Possible fibre checker problem

Hi all, first post here so bare with me if I do something wrong.

Basically my issue is BT are telling me I'm not able to get fibre. If I put my phone number into any of the checkers it tells me its not available even though my parents who live across the road have it, and my neighbour to the left has it. On my side of the street they are terraced houses all built in 1937. I don't know my neighbours phone number but if I put my parents number in the checker it tells me fibre is available. The thing is if I put just my address in the openreach where and when page it tells me fibre is available and taking orders. But when I put my number in its not available. It appears that my house is connected directly the the exchange. Is it possible that this is a mistake on the database, because I find it hard to believe that mine and my neighbours house would be connected differently, even though they're connected to the same telegraph pole outside the front of my house. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

In reply to a post by dantalton:

Hi all, first post here so bare with me if I do something wrong.

Basically my issue is BT are telling me I'm not able to get fibre. If I put my phone number into any of the checkers it tells me its not available even though my parents who live across the road have it, and my neighbour to the left has it. On my side of the street they are terraced houses all built in 1937. I don't know my neighbours phone number but if I put my parents number in the checker it tells me fibre is available. The thing is if I put just my address in the openreach where and when page it tells me fibre is available and taking orders. But when I put my number in its not available. It appears that my house is connected directly the the exchange. Is it possible that this is a mistake on the database, because I find it hard to believe that mine and my neighbours house would be connected differently, even though they're connected to the same telegraph pole outside the front of my house. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I note that you've posted on the BT community forums too and you were advised to take this up with the respective ISP you wish to take service from, if they want your business it's up to them to contact Openreach/Wholesale to find out why. They should be able to get an answer as to whether it's a records problem or down to line length.

Ultimately, there is a boundary where either one cabinet starts and another ends or where lines go from being EO lines to lines connected to a cab. Sometimes, that's 100s of metres apart, sometimes you might find next door neighbours with one served by a cab and one by EO line.

Indeed it has been known for next door neighbours to be served from different exchanges and I recall at least once I have known a customer have two lines in one property, served from 2 different exchanges. While these scenarios may seem hard to believe, the nature of the Openreach network mean they do occur.

As you mentioned in the post on the other forum, you're on the same cabinet. Your line could be 2-300m longer than that of your parents which may mean that you're too far away to achieve a connection on VDSL (the technology FTTC uses) .

What does the checker say for your house and that of your parent when using teh number?

The very first line which reads: Telephone Number 01nnnnnnnnn on Exchange EEEEEEEEEEEEEE is served by Cabinet 7

Cut and paste this for both properties.


Yes, there is a possibility you have a direct exchange line and your parents do not. Yes, there is a possibility that there is a database error. You will also need to find out a few more phone numbers on both sides of the street and try those.

Thanks for the responses, this is the first I've posted about my problem so you must have me confused with somebody else. I've recently renewed my contract with BT who I intended to stay with, as at the time the person on the phone told me 1 system was telling him fibre is available to me, and another was saying the opposite. He was going to call me back but hasn't. (this was around 4 weeks ago). I've called BT back numerous times but they just don't seem to want to even look into it.

The results you requested are:

Mine
Exchange name: Billingborough
Exchange status: Fibre enabled

Technology: Pending - EO Line

My parents across the road
Exchange name: Billingborough
Exchange status: Fibre enabled

Cabinet number: 2

Technology: FTTC

Its understandable for my parents to be connected differently as its a much newer house. Its my neighbours that concerns me as the house are in a terrace and built at the same time. I can physically see mine and theirs phone line going to the same telegraph pole which only goes off in 1 direction, heading towards the nearest cabinet on the next road. I will have to see if they'll give me their phone number or at least run the test for me tonight after work.

Thats the reason it won't let you order, it believes your line is served by an EO (exchange only, no cabinet) line.

You are going to need to try and get several numbers in the terrace and see what it says.

If you try the ADDRESS checker variant and only input the postcode it will return a list of addresses. Select the houses in the terrace from that list and see what is reported for each one. Not perfect but will give an insight.

Yes that's what I thought. My question is, is it possible for 2 terraced house to be connected differently, one being straight to the exchange and the other to the cabinet, making me very unlucky. Or is it more likely a mistake on the database. Obviously I don't know every ones phone number on my road, but I have put all the addresses into the where and when open reach page and they all come back with accepting orders and connected to cabinet 2 (the same as my parents which is confirmed using their phone number).

Thanks I'll gather as many as I can without risking looking weird and put them through. Ill start with my neighbour as I know they currently have fibre.

Apologies, your initial post is almost identical to a post on the BT forums from yesterday, I put 2 and 2 together and came out with 5

As I mentioned in my above post it is possible you and your neighbour are served differently, although it's equally as possible there's a records issue. I believe the only way to get this resolved is via physical engineer inspection. I think someone posted something similar recently where they had an engineer visit due to a line fault and he fixed something a the cabinet and confirmed to the customer they were 100% served by a cabinet despite the checker showing them as EO. I'm not sure on what the outcome of that was or how you'd go about getting an engineer visit to confirm without paying for the visit.

I to came across that post while researching yesterday and thinking about it, it is quite similar I've contacted open reach through the form on their website but I fear I may be waiting a while for a response. I shall try calling BT again, but its very hard to get them to do anything about it. The last time I called they told me I needed to get off the phone quickly because another advisor was going to call me back in 2 minutes. Never happened.