BT Wholesale Exchange Checker has no results

Hi,

I'm enquiring for a friend who has just ordered broadband with Plusnet. Something has gone wrong and he hasn't been connected to the correct exchange. He should be on the Whiteley exchange but instead is on the Locks Heath Exchange. How is it possible to be connected to the wrong exchange exactly?

If we use his phone number or address on the wholesale checker it shows the number is on the Whiteley exchange but now both results don't show any details regarding ADSL.

http://i.imgur.com/yq7yX1G.png

What could this mean exactly?

Thanks

Edited by deleted (Sun 16-Aug-15 11:37:40)

If they are on the boundary of the two exchange areas then more scope for uncertainty and if a property has never had a phone line even more so, if a terrace then the two immediate neighbours are a good indicator.

Hi,

Property had a phone line previously, it's in a block of flats. The Whiteley exchange was born out of the Locks Heath exchange so it was geographically closer to Whiteley. Whiteley used to be served by Locks Heath.

Some background here: http://whiteleyforum.net/cm/index.php/122-whiteley-n...

Why would the checker show no ADSL data anymore? Any idea who is to blame here, plusnet or BTOR? Plusnet have cancelled the order and raised a new one but not sure what they've done to stop this happening again.

Thanks

Aha yes, have seen a confused state for that area before.

Its nothing to do with PlusNet as the checkers are maintained by Openreach/BT Wholesale. PlusNet should be feeding back and pursuing in an effort to win the customer.

If as is common with all providers this fails (AAISP might be the exception), then best to email me [email protected] with the actual number/address info and can pester Openreach

Thanks for the advise and offer of help Andrew.

The plusnet user took checkers point to Locks Heath as the exchange whenever we enter details about the property so that just further aids the confusion.

Do you think it's easiest to give Plusnet another shot at getting this sorted?

Thanks again.

Initial thread with more information.

Continuation thread with the current position.

Current position is my friend is emailing the Plusnet CEO to try and get a move on things. Plusnet phone support have been useless.

Just that people reading this thread need to know the history. Otherwise they could end up completely wasting their time and energy trying to help, covering ground that is already well-trodden .

Very similar to cross-posting in more than one forum here about the same topic.

I wonder if an ADSL2+ service, on an EO circuit, from Locks Heath TE, might actually be faster, as only IPsteam Max is available from Whiteley.

Is that information about Whiteley accurate? Originally when using the wholesale checker it said Whiteley exchange that cab and 15-17mb range. It's also what Plusnet estimated when ordering.

There's no 21CN WBC (i.e. ADSL2+) kit at Whiteley, so there won't be anything faster than 8Meg direct from there I'm afraid.

Can't understand why Liam was told otherwise then. They estimated his speed at 15-17mb, which would not be possible if connected to the Locks Heath exchange. I noticed Sam Knows shows it as an ADSL Max exchange I just assumed it was outdated.

I'll see if Liam can find his original order email.

Just did a little more digging on the Wholesale Checker

If we enter the post code for a street along, it only shows Fibre available to order and no ADSL. I'm struggling to find any street connected to the Whiteley exchange that lists ADSL services at the moment.

What could this mean?

Not a Fibre cabinet: http://i.imgur.com/CZ7TRlU.png
Fibre enabled cabinet: http://i.imgur.com/jKaudRc.png

Whiteley exchange (if you can call it that) used to be in a glorified Portacabin, little more than a stone's throw from Junction 9.
Do you know if they ever replaced it with a permanent structure and, if so, have you any idea where it is now?
Hopefully Mr S will be able to clarify the situation for you.
Let's hope your friend doesn't get left in limbo for too long.

No idea I'm afraid. Can you still see where the Portacabin was/is on Google Maps?

You may find that the only broadband now sold on Whitely exchange is FTTC or FTTP. AS has been said it was a Container with ADSL kit in, and Voice was TPON. The ADSL kit was withdrawn from sale a couple of years ago so it is now FTTC/P or nothing.

The two sites you quoted are on different cabs 102/105 and only 102 has FTTC at present. You may be (are) in a business park that has not had it's cab enabled due to the economics. You will be able to get a business class ethernet service but will have to pay business prices.

This scenario is possible need to check later

Hi

Thanks for the response, I'm aware they're two different cabs, I was comparing to see if any had ADSL and found, as you said, even those with fibre lack ADSL. Why would it be the case that less than a month ago you could order ADSL and now you can't? Additionally the checker showed ADSL only a couple of weeks ago.

No business park in this part of Whiteley it's a residential area. The cabinet does only serve a very small number of properties though.

