Fibre Ordering Issues

[#1]

I am on the Dalkeith exchange.  According to Openreach (via http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/ ) - this is now accepting orders for fibre.
I've had huge problems with my line with disconnections and slow speeds over the last few years (I'm on a long line).  I had an engineer visit last week who told me my cabinet was wired for fibre and ready to go and that he strongly suggested moving onto it as that would undoubtedly help with my ongoing issues.
I have contacted Plusnet repeatedly about this and have got nowhere... they keep telling me fibre is not available in my area despite Openreach and the engineer saying otherwise.  Nobody seems to want to dig deeper and give me a difinitive answer or timeframe.  When discussing this with the technical team (who are still looking into the fault on my copper line) they are simply not interested and refer me to sales.  Sales don't seem to have any ability to do anything since their systems are showing fibre as unavailable.
Any ideas?  Is there any way to get clear information on availability dates?  From a consumer perspective this is extremely frustrating!
Thanks,
Kenneth

[#2]

Hi there.
I totally get the frustration. Do you know how recently Openreach made the cabinet you;re served by ready for FTTC?
In December my cab was ready for service but BT Wholesale hadnt made their systems ready to place orders. I had to wait nearly 6 weeks before their systems were updated.
The other thing to keep in mind is the exchange might be enabled but the particular street cabinet serving your premises may not.
PM me your phone number and post code and I'll get somone to dig a little deeper when I'm back in on Tuesday.
Mark

[#3]

Looks like your exchange is RFS (Ready for Service) but your individual cabinet isn't quite ready yet.
If you could post the results that this page gives, we may be able to give you an idea.
Alex

[#4]

Mark - thanks very much for your response.  I'll send you the details via PM.
In answer to your questions:

• I believe it has only been a few weeks since the cabinet and exchange was enabled for fibre;
  


• I am certain that my cabinet (#15 on the Dalkeith exchange) has been enabled for fibre because two separate Openreach engineers (who visited last week to try to resolve a High Resistance fault) both informed me of this.  They also said it would be a lot easier (and presumably cheaper) to move me over to fibre than to dig up the copper cable to fix the current line fault!

If it is just a case of waiting a few weeks, that's great but the mixed messages are rather confusing and I'm keen to make sure that its not just an administrative error updating systems that's preventing me placing the order.
Alex - BT wholesale tester (and the Plusnet equivalent) shows availablility for ADSL and ADSL2+ (which I'm on) but not for fibre.  That's the issue - looks like everything's ready to go but the systems haven't been updated to allow the orders to be placed.  As per my comment above - to the best of my knowledge the cabinet is ready.
Thanks for all the helo,
Kenneth

[#5]

Quote from: klcmay

BT wholesale tester (and the Plusnet equivalent) shows availablility for ADSL and ADSL2+ (which I'm on) but not for fibre.

It does show a "planned to have WBC FTTC by xxx" date though doesn't it? If so then you are probably right that the systems need updating to allow orders.
Alex

[#6]

Hi klcmay, since our cabinet was installed back in February I've been trying to work out when it will go live. I say work out because no one really knows. Anything can cause delays, planning (if required), delays connecting the electrics, blocked/collapsed ducts meaning the fibre can't be blown through etc. When they install the cabinet, nothing else is connected, they come back later to do that, most of ours have been dug up at least twice now, and they are finally connecting the electrics.
The BT wholesale checker shows nothing about FTTC for any local numbers/addresses I've checked, but strangely for my works address (different exchange) the BT Wholesale checker shows FTTC is being installed for June 2012, but we don't even have a new FTTC cabinet there. My exchange and my works exchange were both shown on the where and when website as being March, they have both slipped to June. BT has what they call place holder dates (March,June,September & December), if the exchange is not ready by the placeholder date it just slips to the next one, but it may still become ready before this date.
Anyway, I discovered that there was a BT spreadsheet leaked back in December which lists postcodes and which cabinet and exchange supply's that postcode. I've now mapped all our local cabinets, but one thing I have noticed is that there are loads of errors in this data. I've also seen this on the forums, people complaining they can't get FTTC when everyone around them can. One guy emailed the CEO of BT and he now has FTTC. The trouble is if the database is wrong then as far as any sales people are concerned you can't get it, and thats that, even if a highly qualified engineer who knows the area says you can they still won't listen.
Now it could simply be that your cabinet is not ready, or the database has not been updated, or it could indeed be an error.
If you let me have your postcode I can check what cabinet your on, and see if that looks correct. Did the BT engineers tell you your cabinet number?
Then you need to check if other addresses supplied off the same cabinet can get FTTC, if they can then there is an error in the database and you then have some more info to give to Plus Net.
Obviously the December spreadsheet is quite old now, and things could have changed, there is an April version but that's not been leaked, although ISP's should have access to it.

