Wales - not (and never-!) spot in large areas of Cwmbran

I live in Llantanram, Cwmbran. Serviced by Cabinet 6 on Newport Road by the Three Blackbirds pub.
I have just been officially informed that cabinet 6 will NOT be upgraded with FTTC.

I was told that cabinet 6 was 'under consideration' for upgrade as an FTTP area.
However, even if it was FTTP was agreed, then I am advised that this will not go live until at least March 2015.

So.....a whole large area of Cwmbran (at least) will not have decent fibre internet for at least two more years!

BTW, I am barely getting 1.2Mbs at the moment. Even basic iplayer is unwatchable

So, looks like satellite has to be the way to go. Although prices are extortionate.
I am currently paying Sky £5 per month for unlimited downloads.

Tooway charge £64.50 for a 20Mbs line, and unlimited monthly quota, or £44.50 for a 30Gb monthly quota.
(At least I believe I can get a grant for the hardware).

Are there any cheaper alternatives?

Never, as in also not part of the Welsh Assembly upgrade plans, or just not part of the commercial roll-out?

What are the line stats, just to check that there is not scope for more ADSL speed

Thanks for offering support/advice.

Am feeling pretty glum at the moment....

OK, firstly, when I say 'never', is not strictly true. I just mean 'not in the forseeable future'.
I am told that my local cabinet will NOT be upgraded to FTTC, and is only 'under consideration' as a FTTP area. And even if successful, FTTC will not be installed until at least March 2015.
So......I am stuck with my current service for at least 2 more years (despite my town's exchange being upgraded with fibre, and some cabinets already been upgraded).

Regarding my current performance, I used to be with plusnet where I barely got 0.5Mbs.
I moved to Sky a year or so ago, and this increased to around 1.6Mbs which I 'enjoyed' for 6-9 months.
It then dropped to around 1.2Mbs which I thought was temporary, but I was stuck with it for several months.
I called Sky, they performed some tests and confirmed that from their side everything was ok.
But they did 'something' (although I don't think they admitted it), as my speed increased to its current 1.42Mbs.

Further information.....
We only use ONE telephone socket in the house. My telephone base station and broadband router are plugged into this single socket (via a microfilter),
More specifically they are plugged into the test socket behind the faceplate of this master socket.
My router is next to the socket and is connected with a short cable.
My router is a Netgear DGND3700 v2 (which I feel is much better than the one supplied by Sky)

So....I think 'I' have done everything that I can think of to maximise the speed at my end.

My line stats are as follows:

ADSL Link Downstream UPstream
Link rate 1589 Kbps 598 Kbps
Line attenuation 68.0 dB 43.8 dB
Noise margin 9.5 dB 6.6 dB

Any advice/suggestions would be gratefully received.

Else, I have already started looking at alternatives - £64.60 pm for satellite (ouch!), or even mobile broadband (3G £25pm with 15Gb quota with 3, or even 4G £26pm with 8Gb quote with EE)

If Sky lowered the target noise margin to allow you to sync at 6dB, you might hit 2 Meg, which would help streaming.

But yes, a year or two for any Welsh assembly stuff to happen. If this talk of FTTP is via the commercial roll-out it should be at most a year of waiting

Thanks again.

The info I received was:

"Cwmbran cabinet 6 is not being upgraded as part of the Openreach commercial rollout of fibre broadband.
I have been in contact with a project manager for Super fast Wales and they have informed me that your cabinet is under consideration for upgrade as an FTTP area.
However, you must understand that the deployment of FTTP takes longer than FTTC and isn’t scheduled to go live until March ’15."

Regarding lowering the target noise margin, is it just a matter of asking (instructing?) them to do so?
When I have spoken to them before, they have at the best obfuscated my enquiries, and at worst denied their ability to affect the connection speed.
I believe they told me that it was all automatic and that it would connect at the best available speed. And check regularly to see if better becomes available.
(I admit that I don't know enough about how it all works).

I also have some difficult when speaking to Sky, since they require you to use THEIR modem, whereas I use my own (better-featured) one.
Or have they relaxed this requirement to use their own modem?

Ok so its the long haul option - darn - was hoping to find something cheery.

If this is Sky LLU then if you get the right person they might tweak things for you while on the phone. If its Sky Connect (i.e. BT Wholesale run it) then probably not going to get very far.

Sky tends towards stability rather than absolute speed, so they may feel line is running already faster than they would expect. Certainly you are doing fairly well for the line length.

On the modem, yes they like you to be using their modem, they won't beat you up for not using it, but might be easier when calling support to plug it in.

Yeah, tell me about it

You can imagine how depressing this is I can't even watch iplayer!

So...guess it'll have to be Satellite. But nearly £70 per month for unlimited? Wow!

I wonder if there is a way of sharing this with a neighbour. Perhaps set up a wireless network and allow them access...?

In reply to a post by doninwales:

I have just been officially informed that cabinet 6 will NOT be upgraded with FTTC.

I was told that cabinet 6 was 'under consideration' for upgrade as an FTTP area.

It seems odd that you should not get FTTC but you "may be considered" for FTTP.

Do you know why your CAB has had this done? Is it just your CAB (so planning issues, power supply etc) or is it the whole exchange?

If they are really considering it for FTTP surely it must be economical for FTTC which is generally much cheaper?

Odd!

Would it be cheaper to have 2 different internet connections?

Make use of satellite, on a cheaper package, when you want higher speed, but make use of DSL when you want the unlimited volume.

That might let you start with a cheaper package, and decide later to jump higher.

No good if the protocol needs both at the same time though - like streaming HD video - but it might suffice for SD iPlayer for some amount.

If it is any consolation, users on the new Aussie fibre network would pay £60pm to get 25/5 speeds with a 500/500 allowance (not unlimited there).

It's not the whole exchange. My exchange has been upgraded recently so is fibre-enabled. And SOME cabinets in my town have been upgraded for FTTC already.

Since I am in Wales, it is all part of the Superfast Wales scheme. They are enabling what they can with FTTC . For those that are not possible - for whatever reason (they have quoted 'complications', which probably just means distance) they will be looking to FTTP first, and thereafter, some other alternative, be it wireless or whatever.