Period Fibre Optic Broadband

[Penners]

I know that we have all kinds of technical experts on this forum, so I hope I can get away with a few questions on this topic.

Openreach's website lists our local phone exchange (Saint Cross, Suffolk) as being due to get fibre-optic service in December 2013. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited at the prospect of getting a decent broadband speed. So my questions are these:

* Does anyone know how reliable these Openreach forecast dates are?

* Anyone got any experience of how long it takes after the exchange is upgraded for the service to reach local cabinets?

* How can I find out where my local cabinet is?

All views/opinions/expert knowledge will be very welcome.

 

[Flyfisher]

Can't help unfortunately as our exchange is only 'under evaluation' for fibre broadband, but I'll be interested to hear how things progress. Are you able to place an order yet? That might elucidate some more information about timescales.

 

[Feltwell]

As one who has the misfortune to deal with Openreach, I can state with some confidence that their forecasted dates for data line installation to support cash machines are a work of pure, unadulterated fiction. Similarly, their forecast of a date for a fibre optic data installation into a new distribution centre was accurate to within a mere 4 months :roll: .

 

[skier-hughes]

Their date for installation here was spot on, happened during the month they said.
We now have it and although we are well away, down an old telephone line, from our cabinet, we get quite a decent speed, certainly noticeable from our old broadband.
Mind you our engineer said he was surprised we even got any signal at all!!
When he tested we got 30Mbps down and about 3 up.
It's nowhere near that in practice!!

 

[fryups]

Well that sounds a little promising, ours too is under evaluation, not great Broadband at the moment on Dartmoor! So no new cabling required from green box then, signal still goes down normal phone line? Just the upgrade to the main infrastructure needed?

 

[Feltwell]

The upgrade is to your nearest BT cabinet, the line to your house stays the same. How quick the broadband is seems to depend on how far you are from the cabinet - about half a mile in my case. BT engineer has to come out to your house and make a change to the master socket, that's about it - and when it's done you can throw away those microfilter thingies that you've probably got plugged into all the sockets used by telephones rather than the modem.

One thing to watch - your new router needs to be plugged directly into the master socket. This was a pain in my case - previously it was plugged into an extension socket. I've now ran RJ45 data cable and fitted sockets so although the router is still plugged into the master socket, my (non-wireless) PC is now back where it used to be in another room.

The BT man told me that he can connect the router to an extension socket under certain circumstances but it's never ideal, and my extension wiring didn't have enough spare cable pairs to do it.

Penners, this link gives some cabinet information - it at least gives you the cabinet number for your house so you can try and spot it when you're out & about.

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome

 

[Penners]

Hmmm - interesting stuff. Based on this information, it looks as though our exchange's fibre upgrade will or will not be on time, and afterwards I will or won't be able to get an improved internet connection. :wink:

That pretty well sums up the whole internet infrastructure, doesn't it?

 

[LadyArowana]

That pretty well sums up the whole internet infrastructure, doesn't it?

Apart from the magic pixies, most of what happens is due to them.

 

[Penners]

They're not pixies,Yer Ladyship, they're elves.

Pixies are benign. Elves are out to get you.

QED

 

[wobs]

The upgrade is to your nearest BT cabinet, the line to your house stays the same. How quick the broadband is seems to depend on how far you are from the cabinet - about half a mile in my case. BT engineer has to come out to your house and make a change to the master socket, that's about it - and when it's done you can throw away those microfilter thingies that you've probably got plugged into all the sockets used by telephones rather than the modem.

One thing to watch - your new router needs to be plugged directly into the master socket. This was a pain in my case - previously it was plugged into an extension socket. I've now ran RJ45 data cable and fitted sockets so although the router is still plugged into the master socket, my (non-wireless) PC is now back where it used to be in another room.

The BT man told me that he can connect the router to an extension socket under certain circumstances but it's never ideal, and my extension wiring didn't have enough spare cable pairs to do it.

Penners, this link gives some cabinet information - it at least gives you the cabinet number for your house so you can try and spot it when you're out & about.

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome

Obviously does not cover Hull, as its BT only.
When we had a new master socket fitted this year for just this arrangement, the KC chap said that fibre optic cable was bieng fitted to the student area, so we should see an improvement to out connection, as the load was eased by the students using the better system. Not sure how valid this was though.

We now get 8.5Mbps, which is on improvement on the 3Mbps that we got when we moved in this year. All down to moving the router to the new master socket, and fitting a Cat5 cable straight upstairs to the PC.

It does mean that most wireless applications are now close to the router (downstairs), so that's anotehr plus.

Although when the kids get old enough to be demanding a connection in their rooms, we'll have to see how good it is wireless.

 

[tobydog]

This made interesting reading. I feel sorry for the person in New Zealand. Makes me quite grateful for my 5-7mbps for around £10-15 a month (wrapped up in phone bundle so hard to judge exactly).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24985265

 

[skier-hughes]

Not sure, but I think if you want to pay they'll lay you a fibre optic cable from cabinet to house

 

[Flyfisher]

I'm sure I've read of some community projects where villagers have laid their own fibre cable. I seem to recall that BT is happy to provide the cable if someone else digs the required trenches, which is where all the cost usually ;ies.

 

[Penners]

Obviously does not cover Hull, as its BT only.

Actually, isn't Hull unique in Britain, in that its phone system is owned by Kingston Communications (now called KCOM Group)? I think it contracts some of its work out to BT but I believe that the actual phone service owner is KCOM.

Or am I out of date with that (as with most things )?

 

[Feltwell]

I think Wobs means the link on my post only covers BT

 

[Penners]

OK, Feltwell.

By the way, thank you for the link to BT's DSL checker. It tells me that my cabinet is number 1 (I'm so proud) but it doesn't tell me where it is. Do you know of any website that gives cabinet locations? I've tried Openreach and Sam Knows, but neither of them gives this information.

 

[Feltwell]

It tells me that my cabinet is number 1 (I'm so proud) but it doesn't tell me where it is.

That's easy, this is East Anglia. Cabinet number 2 is in Norfolk, no.3 is in Cambridgeshire, etc :wink: Cabinet 1 must be in the geographical centre of Suffolk I reckon.

Seriously, I don't know of any such source, other than keeping your eyes peeled in the local area, the numbers are on the cabinets apparently.

 

[Penners]

Doh - I hadn't thought of that!

But I'm thrilled to learn that Suffolk has one whole cabinet to itself. That must mean that the number of phones in the county has grown into double figures.

 

[skier-hughes]

Unfortunately not Penners, what it does mean is the Government, in it's need to ensure everyone has high speed broadband paid for Suffolk to have it's own cabinet instead of building us a new school in Staffordshire

 

[Keith Bowman]

Not if you have a proper bakelite telephone with a real dial. Ours doesn't ring without the microfilter thingy :idea: