Cabinet popped up, How long do I need to wait?

[#1]

Christmas holidays started today for me, YAYY!
So, getting back from school, i decided to go the long way, and ended up bumping into something quite big, and green looking.
The picture is attached. I looked like such an idiot taking a picture of it  
Openreach installed it quite secretley, as I had no idea they worked on it!
Anyway, its on my road, would anyone know how long it would take to become active assuming there is now power going to it? I asked someone on BT live chat, they said that it would be on the 31st of March or after, as the exchange is being enabled then, and the exchange will NOT be enabled any earlier than that date. I would of thought that the exchange would be enabled as soon as everything was ready, but apparentley the date cannot be pushed back, only foward. Is this true?
(Then again, the livechat person didnt know what FTTP is and that BT were offering a 100mbps service)
I would ask an openreach bloke, but I aint seen one in ages. Last one I asked about FTTC told me to 'mind your own buisness prefect!' - (Yes, I walk around with a shiny gold badge on my tie saying 'prefect'   , so do about 30 year 11's) -  

Anyone know about the exchange date thing? Can it really not be pushed back?

Cheers;
Aman.

EDIT: The picture i forgot to add: http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/ae289/Amanha_2010/?action=view&current=20111221_143806.jpg

[#2]

Quote from: Amanha

The picture is attached. I looked like such an idiot taking a picture of it

Bigger idiot for not attaching it 

[#3]

Quote from: Amanha

So, getting back from school, i decided to go the long way, and ended up bumping into something quite big, and green looking. The picture is attached. I looked like such an idiot taking a picture of it

Such a shame, then, that you forgot to attach it

Quote

Anyway, its on my road, would anyone know how long it would take to become active assuming there is now power going to it?

Getting power to it always used to be the bigger problem. The beaurocracy involved in roadworks these days means that there would be a minimum of a 1 month delay between cabinet & power works; any hint of a problem during the power works results in them filling the hole back in and delaying by a further month, or more.
It is caused by the need to give notice for roadworks (so the council can co-ordinate) and the fines given for works that take too long. The effect is that roadworks never take too long now... they'd rather terminate the roadworks without finishing the connection, and re-booking a whole new schedule in another month.
Anyway... The average delay used to be around 3 months after the first cabinet works. However, they're improving on the minimum side - so the best seen is a mere couple of weeks. But the worst cases are going on. Some cabinets have been around for over 6 months without getting service yet.
Mine was a 6 month delay.

Quote

I asked someone on BT live chat, they said that it would be on the 31st of March or after, as the exchange is being enabled then, and the exchange will NOT be enabled any earlier than that date. I would of thought that the exchange would be enabled as soon as everything was ready, but apparentley the date cannot be pushed back, only foward. Is this true? Anyone know about the exchange date thing? Can it really not be pushed back?

To me, pushing a date back means delaying it - and I imagine that the RFS dates for the exchange equipment never gets any earlier. Stuff related to the in-building work at an exchange is considerably better controlled than the external dependencies for cabinets - where things like council planning departments, weather, roadworks, and electricity boards all run to their own timetables. It seems highly unlikely to me that exchange work will get brought forward.
The time when BT would announce an exchange as live (to the public) always used to be when the had the exchange ready *and* had at least 10 cabinets ready. I haven't seen any indications that this has changed.
The date associated with your own individual line (as seen on the BT wholesale checker) can certainly move in either direction. Most of the time, the date will show an end-of-quarter date (like 31st March). This is a placeholder that tells you that BT intend to have the cabinet+exchange ready sometime in the quarter leading up to that date; it won't normally change if BT encounter any delays that puts things back. However, 2 weeks before the end of the quarter, BT will do a big update to their database - all remaing placeholder dates for 2 weeks later will then shift to being 3 months later. This happens to a lot of people, and can easily happen 2 3 or 4 times. Please - don't get your hopes up in March if your line is still showing a 31st March date. It won't be a real date until...
Eventually, when your cabinet is ready, the date will change to something real - usually within the following week or 2. This is the only type of date-change that is worth paying attention to - it isn't worth getting your hopes up at any other time.

[#4]

Quote from: PeterLoftus

Quote from: Amanha The picture is attached. I looked like such an idiot taking a picture of it  Bigger idiot for not attaching it

I know! Thats what three weeks of going to bed at 1am and getting up at 5 does!
So much for being a prefect eh? 
Cheers for the reply WWWombat;
Im not certain that its got power, theres no hum of fans or nothing - but its cold so it wouldnt be on.
Im lucky I dont live on a main road, roadworks are usually easily approved (I worked for some solicitors and had to talk to the council for work exp) for non-main roads.
Playing MW3 is so annoying on my connection! As soon as fibre comes, i defo want to get connected, but the parents are reluctant    (Lucky I manage all the computers and network in the house)

Something else, do you think BT would put fibre to the premisis in the next decade? I would think yes, as theres always more and more uses for bandwidth, I remember having a discussion about this in my ICT lesson with someone (co-buisness partner), ended up in a race to get the faster internet. HE WON!  (Yes, this seems very immature for Year 11 Students  )

But yeah, getting to the point, why dont OR systematically go through cabinets and enable exchanges as soon as ten of the major cabinets are done? Wouldnt this result in more of a profit for them? 

[#5]

I'm sure BT do enable the exchanges as soon as they have sufficient cabinets - so long as the exchange is actually connected to the backhaul. My exchange acts as a child to Guildford, so I presume it wouldn't do anything until it had sufficient backhaul to *that* exchange, and whatever kit needs installing in the exchange building to run it, power it, and supervise it.
BT have already stated that where FTTC is installed, then they will NOT be putting FTTP. I'm sure that statement won't be valid *forever*, but it is certainly a mark of intent within the current rollout, so it certainly covers the next 5 years or so. But they certainly are rolling out FTTP installations within the current rollout - and have stated that they're aiming at 25% of the whole rollout (i.e. about 17% of the country) to get FTTP.
The expected improvements to cabinet-based FTTC mean:
- 40Mbps already reaches further from the cabinets than at the beginning of the year (due to profile 17a)
- 80Mbps is expected next year, probably for premises within 300 metres of the cabinets
- Vectoring technology is on the horizon, which makes 100Mbps likely within 700 metres of the cabinet and 80 Mbps within 1km.
I suspect that getting 80-100Mbps to around 80% of the population is good enough to last at least the next decade or more, so my guess is that they won't start upgrading FTTC areas to FTTP over that time.