thanks for the informative replies - I'll update the thread when something happens

Engineer was supposed to turn up today to do final install but they didn't.
Rang ISP and they said there was an "exception" on my order, which they cleared.
ISP also said OR didn't notify them and so they couldn't notify me.
Sat around indoors all morning for nothing!

I wonder if this is related to the cabinet swap.

ISP said an engineer will be allocated within 24 hours to fix external issue then eventually they'll send out router and new install appointment.
Not holding my breath though...

Rang ISP for an update. They rang OpenReach and rang me back to say my order was "stuck" and wouldn't progress unless they cancelled the order and resubmitted it.

I'm not sure anymore if this is due to cabinet confusion or inability to find a spare pair. I guess the utility of this thread for people placing an order during cabinet transition has diluted somewhat. On the other hand, if my (new) order gets stuck but suddenly everything happens after new cabinet 7 goes live (ETA November) then that might be useful info to someone.

Apparently it might take 24 to 48 hours simply to cancel and resubmit the order, let alone another 2 weeks until go-live, assuming OpenReach magically fix whatever is wrong.

Surely if I can't have a line then some event should be triggered which would notify my ISP and then me? Seems a bit odd, and somewhat disheartening, to have to chase up my ISP, who then chase up OR, only to be told it's not happening.

hahaha

Of course after cancelling my order and now at the point of resubmitting my order to OR, the ISP can't resubmit my order because I'm listed as on the new cabinet which doesn't have fibre yet.

So whether or not the cabinet move was the cause of my order being "stuck" it's certainly a factor now.

So the moral of this tale is...? Place your order and hope?

You likely would have had to cancel anyway, and then wait that 24-48 hours. At least that's now out of the way for when the cab goes live.

The backend of the ordering system has limitations (such as one activity at a time), and this case (of adding new cabinets, and migrating users) obviously doesn't gel well with other activities by the engineering teams.

My very first order for FTTC got stuck (with no cab move), and needed a bridge case to get the database unstuck. That didn't work ... so some bright spark in BTW just cancelled my existing ADSL connection to fix it. Thankfully, they then expedited the new FTTC order, which was up and running within 48 hours.

Hi. I'm on Hintlesham cabinet 1. I've been following the progress of cabinet 7 (even though I suspect it's far too far upstream of us to serve us)

From what I can see, they installed cabinet 7 some time ago in order to bring faster FTTC to the area near the church, but they've been having a lot of problems clearing the ducts from cabinet 1 to blow the fibre. They've dug the road up outside our house twice

It looks like they're going to have another attempt next week, and they may even close the road.

With any luck, you may get top speed FTTC in a month or two.

When you say cabinet 7 is "too far upstream", are you aware of new cabinet 10 up Burstall Lane which might serve you? If you have good friends nearer cabinets 1 or 7 you could always set up a 5GHz point-to-point link

roadworks.org reckons they're closing The Street past Burstall Lane between 11th and 22nd to work on cab 7. I can't see anything for cab 10 though.

I hope cab 7 goes live this year but the main problem with my last order seemed to be no spare pairs. Maybe if they only need copper to the new cab then they don't need to find copper pairs from the cab to the exchange? I don't know if the voice part is sent over fibre from cab to exchange or not.

Voice is sent still to the exchange over a copper pair

They won't complete your order without a working E-Side.
I had to wait around 4 months on new E-Side capacity being added to my cabinet (we're a few km from the exchange so a big job).
This wasn't noticed until after I placed my order.

I was fortunate that the OpenReach engineer connected the FTTC.
I had 4 months of free broadband from BT while waiting for the E-Side capacity being added.
As my order wasn't completed by OpenReach it was DLM free too!

Unfortunately cabinet 10 in the wrong direction.

Ultimately we're getting 34Mbits on 1km line length.. we're just the right side of the speed drop off.

There's a plan to put a cabinet on the corner I think, but that probably won't happen until GFast is being rolled out.