Green cabinet numbering - what does a "/" mean?

Since the advent of FTTC, it seems that Openreach have been painting white numbers on the sides of many (copper) PCPs. In my area, these all seem to agree with the cabinet numbers that you get from dslchecker.bt.com - all good so far. But one cabinet near me has the number "8/1" painted on it. All lines that I've checked in the area belong to cabinet "8", so what could the "../1" mean? The village is very long and so is it conceivable that there's an "8/2" cabinet somewhere? The village is Hillesley in South Gloucestershire, on Wotton-under-Edge exchange (SSWUE).

The / usually refers to sub cabinets, sometimes nothing happens to them and the parent cab gets the fibre twin, and in some cases depending on distance and project aims it might get its own fibre twin

Ah, thanks. So rather than there being an "8/2" somewhere, there's more likely to be an "8" as that would be the master cabinet (if that's the right word)?
BTW, was it ever established that there is a definitive 'leaked' list of cabinet locations somewhere, or is that just urban legend?

The main cabinets are called the primary connection point (PCP), those marked 8/1 ,8/2 , are secondary connection points (SCP).
Never heard or seen of a cabinet location database outside of BT.

Maybe he's referring to that old "leaked" list with postcode > PCP details database, that came in two parts?

If so, then you might be able to find it - we all had a good look at it. But it's waaaaay out of date, now (2012?), so pretty useless compared with the regular advertised checkers and CodeLook. With a (relatively) complex situation where you have master and slave cabinets, you're better off asking here for specifics; or flagging up a problem if you think there is one.

Edited by deleted (Fri 12-Feb-16 07:09:10)

Thanks for all the info, gents. One last question on this: I found the "8" PCP cabinet today, so there's at least 8 and 8/1 coming out of the exchange in that direction. I appreciate OR's commercial sensitivities about what and where they choose upgrade to FTTC, but if they do give 8 a fibre twin, and decide that 8/1 shouldn't have one, does the way the tie-lines work permit 8/1 customers to get a VDSL signal driven from the 8 cabinet?

Being connected via an SCP should not in itself be an issue

I've never seen an SCP get its own fibre twin and still remain an SCP. I've seen them change to a PCP just before getting a fibre twin.

In reply to a post by sidcrighton:

Thanks for all the info, gents. One last question on this: I found the "8" PCP cabinet today, so there's at least 8 and 8/1 coming out of the exchange in that direction. I appreciate OR's commercial sensitivities about what and where they choose upgrade to FTTC, but if they do give 8 a fibre twin, and decide that 8/1 shouldn't have one, does the way the tie-lines work permit 8/1 customers to get a VDSL signal driven from the 8 cabinet?

Yes, on the Openreach routing your line will be listed as coming from PCP 8. When FTTC goes live (assuming you are not too far from PCP 8) you will be able to order service, just the same as anyone else on PCP 8. To the FTTC ordering system it's irrelevant that your line also passes through SCP 8/1.

Edited by deleted (Fri 12-Feb-16 17:59:40)

Correct only issue that comes into play is distance of copper line from premise to the fibre twin

We were a cabinet that had 2/1 on it - being fed out of the nearest village, which still has cabinet No. 2. Since fibre arrived, It now has the number 3 on it, with the 2/1 painted over. So never assume your cabinet will stay numbered the same.

In reply to a post by 69bertie:

We were a cabinet that had 2/1 on it - being fed out of the nearest village, which still has cabinet No. 2. Since fibre arrived, It now has the number 3 on it, with the 2/1 painted over. So never assume your cabinet will stay numbered the same.

Yes that was my point before. They won't leave it as an SCP and add a fibre twin. They'll just update it on all the systems to make the SCP into a PCP and then put a DSLAM next to it. As they have in your case.

They'll just update it on all the systems to make the SCP into a PCP

In that scenario its not just a virtual change, the network would have to be rearranged to make the SCP a real PCP fed by its own ESide cable and not linked back to the original PCP.

as I said not think8 has been done in BDUK so need to check with fastershire to see what if anything is planned

In reply to a post by Ribble:

They'll just update it on all the systems to make the SCP into a PCP

In that scenario its not just a virtual change, the network would have to be rearranged to make the SCP a real PCP fed by its own ESide cable and not linked back to the original PCP.

It used to, you're right. Doesn't work exactly like you say anymore.

For network rearrangement for the purposes of FTTC they would just re-route the link cable so that it connects directly to bar-pairs in the exchange rather than going via the original PCP. I've seen it done first hand round here.

It's a money saving thing. It's like when they put in new PCPs now to facilitate VDSL2. They don't run new E-side cables all the way from the exchange to the new PCP. They just use the cables that are already there and they become E-sides rather than D-sides.

scp is about 3.5km from cab I think

Long way, so VDSL2 won't work that far away from the PCP. Hopefully they can do some network rearrangement resulting in your SCP will become a PCP and get a fibre cabinet.

don't think any bduk build in that area as far as I can see -- sugges a conversation with fastershire