Just thought I'd consolidate all the different stages of the fibre upgrade into a sort of timeline for other curious people.

The Timeline

1. Late May 2013 - Exchange goes 'Under Evaluation' by Openreach.
2. Late August 2013 - After three months, cabinet markings appear.
3. Late September 2013 - After another month, fibre tubing is laid.
4. Early November 2013 - After another month and a bit, workmen are digging the hole for the cabinet and laying the concrete plinth for it to stand on.
5. Mid November 2013 - After almost another week the cabinet is stood, the Openreach website now gives a forecast of December instead of saying 'Under Evaluation'. The next day all the holes at the site are filled in because the power installation is delayed.
6. Late November 2013 - After about another two weeks, the copper link cable is installed between the PCP and NGA.
7. Throughout December 2013 - Openreach staff work on the cabinet, often under cover of their tents.
8. Mid January 2014 - After about another couple of weeks, Morrison Utility Services rock up and connect the power to the cabinet.
9. Early February 2014 - After another two or three weeks, people arrive in normal non-Openreach branded cars and plug a computer into the cabinet, these people are commissioning it ready for service.
10. Late February 2014 - After about three weeks, the cabinet is now live on the BT Wholesale checker and to my surprise, also on TalkTalk's system.

Key Time Periods

It took four months from when my exchange became 'Under Evaluation' for physical work to begin.

It took two months from the cabinet being stood to it being powered.

It took over a month from the cabinet being powered to it being ready for service.

It took almost a month from the cabinet being commissioned to it being ready for service.

It took three months from the cabinet being stood to it being ready for service.


Of course, these timings vary with every install. This is just my experience.

And now announced.

http://www.betterbroadbandnorfolk.co.uk/news-detail....

Can I confirm with you guys that Downham Market is now Live?

I've spoken with Talktalk and BT today ref. ordering it and both say it's not available in PE38 at all. I'm 1.2 miles from the exchange so that doesn't seem like the reason.

Thanks.

Today didn't go quite as smoothly as I would have liked but such is life.

The appointment slot I booked was for between 8:00 and 13:00 however the engineer called at 12:50 to say he was stuck at a job in another town and would be here at about 14:00. So anyway, the clock ticked away and as 15:30 approached, his van pulled up outside (think he was a contractor as I'm pretty sure it said 'working on behalf of Openreach').

He came in, plugged a piece of equipment into the master socket and went to work on the cabinet. As I saw him drive down the road towards the wrong cabinet, I was quite worried but after pacing about for 5 or 10 minutes he finally went to my cabinet and hooked it up.

He came back, upgraded the faceplate and plugged in the Openreach modem which synced no problem. We then connected the modem to the fibre port on the router and the fibre LED lit up. The ADSL LED kept flashing too even though we had disconnected the ADSL cable, but I didn't see that as a problem as we were connected and all seemed well. The engineer had other ideas...

He was obsessed with this ADSL LED and thought it'd somehow interfere with our fibre connection. He led us into letting him perform a factory reset on the router and changing the connection mode from 'auto' to fibre. I still don't see why as the connection was up and running. ADSL LED continues to flash even after this wizardry.

Anyway, bearing in mind the fibre cabinet is about 4 or 5 metres from our master socket, I am quite disappointed with our download speed. We are downloading at about 45 Meg however we are on an up to 80 Meg package and the BT Wholesale checker gives us an estimate of 79 Meg.

Is our speed subject to a 'line training' period or has something gone wrong?

Is this with TalkTalk?

It should be at full speed straight away. There are a few thing that can upset the apple-cart though.

Which OR modem did he supply, HG612 or ECI? An HG612 is easily unlocked so you can see the connection speed, to see if it's that or elsewhere you have the problem.

Have you got any star wiring taken off before the master socket? That would really mess it up.

Are you testing wired or wireless? At these speeds wired is essential for speed tests.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Is this with TalkTalk?

It should be at full speed straight away. There are a few thing that can upset the apple-cart though.

Which OR modem did he supply, HG612 or ECI? An HG612 is easily unlocked so you can see the connection speed, to see if it's that or elsewhere you have the problem.

Have you got any star wiring taken off before the master socket? That would really mess it up.

Are you testing wired or wireless? At these speeds wired is essential for speed tests.

Thanks for the reply.

It is with TalkTalk.

The modem is an ECI one.

None of the star wiring has been touched.

My connection is wired to my desktop and wireless to my laptop, both are giving the same speed.

Throughput is still 45 Meg or thereabouts but the TalkTalk forum staff say I'm synced at 80 Meg. Managed to get an engineer booked for next Thursday but in the meantime is there anything I could be trying, or does anyone know what the issue could be? My Googling suggests it is to do with DLM which could mean the engineer will need to reset the line.

Edited by deleted (Fri 21-Mar-14 19:24:46)

Anyone know what could be wrong with the connection, and how to solve the issue?

The modem is an ECI B-FOCuS V-2FUb/r Rev B so can't easily be unlocked or 'hacked' so sorry I can't be any more helpful with stats.

The BT Wholesale checker says I should be seeing the following figures:
FTTC Range A (Clean) 80 79.9 20 19.9
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 80 71.3 20 17.9