Hi to answer your questions.

Pangbourne is already live for Talk Talks LLU service, their are many resellers of this product and have good customer support.

BT Wholesale have been enabling exchanges for 21CN, which allows for asdl2 & asdl+2, this will allow for speeds up to 20Mbps download and about 1Mbps upload.

Since you are very close to the exhange you will see a good speed on asdl+2 as it is only a short run of copper.

The Pangbourne upgrade will not relate to FTTC, the % figures in the news statement reffer to coverage of 21CN across Berkshire.

The Superfast Berkshire project once it goes to tender it will likely be won by Openreach, they will then deploy FTTC across the whole of Berkshire, this will be between 2013-2015.

In Tilehurst both Virgin Cable and Openreach FTTC is deployed so that is why you see the higher speeds, ive put all the products below to show what they can do.
The speeds seen in Tiehurst are from Fibre to the cabinet and copper/coax services.
Also do note BT infinity is just BT retails name for their FTTC package, their are many other isp's offering services over Openreach's FTTC network.

BT Openreach products

ASDL - uo to 8Mbps
ASDL 2/ASDL+2 - uo to 20Mbps and 1-2Mbps upload
FTTC two products 40Mbps download - 10Mbps upload or 80Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload
FTTP- two products 100Mbps download and 10Mbps upload or 330Mbps Download and 30Mbps upload

Virgin- Cable fibre coax network delivers 10/30/60/110 Download and Upload between 1-10Mbps depending on package.

The only Openreach FTTP deployement that i know of in Berkshire, are the Newbury Racecourse development and Mitford Fields in Reading.

My reply took a while to type, their is FTTP planned for Berkshire by Openreach in Newbury and Reading.

I heard Spencers Wood also.

Mitford Fields is at Three Mile Cross.

http://goo.gl/maps/Zfut

Is the google link from the Openreach FTTP enabled new homes. rollout list.

Their is also a site in Maidenhead, at St Mary's Park- SL68RH

Edited by deleted (Tue 29-May-12 22:21:14)

Ah,OK, talking about the same place, that is off of Spencer's. The cab serving that location is FTTC already, and would only a couple of hundred meters from it.

I've put my name down for training, for the install work. We'll have to wait and see.

I live in Hermitage and just called BT Broadband to find out if there was anything I needed to do tomorrow, to prepare for the exchange upgrade tomorrow. All my hopes of high(er) speed broadband were dashed in minutes when the lady on the phone told me that the upgrade has been delayed and won't now be happening until 29th August 2012.

Well done BT - Grrrrrrr...!!

I would wait and see if it goes live tomorrow, the checkers all maintain the 31st of May, though they may need to update.

A delay to August is not so much of a problem, though without speaking to a Openreach Engineer working at the exchange it could be a number of possible delays.

Also have you contacted the parish council in Hermitage to voice your support for the parish commiting its allocated funding towards the West Berkshire Parish funding program for the Superfast Berkshire project.

The first decsion taken by the parish council was to refuse, however after the public suvey their is a strong demand for faster broadband, the more support for it, the more likley the PC will vote in favour at a full meeting- orginal decision was taken wilth only half a PC in attendence.

What it will mean for Hermitage, is that Openreach (only likely bidders for tender) will install fibre twins to the various exisiting cabinets in the village. Allowing for speeds of 80/20 to those closest to the cabinet and slowing the further away- about 22Mbps download is possible at 1400 meters away.
Most properties will be within about 600 meters of a cabinet.

I have registered now

Thanks ccxo, I have been following the Parish minutes since last December and have to say that they have been less than positive, regarding the proposed upgrade. What's the timescale for improvement if they do decide to get behind it?

Well at current the Superfast Berkshire program is moving ahead, a short term loan is covering the missing parish funding for west berks contribution.
Any missing funding will results in cuts by West Berks Council to cover the loss, why its important to get all parishes to contribute.

At the current stage the local broadband plan is completed, the last part is delivery which requires a team.
The project manager has been recruited, so the current time scale is for the tender to go out and the contract signed by the winning company by 31st of December 2012.

Work will then begin in 2013 through till 2015, as to what area's will be first thats a good few months yet, the winning tender will likely be Openreach as other companies are unlikely to bid for the money.

Edited by deleted (Wed 30-May-12 21:07:59)

I see this morning that the BT Wholesale ADSL Checker has changed the date for ADSL2+ on the Hermitage exchange from 31st May (today!) to 30th June. So if the conversation which Anonymous of Hermitage had with BT Broadband is correct, we will probably see a slippage of one month every month! Yours, Cynical of Cold Ash.