[#7]

Thanks very much for the information! 
The whole process seems ludicrous... I've had two separate engineers visit who say I should be able to get it, Openreach say the Exchange is "accepting orders" yet nobody will take my money!
My exchange was initially listed as March, this then slipped to June but I happened to notice that it then went to "accepting orders" in April 0 - so presumably they just overran slightly from the original planned date. 
The BT Wholesale checker doesn't show anything at all about FTTC for me (or any other properties I've tried on the Exchange).
If its just a matter of being patient and waiting, then fine.  It would just be nice to know I've not been overlooked.
Thanks again.
Kenneth

[#8]

I've replied to your PM, going by what I can check it just looks like your cabinets either not ready or they've not updated the database yet, but take a look at the PM I've put quite a bit of info in there.

[#9]

Hi Kenneth,
I've done a bit more digging, and although FTTC is planned for your cab, the date is set at 30th June. This is what's known as a place holder date, so is not definite and is subject to change. Initial estimates are only about 100Kbps, although that could change, but if the rates were that low then it would not be offered as it falls below the acceptable rates for fibre provision in the UK.
Jojo

[#10]

Eh? Scratch head  I've only just quickly scanned the thread, but 100Kbps would suggest he's further from his cab than he is from his exchange 

[#11]

Going by the postcode he PM'd me he is about 2.8km by road from his cabinet (presuming I found the correct cabinet, but it was in the right area), so thats not going to be good for FTTC, I totally overlooked this yesterday when I replied to his PM. He is about 5.3km by road from the exchange. Obviously the lines may not follow the roads I used on Google maps, but most likely will given the area.

[#12]

Thanks for everybody's help on this.
I have now had 3 separate Openreach engineers tell me that the cabinet is ready to go for FTTC so there is certainly a communication problem somewhere!  I seriously suspect there is a tickbox on a system that somebody has forgotten to tick!
I'm aware that I'm some distance from the cabinet.  However; I'm significantly further from the exchange, so in conversations with Plusnet support over the last few years; FTTC has always been lauded as something which will bring me significant improvement.  I understand I won't get earth shattering speeds but something fast and stable enough to use VPN and occasionally stream from iPlayer would be nice!
Thanks again.
Ken

[#13]

Hi there,
I'm afraid there's no fibre estimate showing for you at http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome - that's usually a good place to check (it'll only offer you results for services that you can receive, and it comes straight from BTs systems so won't work until it's been updated).
As soon as that shows an estimated speed for fibre services we should be able to order it for you.

[#14]

Keep us updated. I really don't know why they have a set cut off point, surely the cut off point should be  dependant on the current ADSL speed. If FTTC will be faster then offer it to the customer.

[#15]

I have done some further digging onto this for you.
Checks show that you are indeed on CAB 15. Your line is 1.3km between your property and the local DP (Distribution Point). There will also be a distance of cabling between the DP and the CAB.
I have looked at a map and the first CAB I encountered that could serve your property is is 2.8km by road (sounds like I have found the same one as Ronski based on this estimate). Do you happen to know where the CAB labeled 15 is?
Further info on the area in general for FTTC.
CABs 12, 31, 34, 36 are enabled and accepting orders as of May 3rd. This offline report report is generated weekly and published the day after it is generated, so expect a new one hopefully this Friday.
All other data for the exchange in general still records the date of end of June for delivery. As it's an end of quarter value, these are placeholders so should not be read into too much.
Real-time checking with Openreach though confirms that the CAB is still only in a predicted status and is not ready for service yet. It also still shows the end of June date.
In this case though, this is not simply a mis-match between Openreach and our suppliers data, so not the same problem Mark described in his first reply to you (in his case Openreach said it was available, but Wholesale said it wasn't).
We are going to do some further digging into why the engineers have advised what they have. What we do know is it is often not the engineers that visit you for DSL that do the work for fibre installs or faults. So they may simply be offering advise based on that fact the cab is present and cabled up. This is not the same as accepting orders, which is what needs to occur here.