Where did FTTC go ?

Talking today to a neighbour who might be interested in FTTC - "when it's
available". I told him that it's been available on our cabinet since
October last year (the initial speed estimate for my house was
12MB/s, after a couple of weeks that estimate had risen to 20Mb/s).
But he was adamant FTTC wasn't available yet.

So I checked on
https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html
and he's right - today it says
"Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 7th March 2012."
and my estimated speed is now 24Mb/s.

It used to say (starting last October) that FTTC is available on my
line. And since October I've had 2 emails and 1 letter from BT trying to
get me onto Infinity.

So where did FTTC on my cabinet go ? Are Openreach removing kit from
existing cabinets to reuse elsewhere ? Or might this be something to
do with the rollout of 80Mb/s FTTC ?

"Andrew Benham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:jh47tr$btm$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Talking today to a neighbour who might be interested in FTTC - "when it's
> available". I told him that it's been available on our cabinet since
> October last year (the initial speed estimate for my house was
> 12MB/s, after a couple of weeks that estimate had risen to 20Mb/s).
> But he was adamant FTTC wasn't available yet.
>
> So I checked on
> https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html
> and he's right - today it says
> "Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 7th March 2012."
> and my estimated speed is now 24Mb/s.
>
> It used to say (starting last October) that FTTC is available on my
> line. And since October I've had 2 emails and 1 letter from BT trying to
> get me onto Infinity.
>
> So where did FTTC on my cabinet go ? Are Openreach removing kit from
> existing cabinets to reuse elsewhere ? Or might this be something to
> do with the rollout of 80Mb/s FTTC ?

Don't get paranoid! Much more likely to be an administrative cock-up with
the database.

Peter Crosland

Peter Crosland wrote:

> "Andrew Benham"<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Talking today to a neighbour who might be interested in FTTC - "when it's
>> available". I told him that it's been available on our cabinet since
>> October last year
>
> Much more likely to be an administrative cock-up with the database.

But was it correct then, or is it correct now?

Andy Burns <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
: >> Talking today to a neighbour who might be interested in FTTC - "when it's
: >> available". I told him that it's been available on our cabinet since
: >> October last year
: >
: > Much more likely to be an administrative cock-up with the database.

: But was it correct then, or is it correct now?

More likely to be correct *NOW*! My estimate has shifted 3 months from
31st December to 31st March!

"Andy Burns" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) o.uk...
> Peter Crosland wrote:
>
>> "Andrew Benham"<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>>> Talking today to a neighbour who might be interested in FTTC - "when
>>> it's
>>> available". I told him that it's been available on our cabinet since
>>> October last year
>>
>> Much more likely to be an administrative cock-up with the database.
>
> But was it correct then, or is it correct now?
>

Yes, remember this is BT/Openreach you are asking about.

On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:27:00 +0000 (UTC), (E-Mail Removed) (Brian
Mc) wrote:

>Andy Burns <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>: >> Talking today to a neighbour who might be interested in FTTC - "when it's
>: >> available". I told him that it's been available on our cabinet since
>: >> October last year
>: >
>: > Much more likely to be an administrative cock-up with the database.
>
>: But was it correct then, or is it correct now?
>
>More likely to be correct *NOW*! My estimate has shifted 3 months from
>31st December to 31st March!

AFAIK This is not uncommon. This happened to me too although I've not
got FTTC. As someone else said the only way to be sure is to apply
for it.

My advice would be to get in early too. They've only installed enough
fibres for 4% of the households around here so this may also apply in
other areas too.

"Mark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:27:00 +0000 (UTC), (E-Mail Removed) (Brian
> Mc) wrote:
>
>>Andy Burns <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>: >> Talking today to a neighbour who might be interested in FTTC - "when
>>it's
>>: >> available". I told him that it's been available on our cabinet since
>>: >> October last year
>>: >
>>: > Much more likely to be an administrative cock-up with the database.
>>
>>: But was it correct then, or is it correct now?
>>
>>More likely to be correct *NOW*! My estimate has shifted 3 months from
>>31st December to 31st March!
>
> AFAIK This is not uncommon. This happened to me too although I've not
> got FTTC. As someone else said the only way to be sure is to apply
> for it.
>
> My advice would be to get in early too. They've only installed enough
> fibres for 4% of the households around here so this may also apply in
> other areas too.


That does not sound very likely at all. I doubt if BT would consider
installing FTTC if the projected take up was as small. The capacity problem,
if there actually is one, is likely to be in how much equipment there is in
any particular cabinet.


