blocked from swapping providers when the cabinet is full

i currently have fttc with sky but i am looking to switch as ive found the performance and reliability to be a bit poor over the past 18 months of my contract. the problem is, everywhere i try says i can only get adsl as the fibre cabinet is full.

ive tried voda, plusnet, bt, zen, aaisp, ghost gamer and talktalk. currently, the only provider that brings up fttc as an available package is talktalk, everyone else only brings up adsl. ive tried ringing some of them to ask if they can take over the existing line and im told they cant as there needs to be a free port in the cabinet to swtich providers.

i know 'cease and reprovide' was a thing a few years ago but apparently this should no longer be a thing but sadly i still cant order anything. anyone shed any light on this subject? there are around 980 houses on this estate, i've checked every street and they all use the same cabinet (according to wholesale checker)

i sent openreach an email and apparently, they plan to bring fibre to the area using existing technologies and fttp by november 2023. does that mean i am stuck with sky until the cab is expanded or full fibre arrives in 2023 or a port becomes free? (and with what could be up to 692 properties at least im guessing people are holding on to them ports!)

If you search for your exchange and cabinet in codelook it may give an idea when expansion is scheduled for.

Otherwise, ports come and go when people move house etc. I think your options are:

1. Check every day; place your order with your new provider as soon as you see a port become free
2. Order with a provider who is able to work with the waitlist. Did you actually speak to AAISP? Have you tried Aquiss?

BTW Acquiss are not currently supporting FTTC waiting list orders.

You should be able to just migrate as the port in the cabinet has been allocated to your line. When you go to check with another provider are you entering your landline number as well?

markyboy77

If you post a postcode or Exchange and Cab number one of the people with expert knowledge may be able to give you more information on when something will happen o your Cab.

I can confirm this is presently correct, but we hope to reverse this decision at some point.

We are looking at circa 6+ months now for every customer we have presently on Waiting Lists, that we are managing orders for, which for us is no longer a workable timescale that customers should have to wait for.

Conversations we have had this year with our BTW and Openreach account managers is that capacity improvements on cabinets, for the majority of them, won't happen until FTTP deployments happen in local areas, thus reducing the demand on the FTTC cabinets.

In reply to a post by aquiss:

Conversations we have had this year with our BTW and Openreach account managers is that capacity improvements on cabinets, for the majority of them, won't happen until FTTP deployments happen in local areas, thus reducing the demand on the FTTC cabinets.

Very interesting

It's quite clear that openreach dont want to invest further money into their FTTC network unless absolutely necessary.

In reply to a post by witchunt:

It's quite clear that openreach dont want to invest further money into their FTTC network unless absolutely necessary.

It wasn't clear to me before but I am aware now.

It would not be an "investment" given the FTTP push it would almost certainly be removed before they were anywhere near break even let alone getting a positive return.

Even moving removed FTTC to a new location is unlikely to be cost effective with the cost of installation only.

You just have to see the number of cabinets closed to orders to see the effect it is having.

In any case they're unlikely to be removing FTTC capacity from FTTP areas in the near term. Apart from a few keen early adopters, it takes time for people to migrate from FTTC to FTTP, as contracts come up to renewal - and it will be a few years before people are not allowed to renew on FTTC.

In reply to a post by kitcat:

markyboy77

If you post a postcode or Exchange and Cab number one of the people with expert knowledge may be able to give you more information on when something will happen o your Cab.

Exchange MOSBOROUGH is served by Cabinet 7 - i doubt there will be any upgrades though sadly, there are already two huawei cabs stood next to the pcp and both cabs and the pcp have expansion pods on them as well (not a gfast pod on the pcp) - i'm guessing with two expanded cabs already, the only thing bt could really do is install another cab

In reply to a post by markyboy77:

i'm guessing with two expanded cabs already, the only thing bt could really do is install another cab

There's a PCP near me with 3 separate fibre cabinets (2 x ECI and 1 x large Huawei). It's certainly not a common occurrence.

They much prefer to install VDSL Sidepods now (they look like G.Fast pods) than site whole new cabinets.
You PCP has 1 side free for a VDSL Sidepod but I really can't see that happening, ever. I'll explain why...

Martin from Aquiss comments are very telling. For most cabinets that are at capacity and need a whole new DSLAM then they more than likely need to wait for FTTP to ease capacity on the FTTC.

I don't know if you are aware but many of the properties served by your PCP are marked for FTTP.

All line cards are installed already so the next capacity upgrade would be a VDSL Sidepod but with FTTP on the way I'd be amazed if they added more capacity.

Your PCP is a good example of how much OpenReach underestimated demand/take-up, even in 2017 when the cabinet was built.

They deemed it not commercially viable so needed BDUK funding.
They installed a small Huawei
They had to expand capacity and install a High Density upgrade.
They then installed a 2nd Huawei cabinet (again a small 1).
They then had to add another HD upgrade to this cabinet.

If the codelook properties passed figures for your PCP are accurate then there's very few homes on your cabinet that aren't taking an FTTC service.

Edited by j0hn83 (Wed 17-Mar-21 16:06:33)