FTTC is coming, but I can't have it!

Hi Guys.
We only get about 800k upload as we are a long way from the exchange (6km plus) so I was ecstatic when Zen told me my area was going to have FTTC by the 1st October.

Sadly there is a problem:
"it looks as though you will not be able to achieve the minimum speeds required to deliver Zen Fibre. As with BT, we will not be placing orders where the estimated speed is less than 15Mbps. In your case it is 8.9Mbps, meaning we will not be able to provide a service to you".

I presume it is the length / condition of the line to my house that is the problem, but of course from my point of view 8.9mb compared to 800kb would be great!
So although the cabinet will have fibre, as I understand it I will still be on the old copper all the way back to the exchange.

Can anybody explain the technical reason why they would not connect me to the fibre at the the cabinet and just give me the best they can?

John

Check adsl24.co.uk - They will provide regardless of BT's 15mb limit.

In reply to a post by Moony1234:

Check adsl24.co.uk - They will provide regardless of BT's 15mb limit.

Hmmmmm.
Trouble is, I am a great fan of Zen. I have had bad experiences previously and Zen have been unbelievably helpful in pushing Openreach into getting the best out of my current copper line. I don't really want to go to somebody else.....
I would prefer to understand what is really going on.
John

In reply to a post by Moony1234:

Check adsl24.co.uk - They will provide regardless of BT's 15mb limit.

Maybe, but ADSL24 will move your connection arround resellers as it suits them, rather than the customer

Hi Tardebigge,

Thanks for the comments.

I've spoken to the FTTC Product Manager regarding this and he's advised that the reason we're reluctant to place customers onto the service when they're under the 15Mb BT Openreach limit is because it could cause problems with fault diagnostics if an issue arises later on. If a customer has a service which has never run above the 15Mb threshold, then BT Openreach may reject faults raised on that line because of this.

However I've been advised that if you speak to our Sales team on 0845 058 9000 they can discuss this with you. Alternatively BT are reviewing a product with a 5Mb fault threshold which should be available in the near future. This should alleviate the risk as we'd then be able to confidently raise faults on these lines without the potential for them to be automatically rejected by BT. However I've not got any confirmed timescales for that unfortunately.

HTH

Given only wholesaler of FTTC at present is BT Wholesale you are safe for a while.

TalkTalk are expected sometime in the new year to embrace FTTC/P, which means Opal may do

The rough timescales I heard was the New Year, gven the conservative estimator for FTTC it may be worth a gamble.

If this is your primary line and you use it for business I would urge a little more caution, running two phone lines is more costly, but does allow you to opt for 'as fast as possible, but maybe a little experimental' and 'stable as it can be, but not as exciting speed wise'

A friend has just had a BTInternet install done.

The engineer told him If you look like you will be under the 15Mb limit then the order is rejected. BTinternet then contact you and give you a contract on different terms. Ie you wont get 15Mb.

Seems a sensible idea and hopefully one zen will follow

Paul

The problem is that the BT checker is not accurate enough. Out of all the installations we've done for customers who's availability estimate said <15Mb, they are all getting 25Mb+ and most over 30Mb.

So it's silly for BT to simply "reject" providing the FTTC service just from what a "database" says.

I would guess that either BT don't know what they're doing, or they are playing a different game.