topic Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ??? in Full Fibre

How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

delboy109 — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 08:40:46 GMT

Hi everyone ,
New to the site .
I was wondering how do you go about finding out what Cabinet your area is covered by?
I know the exhange in Inverness for my area is MACDHUI but I cant seem to find the cabinet number to see when its going to be getting upgraded?
I put my telephone number in and it has thrown up different cabinets ?
Thanks in advance .

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

198kHz — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 09:39:50 GMT

https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.Telephone?URL=&SP_NAME=a%20service%20provider&VERSION=38&MS=E&CAP=no&AEA=yes ; seems reliable.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

benfranklin — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 09:52:49 GMT

https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ is the standard way of finding out which cabinet your line is served from. It's completely accurate if you put in a phone number, it can make estimates if you can only supply an address but this could throw up an anomalous result.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

x47c — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 09:57:04 GMT

You need to contact your local county council's BDUK office/website to see when or if it being upgraded.
They will only give you a broad estimated 6 month period if it is due for upgrade.
Of course it may
1) be being upgraded as part of the SEP extension program to the main BDUK post 2016 or
2) it might be not being done at all
That said I've no idea how the BDUK process applies in Scotland.....

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

AndyH — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 10:13:33 GMT

Cabs 3 & 65 are due to be completed by Sep under BT's Commercial Deployment.
Cabs 70-78 are due to be completed in a similar timescale under BDUK Scotland.
A large number of other cabinets are already live, although 4 are waiting for extra capacity.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

matthewleggott — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 18:50:34 GMT

I have found in some smaller villages/towns some places are wired back directly to the exchange so you never see a cabinet number. Where my Dad lives there are 3 or 4 cabinets but he doesn't connect to one and it appears its straight back to the exchange which was confusing at first.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

benfranklin — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 22:38:55 GMT

That'll be the dreaded Exchange Only lines, often abbreviated to EO.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

runhare — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 11:29:37 GMT

Ok- the link here
https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.TelephoneNumberOutput
gives me a cab number but how can I check where it is? is there a map with them on?
Thanks

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

benfranklin — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 11:38:15 GMT

Not a publicly available one but AndyH might be able to help...

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

AndyH — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 11:39:09 GMT

If you post the cab number/exchange, I can give you the streetview link for the cab.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

HPsauce — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 11:47:08 GMT

Dare I jump in AndyH and ask for Cabinet 1 on SMCG please, I've been trying to find it but there are multiple cabinets on opposite sides of the road where I suspect it might be.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

AndyH — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 12:05:04 GMT

It looks like it's here - https://www.google.cz/maps/@51.637035,-0.559956,3a,37.5y,233h,69.13t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s40gYzP8s_kX60xfEZ-hvMA!2e0
It's a bit confusing as you also have some VM cabs there also from the looks of things.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

HPsauce — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 12:28:49 GMT

Thanks for that, but how sure are you? It's not where I'm expecting it at all!
That's significantly further from the exchange than my house and I get up to 20mbps ADSL2+. I thought it was between me and the exchange (roughly).
By the shortest possible route exchange to that cabinet to my house would be 1600 metres. Attenuation is 22dB so right on the limit allowing for no "slack".
Can't track the cable as it goes overhead to a pole across the road then underground.
Oddly the house directly opposite that cabinet (friend of mine) has FTTC from a (definitely different) cabinet not currently on streetview (and definitely not that one), though he's had it 16 months now. No FTTC for me this year.
Yes there are VM cabinets too and my friend opposite them can't be served by them as the cables go off elsewhere.
There's also now an FTTC cabinet on that junction, the other side of the road, on the corner West of that cabinet by the wooden fence but at the kerbside. But it's connected to yet another BT cabinet nearby (#9 IIRC) that isn't visible in that view. All very confusing.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

runhare — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 12:40:24 GMT

here's the exchange and Cab No I'm looking for AndyH :
Exchange CROSS HILLS served by Cabinet 14
Thanks

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

Gus — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 13:32:10 GMT

Also http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/ it doesn't tell you the cabinet you are on, but does say if they are accepting orders for your cabinet. Same exchange as the OP, but mine is waiting for an upgrade.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

AndyH — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 16:45:58 GMT

Quote from: HPsauce
Thanks for that, but how sure are you? It's not where I'm expecting it at all!

Fairly sure - but it's a little confusing to be honest because where one cabinet is suppose to be, it looks like a VM cabinet.
I checked your Cab and it's due to be completed this year for FTTC. It's being done under BT's commercial deployment (Phase 10a) and is showing RFS by 31 Dec 15 (will be Huawei also fyi). Demand in the area seems to be quite high as two cabs (PCP2/PCP7) are awaiting extra capacity and it would appear that this might involve new cabinets.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

AndyH — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 16:58:13 GMT

Quote from: gpsmout
Exchange CROSS HILLS served by Cabinet 14

I can't give you the Streetview as it it looks like this cab is on the a public pathway rather than road.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

HPsauce — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 17:22:55 GMT

Quote from: AndyH
Fairly sure - but it's a little confusing to be honest because where one cabinet is suppose to be, it looks like a VM cabinet.
I checked your Cab and it's due to be completed this year for FTTC.

Yes, 31st Dec 2015 shows on the checker (was 31/12/14 once )
These are the estimated speeds, does that say anything useful about distance? That cabinet is maybe 300 metres max from my house, opposite direction to the exchange.
FTTC Range A (Clean) 68.6 50.3 20 14.1 -- 31-Dec-15
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 59.7 33 19.9 8.9 -- 31-Dec-15
Graphs I've seen suggest that means about 400 metres to the cabinet, which is consistent with where I had "assumed" it was in the other direction towards the exchange.
Though, given the road layout here there are actually two (three including a private road and public footpath which is the shortest) public road routes to the exchange with maybe only 250 metres difference between them. The way I assumed is under 1400 metres.
Funny thing is, my friends house opposite that cabinet (as noted above) is on a FTTC-enabled cabinet maybe 150 metres from my house! Our lines actually cross in opposite directions.
I guess it's all down to when and how they expanded the old exchange by adding cabinets, though his house was originally built 40 years or more before mine, and his original internal wiring (which I helped remove) was pretty antique.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

AndyH — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 18:42:03 GMT

It all depends on where your DP is really. The speed estimates are based on a known distance to the DP and then an estimate to your property for the 'final drop'.
300m would put you close to full sync and 400m closer to the estimates above. The actual cable routing might be longer than you expect and the planned position of the cabinet might also not be where you expect. It kind of depends on where they get permission and where they can get power for the DSLAM.
Can you check what's painted on that cab? According to the FTTC report I am looking at, this is the remaining PCP to be upgraded to FTTC on SMCG.

Re: How to find out the Exchange Cabinet number for my area ???

HPsauce — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 19:01:38 GMT

Quote from: AndyH
Can you check what's painted on that cab?

Already asked my mate who lives opposite to have a look.

Quote
According to the FTTC report I am looking at, this is the remaining PCP to be upgraded to FTTC on SMCG.

That must be us then, left to last, no idea why.
That crossroads already has an FTTC cabinet on another corner and there's loads of space right next to the cabinet you identified so I've no idea why nothing has happened, unless there's an issue getting power.
Most of our power is overhead cable so it really shouldn't be difficult.......