automatic upgrade from far away cab to new cab?

We've just moved and FTTC is available from cabinet number 1 but only at speeds around 13 down / 1 up as it's so far away.

There's a brand new cabinet being installed about 100m from our house. Can't work out what the cabinet number is though.

If we order FTTC now and it's supplied via cabinet 1 when the new cabinet goes live will we be automatically shunted over to it and enjoy fast speeds or will we have to do something to have this happen? e.g. cancel / re-order

I'm wondering if I should wait until the new cabinet goes live before ordering in case we're locked into an 18-month contract at slow speeds.

Any had any experience of this?

It depends on what the new cabinet is for. If it is being installed to rearrange the lines in the local area then you should get automatically moved. If it is being installed to add capacity to the area then it is quite possible that you would never be moved. It is unlikely that the timing of you signing up would have any difference.

If you are able to post details of where the cabinet is then some people here may have some insider information as to whether there is a network rearrangement planned with the new cab.

You will normally be supplied from cabinet1 and it is unlikely to change unless one of two things happen. Either Openreach are doing a major network re-organisation which does not happen on a whim OR you pay for your line to be re-routed and that will cost thousands. They will not move you just because you ask or order a new service.

Exchange is EAHTM (Hintlesham, Suffolk)

Cabinet 1 is the far away one.
New cabinet is at the end of Cranfield Park, near Burstall Church, roughly IP8 3DT?

I'm hoping it's cabinet P7 as listed on codelook but codelook has no postcode attached and I can't find any site notices or planning listings mentioning it either.

Cabs with no postcode on codelook usually refer to all in one cabinets which are often used to rearrange lines that are too far from their existing cab, or are exchange only.

Cab 7 is part of a network rearrangement, so there is a strong possibility that it will include your DP especially considering your current slow speeds

Well it's all gone a bit weird now...

Just had an OpenReach engineer arrive to check my line but it's apparently disconnected from the network by virtue of being only about 80m long.

I asked him about the shiny new cabinet but he said it wasn't going to serve me as I'm at the end of the line for cabinet 1. Having resigned myself to some, but 'slow', internet I thought I'd recheck my likely speeds via BT's DSL checker but now it says I'm connected to cabinet 7!

However, cabinet 7 doesn't provide fibre connections (yet) so maybe my order will be rejected at the last minute? Or maybe I've shot myself in the foot and the OpenReach engineer is doing to try quite hard to give me a working line and reconnect me to cabinet 1?

Maybe I should cancel my order and wait until cabinet 7 goes properly live?
Is my line length actually about 80m because I'm now connected to cabinet 7?

(Posting because someone else might be in the same situation)

If you've changed to the nearer cabinet then it sounds good news. It can take months to activate an infill cabinet, I wouldn't cancel your order, it won't speed anything up. You would be better just being served by cabinet 1 for the moment.

Everyone on cabinet 1 who is being migrated to cabinet 7 should all be moved on the exact same date. You won't be able to order fibre from cabinet 7 till it's live, and those already with fibre will be moved 1st.

Given that length of 80 M and assuming that your basic phone is NOT working, that suggests that it is a simple break, in one or other or both wires in the pair; or a short-circuit at that distance.

Assuming your basic phone is working and possibly ADSL, then the distance measured by a JDSU or TDR, should be the distance measured from your house (NTE probably) to the Exchange, which you have indicated is well in excess of 80 M.

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There is a very slight chance that your "pair" have been moved into the new Cab 7; but not onward connected to the Exchange.

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A TDR, Time Domain Reflectometer is basically a small, specialised RADAR system, designed to measure wire lengths to breaks or shorts - I used one many times on a variety of circuits - Ethernet, general electrical etc.

As TDR did not mean much to my colleagues, I generally referred to it as "my Pocket Radar Set".

Like radar in degree, the TDR sends a pulse down the wires, being reflected at particularly breaks and shorts, with lesser reflections caused by squeezing, tight corners etc.

A JDSU is similar; but adapted specifically for phone systems.

One maker uses both terms in on-line adverts etc.

Edited by deleted (Thu 21-Sep-17 07:41:02)

In reply to a post by dohmniq:

Just had an OpenReach engineer arrive to check my line but it's apparently disconnected from the network by virtue of being only about 80m long.

Is my line length actually about 80m because I'm now connected to cabinet 7?

A TDR should reflect the full line length to the exchange, with blips where joints are located ... and the PCP will just be blips.

Perhaps your line has been disconnected somewhere, and is now just 80m long in total.

In reply to a post by dohmniq:

now it says I'm connected to cabinet 7!

Maybe I should cancel my order and wait until cabinet 7 goes properly live?

I can't advise as to which way will get you a working connection quickest.

However, I can say that your current order will have picked up the cab identity from the data that existed at the time the order was placed.

