FTTC / VDSL2 trial

[#1]

Many thanks Dave for the excellent report
@glloyd - Apart from the high usage Dave talks about - there will be the large numbers of people who are currently on exchanges some distance from their properties and therefore only currently getting slow speeds. So I reall hope that BT won't just do big cities first - and that they will quickly roll out in the more rural areas.

[#2]

Mal - If you look at the recently announced list of additional exchanges, they're certainly not!
They're doing my parents exchange of Berkhamsted, which is a relatively small town in Hertfordshire.

[#3]

OK fair point James but from memory
- but look at the Scottish exchanges listed - most in Glasgow and a few in Edinburgh !!
I can't find the link to the updated list - but I'm sure there's nothing anywhere near rural Scotland - which is one area that badly needs improvement and getting the attentionof the Scottish government.

[#4]

My exchange (Luton) is on the list for FTTC early next year.  Naive questions: does this mean that EVERY cabinet connected to the exchange will be fibred?  Or will BT cherry-pick the easy town-centre ones, and ignore us out in the surrounding villages?  How do I find out where my cabinet is?  How do I find out how long is the copper from my house to it?  Very important to me as I'm 6.2km from the exchange, and sync at 1.75Mb down, 440kb up, even with an i-Plate, so could make a massive difference to me.  I might finally get the 8Mb that I'm paying for......!

[#5]

You're paying for broadband, that happens to be "upto 8Mbps"
If you're line is fed by a cabinet, all of these will be done per exchange, however if your line feeds directly to the exchange, it won't be.
We'll be able to check out how far away you are, etc, using the BT Availability checker.

[#6]

@Jameseh: Thanks, and yes I was only kidding when I contrasted my connection speed with the 'Up to8Mb' thing  ;-).  I'm pretty sure that my line goes via a cabinet somewhere near here.
More naive questions:
1) Will I be able to find out these answers from the availability checker myself, or is it only you guys that can do it?  If I can, how do I do it?
2) BT say that Luton will be ready on 1 Nov 2009.  Will Plusnet be contacting me about switching to the new service?  Will it cost more?
3) Will my ADSL modem still work with a FTTC connection?  Or will I have to buy new kit?  Your FTTC FAQ seems to imply that BT or Plusnet will supply a VDSL2 modem at no charge (which sounds too good to be true...!).
Sorry about the naive questions, but I couldn't see the answers in the FTTC FAQ.......
Regards
John

[#7]

dunbankin ( John )
Can you please share the BT source that gave you a date for the start of FTTC in your area - Luton. My local exchange has been chosen as one of the early starters so am curious as to when it might be up and running. Thanks - Ted

[#8]

@tedsloan: I blundered about until I found this at http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/news/productbriefings/nga/nga02709.do.
This seems to be the date when the exchange is Ready For Service (RFS), so I guess that's the point when Plusnet can dive in and install the guff to ram data down our phone lines.
Regards
John

[#9]

PN's FAQ here
http://community.plus.net/fttc_faq/

[#10]

The dates on the Openreach briefing are when the exchanges will be ready for interconnects to be built between Openreach and Communication providers (e.g. BT Wholesale or LLU operators). The exchange will be ready shortly after we'd expect, but the actual cabinet enablement dates could take a lot longer.
At the 2 exchanges that are enabled so far, 54 of Whitchurch's cabinets have been enabled and 25 of Muswell Hills have been done. 10 of the remainder at Whitchurch are due later this month and 2 more in Muswell Hill. Unfortunately 20 of remaining Muswell Hill cabinets are in a conservation area and the local council has refused the planning application to get them enabled meaning there will be at least a 3-6 month delay before they get enabled.
Because of complications like this it's almost impossible to provide any kind of advance notice of availability, when the exchange and cabinet are done then the availability checker will be updated but before then, the best it can do is provide an estimate.
For the trial phase BT are providing each triallist with a single port VDSL2+ modem, eventually we expect to see this change but it's the same as they did in the early rollout of ADSL. The actual connection is handled using PPPoE rather than PPPoA. This can be configured using a cable router or similar piece of kit or using a PPPoE dial-up connection on the PC. We're currently waiting for feedback from Thomson on how to get the TG585v7 working with it by converting port 4 to a WAN port.

[#11]

As dunbankin said this page implys that my exchange is ready for FTTC connections. -  http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/news/productbriefings/nga/nga02709.do
Its down as 01 Aug 2009.
Though I have seen some BT planning applications for my local area but only around 10 or so, I have seen over 120 cabs for this exchange.

[#12]

Why does it require planning authority to put some glass fibre in a pre-existing green box?

[#13]

I would imagine the street cabinets are too small to install the new equipment alongside the distribution frame.
Installing street furniture, like bustops, passenger information systems,  CATV, lamp posts, traffic lights etc  all requires authority from the council.

[#14]

This will give you the answer perhaps. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/07/bt_muswell_hill/

Quote from: Crucibleofevil

Why does it require planning authority to put some glass fibre in a pre-existing green box?

[#15]

Typical NIMBY response.