Questions About Incoming Fibre

Hey there, this is my first time ever posting here so please feel free to tell me if I'm doing anything wrong.

So my exchange, Insch, has recently come up on the map as Coming Soon for this very month. This is fantastic news as I'm a film and media student, and our current speeds of 2mb down and about 300kbs up have been woefully inefficient for any serious film and media work online. However, we are not connected to the exchange directly and instead to a cabinet and I have heard stories of exchanges going live but some cabinets being left as ADSL only. Using the BT Broadband checker I got this -

BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER
Telephone Number 0146xxxx Exchange INSCH is served by Cabinet 2
Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Downstream Range(Mbps)

Availability Date

ADSL Max Up to 1 -- 0.75 to 2.5 Available
Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
For all ADSL and WBC Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) services, the stable line rate will be determined during the first 10 days of service usage.

Throughput/download speeds will be less than line rates and can be affected by a number of factors within and external to BT's network, Communication Providers' networks and within customer premises.

The Stop Sale date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2012; the Formal Retirement date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2014.

If the End User wishes to migrate from their current Broadband supplier they will need to contact them in the first instance to obtain a MAC (Migrations Authorisation) Code, and then contact their new Broadband supplier to arrange for the service to be migrated.

Note: Please note that postcode and address check results are indicative only. Most accurate results can be obtained from a telephone number check.
Thank you for your interest.

I have a few questions for some of the more educated people, if that's okay.

For one, does anything from the Broadband Checker give any indication as to whether we will or won't have access to fibre?

Two, how accurate are the 'Coming Soon' bubbles on the BT Openreach site? The map still says June, while the PDF file has our exchange listed for June 14th, which has obviously passed by now.

And three, slightly off-topic, we were considering moving our master socket to a different room for better Ethernet access. Would this need to be done before or after our fibre is activated? (assuming it is.)

Thanks for any and all help.

Edited by deleted (Sat 28-Jun-14 15:06:29)

I would suggest you remove your phone number from the post.

Edited by cajef (Sat 28-Jun-14 14:54:13)

Removed your phone number for you.

No specifics yet on which cabinet, and the BT wholesale checker has nothing hidden in it to help you guess either.

Looking at exchange half the lines are Exchange Only, but cabinets 1 and 2 look possible for FTTC based on being the largest two.

This is cabinet 2 I believe, the key is how close to it you are.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/guide/fibre-broadband.... gives you distance versus speed estimates.

Cabs 3 & 4 look to have a fair chunk of businesses which may help sway Scottish project to upgrade them too. Place Scotia Homes are they building lots of places on Denwell Road?

As a general rule keep the length of phone wiring in the home to a minimum to maximum VDSL2 speed, and then run Ethernet from the modem or modem/router to the more useful location. Ethernet can run 100m with no speed drop.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Removed your phone number for you.

No specifics yet on which cabinet, and the BT wholesale checker has nothing hidden in it to help you guess either.

Looking at exchange half the lines are Exchange Only, but cabinets 1 and 2 look possible for FTTC based on being the largest two.

This is cabinet 2 I believe, the key is how close to it you are.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/guide/fibre-broadband.... gives you distance versus speed estimates.

Cabs 3 & 4 look to have a fair chunk of businesses which may help sway Scottish project to upgrade them too. Place Scotia Homes are they building lots of places on Denwell Road?

As a general rule keep the length of phone wiring in the home to a minimum to maximum VDSL2 speed, and then run Ethernet from the modem or modem/router to the more useful location. Ethernet can run 100m with no speed drop.

Thanks for the help.

The broadband speed checker also gives Cabinet 2 for most of our surrounding houses and at about similar ADSL speeds. Is there perhaps a map to check where Cabinet 2 is actually located and I can go and physically go and see it?

Also, would you happen to know how accurate the Openreach map is for dates? The PDF says June 14th, but as far as I can tell not many of the places listed there have moved beyond 'Coming Soon'.

Oops forget the cabinet location https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@57.311759,-2.62345,3a...

June the 14th but which year?

If it was this June then fibre cabinets would be stood up by now, or you would have noticed lots of Openreach vans about. Superfast Scotland people are the ones in control of the information release.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Oops forget the cabinet location https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@57.311759,-2.62345,3a...

June the 14th but which year?

If it was this June then fibre cabinets would be stood up by now, or you would have noticed lots of Openreach vans about. Superfast Scotland people are the ones in control of the information release.