If that was cab 1, and you are physically connected to cab 7, then the FTTC order will fail; it will be built internally, allocating a port on cab 1's DSLAM. When the time comes, the order will need to be cancelled and re-ordered a day later.

If it was cab 1, and you are still physically connected to cab 1, then the order will work, though speeds might be low. You will then be subject to a "live to live" migration when all the existing FTTC connections move over together.

thanks for the informative replies - I'll update the thread when something happens

Engineer was supposed to turn up today to do final install but they didn't.
Rang ISP and they said there was an "exception" on my order, which they cleared.
ISP also said OR didn't notify them and so they couldn't notify me.
Sat around indoors all morning for nothing!

I wonder if this is related to the cabinet swap.

ISP said an engineer will be allocated within 24 hours to fix external issue then eventually they'll send out router and new install appointment.
Not holding my breath though...

Rang ISP for an update. They rang OpenReach and rang me back to say my order was "stuck" and wouldn't progress unless they cancelled the order and resubmitted it.

I'm not sure anymore if this is due to cabinet confusion or inability to find a spare pair. I guess the utility of this thread for people placing an order during cabinet transition has diluted somewhat. On the other hand, if my (new) order gets stuck but suddenly everything happens after new cabinet 7 goes live (ETA November) then that might be useful info to someone.

Apparently it might take 24 to 48 hours simply to cancel and resubmit the order, let alone another 2 weeks until go-live, assuming OpenReach magically fix whatever is wrong.

Surely if I can't have a line then some event should be triggered which would notify my ISP and then me? Seems a bit odd, and somewhat disheartening, to have to chase up my ISP, who then chase up OR, only to be told it's not happening.

hahaha

Of course after cancelling my order and now at the point of resubmitting my order to OR, the ISP can't resubmit my order because I'm listed as on the new cabinet which doesn't have fibre yet.

So whether or not the cabinet move was the cause of my order being "stuck" it's certainly a factor now.

So the moral of this tale is...? Place your order and hope?

You likely would have had to cancel anyway, and then wait that 24-48 hours. At least that's now out of the way for when the cab goes live.

The backend of the ordering system has limitations (such as one activity at a time), and this case (of adding new cabinets, and migrating users) obviously doesn't gel well with other activities by the engineering teams.

My very first order for FTTC got stuck (with no cab move), and needed a bridge case to get the database unstuck. That didn't work ... so some bright spark in BTW just cancelled my existing ADSL connection to fix it. Thankfully, they then expedited the new FTTC order, which was up and running within 48 hours.

Hi. I'm on Hintlesham cabinet 1. I've been following the progress of cabinet 7 (even though I suspect it's far too far upstream of us to serve us)

From what I can see, they installed cabinet 7 some time ago in order to bring faster FTTC to the area near the church, but they've been having a lot of problems clearing the ducts from cabinet 1 to blow the fibre. They've dug the road up outside our house twice

It looks like they're going to have another attempt next week, and they may even close the road.

With any luck, you may get top speed FTTC in a month or two.

When you say cabinet 7 is "too far upstream", are you aware of new cabinet 10 up Burstall Lane which might serve you? If you have good friends nearer cabinets 1 or 7 you could always set up a 5GHz point-to-point link

roadworks.org reckons they're closing The Street past Burstall Lane between 11th and 22nd to work on cab 7. I can't see anything for cab 10 though.

I hope cab 7 goes live this year but the main problem with my last order seemed to be no spare pairs. Maybe if they only need copper to the new cab then they don't need to find copper pairs from the cab to the exchange? I don't know if the voice part is sent over fibre from cab to exchange or not.

Voice is sent still to the exchange over a copper pair

They won't complete your order without a working E-Side.
I had to wait around 4 months on new E-Side capacity being added to my cabinet (we're a few km from the exchange so a big job).
This wasn't noticed until after I placed my order.

I was fortunate that the OpenReach engineer connected the FTTC.
I had 4 months of free broadband from BT while waiting for the E-Side capacity being added.
As my order wasn't completed by OpenReach it was DLM free too!

Unfortunately cabinet 10 in the wrong direction.

Ultimately we're getting 34Mbits on 1km line length.. we're just the right side of the speed drop off.

There's a plan to put a cabinet on the corner I think, but that probably won't happen until GFast is being rolled out.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

They won't complete your order without a working E-Side.
I had to wait around 4 months on new E-Side capacity being added to my cabinet (we're a few km from the exchange so a big job).
This wasn't noticed until after I placed my order.

I was fortunate that the OpenReach engineer connected the FTTC.
I had 4 months of free broadband from BT while waiting for the E-Side capacity being added.
As my order wasn't completed by OpenReach it was DLM free too!

Glad to hear the engineer connected through your FTTC. Nice bit of common sense.

It shouldn�t have take 4 months to add more E-side capacity though.