Help! BT Engineer unable to successfully complete FTTP on 11th Feb - what now?

[#1]

Hi
I registered for the PlusNet FTTP trial (as I am close to the MK Bradwell Abbey Exchange) and had my appointment with a BT engineer scheduled for last Friday 11th Feb. The engineer (just the one) turned up and told me this was his "first" PlusNet FTTP job, and he had not done one before. He also said it should be a 2 man job. However, he started off, and the initial (potentially problematic) feeding of the fibre cable went OK, and he cabled up the house and fitted my ONT. After several visits to the nearby cabinet etc., at around 4.30pm (having arrived at 8.00am) he announced that he could not get it to work. "There should be a green light on your ONT" but there was none. He said I would need to find out from PlusNet what happens next - so what DOES happen now? He said the job would be marked down as a "failure" as he was not able to complete it successfully, but I do not know who then picks it up and resolves. I am concerned that he was not sufficiently knowledgable (and had not done one of these jobs before - and was "on his own") that he did not have the expertise to complete the job correctly. I was so looking forward to getting my fibre connection up and running, but am now left hangning. I have all the equipment fitted, but need someone who knows what they are doing to ge the optical connection up and running.
Any advice/help please???
Thanks
Andy (PlusNet username = subtract)

[#2]

Andy, I'm sorry but inadvertantly this may be my fault. I had my FTTP fitted on the same day. My engineer came from Aylesbury and had only done 3 previous instals like this before and none of them had worked... Anyway he got stuck a few times and then he called for help. 3 or 4 other engineers turned up with 50+ instal experience under their belts. They must have all been at my house Mine got working, just, by the end of the day. Initial speed doesn't have the wow factor but it's miles better than ADSL2+ and I'm happy for that.
I'd guess you need to put a fault ticket in and get another Open reach crew on it.

[#3]

Thanks Floyd - I think I needed at least one of your more experienced engineers over at mine to help out  but thanks for the update - it does seem a little more problematic getting the setup to work than I (or my "first time" fttp engineer) seemed to think. Oh well. My BT enginneer seemed to think that I could not deal with them to get a new ticket raised - but had to go via PlusNet, so I posted my experience against my open ticket - but strangely I now seem to have no open tickets. I need to go chase that up now...
Andy

[#4]

BTW do you know a Mike Pearson???

[#5]

I've just chased this with BT for you and it looks like there's a problem somewhere with the fibre. At the moment it's with the planning team who are currently looking at how to resolve the problem as it looks like it's going to need some extra work as it's been flagged up for "excessive construction costs". We've not had this happen to an order before but one of the other ISPs did and what that meant for their customer was that BT had to arrange for a road to be dug up so they could lay new fibre. Whether that will be the same for you I don't know.
I'm expecting an update later today or tomorrow and I'll let you know what they say.

[#6]

Can someone explain to me what some of this means?
This is a FTTP install right?  So I am presuming there is a trunk fibre going from the exchange to the roadside box, and then from the box to the customer site?
Now, it would appear to me from what has been said the engineer successfully fed a fibre from the cabinet to the consumers site, but the error indicates that the fibre from the exchange to the cabinet is broken?
One of things I'm really curious about, is when did BT dig up all the roads and lay the fibre from the exchanges to this cabinets, or am I missing something?
Every time I read about the FTTC/FTTP trails I'm left thinking that either fibre has been being installed between exchanges and cabinets for many years now and we could all switch to FTTP very soon, or that something mystical is happening that enables cabinets to provide FTTC services, I'm also left wonder why if a cabinet (all cabinets?) can do FTTC that they cannot do FTTP.
Please can someone explain the physical process and layout of this to me?

[#7]

From my local perspective, BT were blowing fibre last year from the exchange to new cabinets sited adjacent to selected existing cabinets in the area. They had to do some civil work in a few places, but not an awful lot. The new bigger cabinets have DSLAMs installed. A (copper) link cable is installed between the two cabinets, so for FTTC you're left with a comparatively short cable run from the cabinet. Seeing as it's the copper run where all the losses are incurred, shortening the link between your premises and the DSLAM means better speeds.
I'd guess that getting fibre to premises is a bigger job altogether, but the last few metres from the local street cabinet to the premises on copper is an acceptable alternative for many.

[#8]

I havnt got fibre, but I am near a working cabinet and no trenches were dug, I watched BT connect and test a connection from the fibre to copper at 45M

[#9]

Quote from: fourfourdevon

Every time I read about the FTTC/FTTP trails I'm left thinking that either fibre has been being installed between exchanges and cabinets for many years now and we could all switch to FTTP very soon, or that something mystical is happening that enables cabinets to provide FTTC services, I'm also left wonder why if a cabinet (all cabinets?) can do FTTC that they cannot do FTTP. Please can someone explain the physical process and layout of this to me?

When you walk down the street do you not see BT/GPO man covers? These are for access to underground ducting which are being used to run the fibre. So the first FFTCs are the ones that are connected through underground ducting, ones that are not probably be upgraded later as they will require the road/paths to be dugged up.

[#10]

Many thanks for your reply Dave, that at least explains a little more than the BT engineer had told me, though the possible outcome now sounds ominous. I'll be keen to hear what further news you hear from them later today. I do hope that all the work to get the cabling fed into my house and the ONT fitted, is not going to be fruitless.
Andy

[#11]

I am well aware of the ducting, but what confuses me, is for years I've read how digging up all the roads and laying fibre to everyone's homes is way too expensive, and you know what, I could buy that.
But what I can't buy, is that actually, that's simply not true, and all that's required for a large part is for a cable to be pulled.
Well if that's all it is (cable pulling) then the costs of fibre to all drop dramatically and give a lie to first argument.
Also, if a cabinet is FTTC enabled, what possible physical property prevents the cabinet from offering FTTP services?

[#12]

Not all will have underground ducting and there is still the cost of the FTTC cabinets as equipment will be duplicated in the street and the exchange until everything is switched then the exchanged equipment will then become redundant.

Quote from: fourfourdevon

Also, if a cabinet is FTTC enabled, what possible physical property prevents the cabinet from offering FTTP services?

The length of overhead fibre cables and the affects of the weather on it.

[#13]

The larger ducting connecting the cabinets  back to the exchange probably have room to enable the fibre conduit to be installed and the fibre blown down. The connection from the cabinet onwards is probably just an armoured multicore cable with breakout to your property and can't accomodate the fibre conduit. Thus, to get fibre from your cabinet to your home either involves digging up the street or running fibre up and down telegraph poles depending on how you connect back to the cabinet. FTTC is a nice compromise, although there have been areas of the country where residents have objected to the larger cabinets housing the DSLAMs, just going to prove you can't please everyone...

[#14]

Quote from: brassedoff

armoured multicore cable with breakout to your property....... DSLAMs

Armoured cable  to my knowledge no armoured cable is used.
FTTC use MSAN not DSLAM.

[#15]

Quote from: brassedoff

Thus, to get fibre from your cabinet to your home either involves digging up the street or running fibre up and down telegraph poles depending on how you connect back to the cabinet.

That doesn't gel with the OP, which says this is FTTP and that the cable was pulled.