In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

BT always seem to have not a clue as to here the best demand is.

The one company in the country that has the best knowledge of demand is BT.

They know exactly the take-up rates in exchanges, compared with the initial installation of ADSL. They know the exact take-up of LLU services, compared to installation of competitors kit.

And, by virtue of negative elimination, they even know the extent of Virgin's take-up in each and every area.

They'll have a detailed picture of exactly how competition has affected them at each location. And, by now, they'll have started to amass a wealth of data about how their FTTx services are altering the competition landscape - whether they're winning or losing the battle, and under what circumstances. They'll indeed be able to judge whether it is better to attack Virgin's competition head-on, or to step around it.

A different bit of BT (the retail arm) will have an idea of the affluence of every area - partially through take-up of services, and history of this take-up, but also of quarterly spend.

If mined correctly, they certainly have the best information of any single company out there.

The real question is - with our *total lack* of equivalent knowledge, how are we to judge whether they are mining the data correctly?

As far as I can tell, people are guessing, and moaning (either based on the guesses, or just baseless moans).

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

That the roll-outs are dictated by accountants and not cuddly little people who want to receive thank you cards.

But I had my card ready for the BTO chappie.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Check the BT checker every few days, just before you can order the date may move about wildly or just disappear and then it will go live.

In my area (Seaford) the Exchange went to Accepting Orders in July or August 2012. The cabinet I'm connected to was installed in March or April. Samknows says it's going live from end of September.

Near the end of September the BT Wholesale Checker stopped saying that FTTC was coming and just quoted ADSL stats. Just checked it now and it's says my phone number doesn't exist! So perhaps this might be an indication it's going live. I'm excited!

And If it does go live I have to move from BE (full LLU I think) to BT or Plusnet. I notice RobertoS has Plusnet so I reckon they must be good!

Tim