G.Fast Finally Available - But Amber?

Finally I've seen G.Fast appear on the availability checker. I say finally, because the pod was fitted in Summer 2017. In early 2018 a BT Wholesale check of a line would show the G.Fast availability as "Planned", but then in about May 2018 the G.Fast section of the results disappeared.

So now on the BT Wholesale checker I get mid-range speeds when looking up the BT line, no data available when looking up the TalkTalk line, and full 330/50 when looking up the address.
But on all of them the availability is "Amber".

https://ibb.co/XLdKLJK
https://ibb.co/tMNnHmH


Do we know what "Amber" means?

On VDSL currently and getting the full 80Mbps.

The second question, assuming "Amber" doesn't mean coming soon, is about which ISPs offer G.Fast?

Or more to the point, I'm after a 'business' ISP. Obviously not a proper leased line, but the "We might answer the phone a little bit quicker and we might prioritise your packets in our network" BT/TalkTalk business broadband. Main reason is A) Static IP and B) Not having a "residential customers only" line in the small print.

Edited by Westyfield2 (Fri 22-Feb-19 20:09:58)

There are reports that the availability checker is rather broken at present and all lines are showing amber, so I shouldn't worry too much about that. If you have full FTTC speeds there is no reason why you your G.Fast speeds would be poor, have you tried to order G.Fast from any ISP? As for a good business grade ISP I can't really offer any advice.

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

If you have full FTTC speeds there is no reason why you your G.Fast speeds would be poor

That's not necessarily the case. There are lines that get the full 80Mb and are out of G.Fast range our at the very tail end.

You can still get 80Mb at 400m+ on FTTC.
G.Fast goes up to 350m at present and estimates dip considerably at it reaches that distance.

Edited by j0hn83 (Fri 22-Feb-19 21:35:12)

FWIW, my cab has a G.Fast pod on it, and the G.Fast part popped up on the checker for me as "Amber".

Several weeks later, the checker no longer lists G.Fast as a service available. Codelook gives partial G.Fast coverage on this cab.

Maybe "Amber" is the code for "we've installed it, not sure if it'll work at your address" ?

Edited by deleted (Sat 23-Feb-19 21:44:07)

It used to be Amber for lines that had low estimates below 100Mb.

The checker is currently broken and showing G.Fast as Amber for some/most/all (1 of them) lines showing G.Fast, regardless of estimates.

As a result those showing Amber can only order the lower tier G.Fast and will need to upgrade when live if they want the 350Mb package.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

It used to be Amber for lines that had low estimates below 100Mb.
...
As a result those showing Amber can only order the lower tier G.Fast

I thought G.fast came with a minimum speed guarantee of 100Mbps? And therefore if your estimate was below that, you shouldn't be able to order it at all?

Estimate being the key word and it is a range, i.e. it lets people know a chance you may be below 100 Mbps - in the past.

Will be chasing on Monday as gone on for longer than I would have expected for a simple checker fix.

Yes, but I did mention it was low estimates.
Estimates vary quite a bit from Clean/High to Impacted/Low.

Any line that has ANY part of the estimate (including impacted/Low) below 100Mb is/was marked as Amber.
They can't just not offer a service to these lines, the clean/High estimates can be in the high 100's.

That was OpenReach's approach till the checker changed last week.
Mark lines on the outer edges with low estimates as Amber.

No idea what the outcome is if the line syncs below 100Mb but Amber orders (for low estimates) often go through fine.

Edited by j0hn83 (Sun 24-Feb-19 10:02:06)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

Yes, but I did mention it was low estimates.
Estimates vary quite a bit from Clean/High to Impacted/Low.

Any line that has ANY part of the estimate (including impacted/Low) below 100Mb is/was marked as Amber.
They can't just not offer a service to these lines, the clean/High estimates can be in the high 100's.

That was OpenReach's approach till the checker changed last week.
Mark lines on the outer edges with low estimates as Amber.

No idea what the outcome is if the line syncs below 100Mb but Amber orders (for low estimates) often go through fine.

My impacted range estimate is high of 262 and low of 198.4 with a handback threshold of 181.5. It's showing amber which, according to reports elsewhere, means that it can't be provisioned with self install but requires an engineer visit.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Will be chasing on Monday as gone on for longer than I would have expected for a simple checker fix.

Any feedback?