New cabinet being built, will I be moved automatically?

Hi all,

I apologise for the long post, I need to explain the scenario before asking my question.

This time last year my local PCP cabinet was finally enabled for fibre (Billingborough PCP1), unfortunately for me this cabinet is located in the neighbouring village and it turns out my phone line length to this cabinet is approximately 1800m (just over a mile). I ordered fibre anyway and get around 10-12 Mbps downloads depending on the weather conditions.

However, over the past couple of weeks, a lot of BT activity has been happening in my village and then end of last week, serious ground works started next to the telephone box. I�ve just checked with roadworks.org to see if my suspicions were correct and indeed BT is installing a brand new PCP9 NGA cabinet. As this is located in my village this would significantly cut the distance down for my phone line to probably over half.

My question is this & I appreciate it�s probably the broadband equivalent of the how long is a piece of string.

Would BT automatically move my Infinity �fibre� connection from PCP1 in the neighbouring village to the new PCP9?
Would it be best to just wait & hope they change my line over to the new cabinet or should I go back to ADSL and then wait for the cabinet to be commissioned and then place a new �fibre� order?

Has anyone else come across this scenario before?

If this is a new all in one cabinet used to bring faster speeds to those on sub 24meg FTTC lines then the answer is likey yes, you'll be moved over, but it can take a few months for it to all be done as it's quite a complex exercise.

If you contact the local BDUK scheme for your area, they should know more.

I'm in the same scenario right now. Previously connected to PCP2 with a line length of just under 2000m according to my attenuation (26.9dB).

BT have since install a new AIO cabinet in the village (PCP7) which is activated and live, but not accepting orders yet. I've been told that they are in the process of performing a live to live migration, whereby they move active FTTC lines like my own, from PCP2 to PCP7. However, they can't do this until they have agreed the process with all the providers.

For reasons known only to Openreach, this process appears to take longer than building and connecting the cabinet itself. Our cabinet has been live for a month now, with no signs of being moved anytime soon. BT's internal systems show my line as connected to Cabinet 7, we're just waiting for the FTTC service to come across.

The process is officially only supposed to take two weeks apparently. However, speaking to my local BDUK rep, the last lot of cabinets they had go through the process took a lot longer. My cabinet is looking to be a similar story.

Thank you for your reply, it's made for interesting reading.

So, it would appear that I would be automatically transferred to the new PCP once it's constructed, which i should think will take some time yet.

I've just contacted my local BDUK project and will await their replies as according to their postcode checker, we aren't supposed to be getting any new cabinets in our village.

Thanks again for your reply and fingers crossed that you will be transferred to your new cabinet very quickly.

Kind Regards

hi toonshorty
you are not in happisburgh by any chance are you as if you are I am connected to cab 2 and desperately hoping my enclave will get an infill cab and we get moved to it

In reply to a post by threelegs:

hi toonshorty
you are not in happisburgh by any chance are you as if you are I am connected to cab 2 and desperately hoping my enclave will get an infill cab and we get moved to it

Nope, I'm up in Northumberland.

You're probably best talking to your local BDUK team.

Our cabinet (P2) was originally done on the first phase of the Northumberland BDUK project. The infill (P7) is part of the iNorthumberland SEP (Superfast Extension Programme). If your local BDUK team haven't announced their SEP plans yet, then it may be worth getting in touch with them to show your interest.