Edited by deleted (Mon 17-Aug-15 15:12:31)

Thanks Andrew, would be good to know what is really happening.

There's an O2 mobile mast, in the woods, behind the Solent Hotel.
There's a very short service road, leading to the site.
At the end of the road, the O2 transmitter cabin was on the left and the BT Portacabins were on the right.
You could only just about see it in the winter, in the summer it's almost completely shielded by trees and you could easily miss it.
I hasten to add that this was some years ago now.

Edit:
Just had a look on Google Earth:
There's at least one additional building there now, which is much bigger and looks a lot less portable.
(A second mast has been erected too.)

BT don't normally withdraw IPstream Max from provision unless WB(M)C is available, but this remote conc unit seems to be a complete anomaly.
I stand ready to be corrected, especially as I can count the number of days that I've worked in Milton Keynes on the fingers of one hand, but I can't recall another TPON copper overlay that included a remote frame.

Edited by bit_bucket (Mon 17-Aug-15 21:03:11)

Sorry I got the wrong impression that the 2nd cab was the one you were on, it appeared to serve the Nursery and shopping area.

The housing estate appeared to be off a different set of roads.

BT have been withdrawing the old ADSL product for some time, some checker results show the end date for IPStream and Datastream.

BT would not want to put ADSL2 in the Container but to 'drive' takeup of FTTC instead. I assume that they have stopped new supply of ADSL once most cabs are upgraded. Alternatively they may have exhausted the capacity of the equipment in the container but this is less likely with the number taking FTTC on.

"ADSL Max" is supplied using IPStream Connect (IPSC) and has been for a long time now. IP Stream itself used BT Centrals at the ISP end and they are long gone.

Would BT want to supply nothing though in the face of no FTTC?

In reply to a post by brandscill:

Would BT want to supply nothing though in the face of no FTTC?

The checker image you posted shows that fixed rate ADSL is available.

is it a new block of flats -- if so it may be a new cab as developer only requested voice so cab will not be pn any rollout

In reply to a post by Fastman2:

is it a new block of flats -- if so it may be a new cab as developer only requested voice so cab will not be pn any rollout

As far as I'm aware, fixed rate is adsl.

1Mbps as per the line in question - 1152kbps downstream sync. IIRC 448kbps upstream but less sure of that.

Nope not new. People have lived there before and had broadband. The BT wholesale checker and PlusNet used to estimate around 15mb for the property. Looks like the information was wrong, and still is wrong.

Hi Andrew,

Not sure if you'll be able to help. Not making much progress with PlusNet. They claim there is no routing information for the line and the engineer went rogue and did what he liked. They've spent all week trying to cancel the order and update the address details and have failed. They said best case scenario BT will cancel the order next Tuesday or Wednesday. This went from it being the worst case scenario all resolved tomorrow.

Struggling to understand how it's gone this wrong, they claim the line is incorrectly setup at Locks Heath exchange, but neighboring properties are on this exchange and receive broadband. I fear that nothing will move forward at this rate and Plus Net aren't offering up any helpful solutions.

Thanks in advance

Edited by deleted (Thu 20-Aug-15 17:06:58)

Can try I guess, it is possible that with the rearrangements in the area someone did something a little odd messing things up - but most likely just a records keeping problem

Hi Andrew,

Just got this latest bit of info from Plus Net

The cause is actually not as complicated as you might think (the resolution is however). Basically, the physical phone line currently installed in your property isn�t registered on BT Openreach�s database. Your phone number is, but that is actually making things more difficult because if it wasn�t we wouldn�t have been able to place a broadband order in the first place.
 
So essentially, BT Openreach allowed us to place an order but when an engineer went to the exchange (which turned out to be the wrong one) he couldn�t actually locate your line because it�s all done by routing.  What I mean by that is, your line should have co-ordinates at the exchange, for example Exchange - LOCKS, MDF - 15, PORT -  22 and next your number in the records, all that information is just black.
 
The engineer who installed your line did actually send the correct routing co-ordinates back to his control but no further action was taken. The problem now is that those records can�t be updated because of the open broadband order. The broadband order is stuck because the system has never encountered this problem before. To un-stick it we need a developer at Openreach to manually close the order down. Once this has been done we should be able update the records for your line and place a broadband order.

locksheath and Whiteley are both fibre enabled but indentifed separately -- majority of cabs will be on Locksheath -- a few will be Whiteley - the DP will have been allocated a route from a premise to a cab to an exchange -- what does the wholesale checker tell you -- as details at and address / Tel number cab be difference especially in an exchange like this one

In reply to a post by Fastman2:

what does the wholesale checker tell you

I suggest you read the first post