Yeh, exchanges at Twickenham, Teddington and Kingston were also earmarked to go FTTC-live on 31st Dec.

I just don't see that all the exchanges on the published lists for December enablement - even just those here in west and south-west London - could ever have been fully ready by that date. It would have taken vast armies of roadworkers, cable-layers, and fibre technicians to have installed everything. So, it's no surprise to me that the date's now been put back to March.

I'm certainly not convinced about any fibre having already been laid in the ducts in the precinct, either. I'm an observant fellow and I've certainly not seen any such activity thus far. And there's a complete lack of any new cabinets around. I reckon the FTTC figures I've been given in the BT Checker are simply estimates.

The situation's starting to look farcical. However, I'm giving BT the benefit of the doubt and am trusting that they'll be able to meet most subscribers' FTTC requirements as to the basic infrastructure at some time in 2011.

In reply to a post by meditator:

But in my case the cabinets are installed and cabled up. Completed recently.

And it seems the original March 2011 dates have, today, been moved back to June 2011.
At least I fully expected BT to screw this up (I didn't believe for a minute I'd actually be able to order FTTC to BT's original programme).

I'm still not convinced the dates won't move again.

I reckon Bob is right - BT's recent "equipment fault" (which saw virtually everybody on Infinity capped to 2Mbps - i.e. less the half the national average ADSL speed; not bad for BT's latest "effort") was only an equipment fault in that the equipment (i.e. some kind of backbone to take the increased bandwidth) doesn't actually exist.

It seems BT are letting the rollout slide until they can buy some more bandwidth from themselves.

Doesn't look good for BT aiming for at least 40% coverage by 2012 (i.e. BT have one year and two weeks left).

In reply to a post by adebov:

I reckon Bob is right - BT's recent "equipment fault" (which saw virtually everybody on Infinity capped to 2Mbps - i.e. less the half the national average ADSL speed; not bad for BT's latest "effort") was only an equipment fault in that the equipment (i.e. some kind of backbone to take the increased bandwidth) doesn't actually exist.

It seems BT are letting the rollout slide until they can buy some more bandwidth from themselves.

Exactly .

With it being so widespread, with so much kit already in place, lack of backhaul has to be the only logical explanation.

Mine is still showing the March date, from December 4 days ago. Maybe that's the date for those now with cabinets, and June for those without.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

With it being so widespread, with so much kit already in place, lack of backhaul has to be the only logical explanation.

Either that or it's a massive coincidence.

The time delay between the 2Mbps cap, the putting back of the December dates, then the putting back of the March 2011 dates seems to be about what would be needed for the tech guys at BT to explain (to their bosses and the people with authority to delay the rollout) why they don't have the capacity, and the time taken for said bosses to make the decision.

The additional day (between putting back the Dec 2010 dates to March 2011, and moving the March dates to June 2011 to make way for the delayed December dates) would be about right for someone (either late yesterday or early today) to say "hey; what about the dates we've already got scheduled for March? We can't do them all at the same time".

Edit: Of course; one thing we haven't considered....
Either the other ISPs offering FTTC are using BT's complete package (including backbones), in which case why bother going with them;
Or, BT Openreach are delaying rollout because a different BT division hasn't got enough backbone capacity (and that seems a little anti-competitive and smacks of people who shouldn't be talking to each other forming a back-room deal);
Or, you're wrong and BT Openreach aren't pulling a fast one because BT Retail or BT Wholesale don't have enough backbone transit and BTR or BTW didn't ask OR to do them a favour!

Edited by adebov (Thu 16-Dec-10 22:53:05)

We need to get the WikiLeaks guy onto it.

The whole thing is decidely fishy.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

We need to get the WikiLeaks guy onto it.

Except he seems to have gone insane.
Earlier today he made the statement "it's good to smell the fresh air of London again".
So he's either being ironic or the guy's certifiable .

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The whole thing is decidely fishy.

If you want to be a shark, first make sure you've got teeth...

In reply to a post by adebov:

And it seems the original March 2011 dates have, today, been moved back to June 2011.

FWIW half my town has been done (furthest away from exchange) and all the roads in my area (near exchange) are on March 2011.

My line today reports:
>Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 31st March 2011.

From the checker at:
http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.Teleph...

That hasn't changed - and I know my cabinet (thanks to James at ADSL24) and its pretty easy to locate on the street, and absolutely zero works have occurred.

Hope all you others expecting by end of year haven't been too disappointed - I wouldn't be surprised if there have been delays all over the country caused by snow, and equipment stuck etc.

In reply to a post by adebov:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

We need to get the WikiLeaks guy onto it.

Except he seems to have gone insane.
Earlier today he made the statement "it's good to smell the fresh air of London again".
So he's either being ironic or the guy's certifiable .

Remember he was comparing it to the air inside a Victorian basement prison cell.