G.Fast activation?

Hi all,

There has been a G.fast pod on the side of my local PCP for quite some time now (definitely a g.fast pod, not an extension pod). It must be well over six months now. I know they can take some time to get activated once installed but this seems a little long? I've been periodically checking the BTW checker but VDSL is still the fastest offering.

I did try contacting BT Retail about 3-4 months ago to ask if they knew the timescale, and they told me to get in touch with OR. Not for lack of trying, I couldn't find a way to contact them as a consumer.

Does anyone know if there's a way to check when it will likely get activated?

Many thanks!

Only way to know for certain its G.fast is an inside inspection.

Pods have known to be in place for a year or more before now. Some may actually get removed with full fibre taking priority

Interesting. For what it's worth I've seen OR and contractors visiting the cabinet, often in groups, a few times since it's been installed. I've generally been driving to work when I've seen it so not been able to hang around and see what's happening, but I suspect more than just a customer connection.

I wouldn't complain if it got abandoned in favour of FTTP (as wasteful as it seems), especially since there are quite a few nearby new-builds with both Virgin and OR FTTP, and a commercial OR FTTP rollout stopping at just the next postcode! (Different exchange in that case though).

Thanks for the reply!

might be G. Fast or a VDSL pod. Exchange and cab would help identify

Until now I wasn't even aware VDSL pods were a thing! Exchange is LVHUY (Huyton) Cabinet 37.

I was under the impression the DSLAM still had capacity and when checking I've not seen any warnings about it being full.

Many thanks

P.S. In my first post I meant it's not just a PCP extension i.e. it's a vented pod. I'm surprised I've not heard of the VDSL pods until now.

Edited by deleted (Mon 30-Mar-20 01:16:42)

Another VDSL pod. No g.Fast

Good to know, thanks!

On the bright side, at least it suggests the area hasn't been passed up for FTTP in favour of g.Fast.

Out of interest, does this imply the ECI cabinet is full, or could it be more to do with features offered by the Huawei DSLAM?

No worries if you can't answer, I'm just curious.

Sometimes a pod or cabinet is added before the original gets to capacity

It's good to know they're planning for future demand at least. Are these 96 port capacity like g.Fast or something different?

256 ports i believe

Impressive given the size! 256 lots of IDC connectors must be quite a squeeze (assuming they're inside the pod).

I'm surprised there hasn't been more media coverage of these pods given their significance.

.... there will be both ‘in and out’ terminations. So six blocks of 100.

Previously it would have been a Quante manufactured strip, these where OK, but have a habit of spreading after a few uses, and can result in HR/dis faults.

They now use a ‘tool less’ block (not sure who manufactures these) not a fan of these at all, too fiddly, too easy to break. And the robustness of the adaptor to test with is laughable. You see them broken on the cab floor all the time. (rant over)

It is clear that Krone strips were expensive ... but guess what, they work SO much better. Fit once, and forget.

Hasn't the splitter been moved into the PCP itself in the newer installations, in order to free up room in the DSLAM cabinets/pods? I thought this was the case with g.Fast but could be wrong.

Slightly off-topic but along the lines of the faults you mentioned, with the NTE5C I had a few problems with what turned out to be the connection between the socket and the filter, causing DSL disconnects and audible line noise. Unplugging and re-plugging the filter a few times sorted the problem, but it happened a couple of times before I moved to the proper VDSL filter faceplate.

I some cases the splitters are in the PCP.
This is the inside of VDSL pod.
Clearly not enough room for all 256 ports so half will have to located in the PCP or extension pod

That makes sense - I had looked at that photo before and wondered how they'd possibly fit that many blocks inside.