Chances of Fibre

Hi, I live in Exeter city centre - I'm on the Exeter exchange - Cabinet number: 191 and was wondering what the likelyhood of getting Fibre was. Openreach's checker just says "Exploring Solutions". Connect Devon & Somerset say that I'm not in their remit as I'm "commercially covered", they may reconsider when they apply for more state aid (2017?)

There is cable in the area, the building next to mine has it but as it's a different postcode VM say no chance. Given VM offer 200mbs and BT 14mbs I guess that is probably suppressing demand for lines on the cab.

So what options do I have?

In Plymouth at least, it seems that BT commercially deployed FTTC to anyone who can get Virgin. In Cornwall, the only "commercial" area was Saltash, which is the only town in Cornwall that Virgin bothered to cable

There's really no reason why BT wouldn't do somewhere that is clearly viable (city centre) and has credible competition. Businesses may not want to deal with the Virgin, and FTTC/FTTP would be superior

The CDS project is a bit of a mess and even when they announce phase 2 contract I doubt they'll even look into Exeter.

The core of Exeter is commercial by virtue of the Virgin Media presence and the C/P mix from Openreach, Virgin Media are expanding so registering for that might help, especially if others register in street.

Openreach is also catching up with some commercial areas so they may revisit and add cabinets.

With 14 Mbps you are also above the prospective USO.

In reply to a post by sor:

There's really no reason why BT wouldn't do somewhere that is clearly viable (city centre) and has credible competition.

Unfortunately, being in a city centre is no automatic indicator of commercial viability. Edit: Nor is competition from Virgin a sign of viability either: BDUK's presentations say that there were 2.7million premises which have VM as a superfast option, but not Openreach.

In this case, cab 191 seems to handle only 3 postcodes, and 2 of them are partly served by other cabinets.

It is likely that the number of lines makes it unviable - not enough business to get a power supply installed.

Edited by deleted (Wed 23-Mar-16 21:07:36)

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

In reply to a post by sor:

There's really no reason why BT wouldn't do somewhere that is clearly viable (city centre) and has credible competition.

Unfortunately, being in a city centre is no automatic indicator of commercial viability. Edit: Nor is competition from Virgin a sign of viability either: BDUK's presentations say that there were 2.7million premises which have VM as a superfast option, but not Openreach.

In this case, cab 191 seems to handle only 3 postcodes, and 2 of them are partly served by other cabinets.

It is likely that the number of lines makes it unviable - not enough business to get a power supply installed.

So looks like I'm going to be in the 5% not getting Superfast, and will have to move if I want better internet.

Being in relatively new build flats (2004) I wonder if my cab was an infill as neighbouring cabs may have been full.

In reply to a post by harlotqueen:

So looks like I'm going to be in the 5% not getting Superfast, and will have to move if I want better internet.

Being in relatively new build flats (2004) I wonder if my cab was an infill as neighbouring cabs may have been full.

You might be right.

Cabs like that have been done here, in the town centre, as part of BDUK. Gap funding is needed, but it can be done.

However, CDS seem to be following a path where they very adamantly want the worst areas done in phase 2, not the "not so bad" areas - so I agree with MrS that Exeter is unlikely to see any CDS money.

You could try doing community gap-funding of the cab yourselves. Someone else can fill you in on the details...

My sister lives in Exeter (Lower Kings Avenue cab P8) and can get 330mb FTTP, yet her husband who has an office in the city centre can't get VM or any fibre so is on adsl max crazy!