Basic question from a total newbie

Hi All

I've no idea on any of the technicalities of broadband and I just want to try and improve my speeds so I'm looking for some help and advise. I apologies for such a long winded opening post so feel free if anyone would like to offer advise/help by means of PM rather than post on here.

I'm currently with EE and get speeds of 10/1 at best but at peak demand times the speeds can drop as low as 1/0. Fibre Optic cable laying from our local exchange has been going on for the past few months and a new cabinet some 300m from our house was installed and fitted out last week and shows as detailed below, so my questions are:

1. Will the speeds increase from the 18/1.2 shown, if so, to what and how long will it take?
2. I'm currently with EE and get around 10/1 at best so do I need to ask them to put me on a super fast option or will this happen automatically?
3. Can I transfer to another ISP who can offer better speeds, if so any suggestions?

Featured Products Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate(Mbps) Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbps) WBC FTTC Availability Date WBC SOGEA Availability Date WBC FTTC 18x2 Provide Availability WBC FTTC 18x2 Sim Availability Left in Jumper
High Low High Low
VDSL Range A (Clean) 18 11.9 1.2 0.8 9.4 Available -- -- Yes --
VDSL Range B (Impacted) 11.8 4.2 1.2 0.6 2.5 Available -- -- Yes --
ADSL Products Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate(Mbps) Downstream Range(Mbps) Availability Date Left in Jumper
WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 5.5 -- 3 to 8 Available -- -- -- Yes
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 5.5 Up to 1 3 to 8 Available -- -- -- Yes
ADSL Max Up to 4 -- 3 to 7 Available -- -- -- --
WBC Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available -- -- -- Yes
Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available -- -- -- --
Other Offerings Availability Date
VDSL Multicast -- -- -- Available -- -- -- --
ADSL Multicast -- -- -- Available -- -- -- --

I apologies if the information above is of no use so please let me know what other or additional info I can provide.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Feb-17 17:28:14)

What exchange are you on?

Likely an infill cabinet. Could be anything from 1-24 months from now.

Hi Neiled,

Welcome to the forum.

If you're getting 10/1 on ADSL, then I don't see the reason to upgrade to FTTC as the estimate shown there won't increase and is likely to decrease over time due to crosstalk. Also, the estimate suggests that you're a very long distance away from the cabinet (certainly not 300 m more like 2 miles).

If you do wish to order, you'll need to contact EE directly as you won't be upgraded automatically and changing ISP won't improve the speed you get from EE.

Hope this helps.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Feb-17 17:37:53)

Hi, welcome to the boards.

The first observation is that based on the predicted speeds you have copied and pasted from the checker, you must be an awful lot further than 300m from the cabinet.

Can you describe what where and how all your telephony and broadband kit is currently connected please, and also are you able to get line statistics from your router ?

Thanks for the swift replies.

The exchange is about 1.5 miles away but the new cabinet is at the entrance to our estate no more than 300m from our house. It was only put in and completed last week and I spoke to the engineers who said it was FTTC and would probably take a week or so to go live. He also said there were 200 connections??

Exchange details: Telephone Number 01978856*** on Exchange GRESFORD is served by Cabinet 10

You'll just have to hope that your line gets rerouted from the current to the new cabinet.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Feb-17 17:43:20)

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Hi, welcome to the boards.

The first observation is that based on the predicted speeds you have copied and pasted from the checker, you must be an awful lot further than 300m from the cabinet.

Can you describe what where and how all your telephony and broadband kit is currently connected please, and also are you able to get line statistics from your router ?

Hi

I can provide as much detail as needed but unfortunately I'd need instruction on how to gather it.

In reply to a post by WilliamGrimsley:

You'll just have to hope that your line gets rerouted from the current cabinet to the new one.

Can I ask for this to be done, if so who would I ask?

What router do you have?

It should be done automatically if it's an infill cabinet.

In reply to a post by WilliamGrimsley:

What router do you have?

EE bright box 2 wireless router.

In reply to a post by WilliamGrimsley:

It should be done automatically if it's an infill cabinet.

Sorry but what's an infill cabinet?

This link shows you how to login, but go to the advanced section and you can find the line stats there.

http://ee.co.uk/help/phones-and-device/home-broadban...

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Feb-17 17:50:16)

A cabinet that's installed to improve speeds for users who can't receive fast speeds from the original cabinet.

