May I join the FTTC Trial?

[#1]

I just raised a ticket - 34621758. I was told to allow 7-14 days for a response. Would it be possible for someone to fast-track my order?
Regards
M

[#2]

@martinanderson
I'll take a look for you...
Edit: Looks all good, just a minor hiccup in the ordering system. I'll try to put your order through later today.

[#3]

Thanks a lot Ben, thats great 

[#4]

Order placed for the 20th, we'll confirm whether the appointment is in the morning or afternoon in a few days. Estimated speed is 17Mbps

[#5]

I don't have fibre.
But 17Mbps seems rather slow, for fibre - how far away from the relevant cabinet are you?
(I'm presuming that distance is the governing factor).

[#6]

Thanks again Ben! Didn't think I'd be seeing speeds around 17Mbps at this address any time in the near future 
There's actually a cabinet in my street, about 40ft away. But as I understand it, its not about the actual line of sight distance, its about the route that the wiring takes, which is anyones guess. Am I wrong? I thought I'd read somewhere on this site though, that distance wasn't a factor in determining speeds when it comes to fibre optic. Although that might have been referring to the distance from the cabinet to the exchange, not cabinet to house. Obviously I'd love to get speeds that max out fibre's potential but at the minute I'm stuck with a max of 1.5Mbps so I'll be delighted if I can get 17Mbps.

[#7]

Are BT using existing cabinets or are they putting in new ones? Would have thought that the existing would not have power or the room for the equipment. Speed will still be determined by the final length of copper

[#8]

All I can say is that there hasn't been any new cabinets installed near me. I thought that the whole benefit of WBC FTTC was that it didn't use copper, just fibre optics? Hence why distance should no longer be a factor?

[#9]

FTTC is fibre from the exchange to the cabinet and then copper between the cabinet and your house.  FTTP is fibre all the way from the exchange to your house.
I believe that the estimated speeds take into account a fair amount of crosstalk which will arise once lots of people have FTTC.  In my case I am currently getting double what the checker estimated.

James

[#10]

I thought that the BT bodge was to run fibre to the cabinet, then use VDSL over existing copper wire to the house from the cabinet.
AFAIK they have to use new cabinets, but that these are placed within a few feet of an existing green cabinet.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-high-bitrate_digital_subscriber_line#United_Kingdom

[#11]

In most cases they are installing new cabinets for FTTC sited next to the existing cabinets. In some cases they can put the new cabinet underground and a few of the existing cabs I think have been big enough to take the new kit as well but the vast majority are new ones next to the existing ones.
As JEB notes the speed estimates are conservative as they account for 30% utilisation on the cab when there will be more crosstalk.

[#12]

I;ve just raised a ticket ( 34710632) for the FTTC trial.  My phone number just became active on the checker this week, as I've been checking regularly, indicating 17.1M down and 8M upload.
Having read this thread it seems the done thing to post on here, as the ticket indicates that they are not regularly checked
Regards
Ian

[#13]

@tangey
Everything looks OK, I'll place your order now...
Edit: Order placed for the 27th

[#14]

Cheers
can confim I've received the sms & email.
Edit...err I forgot to mention I'm on quite a old broadband package (BBYW option 2 or 3 ) with the double-up upstreaming thingy (premium ?) added on.  Is the FTTC trial, broadband package agnostic ?
Regards
Ian

[#15]

The same rate limits will apply on FTTC, but we don't mind what package you're on