Changing Street Cabinets

[#1]

Hi All,

A new green cabinet has recently been installed just 25yds from my home. According to the BT Broadband Availability Checker, I’m currently connected to another cabinet which is some distance from me. As I currently can’t even get 5 Mbps, would changing cabinets improve my speeds and if so, is it possible to get my connection changed over from one cabinet to the other?

[#2]

You've posted this under broadband. Are you on fibre and posted on the wrong board or are you talking about fibre street cabinets, which have nothing to do with an ADSL connection?

[#3]

Thanks for coming back to me and apologies if I've posted in the wrong place.  I'm on ADSL and have no idea how a fibre cabinet differs from an 'ordinary' one.  When I spoke to the Openreach contractors who installed the new cabinet, they said that everyone in the immediate area would be switched over to this new one, but after 3 months the BT Broadband checker still says I'm on Cabinet 1 whereas the new cabinet is 31 (well, that's what's stencilled on it).  As I've seen no increase in my speeds recently, I thought I'd just ask the question.

[#4]

These cabinets supply fibre, Your ADSL connection is coming through your telephone exchange, not from these cabinets. If you want a faster connection then fibre is the way to go.

[#5]

Generally speaking for VDSL there are two cabinets - the original phone line cab and a new one (within 100m) which contains the DSLAM's (internet connections). The new cab is connected by fibre optic cable. When you order a FTTC service the connection is "jumped" from the new cab to the old cab and then onto your house.

I say generally speaking because there is what's known as a "onesie" - a cab with both phone and internet connections.

If the new cab has been installed to "rewire" your connection from the old to the new this is (I believe) an extremely complicated task which can take many months. It is not without problems. A new cab was installed near me to deal with 60 Exchange Only lines - there was a partial failure somewhere so only 30 lines could be connected. Although I've not heard anything I strongly suspect another cab was installed to sort the problem out.

What does the following OR site say about your phone.

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/index.do

Brian

[#6]

Thanks for the link. Here's the info: 

Exchange name: Market Deeping 
Exchange status: Fibre enabled 
Cabinet number: 1 
Technology: FTTC

Seems like Cabinet 1 has both fibre and ADSL 

Also attached is a picture of the new cabinet.  Can you tell from that what type of cabinet it is? 

[#7]

@crannoghome

The cabinet may be a "onesie" - see

https://kitz.co.uk/adsl/fttc-cabinets.htm

From looking at the DSL Checker results it appears you should be able to get faster speeds than around 5Mbps. The result is saying between 8.8 & 15 on FTTC.

You could try logging into PlusNet and seeing what they would offer as an update (you should get a speed estimate).

Brian

[#8]

@crannoghome

If I've done my research right you're in Cambridgeshire. If so have a look at the following and see what it says for your location.

http://www.connectingcambridgeshire.co.uk/

Brian

[#9]

@crannoghome

OK, this is beginning to get confusing!!!!

There is a web site where you can get information on an Exchange and its cabinets.

https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm

If I search for Market Deeping an Exchange comes up but clicking on it gives no further details. So I did a search on 01778 (as a Partial Phone Number lookup) and it seems area code 01778 principally exists in Lincolnshire (just up the road from you If I can map read!!!).

Clicking though a couple of pages gives the following (see image). What's confusing - Cabinet 31 is due "Live" by October 2018 and is being privately funded. Are you in the PE10 post code area?

Brian

[#10]

---

@bmc wrote:

@crannoghome

You could try logging into PlusNet and seeing what they would offer as an update (you should get a speed estimate).

---

My advice would be to sit tight until the new cabinet goes live. It might be easier to get a new connection connected to the new cabinet then get a line transferred from the old one to the new.

[#11]

We're PE6 8** in Lincolnshire - ~Deeping st James, to be exact.  Cambridgeshire starts 50m away on the other side of the River Welland.  Probably also explains why the link you sent me rejects my postcode.

The Telecom-tariffs link shows Cabinet 31 as "FTTC being Connected, live due by July 2018" and "Phase SEP Lincolnshire 19a"(?)  There are no other BT cabinets of any description within at least 400yds of this new cabinet

Also looked at the map and have located the existing Cabinet 1 and it's about 3/4mile by road.  

So, I'll take your advice and wait a month or 2 until the new cabinet is up and running.  Just talking to my neighbour who has BT broadband and he has problems getting 2-3Mbps.  Maybe I'll convince him to change to Plusnet!

Thanks for all your help, it's been much appreciated.

[#12]

@crannoghome

You appear to have found a different page to the one I sent an image of - must be purely co-incidental that it also had a cabinet P31 as "being connected" - if you're happy to do so could you PM me your phone number and post code so I can have a further look.

Brian

[#13]

@crannoghome

Thanks for your details. This gets more weird every time I look at it.

According to Sam Knows your Exchange serves around 7,200 residential and 300 business premises but has only one cabinet.

https://availability.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/EMMKDEE

At least on CodeLook I did get details for the P1 cabinet which read

Fibre Street Cabinet 1: P1

FTTC Available from 28th March 2012, being expanded by December 2017

Phase 06a 2011

Now, OR "dates" need to be taken with a pinch of salt so the expanded capacity could still be in the works (the new cabinet near me was over a year later than the original date shown).

I think I've found the BDUK project for your location though it shows no planned work for your post code as you should be able to get speeds in excess of 15Mpbs (really!!!)

http://www.onlincolnshire.org/

Try it your self and then contact them and ask specifically about your address (and Cab P31). One worry is that although the new cabinet is near you it's not planned that your phone line will be transferred to it. I also wonder if P31 is in fact on Bourne Exchange (Market Deeping being some sort of secondary exchange (though I've never heard of this) so the October 2018 date might be valid).

Brian

[#14]

@crannoghome

Ignore what I said about Market Deeping only have one cabinet. Running a partial post code search on CodeLook brings up multiple entries.

There seems to be a bug on the site as the Exchange page doesn't bring up the expected list of cabinets so I can't see if P31 is shown. It may well have nothing to do with Bourne.

Brian

[#15]

Many thanks for your help, Brian.  I'll probably migrate to fibre when my annual landline subs come up for renewal in a couple of months, providing Plusnet still has the good deals going. 

This is the first time I've needed to post on the forum in many years of being on Plusnet, though I've been a passive member for ages.