It's this year. There have been quite a few Openreach vans out, even some digging up significant chunks of rural road. I know where that cabinet is, so would it be worth going to take a look at it? And if so, what should I look for?

Sorry for the silly questions. I'm not hugely informed on all this stuff.

For FTTC a cabinet like http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/images/f... but without the stickers

If the manifolds like http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/images/f... are appearing on the top of poles then get very excited as FTTP is on its way for some people.

Pics from Cornwall http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

For FTTC a cabinet like http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/images/f... but without the stickers

If the manifolds like http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/images/f... are appearing on the top of poles then get very excited as FTTP is on its way for some people.

Pics from Cornwall http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/

Just took a drive down and can confirm there's a new larger cabinet just beside the old one. If I am on Cabinet 2, then that hopefully means it's on its way!

As for FTTP, I haven't noticed any of those on the top of poles. I think the PDF on the Openreach website states we're only getting FTTC as well. Still, it's going to be a vastly superior speed to what we have at the moment.

There are three sorts of FTTC cabinet. The one MrSaffron gave is at the top right of this page. The one below it and the one to the left of that are the others. I've a feeling the 128s should say 96, but judging by the location I expect it is one of those.

Whichever of the three it is, you will almost certainly be getting FTTC, not FTTP.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 28-Jun-14 20:32:03)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

If the manifolds like http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/images/f... are appearing on the top of poles then get very excited as FTTP is on its way for some people.

the pole serving my house has had that manifold & fibre hanging off it for 9 months now

i got tricked into being excited!

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

For FTTC a cabinet like http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/images/f... but without the stickers

If the manifolds like http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/images/f... are appearing on the top of poles then get very excited as FTTP is on its way for some people.

Pics from Cornwall http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/

In regards to your comment about distance from the cabinet, I'm about 4/5ths of a mile away, though significantly less as the crow flies. Could that end up being a problem?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

There are three sorts of FTTC cabinet. The one MrSaffron gave is at the top right of this page. The one below it and the one to the left of that are the others. I've a feeling the 128s should say 96, but judging by the location I expect it is one of those.

Whichever of the three it is, you will almost certainly be getting FTTC, not FTTP.

The linky ("this page") takes me to The Park is that by way of a shortcut to the street cabinet?

Someone forget to check links in the preview...

So around 1.3km and off top of head around 15Mbps likely speed. Better than now but not superfast

Oops!

Fixed, thanks .

Impossible!

Just checked, and Insch is being done as part of the Digital Highlands & Islands BDUK scheme, so as far as the Wholesale checker is concerned, you won't know anything about the possible fibre speeds until the cabinet goes live.

(Although just checking now for my parents line in Findhorn, it has finally gone live and looks like they'll get the full 80Mbit.)

RobC.

So the cabinet finally went live and it seems we can get Infinity from BT! I just have a few more questions, so I hope that's okay.

BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER
Telephone Number 0146xxxx on Exchange INSCH is served by Cabinet 2
Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Downstream Range(Mbps)

Availability Date

High Low High Low
FTTC Range A (Clean) 26.9 19.3 6 4.2 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 21.2 10.2 5.4 2.1 -- Available

ADSL Max Up to 1 -- 0.75 to 2.5 Available
Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
For all ADSL and WBC Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) services, the stable line rate will be determined during the first 10 days of service usage.

For FTTC Ranges A and B, the term "Clean" relates to a line which is free from any wiring issues (e.g. Bridge Taps) and/or Copper line conditions, and the term "Impacted" relates to a line which may have wiring issues (e.g. Bridge Taps) and/or Copper line conditions.

Throughput/download speeds will be less than line rates and can be affected by a number of factors within and external to BT's network, Communication Providers' networks and within customer premises.

The Stop Sale date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2012; the Formal Retirement date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2014.

If you have already placed an order for Broadband and now wish to change to a new supplier, then you will need to cancel the existing order with your service provider or your new request will be rejected. If you do not know who the current Service Provider is, please contact your new Service Provider, who should be able to help you to resolve this issue.

Note: If you decide to place an order for a WBC fibre product, an appointment may be required for an engineer to visit the end user's premises to supply the service.
Please note that postcode and address check results are indicative only. Most accurate results can be obtained from a telephone number check.

Thank you for your interest.

I'm not entirely sure what the difference between Clean and Impacted are here. The BT Infinity site gives me 19 - 27 down and 4 - 6 up, so is that about what I should be expecting from my new speeds or is there more to this than meets the eye?