The BT Broadband availability checker should show which cabinet the figures are for. This should enable tio the OP to tell whether the figures are for the original cabinet or any new infill cabinet.

In reply to a post by WilliamGrimsley:

This link shows you how to login, but go to the advanced section and you can find the line stats there.

http://ee.co.uk/help/phones-and-device/home-broadban...

OK I've got the router settings open so what details do you want?

Are you on a fibre based service now or ADSL2+.

Peak demand on WBC network should not see a drop from 10 Mbps to almost zero, suggests something else might be, or EE is very poor in your area.

If you are on a fibre service already, then an infill cabinet should see you moved across but timescales can be very variable, as they need to coordinate with all the providers involved.

If you are on ADSL2+ then you will only benefit if you order a faster service once the cabinet has gone live.

If the new cab has only just been installed, it'll be a while yet before the checker updates, if the OP is even to be routed through it.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Are you on a fibre based service now or ADSL2+.

Peak demand on WBC network should not see a drop from 10 Mbps to almost zero, suggests something else might be, or EE is very poor in your area.

If you are on a fibre service already, then an infill cabinet should see you moved across but timescales can be very variable, as they need to coordinate with all the providers involved.

If you are on ADSL2+ then you will only benefit if you order a faster service once the cabinet has gone live.

Hi. I'm on a fibre based package at the moment but must still be connected to the old cabinet which is about a mile away. Is there a way I can request to be switched to the new cabinet and should the request go through EE or openreach? Would it be better or easier to change to another ISP?

Cabinet 10 is not an infill one and is located at https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0825367,-2.9777421...

And can see the logic for an infill cabinet on Blue Bell Lane, so it is sit and wait until checkers show a different cabinet number

Perhaps the one labelled E_2 on codelook?

No evidence that the cabinet is actually live for you to be switched over yet.

For infill the switch will be automatic, but as another post said it can be a slow process due to the need to inform providers and do the switching over smoothly

E_2 is an exchange only designation and NOT a cabinet name, the lines are already on a cabinet 10 that I pointed to via Google maps.

In reply to a post by Neiled:

I'm on a fibre based package at the moment but must still be connected to the old cabinet which is about a mile away.

Thanks for confirming. Please be specific in your description as it sounded that you were on ADSL.

In reply to a post by Neiled:

Is there a way I can request to be switched to the new cabinet and should the request go through EE or openreach? Would it be better or easier to change to another ISP?

No, your line will be connected to the new cabinet in due course.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Feb-17 18:21:39)

As others have said, it is likely that you will be transferred automatically. The new cabinet is almost certainly not yet live - that could take a while.

When you say it is about 300m from you, is it in the direction of the exchange or the other side of you? If it's the other side, are there a lot of houses further on that will be on it?

In reply to a post by WilliamGrimsley:

In reply to a post by Neiled:

I'm on a fibre based package at the moment but must still be connected to the old cabinet which is about a mile away.

Thanks for confirming. Please be specific in your description as it sounded that you were on ADSL.

Apologies.

No problem, I didn't mean it in a bad way, just helps us out.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Cabinet 10 is not an infill one and is located at https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0825367,-2.9777421...

And can see the logic for an infill cabinet on Blue Bell Lane, so it is sit and wait until checkers show a different cabinet number

The cabinet you've detailed is about a mile away from us with the new blue bell lane one being some 300m away so I'll have to wait and see if they switch us to it or is there a way of prodding them?

All you can do is get lucky and try and catch an Openreach engineer working at the cabinet and ask if your line (give details) will be moved over to it.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Feb-17 18:32:31)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

As others have said, it is likely that you will be transferred automatically. The new cabinet is almost certainly not yet live - that could take a while.

When you say it is about 300m from you, is it in the direction of the exchange or the other side of you? If it's the other side, are there a lot of houses further on that will be on it?

It's no nearer to the exchange but no further either, it's more at a right angle..

Are we 100% sure about that? And it's not just a holding name given to infil cabs by codelook? The only reason I question it is that there are zero EO bundles on that exchange, according to codelook data...

Woah, hang on, we still need the OP's line stats as requested by our dear friend Zarjaz.

You need to copy the DSL line stats from the page and paste them into a post.

In reply to a post by WilliamGrimsley:

Woah, hang on, we still need the OP's line stats as requested by our dear friend Zarjaz.

