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1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

northntspete
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎15-02-2018

1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

 

Im so close to the exchange, Im plumbed into it directly. So, my ADSL is the fastest it can be (24mbp)

 

 I however cant get fibre, the only supplier being rip off merchants Virgin.

 

What can I do to complain? I dont have a cabinet to worry about as my cab IS the exchange!

 

BT guy when he came to rewire a socket laushed and said "good luck mate you're the very last ont he list to get fibre cos your into the exchange" - I thought this must be backward thinking.

 

Can I complain?

11 REPLIES 11
bmc
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Registered: ‎28-02-2017

Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

What Exchange are you on?

 

Have you tried the following to see if anything is on offer?

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

 

Brian

northntspete
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎15-02-2018

Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

Yep - Im on Hardingstone exchange which is fibre enabled!  Im plummed directly into it but no fibre packages for me as i dont have a cabinet

 

all it says is:

We're working with government and industry to explore ways to bring Superfast fibre to as many people as possible but don't have a plan for your area yet.

You might consider co-funding fibre access in your community. Knowing there's a healthy demand in your area can also really help.

bmc
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Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

Try http://www.superfastnorthamptonshire.net/Pages/home.aspx

 

Use the Where & When map to see what it says for your property. You'll probably be able register an interest with them.

 

Brian

nozzer
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Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

@northntspete  You'll be last on the list because BT consider that anyone who can get over 10Mbps is already on their "Superfast" network. Fibre is the last priority for you I'm afraid. 

Baldrick1
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Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

I'm sure that there are customers on fibre who would love to get 24Mbps download and may make such a comment. However the killer for those on ADSL2+ is the pathetic upload speed. @northntspete, you have my sympathy!

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Terranova667
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Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

I don't see why the OP can't be offered a FTTP solution it surly can't be that expensive compared to FTTC or even other FTTP setups seeing how close to the exchange they are, sometimes i wonder where Openreachs logic stems from.  

kjwkjw
Dabbler
Posts: 20
Registered: ‎16-02-2018

Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

Should mean for a very cheap FTTPOD install potentially? Might be worth an enquiry.

dannyboy75
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Registered: ‎06-08-2015

Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!


@northntspete wrote:

 

the only supplier being rip off merchants Virgin.

 


 

At least you have the option of Virgin - they offer speeds of >300mbps now!

I'm fortunate in one sense, in that I have FTTC (though had to wait to get it as part of the Superfast Dorset rollout), and get speeds of 50/9, which are quite good. However, with those speeds I'd be well down the list for FTTP, and because of the location & demographics of my area (semi-rural, lots of old people who don't care about internet), Virgin/Hyperoptic aren't interested and I doubt we'd get G.fast as part of any future BT commercial rollout.

In other words, I know the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, but I'd be happy as Larry if I was in your shoes Smiley

Baldrick1
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Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!


@Terranova667 wrote:

I don't see why the OP can't be offered a FTTP solution it surly can't be that expensive compared to FTTC or even other FTTP setups seeing how close to the exchange they are, sometimes i wonder where Openreachs logic stems from.  


I think that you have to be realistic. I have been in the same situation whereby the rest of our village had fibre way before me for the very same reason. As I understand it there are additional problems with Exchange Only lines, which take longer to install, so commercial pressures put us at the bottom of the pile for a while. However, I was not alone, all my neighbours also wanted fibre. I cannot imagine that Openreach would stop their scheduled work and install a fibre just for me at standard prices. I believe that such a service is available, is called FTTP On Demand and comes with a four figure installation cost tag.

I know how frustrating it can be but all that can be done by the OP is register an interest and lobby any fibre related initiatives running with the appropriate council.

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bmc
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Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

Distance to the Exchange makes no difference to FTTP - there's a good chance the FTTP network doesn't go anywhere near it. FTTP networks connect back to the nearest Internet "Head End" wherever that is.

 

The cost of supplying a FTTP connection would be in relation to where ever the nearest FTTP Distribution Point with spare capacity is.

 

OpenReach is working on eliminating EO lines (or most of them!!!) usually in conjunction with a local fast broadband project. However it doesn't always go well. In my neck of the woods we had an area with 60 odd EO lines (way to far from the Exchange to get anything other than dial up speeds). A new cabinet was installed early last year but it had a fault and only around 30 lines were sorted. Still haven't heard about this being fixed but I do know yet another cabinet is currently being installed in the area.

 

Brian

WWWombat
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Registered: ‎29-01-2009

Re: 1 mile from town, 100m from Exchange, no cabinet - no Fibre!

Converting EO lines is not commercially viable for BT, so has always required some additional funding, usually from a BDUK programme. On the whole, in order to hit the target of 90% for BDUK phase 1, BT needed to convert a good proportion of EO lines by the simple expedient of putting a cabinet outside the exchange, and adding an FTTC twin.

 

For phase 2 of BDUK, BT needed to continue this for more of the smaller exchanges, but they also added a programme of "in-fill" - adding extra cabinets further away from the exchange, both for EO lines with no previous cabinet and for lines that were too far from previously-upgraded FTTC cabinets. These cabinets then tend to be the newer "all-in-one" style.

Some "in-fill" happens without a new cabinet - the lines go through "copper re-arrangement" into a nearby cabinet instead. This seems to be relatively rare, though.

And, of course, FTTP has become more prevalent as an in-fill, where FTTC is more expensive.

However, in this case...

The OP is served by VM, so will not be considered as part of the BDUK intervention area. If the same is true for most of the EO lines around him, then BDUK funding cannot be used to upgrade that area - with either FTTC or FTTP. If one person, or a group, wish to get BT to consider him/them, then they can start a dialogue with Openreach's community fibre dept.

I note from Codelook that 9 of the exchange's cabinets are still in the process of being upgraded (5 as part of Northants' phase 2, then 3 commercially, and 1 "privately funded"). The "privately funded" cabinets are likely to be ones paid for by a developer, or via the community-fibre department.

Plusnet Customer
Using FTTC since 2011. Currently on 80/20 Unlimited Fibre Extra.