Fibre in Sandhurst

[#1]

Hi all,

I'm buying a house in Owlsmoor, Sandhurst (GU47) and was wondering if anyone else in the area has Fibre?

According to the estimates on the Plusnet and BT sites, I'm looking at between 1-3Mbps! Which is scary as I'm currently a VM Vivid 200Mbps customer!

I believe Plusnet is one of the suppliers in the Owlsmoor area. Anyone have Fibre in Owlsmoor? Many thanks.

[#2]

this should tell you - you may need to use the address checker www.dslchecker.bt.com/

[#3]

Thanks for that. I ran with the full address and got the attached results. What exactly does it mean?

[#4]

Have you tried your address / postcode in the following to see what it says.

https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

From looking elsewhere will you be on cabinet P10 or P29

Brian

[#5]

OK so my reply got superseded by an earlier post.

Range A is if you have a good line / connections so between 32.4 and 43.4 download.

Range B is when it's a poor (impacted) line with possible download speeds of between 22.4 and 35.4  

(Their appears to be a waiting list for connections!!!)

If you have the money (lots of it!!!) you can ask for a Fibre to the Premises connection.

Brian

[#6]

Thanks for the reply. So there is a cabinet in the area with fibre, with download speeds ranging from 35-45mbps. But this doesn't actually come up to the property? If I wanted this done, how much money are we actually talking about and how would I go about requesting it? I can see the waiting list note.

I don't think I can live with 3Mbps! 😐 

FTTC = fibre.

What's FTTP?

[#7]

FTTC is Fibre to the Cabinet and is offered by Plusnet. From cabinet to property is via copper cable.

FTTP is Fibre to the Premises and is not offered by Plusnet (or I believe by BT)

[#8]

Have a read of this thread on the Thinkbroadband forum.

It follows the tale of somebody ordering FTTPod and contains some pricing info along with other details which may be of interest.

[#9]

So FTTC is available, but there is a waiting list? How do I go about getting on said waiting list?!

[#10]

FTTC is marketed as "Fibre" though the fibre element runs only to the FTTC cabinet. To complete a connection to your premises it is "linked" to the original cabinet and uses the ordinary phone line to complete. A FTTC cabinet is always "paired" with an original and needs to be within 100 metres. Hence the distance from your house to your cabinet matters,

FTTP runs fibre all the way to your house - distance doesn't matter.

OpenReach are currently running trials to extend the "reach" and hence the speed of FTTC services - G.Fast and Long Reach VDSL are among the trials. This might help you in the future.

I'm uncertain if there is a waiting list as such for getting a FTTC service. Assuming your FTTC cabinet is live then capacity appears to be fully utilised. OpenReach will add more if possible but only they know when!!!

It may be simply a case of doing a daily check to see what the situation is and hope it's not too long.

Brian

[#11]

Ah OK, I think I understand. FTTC is available in the area (street), but the cabinet to provide said service is at capacity. I'm assuming it is something that can eventually be extended to support more houses, or when a slot becomes free, but is there anything I can do to raise this? Would it be Plusnet, or Openreach I would need to speak to?

[#12]

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@montanajr wrote:

So FTTC is available, but there is a waiting list? How do I go about getting on said waiting list?!

---

@montanajr

Unfortunately Plusnet do not add names to the waiting list. (the list is problematic and after 3 months waiting the application would be removed anyway)

All you can do is daily look at the DSL Checker results and when it says AVAILABLE for WBC FTTC, then order straight away. Then Plusnet will try to order FTTC for you (but there is no guarantee that by the time they order it, FTTC will still be available)

And as nobody mentioned it VDSL is the technical name for product marketed as FTTC and stands for "Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line" from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDSL

[#13]

OpenReach will be aware that the FTTC cabinet is full (if this is the problem). If it's possible they will add capacity (probably) but if not (no space in cabinet for example) they might, or might not, look at alternative solutions.

The following web link gives information on FTTC cabinets. If you look at the menu on the left you see other pages under "Fibre Broadband"

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/fttc-cabinets.htm

Brian

[#14]

Thanks all for the useful information! I'll be checking daily as soon as I move in!

Going to be tough adjusting to 3Mbps after having Virgin Vivid 200Mbps. I'll miss my 17mb/s downloads

[#15]

As you're in Berkshire you may be covered by Gigaclear under a government initiative to roll out FTTP:

https://gigaclear.secure.force.com/community/RegisterInterest?pc=gu47&ref=NOT_ONE_OF_THESE