BT Home Hub 5

[#1]

Seriously considering PNet fibre to upgrade our very long 2mb adsl line. Fibre in area for couple of years, & not far from cabinet. Been put off til now because of need for separate modem & router. Main phone socket currently in ridiculous position in hallway lacking power points. Data extension kit not viable.Current router plugged into socket upstairs (wired from back of main socket with proper BT outdoor cable up front of house thru to spare room by friendly BT engineer couple of years ago. Not added much length to cable as small semi. Worked fine so far no diff in speed from main socket / test socket.
Not sure whether to have upstairs socket made main socket. Any possibility of BT engineer doing this during installation?
I realise would prob need to have initial  installation done with BT modem & PNet router.
Recently thought of getting BT HHub 5 of ebay etc, might be possible for positioning by current main socket. Comment on http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/wireless-routers/1305070/bt-home-hub-5 ; says "works on Plus Net too" Does this mean the auto set up would work?  I assume the hub would only work with fibre if plugged into the master socket (where ever it may end up) & couldn't be plugged into current extra socket. Is it true that a new faceplate has to be fitted for fibre?
Sorry if this all bit rambling but been racking brain for ages trying to figure out best way forward.
Any views appreciated.

[#2]

In reverse order:
Yes new faceplate.
Yes master socket only.
Yes a HH5 works fine, I am using one at the moment. You have to put your details in the connection page but otherwise it is plug & play.
I don't know if the engineer will move the socket. they did when I had ISDN fitted but that was many years ago.

[#3]

Many thanks Hairy McBiker. Def some decisions to make now.

[#4]

One thing I didn't mention earlier is current master socket is situated just above meter cupboard in hallway.. So any fibre router/modem such as HHub 5 would have to sit on  top of this, very close to electric & gas meters. Could electricity feed & meter cause problems esp with wifi. As prev said current adsl router fitted upstairs away from all this. This is another reason for considering having upstairs socket converted to master socket.

[#5]

Do you want the existing master socket to remain a socket in the "new" installation?
You might find that the engineer is willing to crimp the existing incoming line onto a pair in the "proper BT outdoor cable" that runs upstairs, and make that socket the new master.
The engineer who did my first ADSL install did this, making the last socket in the chain into the new master; he then used other pairs in the existing cable to make the earlier sockets in the chain into secondary extensions. Worked perfectly... but some people consider this kind of wiring to be less than ideal. That may turn out to be the case, and more so for VDSL2 and the higher frequencies... but to upgrade a 2Mbps line, I'd certainly go for it.
How far is "not far from the cabinet"? Does this checker give you a good result?

[#6]

Thanks WWWombat. That's what I was thinking of, keeping current master as extension. There are only 2 sockets in chain, no extension leads. Upstairs socket was wired & installed (out of hours) by BT engineer who'd earlier been fixing line fault some years ago. He said at time could make it master socket but decided against it then.
Rather than wait to see what engineer would do on installation was thinking of getting a local "ex BT engineer type" plenty advertised, to come & have a look. Don't mind paying for someone to do the socket switch first prior to fibre install. What do you think?
The checker you highlighted didn't show FTTC, all the others inc Pnet show up to 80/20 Mbps  service available. Though would choose PNets 40/20 service.
If we already had a decent, say 10mb, line wouldn't be too bothered about upgrade but the improvement from current 2mb (though usually stable)  would be stellar with fibre for just £5 extra.
Both fibre & Current cabinet are only about 100yrds from house as crow flies but  obviously actual line distance will be further.

[#7]

Quote from: Grezzer36

Rather than wait to see what engineer would do on installation was thinking of getting a local "ex BT engineer type" plenty advertised, to come & have a look. Don't mind paying for someone to do the socket switch first prior to fibre install. What do you think?

Hmmm. Fifty-fifty, I think.
If you leave it, and the BT guy agrees to move it ... then it cost you nothing.
If you leave it, and the BT guy refuses to move it, then you can always get a privateer in anyway.
If you move it beforehand, the BT guy will almost certainly accept it as-is - and will then be able to use his JDSU to check for errors; if there are too many, you can always ask him to "undo" what a previous "BT engineer" did for you
An unknown aspect is that you might not get a BT engineer ... it might be Kelly's or Quinn's. If so, they'd be less likely to want to move the line around at all; some pre-work might be valuable then, but getting someone in afterwards would still be possible there.

Quote

The checker you highlighted didn't show FTTC

Strange. The phone number checker is admittedly the most accurate, but the address checker seems to be just as good these days (even when putting just a postcode in the first form, then choosing from a drop-down list of addresses on an intermediate page); the post-code checker (using just post-code with no intermediate list of addresses) is poor.

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Both fibre & Current cabinet are only about 100yrds from house as crow flies but  obviously actual line distance will be further.

You've probably got little to worry about then - at that kind of distance, the extra run of cable is going to be insignificant - so long as it is proper, decent, twisted, phone cable. It could probably do a few laps of the house before getting in the way...

[#8]

Thanks again WWWombat. At moment think will be probably get someone in first to have a look at socket. Though as you say which ever way I go could always be reversed afterwards if any probs.
Re: whether installation engineer would actually be  from Openreach or others, we do see a lot of Kelly vans round here at the fibre cabinets so perhaps likely to be one of their guys. Don't know of any neighbours who've had fibre installed so cant ask anyone for their experiences. Used to be BT engineer living nearby but think he's moved (def bad timing).
Have ordered HHub 5 from ebay. Think will try that on existing adsl when it arrives to check all ok. I assume at time of fibre install would be ok to have engineer use BT supplied modem & HHub 5 rather than PNet supplied router, then just use HHub when things settle down. Or would it be better to have initial instal done with both BT modem & PN router & switch  to HHub afterwards. Also if done that way would have spare PN router for testing on any possible future faults. Current routers in house collection are Netgear dg834 & dg843gt which I assume aren't fibre compatible.
Thanks for advice. Hope your house move referred to in other posts goes well.