Switching from Sky LLU to fibre

Hi,

A number of years ago we switched from our regular broadband provider (Tesco) to Sky as our service was very slow. Sky provide the service through LLU in our area and I noticed an increase in speed and reliability. Recently we have been informed that our area will soon be upgraded to fibre optic. As this is provided by Openreach, will I automatically be upgraded by Sky? Furthermore, will the service I receive be the same as that which would be provided by other providers such as BT? I assume that if I had to change back to BT from using a LLU provider then I would be charged.

Thanks

You will have to request and upgrade, but sky can provide FTTC in most cases, but they don't provide open reach FTTP if that is what open reach are providing

As witchunt says. (There are two types of Openreach fibre. Do you know which is being provided in your area and cabinet?)

Assuming it will be FTTC, then once the exchange is enabled it then requires your cabinet to be enabled. Normally only some of the cabinets of an exchange are enabled immediately, and the rest later. Some never are. Do you know which cabinet you are on?

ISPs using BT Wholesale can usually offer FTTC to enabled cabinets as soon as the user's exchange is enabled. Sky and TalkTalk users may have to wait a week or so after the exchange is enabled for those ISPs' kit to be linked to the Openreach FTTC panel in the exchange.

No ISP offers automatic upgrades to fibre, either FTTC or FTTP. It's a rather big step up in performance and price. At the moment it also appears that, (of consumer ISPs), only BT Retail offer FTTP.

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure whether it'll be FTTC or FTTP, how would I find out this information? I had a look around the openreach site but to no avail.

I noticed that my landline number is not recognised when I type it into the search bar but if I enter my postcode then choose my home address it recognises the area and says we will be enabled within 6 months. Is there any possibility that we will be disadvantaged or excluded from this as we have transferred our services to a company using LLU?

Thanks

In reply to a post by thejinkazama:

I noticed that my landline number is not recognised when I type it into the search bar but if I enter my postcode then choose my home address it recognises the area and says we will be enabled within 6 months. Is there any possibility that we will be disadvantaged or excluded from this as we have transferred our services to a company using LLU?

No. MPF lines (e.g. Sky) cannot be looked up on the Openreach number checker, but that's normal. Just use the postcode.

Don't "just use the postcode". Even the checker site itself says it may not give the right answer. As well as the warning it gives, one of the reasons is that a postcode area can be served by several cabinets, and it only gives the result for one cabinet area.

Use the Address Option. That is very rarely different from what a phone number enquiry gives. (I tried to give you the direct link to the age, but they seem to have stopped that working. They must want you to go through the "Warning" page).

Being on LLU doesn't stop you having fibre if it's available to you. There is a very slight chance that you wouldn't be able to stay with Sky, but normally you will be able to if you want.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Don't "just use the postcode". Even the checker site itself says it may not give the right answer.

It's ok, because using the postcode will force the user to pick an address anyway: http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I tried to give you the direct link to the age, but they seem to have stopped that working. They must want you to go through the 'Warning' page

This works: http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.Addres... . Always go via this intermediate page as It is just as well not to 'Proceed' beyond this page in order to get a URL to paste here as it is that that has never worked.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

It's ok, because using the postcode will force the user to pick an address anyway

Despite this denial?

Please note that the postcode checker is less accurate than the telephone number checker because it uses a best guess of where you live based on the centre point of the postcode area entered.

Several postcode areas extend over more than one telephone exchange area, therefore the checker data will only be correct if it has correctly assumed which telephone exchange provides service to your address.

In addition, the postcode checker may not give an accurate estimate of the routing of the telephone cable that is connected to your address, therefore the result given by the postcode checker must be treated with caution.

There is no such denials in the Address Checker.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

It's ok, because using the postcode will force the user to pick an address anyway

Despite this denial?

I'm not sure why the BT Wholesale checker keeps being mentioned here, because thejinkazama was talking about fibre planing projections, which is a function of the Openreach checker, not the BT Wholesale checker. I specifically referenced the Openreach checker in my post, not the BT Wholesale checker.

Edited by Oliver341 (Thu 09-Apr-15 00:16:29)

Cuz Roberto was talking about it w/out actually linking to it. I think!

I simply missed that you were talking about the Openreach checker, which I've never had cause to look at. Your post with a link to it came later, and on clicking that it seems from the popup I got that the address checking is a recent upgrade.

Anyway, we can feel safe that the OP is getting fibre - but from what he said it doesn't say whether it will be FTTC or FTTP. The BTW one does, assuming it has that postcode's data.

I've posted the direct link a few times in the past and it has always worked. (99.9% of the time I check links work at the Preview stage).

Tell us which exchange and cabinet and someone may know

Apologies for the delay in responding. The exchange is Lennoxtown and it's cabinet 4. I've noticed that a much larger cabinet has recently been built next to the old cabinet 4, I'm assuming this is for fibre. Would this serve the whole area or just cabinet 4? Also, I assume that it'll be FTTC and not FTTP as no roads are being dug up in the area.

Thanks

The FTTC ones are larger and have some air vent slots on them. If it was FTTP there would be no new cabinet with the air vents as it does not need one.

It will usually only serve those connected to cabinet 4, but sometimes some historical anomalises in the network are corrected, e.g. the 2 properties miles from their cabinet may be moved to cabinet 4.

Pictures of cabinets. The ones labelled 128 should say 96.

Thanks for this. Is there a way to check how many homes are served by each cabinet?

In reply to a post by thejinkazama:

Thanks for this. Is there a way to check how many homes are served by each cabinet?

And where each cabinet is?

I would but got to go do something else for a while - prod us early evening

Ok thanks, if it's something I can do myself then I'm more than happy to.

Okay back again, what I had to do was not my problem

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.959664,-4.167082,3... is cabinet 4 and around 120 lines

That's amazing, thank you. Can you show me how to check a few others out of interest?

Lots of time on google streetview

Any idea about where cabinet 2 is and the amount of lines? Thank you

In reply to a post by thejinkazama:

Any idea about where cabinet 2 is and the amount of lines? Thank you

Well I found these two cabinets not sure if cabinet 2 is one of those but they seem to be in that area.
Google Maps

*** Update ***
Those 2 cabinets might be cabinets 5 and 6 not sure.

I have found some more not too sure if these are PCP cabinets or not but they seem to be in the location the cabinets could be in.

[Exchange]
https://goo.gl/maps/Q2sY9

[PCP 1 ???]
https://goo.gl/maps/Kc9aB

[PCP 2 ???]
https://goo.gl/maps/m8Q1L

[PCP 3 ??? or could be for camera across on main road]
https://goo.gl/maps/e7KFD

[no clue if this is VM, BT or a power cabinet??]
https://goo.gl/maps/pjKU5

I think I have spent enough time searching.

Paul

Edited by PaulKirby (Sat 25-Apr-15 13:22:52)

Thanks for all your time!