Possible cabinet move?

Hi guys,

Longtime lurker, mostly been keeping an eye out for developments on EO lines. I moved into my rented flat in October 2012, picking it in no small part because it was nice and close to the exchange (you can pretty much see it out the window). Of course, a year later, my old place had FTTC and I had ADSL at about 18mbit.

I emailed my BDUK types - Superfast Lancashire - a year or so ago, but was told there were no plans for me. Been keeping an eye on where and when, Codelook, news sites etc. hoping for an update (I briefly got excited when the exchanged was updated as they said FTTP available. Oh to be that naive again!)

Last week though, I changed from "Exploring Solutions" to "In Scope". I looked up my postcode (FY3 9JY) on Codelook and we (it's me and three shops, as well as two road traffic equipment cabs) are showing as 75% on Exchange 12, and 75% on cabinet P8. P8 is just up the road - about 250m away, roughly the distance to the exchange.

Am I getting my hopes up for nothing, or is there something going on? Other postcodes around me (eg FY1 6RL) are still Exploring Solutions and haven't got a dupe. My theories are that either I'm on a list to be moved from EO to P8 at an indeterminate time in the future, or there's a mistake on the database. I'm praying for the former, but how do i find out more? Superfast Lancs are a chocolate teapot of an organisation who took eight weeks to reply to my email last time.

Thanks for any advice you experts can offer!

I can see your exchange is FTTC and FTTP enabled.
So fibred lines on that exchange can be either FTTC or FTTP.

Also it seems that your EO Line "might" in fact be moved over to PCP Cabinet 8, there "might" also be a good chance in getting FTTC due to that cabinet has only passed about 283 properties.

If you "do" get moved over to PCP Cabinet 8 your ADSL "may" decrease a bit due to your line will be possibly twice as long as it was.

If you "were" to get FTTC on cabinet 8 your speed would depend on how far you are from the fibre cabinet.

And it seems that cabinet 8 is possibly the closest cabinet to your location.

But I wouldn't get any hopes up yet until you have been moved over to the PCP Cabinet and then and only then if they fibre stage changes from stage 2 (In Scope) to one of the other ones apart from "We are exploring solutions" you don't want it to go to that stage.

Also have you tried contacting either BDUK Lancs or SEP Lancashire due to they are the ones upgrading the lines on your exchange.

*** update ***
Here is Cabinet 8 and its Fibre Cabinet on Google Maps, if that helps work out your distance to it.

Paul

Edited by PaulKirby (Fri 19-Aug-16 20:04:06)

I wouldn't have thought they'd move OP's line to cabinet 8 as it appears to be the 128-line one currently in place from the street view link you provided, yet (again, as you mentioned) there are 283 properties currently connected to it.

Average cabinet takeup is only around 30-35%

Wow, really? That number seems incredibly small- I would've expected 50-70, but 35 seems stupendously low.

It might not even be as high as 35%.

Here's the takeup for BDUK cabs broken down into councils

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/03/q4-2015...

Cheers guys.

I'm closer to cabs 11 & 12 (corners of Beechfield Avenue and St Vincents Avenue moving towards the town centre down Whitegate Drive), which are bigger units so I assume have more lines, but presumably also have more takeup and/or would be a trickier move as they're further away from the exchange?

There are only 4 end users in my postcode - one residential, a mobile phone repair shop that might take fibre if they could, the sandwich shop that doesn't have broadband at the moment (I let the owner use mine since they're never open when I'm in anyway), and the now vacant Blockbuster that was briefly a My Local corner shop, so I would imagine they'll only be adding 1-3 fibre users to cab 8 if we all move.

I've emailed Superfast Lancs to see if they've got any update for me, I'll let you know if I hear anything. Thanks for the help!

In reply to a post by vinfromuk:

Cheers guys.

I'm closer to cabs 11 & 12 (corners of Beechfield Avenue and St Vincents Avenue moving towards the town centre down Whitegate Drive), which are bigger units so I assume have more lines, but presumably also have more takeup and/or would be a trickier move as they're further away from the exchange?

Well Cabinet 11 has 413 properties passed and cabinet 12 has had 451 properties passed, which is probably why you are possibly being moved to cabinet 8 along with several other postcodes.

Paul

Setting expectations...

Positive:
Lancashire has reached a high proportion of the area with superfast speeds in phase 1, so there isn't much left to go.

There is a report from earlier in the year:
http://council.lancashire.gov.uk/documents/s85453/Su...

