Re: New FTTC cabinet no longer allowing orders

Hi, got a new cabinet (Halfway exchange - AIO cabinet number 56 thanks to BDUK) connected up at the end of last week (across the road at next corner down, so around 40m's or so from my home). Checker on monday was saying it was unavailable but that it could take 2 weeks to go live. So I went to stay with my son for a couple of days & visit the grand-daughter. Was excited going from a 2,5mb EO line to being about to order fibre.

Next door neighbour sent me a text on tue afternoon to say it was available to order. I checked dsl checker + openreach wholesale checker along with the Openreach 'When can I get fibre?' site & sure enough, FTTC was available ( dsl checkers showed max 80 - min 62). Checked all 3 again on wed & it was still available to order.

I got back home on thurs around mid-day & went straight to sign up for Fibre but after putting in my postcode/number, it said I could only get standard broadband. I then went back to both the dsl checkers & FTTC info was gone from both. All that remains is Fibre on Demand & Adsl info.

The Openreach 'When can I get fibre?' site (for both my phone, postcode + other nearby postcodes that are also served by the cabinet) has been saying:

Superfast Accepting Orders - 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.

Does anyone have an idea as to what's happened here? A prob with the cab, filled up with vdsl orders in the2 days it was available, BT/OR database glitch etc!

Have been checking religiously since I got home but still getting the same messages every single time I try & am now beginning to dread the thought that my fibre chance may now have passed me by.

Thanks

Edited by deleted (Sat 01-Jul-17 16:31:47)

From what I can see is that Cabinet 56 along with some other are having EO Lines moved over to it, some are still in the process of being moved.

Also I can see a load of lines listed as being too far from the cabinet, what I have noticed in the past with BDUK upgrades especially AIO (All in one cabinet) is that they seem to stick them either on the Exchange grounds or very close to it.

So people on EO Lines that might of originally got around 10 - 15Mbit now get about 5 if not less, even some have been unable to get fibre due to being too far away.

If you are really that close to the cabinet, then its a glitch that does happen now and then before it goes live.

I would give it a few days, checking it daily just in case, nothing worse that waiting and then end up missing out due to it becoming full.

Paul

When my cabinet went live it went to this message for a few days before it cleared.

Looking at the Codelook page for cab 56, I think it is safe to say that nowhere will be too far from the cabinet to get service. It is just too small an area; almost everywhere seems within 300m, and your estimates suggest you were maybe 150m away. You would need to be 1500m+ away to be at risk of "too long".

In the normal course of things, a cabinet that was now "full" would still end up with the BTW checker reporting speed estimates for FTTC/VDSL2, but instead of saying "available," it would indicate "waiting list".

If FTTC was available but the line was too long, it would not indicate estimates, but there would be an "available" status for "VDSL multicast".

However, for lines that have recently been added to a cabinet, the BT database can be incorrect ... and the checker would give a report that *looked like* the line was too long.

Your report sounds like the database is incorrect, rather than the cabinet being "full." And it has been seen to happen on lines with copper re-arrangements going on. The solution might be to wait (they do sometimes update them behind the scenes), but it might need you to kick up a fuss.

An alternative explanation, if some of the lines have been transferred over from a distant cabinet, is that some "live-to-live migrations" need to be carried out prior to accepting new orders. BT might have realised this belatedly ... and the best indication is if any orders placed in those 2 days get delayed or cancelled. Check with neighbours.

NB: I put "full" in quotes, because even if the cabinet ran out of ports, it is likely to just need an additional linecard adding to create some new ports ... so keep checking anyway.

All lines around here are EO and given how far we are from the exchange speeds are 2 - 5mb max. My own attenuation was 54 on EO but is now showing 57 after being routed through Cab 56.

Openreach put those in surrounding streets on a couple of cabinets years ago and left the rest of us on EO. Thanks to BDUK, half the remaining EO ones were moved to cab 80 in April (nuts decision since it's located so far away), while the rest of us are now on Cab 56. No postcode on Cab 56 is too far away from it to get fibre. All are within a few hundred metres max. The other half that are on 80, are the opposite given the cab is so far away from them.

Cab is live and has been since at least tue of this week. Next door neighbour etc has already ordered fibre and Talktalk have given them a migration date of 13th July.

From mon night/tue to thurs mid-day of this week, fibre was available to order but since then nothing.

After the box first went Live, this message was what was showing initially but it changed to showing fibre available to order for a couple of days before going back to it hence my confusion as to what's going on here.

I think the system went a bit premature, I say give it a few days and check it once or twice a day, just in case it becomes available.

Paul

The Codelook location for Cab 56 is incorrect. It's at the bottom of Maidland Rd so much closer to me than what Codelook shows. 40/50m max from me!

Actual 56 Location

You are correct though in that those on 56 are all well within range of the cabinet to get v good fibre speeds. No lines are too long. Every line around here was EO. A couple still remain but everyone else is routed through cabs 56 & 80.

When I tried on tue and wed, dsl checker and wholesale dsl checker was showing full FTTC stats. 80 - 63 clean. Impacted was something like 63 - 50 give or take a few megs. Now all I get is:

Wholesale DSL Results

Given it's a new cab, I am wondering if it's filled up with orders in those 2 days and seeing none of them will be live yet, the BT database has simply reverted back to it's most generic unavailable message. In which case, I'd still expect to continue seeing FTTC stats on the dsl checker though. Hence the confusion whether it's a cab fault, cab is filled up with orders or if it's an OR database error.

Fingers crossed that's what's happened and I have been checking regularly since I got home.

I know 3 neighbours that I have spoken to that have ordered when ordering was available so am a tad concerned that OR may have underestimated demand and have been over-run with ISP orders during that time though.

In reply to a post by cathmcc:

Fingers crossed that's what's happened and I have been checking regularly since I got home.

I know 3 neighbours that I have spoken to that have ordered when ordering was available so am a tad concerned that OR may have underestimated demand and have been over-run with ISP orders during that time though.

If it was full it would say there is a waiting list.

Paul