FTTC confusion.

I'm a little confused at the reasons apparently being given as to why an immediate neighbour cannot be connected to FTTC. The problem is stated as not being at the cabinet, ports are available, but rather at the exchange and that no port is available. Is there a one to one relationship between ports at the cab and ports at the exchange? I thought that individual ports were only at the cab end of the fibre. So my question is how is an FTTC connection configured at the exchange? I thought that connection to individual wholesale providers was via cable ties carrying all traffic for a given wholesaler rather than individually.

There is no FTTC port at the exchange, but a fibre handover cabinet (or two) and the aggregated FTTC and/or FTTP users data is presented over a number of fibres.

It may be the capacity of a link is maxed out and a wholesaler is not taking more orders. Or it could just be a checker error with one provider if this is a new build or fairly new VDSL2 cabinet

Andrew,

Thank you.

That is what I understand the structure to be. Unless the link is maxed out, in which case why mention there being no fibre port, then either BT Openreach or the ISP is blatantly lying to my neighbour.

Your immediate neighbour *might* be on a different cabinet, or even on an EO line, for historical reasons.

What happens if you put their phone number and yours into the dslchecker? Does it show both properties connected to the same cabinet?

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Your immediate neighbour *might* be on a different cabinet, or even on an EO line, for historical reasons.

What happens if you put their phone number and yours into the dslchecker? Does it show both properties connected to the same cabinet?

He arranged a CFP for his street and was the 1 who will have submitted the property list to Openreach for an AIO FTTC cabinet.

I'd guess he knows if they are on the same cabinet.

If a CFP and AIO then chances of a checker error are higher

There's no might. We are all on WRVAUX 54 a small 96 port AIO cab. It has spare fibre ports. I've now spoken to my liaison at BT Openreach who has confirmed there is no reason why my neighbour's FTTC has been held up for approaching two weeks - installation day was originally scheduled 26 September. The problem would seemingly be with the wholesaler, in this case BT Wholesale. To date all we have received is lie after lie rather than a connection.

Just to be clear: from what you've said it sounds like the checker says that the neighbour is good to go, and they submitted an order, but the order is failing while they attempt to deliver it.

Then the error is somewhere deep in the bowels of the systems, since the public-facing information ("FTTC is available here") conflicts with the order management ("order cannot be delivered") - and like you say, it's up to them to resolve it. These things can take time, and your ISP should be escalating it on your behalf.

"Ports at the exchange" sounds like them spinning you a line - as long as the neighbour isn't getting a new BT phone line installed for this FTTC service.

I know they're spinning me a line. This isn't a new AIO cab, it's three years old.

A BT Openreach employee has confirmed to me tonight that there is no problem at either the exchange or the cab that would prevent my neighbour's FTTC connection being installed. The problem has to be internal to the ordering system possibly caused by the initial delay in moving the line from TalkTalk's MSAN. This was fixed on the 28th when the phone service changed from TalkTalk to BT WLR with naturally the loss of their ADSL connection via TalkTalk. They were told the cab work was scheduled for the morning of the 30 Sep.

You have been misinformed again. There is a problem at the cabinet which requires a DSLAM trained tech to diagnose and resolve, before the line can be activated.

THANK YOU!!!!

You wouldn't happen to want to make a (very informed) guess as to what the problem might be and possible timescale for a fix?

MM

I wouldnt take a guess, any of the usual suspects, card, harness, splitters, strips etc.
Issue should be identified and resolved within the next few days.

Thank you. Can I assume the problem was detected remotely as no-one's been near the cab since the original activation date of 26 Sept, although perhaps the problem was known about before then. Fortunately the rest of us with FTTC connections via that cab aren't having problems, or rather mine's OK and none of my neighbours have complained!

Perhaps you are now asking for TMI? Risking the goose that lays the golden eggs?

It would have been found when the openreach tech or contractor attempted to activate the line at the AIO.

Update.
Engineer visited WRVAUX 54 this morning, the first time anyone has been near it for two weeks or more (we had put a telltale on the doors) and my neighbour's installation is now due for tomorrow. Why of why couldn't PlusNet, BT Wholesale or Openreach been honest and given a proper honest answer when asked for the cause of the delay.

Edit: BT Retail corrected to BT Wholesale

Edited by deleted (Wed 09-Oct-19 22:30:01)

Could simply have been miscommunication as often happens when messages are passed between OpenReach, BT Wholesale then the ISP.

The problem is stated as not being at the cabinet, ports are available, but rather at the exchange and that no port is available

The response is often about ports at the exchange when they actually mean the street DSLAM.

Could have been something as simple as a line card fault meaning no free working ports were available.
The original reason given might have been correct, just the location of the ports in question being wrong.

I'm with you on wishing the initial info given should be more accurate.

MCM

Try the scenario below that may exist elsewhere where AIOs were provided for small clusters (eg less than the AIO capacity). Saves a fortune on remote truck rolls, but is usually rural unlike yours!

As your AIO was a community funded one they may have wired all the premises covered straight into the VDSL cards, Thus customers could be configured remotely, When they tried to do your neighbour the port had a fault on so had to have a visit that would not normally be needed!

The ISP would not know this and would just be told there was a faulty port. Front office people tend to think this is exchange rather than Cab and you know no-one has been to the cab so think no-one would know there was a faulty port.

I've never known OpenReach to connect tie cables to every line just because the PCP has less capacity than the serving DSLAM.

Don't see why a CFP would be any different.

I'm no engineer and happy to be educated further on this but I was under the impression an ADSL line can't be jumpered to the line card in the FTTC cabinet anyway.

If I cease my line tomorrow it's done remotely, left jumpered to the FTTC cabinet so it can be reprovisioned without a cabinet visit.

If I downgrade to ADSL then my line is disconnected from the tie cables on the cabinet.

An upgrade to FTTC would need a further visit to the cabinet.

It was the advise given to my by OpenReach to get my line changed from the ECI DSLAM to the Huawei DSLAM on my PCP.

A downgrade to ADSL would be needed to have my line disconnected from the ECI tie pair, a cease wouldn't make a difference unless that port was recycled at a later date.

Has that changed or was that never the case?