The numbers suggest that, out of 655k premises, 485k were down commercially, and 136k were reached (at superfast speeds) as part of phase 1 (another 10k at sub-superfast speeds).

That leaves 33k premises without superfast speeds.

Phase 2, SEP, is targeting to add 12k premises to the "superfast" total,, so about 35% of those remaining.

As we're getting into the back end of coverage, cases like yours will be cropping up - EO lines that can be re-parented into existing cabinets.

Negative:
SFL also target a "step change" in speed, where they want to see premises getting below 15Mbps upgraded in preference to ones above that. If it only goes as far as "prefer", you might be included in SEP because BT think you are cheap enough; if SFL have gone as far as actively excluding your postcode, then you might not be lucky.

Remember that take-up percentages will be based on the number of lines (ie number of lines in the PCP) rather than the number of ports used in the FTTC cabinets.

In reply to a post by lee111s:

It might not even be as high as 35%.

Here's the takeup for BDUK cabs broken down into councils

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/03/q4-2015...

Lancashire have 20% takeup, give or take.

From their status report, phase 1 had ~900 "structures" (FTTC cabs and, presumably, some FTTP "stuff") and gave fibre-broadband to 146,000 premises (136,000 at superfast speeds).

That would make 29,000 subscribers, at an average of 32 per structure.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

From their status report, phase 1 had ~900 "structures" (FTTC cabs and, presumably, some FTTP "stuff")

Yes. Codelook refers to the individual white boxes mounted on poles, for FTTrN, as "Fibre cabinets".

Edited by deleted (Tue 23-Aug-16 07:01:13)

Got a reply from the council (they've taken over monitoring the email from the Superfast Lancashire group I originally spoke to).

They don't have anything planned for my address and advised me to contact Openreach, which I know from lurking on here is not likely to yield nearly as quick a response. Time to go find a contact address...

In reply to a post by vinfromuk:

Got a reply from the council (they've taken over monitoring the email from the Superfast Lancashire group I originally spoke to).

They don't have anything planned for my address and advised me to contact Openreach, which I know from lurking on here is not likely to yield nearly as quick a response. Time to go find a contact address...

Try this [email protected] email address, its their fibre enquires team address, they can take anything from a few hours to several working days to reply.

Paul

Edited by PaulKirby (Tue 23-Aug-16 16:38:59)

Cheers Paul, I've sent an email now.

Six months later... didn't hear back from Openreach. The Codelook database (which seems to be using BT Wholesale's broadband dataset from 13th Jan) has my line being on the cab, but the official checkers all still say I'm In Scope. Roadworks.org doesn't have accurate info for Blackpool so I can't look to see if there's anything planned.

Exciting times - it seems that my line has been moved to Cabinet 8!

Less exciting - "Your cabinet is enabled for Superfast fibre however you're not able to order fibre just yet. This might be because the length of the line is too long to get Superfast speeds. We're actively looking at other options."

I'm hoping this is just because it's brand new and not anything awful - I have the option to order FTTPoD, but not FTTC.

Am I doomed?

It'll probably take a couple of weeks for the databases to update and align to reflect the real distance between your new cab and your DP.

Oh thanks Lee - I'm not sure exactly when the switch happened but I'm pretty sure it's in the last week or so, I'll try not to wear out my F5 key in the mean time

At this stage, it is better to be looking at the BT Wholesale checker, rather than the Openreach one.

If that returns a result with cabinet 8, without VDSL2 estimates, but does say that "VDSL multicast" is available, then the database has had some changes to reflect the cabinet, but still needs a further update. The data missing is the information that shows the losses between the cabinet and the DP (the wiring point at the top of a pole, or in a chamber near your home).

It'll be worth checking on the status for your neighbours addresses as well as your own.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

It'll be worth checking on the status for your neighbours addresses as well as your own.

I just did a check on all of the 9 addresses for the OP Post Code and they are either still EO Lines or are on cabinet 8 but no FTTC due to possibly length issues or the DB needing updating.

To me it doesn't make sense moving a post code of EO Lines to a cabinet which would be too far to get FTTC.

Maybe this was why some lines haven't been moved yet?

Paul

To me it doesn't make sense moving a post code of EO Lines to a cabinet which would be too far to get FTTC

It didnt work

Edited by witchunt (Wed 21-Jun-17 07:29:56)

Cabinet 8 is not new folks
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.8052321,-3.0282808...