You need to copy the DSL line stats from the page and paste them into a post.

Is this it?

INTERNET
Broadband Type Fibre
Broadband State Connected
Internet State Connected
Time Connected 199:39:07
Downstream Rate 11.30 Mbps
Upstream Rate 0.52 Mbps

DSL MODE
VDSL Profile 17A
Bit Swapping Enable
SRA Enable

Yes, that's it, your line is connecting within the estimate so nothing wrong there. I think Zarjaz just requested this for reference.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Feb-17 18:50:48)

What number cabinet are you currently connected to?

Bar the odd exception (i.e. out of 90k+ cabs there is bound to be one) yes E_ designations are not for cabinets but refer to the bundle of cables.

There are E1 cabinets, but no _ involved in the naming

10.

Exchange GRESFORD is served by Cabinet 10

So that's an ECI cabinet but your router has a broadcom chipset which means they are not ideally suited to each other. It may be possible to get more speed by switching to a router with an ECI-compatible chipset.

Alternatively if you get moved to another cabinet that will probably be a Huawei which is compatible with your EE router.

That's why I didn't suggest changing the router.

Jezz......I'm glad you guys know what your talking about! Thanks again. Neil

No problem, this is what we're here for.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

So that's an ECI cabinet but your router has a broadcom chipset which means they are not ideally suited to each other. It may be possible to get more speed by switching to a router with an ECI-compatible chipset.

Alternatively if you get moved to another cabinet that will probably be a Huawei which is compatible with your EE router.

That's a huge assumption in my opinion, and not necessarily correct. I've tried a dozen modems on my ECI line and my ZyXEL VMG8924 with it's Broadcom chipset syncs a good 4mb higher than any lantiq chipset did. ES rates are also much lower. I know a number of people who find the same.

In reply to a post by lee111s:

And it's not just a holding name given to infil cabs by codelook?

That's my working assumption.

Codelook isn't brilliant when areas are being migrated. Postcodes go missing, and cabs turn up with nothing to cover.

Right now, it seems likely /to me/ that it will become a real cabinet, with a real number, and real coverage.

In reply to a post by Neiled:

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Cabinet 10 is not an infill one and is located at https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0825367,-2.9777421...

And can see the logic for an infill cabinet on Blue Bell Lane, so it is sit and wait until checkers show a different cabinet number

The cabinet you've detailed is about a mile away from us with the new blue bell lane one being some 300m away so I'll have to wait and see if they switch us to it or is there a way of prodding them?

This is the key part of this conversation, not the stuff focusing on ECI cabinets or modem stats. Your current speed is probably right for the old cab and a distance of 1 mile.

My tuppence:
It looks like a new cabinet has been installed, and there's at least some probability that it is meant to cover your line. But I'm not sure it is a certainty - support for 200 lines seems a lot for that small offshoot of cab 10.

Note that you are right on the border to the Wrexham exchange, so there's perhaps a chance it belongs there instead ... but that would be too large for an offshoot of Wrexham's cab 11 too.

Did the engineer give you a clue as to what the new cab was going to be doing?

If it isn't designed as an "infill" for your current cab 10, then there is little chance you can get your line swapped to it.

If it is designed as "infill" for cab 10, and your lines is designed to be included, then it will be moved over automatically. This is known as a "live-live" migration, and has to happen for all of the lines currently using FTTC on cab 10 at the same time, and before any new orders can be taken.

The few people who have reported "live-live" migrations on here suggest it isn't a fast process. As @MrSaffron says, you have to keep watching the checker for the cab number to change, and for the estimates to increase.

Use the checker's "address checker" variant too, as a way to check to see if the neighbours are reporting anything different to your property ... just in case the database update goes awry. To do this, submit just the postcode into the "address checker", and then select individual addresses from the drop-down.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

In reply to a post by Neiled:

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Cabinet 10 is not an infill one and is located at https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0825367,-2.9777421...

And can see the logic for an infill cabinet on Blue Bell Lane, so it is sit and wait until checkers show a different cabinet number

The cabinet you've detailed is about a mile away from us with the new blue bell lane one being some 300m away so I'll have to wait and see if they switch us to it or is there a way of prodding them?

This is the key part of this conversation, not the stuff focusing on ECI cabinets or modem stats. Your current speed is probably right for the old cab and a distance of 1 mile.

