Thanks BT OR

You may think this could be a negative post about BT OR but I seriously wanted to share praise on them in this case.

Been working with them to install a new AIO Cab in Kempston Bedford, and ended up speaking to a few really good eggs within OR who have communicated really well and always given updates and not just reactively.

They managed to book in engineering works for today to switch over the circuits from our old PCP to the new AIO. I was worried that this would keep getting pushed back etc but the change over happened today, I managed to say thanks to the nice BT Engineer who was doing it. (sorry I didn't have any Hob Nobs with me at the time!)

The development speeds are up to 4x what we had before and I will be regarding to the 80/20 service when the DB's have updated.

So, some good news for a change.

Mr S, if you do speak to anyone senior in BT in the near future please feel free to mention my thanks.

I would also like to say a big thank you to OR

According to that other site that we aren't supposed to draw public attention to - the ESGRE exchange is not due to have Fibre until April 2017. The PCP and Fibre cabs were installed outside the exchange in November.

Digital Scotland was saying July - December 2017.

Suddenly on 30th December 2016 - all the BT checkers were saying we could order FTTC (even though on the BT site - it also said the exchange was "Planned Area" and on Digital Scotland it still said July - December 2017, while saying I could order and providing an estimated line speed).

I'm supposed to be enabled by midnight on the 12th so we will see, but all the checkers have had a further update since then, BT says the area is Fibre enabled. Digital Scotland now says the area was enabled between January and June 2017.

So if I actually get enabled tomorrow - 4 months ahead of Schedule - I just want to give BT a big thank you. Especially since all the checkers say I am connected to Cabinet 1 - which I know is a lie - because I've never lost broadband sync or phone service so I can't see how I could possibly have been disconnected from the exchange (EO line) and re-connected to the PCP (I assume this is what will happen tomorrow?)

Anyway - fantastic Christmas present!

all the checkers say I am connected to Cabinet 1 - which I know is a lie - because I've never lost broadband sync or phone service so I can't see how I could possibly have been disconnected from the exchange (EO line) and re-connected to the PCP (I assume this is what will happen tomorrow?)

No reason why it should be a lie. There was no break in service for anyone on our development of 75 properties when our EO bundle was routed through the new AIO cab serving the development (WRVAUX 54). I admit to having been both impressed and pleasantly surprised at how smoothly that part of our upgrade went.

Edit: The re-routing of the EO lines will have been completed before the cab is able to accept orders and the work is carried out by a different team from that which enables individual customers when they order an FTTC service.

Edited by deleted (Thu 12-Jan-17 01:08:45)

We'll I'll come back and let you know if I was enabled (can't see why I wouldn't be though).

Are you absolutely sure - because there are some 480 ish lines in the village - but the Fibre cabinet is either a 96 or 128 line cabinet (A tiny one with a single small vent at the lower left on the front) - seems like it would be less overall work for the engineers to re-route each line as service is actually requested?

In any case I graph our Broadband data and apart from installing a Draytek 130 it's never dropped since we got swapped on to the new phone line in the summer.

The cabinet(s) were installed in November and the roadworks only lasted 6 days.

I'm on a BT Business line - I'd expect if they were doing work that might interrupt my service during working hours - I'd get an email or letter to advise me of it?

It's physically impossible to disconnect an electrical circuit from one location and connect it to another location without interrupting the flow of electrons. I would 100% know if they had disconnected the line at the exchange and connected it to the cab - apart from anything else - the total length of line would be changed and thus the sync speed, attenuation and other line stats would be changed too?

I therefore assumed they would do one of these "live to live" migrations?

http://www.nptohc.co.uk/img-cache/rrd_dsync_1y.png

Edited by deleted (Thu 12-Jan-17 03:35:57)

Are you absolutely sure -

I am. For one, engineers are not skilled and trained to do both activities and 2) it would be far more time consuming to have to break into the network and divert a single pair each time an activation is requested.

It's physically impossible to disconnect an electrical circuit from one location and connect it to another location without interrupting the flow of electrons

They can use a temporary bridge or jumper to maintain the connection while they are doing the changeover

- the total length of line would be changed and thus the sync speed, attenuation and other line stats would be changed too?

Only a tiny bit though. It's not adding hundreds of metres of cable to the route.

Edited by witchunt (Thu 12-Jan-17 08:10:57)

Just checking, but there are a couple of points in your post that give the impression that you may have misunderstood the process.

You have actually ordered an FTTC service from someone haven't you ? And today is the date you have been told it will be connected ? Have you been sent a new router to use, or told that your existing can operate both ?

I ask, as have seen folk on here before labouring under the misapprehension that just because the equipment is there, their line will be mysteriously upgraded without them ordering.

I think it's an ordered upgrade as the poster said they had been told 'enabled by midnight' which is the usual spiel.

If they had said the cabinet had been enabled but their speed hadn't increased then I'd think it was someone expecting an auto-upgrade.

Fair points, it was the reference they made 'only a small DSLAM can for so many lines', implying they thought ALL lines were routed through the DSLAM and just automatically switched on as and when.

As well as the more technical switching of circuits mentioned by others, such a change occurs twice per day in my house and many others moving between Day metering and Off-Peak Metering, without any interruptions/breaks.

And as there are three types of circuits, through two meters, it is slightly more complex than might be expected.

If you check even simple two-way switches, there are two varieties -

Break before Make, causing a brief interruption

Make before Break, so no interruption.

--------------

Also look for photos of the many change-overs from Strowger exchanges to generally Cross-Bar in the 1960s and 1970s.

In our particular case, this involved also switching about 2 to 3 thousand lines, from the small Strowger building to a much larger building about 400 yards away, so needing a lot of new wiring.

I just got confirmation of the time and date two days back from BT Archives - it occurred at 09:30, 18th November 1972.

Post Office Telephones/BT OR have over 100 years experience of such "mass migrations", with no or minimal interruption of service.

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I actually was watching it being done on my line in 2014, when I upgraded from ADSL to VDSL.

There was basically no interruption to the Phone service - if I had been making a phone call, I would have been unaware of it, whilst there was an instantaneous cease of the ADSL going "instantaneously on to VDSL.

In practice on the BB side, there was a much longer delay, whilst I walked back to my house, swapped modems and waited for the new VDSL modem to "hand-shake etc.

There was basically no interruption to the Phone service - if I had been making a phone call, I would have been unaware of it, whilst there was an instantaneous cease of the ADSL going "instantaneously on to VDSL.

I assure you this is NOT the case in 99.9% of FTTC connections.

I have never once made an FTTC connection in a cab without breaking the metallic path of the circuit I am working on ........ for most cab termination types to do this would be a physical impossibility anyway.