Live since June 2014 and old style PCP in streetview

Postcode is within reasonable distance so if actually connected to that cabinet just needs a provider to do what they are paid for, failing that can raise directly with Openreach, on basis that something is not right.

Edited by MrSaffron (Wed 21-Jun-17 08:57:25)

Not all are though, some are still EO Lines.

Might of replied to a wrong post LOL.

Paul

Edited by PaulKirby (Wed 21-Jun-17 10:12:24)

Cheers for this (and to everyone else who's helped).

VDSL Multicast is available, cab 8, FTTPoD available, no VDSL2 estimates. I'm hoping it'll correct itself but I might try a cheeky email to Openreach if nothing changes soon.

My postcode and the UPRN database is a bit of a mess, the A583 one doesn't match up with any address, my property is on there twice which causes all sorts of issues with automatic address checks (I failed a direct debit once because one form said 285 and the other said Flat, 285).

It looks like my line, A, B and the Nisa Local next door have been moved over to the cab. Openreach were out a few weeks ago digging up the run from roughly the mid point between me and the cab up to cabinet 8, so I was hopeful it was related to my line.

Edit: Ferguson Road round the corner (FY1 6RL) has moved over as well.

Edited by vinfromuk (Wed 21-Jun-17 13:55:41)

Apart from the traffic light cab, there's only the mystery "A583 Whitegate Drive" line and the one for 289-291 (which is the same property as 287, which has been moved) that have stayed on EO. I don't believe any of them are consumer lines.

VDSL Range A (Clean) 80 78.4 20 20 72.5

Whee!

Thanks very much to everyone for the invaluable information during my two year wait for fibre! Now to figure out why Zen won't accept my direct debit...

In reply to a post by vinfromuk:

VDSL Range A (Clean) 80 78.4 20 20 72.5

Whee!

Thanks very much to everyone for the invaluable information during my two year wait for fibre! Now to figure out why Zen won't accept my direct debit...

Glad it all worked out for you.
I waited 5 years for mine, had to even look at all the fibre hardware that long too LOL.

As for the DD, hope you manage to sort that out.
Have you phoned Zen and asked them why it failed?

Paul

Cheers Paul. I sent Zen an email explaining that I'm hard to reach on the phone during the day and they're best emailing me, and they proceeded to ring my mobile and leave a voicemail anyway.

I was looking at upgrading via Sky last night and the order failed, I had to ring them and was told that it would cost £154 rather than £50+£9.95, so I cancelled that and rang retentions, tried to get round it and was told that the best they could do was £138 - something about my line being with Be/O2 and then Sky rather than on the full Sky LLU so they need an engineer out to sort it.

So I'm going to BT for 12 months, against all instincts, by which time I'm hopefully a prize customer that all sorts of companies will throw stuff at (and attempts to order with suppliers like Uno won't fail as I'll be definitely on BT wholesale rather than whatever my line is now).

Sounds like a good plan.

In reply to a post by vinfromuk:

So I'm going to BT for 12 months, against all instincts, by which time I'm hopefully a prize customer that all sorts of companies will throw stuff at (and attempts to order with suppliers like Uno won't fail as I'll be definitely on BT wholesale rather than whatever my line is now).

Well a lot of people have moaned about BT, myself included, but overall they are not that bad, one thing I do like about BT is that when they screw up they put their hands up and compensate you, well once you shove enough proof that is

So when I finally got fibre due to all their bad excuses / issues etc, I was very happy what we got (don't ask what I got due to I cannot say), but it was nice

Lets hope this all goes well for you.

Paul

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Sounds like a good plan.

Agreed.

Paul

I dare say if I had Infinity 4 coming I'd be pretty happy too

In reply to a post by vinfromuk:

I dare say if I had Infinity 4 coming I'd be pretty happy too

This is probably true

Well you should of seen what hoops I had to jump through for 5 years to get fibre, even though it was already installed back in 2011.

But I was very stubborn and kept arguing my case, got my MP involved and sent a few emails to people high up in BT and very glad I did.

So now everything is pure fibre and no longer using copper, which is good due to our copper lines was very bad and had breaks in it that water got into when it rained.

Paul

BT switched on yesterday as promised. Speed is testing in the 69-75 range on WiFi, which I'm OK with. Pings could be better, but I suspect that's the 802.11N on my laptops.

My line stats now I can see them are, for the record:

VDSL Range A (Clean) 80 75.3 20 20 69.2 Available