My tuppence:
It looks like a new cabinet has been installed, and there's at least some probability that it is meant to cover your line. But I'm not sure it is a certainty - support for 200 lines seems a lot for that small offshoot of cab 10.

Note that you are right on the border to the Wrexham exchange, so there's perhaps a chance it belongs there instead ... but that would be too large for an offshoot of Wrexham's cab 11 too.

Did the engineer give you a clue as to what the new cab was going to be doing?

If it isn't designed as an "infill" for your current cab 10, then there is little chance you can get your line swapped to it.

If it is designed as "infill" for cab 10, and your lines is designed to be included, then it will be moved over automatically. This is known as a "live-live" migration, and has to happen for all of the lines currently using FTTC on cab 10 at the same time, and before any new orders can be taken.

The few people who have reported "live-live" migrations on here suggest it isn't a fast process. As @MrSaffron says, you have to keep watching the checker for the cab number to change, and for the estimates to increase.

Use the checker's "address checker" variant too, as a way to check to see if the neighbours are reporting anything different to your property ... just in case the database update goes awry. To do this, submit just the postcode into the "address checker", and then select individual addresses from the drop-down.

Great advise, thanks.

is it a new development or not

In reply to a post by Fastman2:

is it a new development or not

Sorry but is what a new development.......if you mean our housing estate, then no as it's 16 years old.

Just found another openreach engineer on our estate trying to trace a fault and he wasn't aware of this new CAB being installed but he then found it on his system and its down as CAB17. He couldn't help me in trying to get any more info though.

No postcode data for it on Codelook as of yet so would make sense.

It's possible two more infill cabs on their way - 18 and 20 - again, according to Codelooks, sometimes sketchy data.

Cabinet P17 FTTC doing Field Survey, live due by September 2017 Phase BDUK Wales 17b Huawei

Codelook naturally a bit behind given the cab has now been stood

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Cabinet P17 FTTC doing Field Survey, live due by September 2017 Phase BDUK Wales 17b Huawei

Thanks again. Any ideas on how I can get my line transferred to CAB 17 as EE had no interest or suggestions when I called them this afternoon (their projects department)?

No point until it is live, if they put you through the cabinet before its live it means no broadband

They don't really take requests to move you cabinets anyway. There's hundreds of thousands of lines that run right past the local cabinet to further away cabinets. My line does just that. It runs through the same duct as my neighbours lines which go to the nearest cabinet, but my line keeps going to the next again cabinet. It's not possible to get this changed. Cabinets tend to have fixed boundaries. All lines from a DP also need to go to the same cabinet.

If this cabinet is an infill cabinet then you're likely to be moved to it. If it's not but they have local network rearrangements planned then again you may be moved to it. However if your line isn't planned to be routed through this new cabinet then there's no way to ask OpenReach to move you to it. Your only real option at the moment is to wait and see.

All lines from a DP also need to go to the same cabinet.

Not entirely true, I know of streets where there are two DP blocks on the JUP's, one will be (for example) DP103 and the other DP 103A, they feed to different cabs...... this is rare, but not unknown.

So you can shift the line on to a shorter D side in response to a fault or some such, BUT if there's FTTC involved the powers that be cannot just make a port live at the new cab just like that .........

Back in the day redundancy was built into the network, there was often options .... Not so in these bean counter driven days.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

They don't really take requests to move you cabinets anyway. There's hundreds of thousands of lines that run right past the local cabinet to further away cabinets. My line does just that. It runs through the same duct as my neighbours lines which go to the nearest cabinet, but my line keeps going to the next again cabinet. It's not possible to get this changed. Cabinets tend to have fixed boundaries. All lines from a DP also need to go to the same cabinet.

If this cabinet is an infill cabinet then you're likely to be moved to it. If it's not but they have local network rearrangements planned then again you may be moved to it. However if your line isn't planned to be routed through this new cabinet then there's no way to ask OpenReach to move you to it. Your only real option at the moment is to wait and see.

Thanks

Just a thought.....could I ask BT for a second business phone line with a new number be installed and request it's only connected to this new CAB 17? If they can do this could I then ask for my existing phone line to be disconnected at a later date?

You can't specify what cab you're commnected to.

No nee connections will be provision from the nee cab until the live to live is done anyway.