Waiting for FTTC: December, March, July... and a broadband checker glitch?

[#1]

Well, it looks like I no longer have any direct interest in the FTTC trial. While the latest (I think) list of exchanges to be connected (posted at the end of September on the Trefor site) still says my exchange is due to be connected by December 10, BTs broadband availability checker has pushed the date for FTTC availability at my cabinet from 31 March 2011 (as it was last week) back to 1st July. This may just mean they won't quite have it done by the end of March, but I'm betting it will be nearer (or even beyond) the July end. By that time I'm sure the Plusnet trial will have turned into a normal service.
Incidentally, the broadband checker has become very explicit about the speed my line could have for ADSL1:
"Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL Max broadband line speed of 4.512Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 3.512Mbps and 5.512Mbps."
I wonder whether they've really become much better at estimating speeds, or whether someone's just decided that, as 512 kilobits is half a megabit, instead of putting 3.5Mbps they'd format it (wrongly) as 3.512. Last week the checker just said 4.5Mbps.
Graham

[#2]

Very interesting..
My Exchange (EALGH) was due FTTC for Dec 2010 and today the BT Checker says Mar 2011, yet the checker follows with "Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 34.2Mbps and upstream line speed of 7.5Mbps." 
So something wrong. If the checker says my line supports Fibre does this mean my exchange has it ? If there are estimated live speeds , does this suggest others on my exchange are using it ?
Confused!

[#3]

Sadly, I don't think the (rather confusing) wording means anything more than "this is our best guess based on the distance between the cabinet and your property". I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
Graham

[#4]

A friend of mine in a different area gets a FTTC date for Dec 2010, but nothing of the "Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 34.2Mbps and upstream line speed of 7.5Mbps" blurb.....

[#5]

In terms of availability, ignore the speed estimate - the wording's very poor. If there's an estimated activation date then that's what you go; the speed estimate should read something like "Our test also indicates that your line could support a fibre technology..."

[#6]

If you have a date then:
1) You don't have FTTC
2) If the date is the end of the month, BT still don't know but it may be soon
3) Any other date and it's still a guess and will more than likely change again, especially if it is several months away.
If you don't have a date then:
1) Your exchange it not on the trial
2) You are on the trial and It could happy at any time but BT don't have any idea when!
It basically boils down to you won't know until it is actually activated and available. Any dates given take with a whole bucket of salt!

[#7]

Yeah, the date a cabinet will be enabled generally only gets published about 2 weeks before it's actually enabled, sometimes less. Any date more than 2 weeks ahead is just a placeholder date based around when they think the exchange will begin accepting orders. A lot of areas had dates set of 31st December as these exchanges were originally planned to be taking orders by the end of the year, some of them are but not all the cabs are done yet. When an exchange is declared ready there's normally about 10 cabs that are done, we've seen that from that date it can take 6 months for all the cabs to get done.
The dates are very fluid and do move around a lot, best thing is just to keep a regular check on it. I'm not sure what impact the snow has had but I suspect it has caused some delays with cab enablement.

[#8]

I agree with Ben, Peter & Dave.
My exchange (Ashford, Kent: NDASF) has (or had on some line checkers) an RFS date for 31/12/10. I note that this is now on some sites as 30/06/11. Openreach have installed FTTC cabs around most of the town, laid the fibre runs and blown the fibre. Some of the cabs even have the power connected! However when everyone locally checks their dates for availbility (cabs installed or not) on the infinity website the RFS date comes up as the end of June 2011. Even my number comes up with the end of June date and my cab has not even been installed yet!
I was hoping to join the trail but suspect it will be well and truly over by then!
As has been mentioned earlier take everything that Openreach say with an ocean full of salt... After all how long is a piece of string (...or fibre for that matter)??!!
Seasons greetings to all!
Kind regards,
George
Edit: This afternoon it has changed to 31st March and they have not even put my local cab in!!!

[#9]

Quote from: dave

Yeah, the date a cabinet will be enabled generally only gets published about 2 weeks before it's actually enabled, sometimes less. The dates are very fluid and do move around a lot, best thing is just to keep a regular check on it.

I can certainly vouch for that! Over the last 10 days, my cabinet's date has gone from 31st March, to 31st December, disappeared, returned to 31st December, then to 30th June, back to 31st December, and today back to the 31st March.
In that same time, the exchange has gone into service, and all the cabinets surrounding ours have been enabled, including the one that is actually closest to us.
Now it looks like we'll end up with ADSL2+ first - but that will give me a strange conundrum. I would have to swap to a cheaper package to get ADSL2+ before then jumping back to a (probably) more expensive one for FTTC, and I don't want to have to do that!
Edit: So yes, it's frustrating. I don't really expect it to really take another 3 months, so I'll keep doing the daily checks - and that undoubtedly will keep the frustration level going. Ho hum.

[#10]

Mine (Warwick) appears a bit odd. I’ve been waiting until the end of this month to go on to  the trial as the checker has had 31/12/10 as the date for a while; we even had a guy come round calling door to door (from BT) letting us know that it would be active from that date. The Availability Checker now says ‘Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 30th March 2011. Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 37.3Mbps and upstream line speed of 9.8Mbps’
This statement seems contradictory to me. Does this mean that I’ve got to wait until March or can I go on the trial now/end of Dec?

 

[#11]

@randpwar: This is exactly what the line checker says on my phone number and exchange: ".....Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 30.8Mbps and upstream line speed of 6.8Mbps".... This is also contradictory as they have not even installed the cabinet yet!!! I will assume that I will at least have to wait until the cabinet is pysically installed 
I also received an email from BT on Dec 6th stating: "Thanks for asking about BT Infinity. Great news: we'll be installing it in your area soon. We'll let you know the moment it's ready, but if you'd like to know when we're expecting to get round to your neighbourhood, you can check our schedule at bt.com/infinity. (Although a few homes in the areas we connect may not be able to get it.)".
Good Luck!
George

[#12]

Quote from: randpwar

The Availability Checker now says ‘Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 30th March 2011. Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 37.3Mbps and upstream line speed of 9.8Mbps’

Identical wording here, except for the numbers.
The first sentence is the bit that means your cabinet isn't live, even if the wording of the second sentence is a bit too much present-tense.
Consensus of opinion is that if the date is for the end of a month, it is not correct either - just that BT aren't quite sure exactly when. Just vaguely sometime before, or even just after that date.

[#13]

So should the wording on
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,87700.0.html
be changed to clarify this then? That infers that if you have a date on the spreadsheet, and you've got the estimate reading, you can get on the trial.