Peter Crosland

In article <(E-Mail Removed) >,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
>
> "Mark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:27:00 +0000 (UTC), (E-Mail Removed) (Brian
> > Mc) wrote:
> >
> >>Andy Burns <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >>: >> Talking today to a neighbour who might be interested in FTTC - "when
> >>it's
> >>: >> available". I told him that it's been available on our cabinet since
> >>: >> October last year
> >>: >
> >>: > Much more likely to be an administrative cock-up with the database.
> >>
> >>: But was it correct then, or is it correct now?
> >>
> >>More likely to be correct *NOW*! My estimate has shifted 3 months from
> >>31st December to 31st March!
> >
> > AFAIK This is not uncommon. This happened to me too although I've not
> > got FTTC. As someone else said the only way to be sure is to apply
> > for it.
> >
> > My advice would be to get in early too. They've only installed enough
> > fibres for 4% of the households around here so this may also apply in
> > other areas too.
>
>
> That does not sound very likely at all. I doubt if BT would consider
> installing FTTC if the projected take up was as small. The capacity problem,
> if there actually is one, is likely to be in how much equipment there is in
> any particular cabinet.

First of all, an exchange has to have 80% of its cabinets ready and
waiting to go live before the big 'switch-on' of FTTC occurs.

As to capacity, our particular cab has more than 500 working circuits
(about 583 IIRC) but it's only got a 200-pair copper strap into the new
FTTC cab. What happens if more than 200 people want fibre-based
broadband I don't know - will they put another strap in or will they say
tough, no capacity left?

"Steve" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) m...
> In article <(E-Mail Removed) >,
> (E-Mail Removed) says...
>>
>> "Mark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:27:00 +0000 (UTC), (E-Mail Removed) (Brian
>> > Mc) wrote:
>> >
>> >>Andy Burns <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> >>: >> Talking today to a neighbour who might be interested in FTTC -
>> >>"when
>> >>it's
>> >>: >> available". I told him that it's been available on our cabinet
>> >>since
>> >>: >> October last year
>> >>: >
>> >>: > Much more likely to be an administrative cock-up with the database.
>> >>
>> >>: But was it correct then, or is it correct now?
>> >>
>> >>More likely to be correct *NOW*! My estimate has shifted 3 months from
>> >>31st December to 31st March!
>> >
>> > AFAIK This is not uncommon. This happened to me too although I've not
>> > got FTTC. As someone else said the only way to be sure is to apply
>> > for it.
>> >
>> > My advice would be to get in early too. They've only installed enough
>> > fibres for 4% of the households around here so this may also apply in
>> > other areas too.
>>
>>
>> That does not sound very likely at all. I doubt if BT would consider
>> installing FTTC if the projected take up was as small. The capacity
>> problem,
>> if there actually is one, is likely to be in how much equipment there is
>> in
>> any particular cabinet.
>
> First of all, an exchange has to have 80% of its cabinets ready and
> waiting to go live before the big 'switch-on' of FTTC occurs.
>
> As to capacity, our particular cab has more than 500 working circuits
> (about 583 IIRC) but it's only got a 200-pair copper strap into the new
> FTTC cab. What happens if more than 200 people want fibre-based
> broadband I don't know - will they put another strap in or will they say
> tough, no capacity left?

Noted. That means 34% of the lines can have FTTC which is very different
from the 4% the other poster suggested. I guess the problem for BT is to
strike a realistic balance between providing capacity for what they perceive
as the potential future demand and the cost. I assume BT have increasing
amounts of statistical data on which to base their planning. How effectively
they use it remains to be seen.

Peter Crosland

On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:53:47 -0000, Steve <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>In article <(E-Mail Removed) >,
>(E-Mail Removed) says...
>>
>> "Mark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:27:00 +0000 (UTC), (E-Mail Removed) (Brian
>> > Mc) wrote:
>> >
>> >>Andy Burns <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> >>: >> Talking today to a neighbour who might be interested in FTTC - "when
>> >>it's
>> >>: >> available". I told him that it's been available on our cabinet since
>> >>: >> October last year
>> >>: >
>> >>: > Much more likely to be an administrative cock-up with the database.
>> >>
>> >>: But was it correct then, or is it correct now?
>> >>
>> >>More likely to be correct *NOW*! My estimate has shifted 3 months from
>> >>31st December to 31st March!
>> >
>> > AFAIK This is not uncommon. This happened to me too although I've not
>> > got FTTC. As someone else said the only way to be sure is to apply
>> > for it.
>> >
>> > My advice would be to get in early too. They've only installed enough
>> > fibres for 4% of the households around here so this may also apply in
>> > other areas too.
>>
>>
>> That does not sound very likely at all. I doubt if BT would consider
>> installing FTTC if the projected take up was as small. The capacity problem,
>> if there actually is one, is likely to be in how much equipment there is in
>> any particular cabinet.
>
>First of all, an exchange has to have 80% of its cabinets ready and
>waiting to go live before the big 'switch-on' of FTTC occurs.
>
>As to capacity, our particular cab has more than 500 working circuits
>(about 583 IIRC) but it's only got a 200-pair copper strap into the new
>FTTC cab. What happens if more than 200 people want fibre-based
>broadband I don't know - will they put another strap in or will they say
>tough, no capacity left?

I thought there were two copper pairs per subscriber required between
the existing cabinet and the new FTTC one.

--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%