design, live due by April 2017" as part of the BDUK Scot Government.

Paul

Thanks Paul, that is certainly encouraging!

I recollect a table I saw last year, showed that the Huawei 288 is the largest FTTC cabinet.

The back-plane in the local one, has 300 sockets, split in to groups of 25.

Those groups are 5 rows of 5 sockets, the 5th, lowest, row being a different colour; and for some unknown reason, the right-most socket in that 5th row, is not used.

There are two columns of 6 groups each, giving 12 groups.

So in practical terms, it has 12 groups of 24 employable sockets, amounting to 288.

again locally, when first Released For Service in March 2014, only the the first and second groups in the left-hand column had the necessary Filter-Links plugged in, so only a temporary maximum of 48 Upgrades were possible.

I upgraded in June 2014.

About June 2015, the third and fourth groups in the left-hand column had Filter-Links added, raising the temporary maximum to 96 - assuming all were functional.

The technician adding those two groups had about 20 to 25 FTTCs scattered over quite a large, disparate area, to do.

In the next two months, there appeared to be a small flurry of upgrades done followed by very few.

About May 2016, talking to a different technician at the associated PCP, doing an upgrade, only about 63 were operational; and judging by the few subsequent visits, the total might be about 70.

The PCP appears to have 287 lines from a recent observation.


Hence "temporary maximums" lurching along until the FTTC is fully in use.

In reply to a post by eckiedoo:

I recollect a table I saw last year, showed that the Huawei 288 is the largest FTTC cabinet.

I believe Openreach now have higher port density cards which allow a single Huawei DSLAM to have more than 288 ports. These are used in situations where a 288 port configuration cabinet is full and it is more cost-effective to expand the existing cabinet than build a second fibre twin.

I can't find a reference quickly - can anyone else?

Huawei DSLAM 384HD.

Upgrades from 288 to 384 ports.

Apparently PCP199 in Basingstoke has had the upgrade to it already.

In reply to a post by eckiedoo:

Those groups are 5 rows of 5 sockets, the 5th, lowest, row being a different colour; and for some unknown reason, the right-most socket in that 5th row, is not used.

The connectors on the front of each DSLAM linecard in the 288 (2 connectors per card) each carry wires for 24 ports.

The layout of the filters, in groups of 24, means that the wiring (from filter to connector) follows a predictable pattern, and doesn't get mixed up. It makes the pre-cabling job a little easier, more predictable and repetitive, and likely to be higher quality and easier to test.

Why they chose a 5x5 layout rather than 6x4 or 8x3 remains unknown. Perhaps the available space was an a issue. Perhaps the sockets are cheaper in rows of 5.

Yes - 64 ports per card, instead of the original 48 ports.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/06/bt-open...

Thanks, WWWombat - another bit of the jig-saw now in place!

---------

With that 288 to 384 upgrade, is this done literally to an existing, say (approaching) fully-occupied 288; or is the 288 modified "in factory" before actual installation?

It seems a relatively extensive job to be done "in situ" in the street, as it would appear to require the temporary disconnection of all existing upgrades through that FTTC, possibly change of all Link Cable connectors etc; and the addition of two more Link Cables to the PCP.

Bearing in mind that for all the existing upgraded lines, their access back to the Exchange is now through the FTTC.

Loss of service?

Duct capacity?

Edited by deleted (Wed 20-Jul-16 19:32:33)

I'd expect it to be more of an in-place upgrade, though it is certainly possible for the factory to have started to churn out cabinets pre-built for 384 lines. If they did, I'd also guess they would do the wiring as properly built-in, rather than an add-on pod on the side.

There has been some debate about how you'd go about the upgrade in-situ.

The current style of connector can handle up to 32 ports - and the smaller Huawei DSLAMs are wired with 4 cards of 32 ports each, with a single connector.

Huawei certainly have used a 2-connector linecard for not just the 48-port linecards but 64-port cards too ... these would appear, on the face of it, to require the cabinet to be rewired.

Rewiring sounds like too much of an outage, so it has been suggested that an adapter cable could be used, which knows how to separate the spare 8 lines from the card connector towards the new wiring. Less disturbance, but more prospect of failure in future decades.

We've also seen Huawei use an entirely different style of connector for some 64-port cards; these certainly would need an adapter.

In either case, the adapter would be fitted at the same time as the card swapped, so probably wouldn't result in much extra outage for existing lines, while the new tie cables (to PCP) can be added at leisure.

My thanks again.