Exchange Only Lines

[#1]

FTTC has been enabled in parts of the village but we are on exchange only lines which haven't been activated yet.
Anyone had any experience of this and know if its likely to happen?

[#2]

Exchange only lines cannot have FTTC as they do not have a cabinet to convert.
So the solutions are either
1. "create" a new cabinet near to the exchange, reroute all lines to it and then convert that to FTTC either by a new PCP plus a new Fibre cab or by one of the new combined all in one FTTC/PCP cab units.
2. Use full FTTP for these properties.
Neither solution is cheap
So, up to now it seems generally a 3rd solution is being done - that of doing mostly nothing on the basis that those very close to the exchange already have very good ADSL2+ speeds so the area is a low priority.
I do realise that in some case there are properties on EO lines which are not short/close to the exchange and these present a real difficult problem.

[#3]

Surely there would be equipment in the exchange they connect to?
There is around 10% of the village that will not get it by the looks of it then which I find quite poor.
They have installed a new cab next to the exchange where there was never a cab so could this be related to it?

[#4]

It could be related, but I can't imagine your line being re-routed.
We've seen more and more EO lines over the last year or two and I have to be blunt and say that there's no simple resolution I'm afraid. 

[#5]

Disappointing to say the least.  I know the topic is getting raised locally with the BDUK person so see what happens.
It's annoying to say the least, would be more if I was still living with my parents but it took me a lot to find out what I have, there is no mention to the public that I can see that some areas may not get it!

[#6]

I had an EO line, they put a new cab and FTTC cabinet outside my exchange about 6 months after the other FTTC cabs went live. The new cab should have a number on it. Use ADSL checker with your phone number, they should move you over to that cabinet at some point and it will show there. Then it took about 3 weeks for the FTTC to go live. Enquire with your local council though, they should have more info.

[#7]

Quote from: matthewleggott

there is no mention to the public that I can see that some areas may not get it!

The BDUK rural subsidy process was to get 90% of the population superfast by the end of 2015
The SEP extension to BDUK was to increase that to 95% of the population by end of 2017.
See  https://www.gov.uk/broadband-delivery-uk
The remaining can I suppose go stuff themselves and will get a bare 2Mbps minimum under the subsidy if not already above that speed.
If you apply those numbers to houses 5% of the 25 million houses in the UK means 1.25m houses will go without.
Anyway think yourself lucky that something might possibly be done and that presumably on a EO line you already have decent speeds.
I definitely know (from my council's BDUK data) that my cab serving around 180 is not being upgraded under either BDUK or the SEP extension program.
So that is no FTTC for me for the forseeable future - though I'd hazard a guess somewhere around 2020+ it might come.
There are homes places in cities including London that do not have superfast and being in a city are excluded from the BDUK program - so they like me can only wait and hope that it might be done one day.

[#8]

Quote from: MattyC

It could be related, but I can't imagine your line being re-routed. We've seen more and more EO lines over the last year or two and I have to be blunt and say that there's no simple resolution I'm afraid.

They've rerouted line before so it's not impossible, my local exchange now has a cab just outsdie the car-park 
I don't see why they don't look at exchange based VDSL for short EO lines, I think they avoid it at the moment as they're worried it will interfere with ADSL (or it was something that they were worried about it interfering with)

[#9]

Interesting.  Will keep an eye, were not officially due to go live to July so will see how things progress.
The cabinet outside the exchange is new so suspect its for this but time will tell.

[#10]

A friend of mine was on an EO line, when FTTC became available, BT Openreach stuck a cabinet outside the exchange pretty much and got the EO connected up, so I would remain positive, it does happen!

[#11]

Quote from: dragon2611

I don't see why they don't look at exchange based VDSL for short EO lines, I think they avoid it at the moment as they're worried it will interfere with ADSL (or it was something that they were worried about it interfering with)

Indeed that is the reason I'm told that VDSL equipment cannot be mounted inside the exchange next to the ADSL equipment - I'd guess some local interference between then.
Actually mounting a cab outside nearby and not in the exchange makes more sense from a long term perspective.
This is because once all the cabs are converted you could compulsorily move everyone on to FTTC.  Then you could switch off all the ADSL equipment in the exchange.
Next if the FTTC cabs could be made to handle voice phone calls as well in the line cards you could switch off the voice side in the exchange meaning that many of the smaller exchanges which are not fibre head ends could be totally closed and the properties sold of for housing.

[#12]

I am on a small exchange, less than 300 lines in total, all lines were EO, BDUK funds have been spent to add two new cabinets to this exchange, FTTC went live at the end of March, 190 lines were enabled, think the rest will be changed to FTTRN or FTTP, probably the former. Well actually all the lines have been connected to the cabinets, just some are still too far away for VDSL2 to work well.
My predicted FTTC speed is a massive 3.5Mb which is not exactly superfast yet I have to pay the same as someone getting 40Mb.