Secondly, we have an Openreach engineer coming to hook us up on the 10th. As I mentioned in my first post, we'd like to move the router to a different room for better Ethernet access in that room. What would the best option be here? Would the Openreach engineer be able to move the router to a different part of the house while still keeping it hooked up to the Master Socket, perhaps running cables outside? Would the Openreach engineer even do this for us on the day? Or are we going to have to run Ethernet to the room the socket (and thus router) are currently in?

Thanks so much for your help everyone, and I really appreciate it!

Speed range could as large as 10 Mbps to 27 Mbps based on the BT Wholesale checker.

The 10 Mbps is the most worst case scenario, I.e. lots of cross talk and poor wiring in your home. You sure the engineer is visiting to hook you up, and NOT just going to the street cabinet to enable the VDSL2 on the line, since most installs are self-install to keep the cost down these days.

If you have an engineer install booked and its through BT then it should include the option for a data extension from the master socket for a cable run of up to 30m BUT best advice as you have a long line is to install the VDSL2 modem as close to the master socket as possible, and then run your own Ethernet cabling to where you want the router located.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Speed range could as large as 10 Mbps to 27 Mbps based on the BT Wholesale checker.

The 10 Mbps is the most worst case scenario, I.e. lots of cross talk and poor wiring in your home. You sure the engineer is visiting to hook you up, and NOT just going to the street cabinet to enable the VDSL2 on the line, since most installs are self-install to keep the cost down these days.

If you have an engineer install booked and its through BT then it should include the option for a data extension from the master socket for a cable run of up to 30m BUT best advice as you have a long line is to install the VDSL2 modem as close to the master socket as possible, and then run your own Ethernet cabling to where you want the router located.

Yeah, it's an actual engineer visit, and the email even mentions that they'll perform a data extension. What's the downside of having a data extension exactly? And if we do choose to use it rather than Ethernet (sorry, just wondering about all the possibilities) do we still need a phone socket to be in the room with the hub, or does it just need to be connected to the master socket?

It will make a 1000m line possible 1030m long, which means you might lose a little more speed.

The data extension connects to the master socket and runs to the remote location with just a socket for the modem to plug into.

What's the downside of having a data extension exactly?

Just to say, that on the upside...

Some people may not have a power point close to their Master Socket. Using an extension may mean this doesn't become a problem.

I'll be moving to FTTC soon (fibre being installed this month under BDUK) and my Master Socket is in the loft. I don't want to run power up there for a modem as things get pretty hot so I'll be using CAT5 for my install with all my equipment sited in my study as it is now for ADSL. I've tested my current wiring directly in the TEST socket and via my CAT5 extension and get identical stats - so I'm hoping FTTC will work the same for me.

I'll test things with the modem in the Master to see if I'm messing things up though.
You could do the same and see how things are with and without the extension

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

It will make a 1000m line possible 1030m long, which means you might lose a little more speed.

The data extension connects to the master socket and runs to the remote location with just a socket for the modem to plug into.

That makes sense. Looking at our house, we were thinking possibly running the three Ethernet cables from the window of the room to the front porch where the Hub will be located. It's only about a five meter run and it would enter the same way our phone line currently does. Would you know if this is something the engineer could and would be willing to help us do when he's there, or will we need to contact an electrician? We've got a similar set-up from our living room to a bedroom on the other side of the house with the Sky box and that's worked fine for years.

If you do go with BT Infinity, (I hope you haven't swallowed the Superfast broadband only from BT deception), then their Home Hub 5 has a built-in modem and four gigabit Ethernet ports. You can have Ethernet links to it as long as you like, with no loss of performance. The loss comes between the master socket and the modem.

Engineer will not be interested in running ethernet cables.

Electrician may not be the best option but someone who lists data comms infrastructure wiring.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

If you do go with BT Infinity, (I hope you haven't swallowed the Superfast broadband only from BT deception), then their Home Hub 5 has a built-in modem and four gigabit Ethernet ports. You can have Ethernet links to it as long as you like, with no loss of performance. The loss comes between the master socket and the modem.

We're going with BT as we were already with them so it's a simple upgrade. The length of Ethernet isn't really a problem, it's more that the room we want connected is upstairs and we're trying to find a solution that doesn't involve trailing cable all the way down.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

For FTTC a cabinet like http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/images/f... but without the stickers

If the manifolds like http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/images/f... are appearing on the top of poles then get very excited as FTTP is on its way for some people.

Pics from Cornwall http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre-cornwall/

Very useful Andrew