FTTP

chrish · Jun 03, 2011, 06:32:39

Hi
I was lucky to have been invited by BT for the trial to have fibre to the home installed. The engineer called 2 weeks ago while i was out (did not have to be in for 1st visit) and on checking my utilities cabinet a small plastic tube has been installed. Today is the day they finish the work

. I am not jumping around for joy just yet cause when it comes to broadband i have not been to lucky in the past. But if all goes according to plan and at the end of the trial which i thik is end of August will Idnet be able to supply the connection ?

thanks

Chris H

On the bradwell Abby Exchange Milton Keynes (Shenley Lodge)

Glenn · Jun 03, 2011, 06:48:51

I would think that once it becomes a BT product, then it should be available to IDNet to market.

zappaDPJ · Jun 03, 2011, 17:19:43

(Even though it's not quite your first post

)

I'd be interested to know how labour intensive your installation was. I've read that it can take two engineers the best part of a day.

Any line stats would be of great interest too

Steve · Jun 03, 2011, 17:24:07

It probably not working

zappaDPJ · Jun 03, 2011, 17:26:16

pctech · Jun 03, 2011, 17:34:24

You wont get line stats for fibre, it either works or it doesn't

and there's none of this you are x km from the exchange so you only get 0.5 Mbps.

The poster is not far from me, I also know someone else who has it with A&A and he's been getting throughput around 80 Meg I think (its likely to be very susceptible to contention

I've been invited by Zen too but am going to wait for the finished product because I know I won't want to go back to DSL so I need to know what the monthly charge is.

chrish · Jun 03, 2011, 21:06:12

Well ... I wasted 5 hrs of my life as the BT engineer did not turn up

During the cource of the 5 hr wait i phoned bt at 10 am amd 12:30 each time they said everything was ok the 12:30 call the bt person said she could not phone the engineer until 1:00 pm because all he would say "its not 1pm yet" So bang on 1:00pm i phoned and got passed to another department which is where the fails began .. 1st i was asked if the servay had been done ...

BT .. Have you had a servay ?
Me .. well yes there is a plastic tube coming out of the ground it was all done on the 19 May and i also have received the BT hub !
BT .. Hold on a min i will talk to the engineer
2 min later
BT .. Its was cancelled ! did you not receive an email
Me .. No !!! and your websit says its still on track ?
BT .. 1 min
BT .. It was cancelled because your Utilities cabinet has Asbestos in it and its not safe for our engineers Health and safty
Me .. No its not hold on ill open it now ... ok i have just stuck a screw driver through it and its 1/4" plaster board ! also if that was the problem why did he even bother to run the plastic tube ?
BT .. I dont know i will have to pass this on with the information you have given us to our "whatever" department they will be in contact with you on Monday !
BT .. We are sorry ... is there anything else we can do for you
ME .. NO

So there you have it a days holiday wasted on the failer that is BT

Thanks For reading my rant

Chris H

Steve · Jun 03, 2011, 21:10:19

Sadly it all sounds only too familiar.

zappaDPJ · Jun 03, 2011, 21:13:37

A typical day with BT then. Sorry to hear that

Quote from: pctech on Jun 03, 2011, 17:34:24
You wont get line stats for fibre, it either works or it doesn't and there's none of this you are x km from the exchange so you only get 0.5 Mbps.

It's really latency and real money throughput I'm particularly interested in. As all the copper is gone I'm wondering how much of an effect it has.

chrish · Jun 04, 2011, 07:06:22

Hi
I have been thinking about what the BT guy reported and done a bit of investigation on asbestos and i think i know what it is .... Hear is a pick i took the day the plastic pipe appeared in my utilities cabinet as you can see scattered on the floor is insulating foam which the BT engineer had removed from the tube and left on the floor .. the black tube with the yellow strip is what the BT engineer installed.

http://s858.photobucket.com/albums/ab149/chrishoth/Home/?action=view&current=IMAG0137.jpg

From memory this was in the top of the tube
I have since swept this up and put in the wast bin !

Hear is a pic i took this morning with the screw cap removed

http://s858.photobucket.com/albums/ab149/chrishoth/Home/?action=view&current=IMAG0160.jpg

As you can see its all gone. Now i am guessing hear but i hope that its somthing else or i have bagged some asbestos foam and sent it to the refuse tip along with my standered rubish

Chris H

Also can someone explain what happens installation wise after the tube you can see... i.e is there a terminal box placed in the utilities cabinet then from there to the inside or is the plastic tube pulled straight into the house ?

pctech · Jun 04, 2011, 14:42:00

Probably best checking with MK Council if you are unsure because as far as I'm aware the Shenleys were built mainly by Milton Keynes Development Corporation.

chrish · Aug 31, 2011, 07:52:30

Well i thought i would bring you all up to date as its been a while. The latest situation is 10 weeks 6 engineers and 5 days leave and a letter to the CEO of BT and its still not working, tonight at 6pm a engineer is coming and i have been told it will be working. We will see

zappaDPJ - This depends on where you live, I am based in Shenley Lodge Milton Keynes, all the fiber is laid, one of the engineers showed me inside the BT manhole outside my house there is a Ceracell rack, it looks like lots of CD cases stacked on top each other where the fiber is rapped round, one for each address on the street.

The run from the BT manhole to your house is where problems can arise especially if you live in a old house. Fortunately the cable runs under MK are very good and have not been effected by broken conduits or tree roots etc. I guess this is one of the reasons they Picked MK for the FTTP

The run from the manhole to my utilities cabinet was easy, inside the utilities cabinet they fix a white box to the wall, BT then fix a fiber router in your house and run a fiber cable to the box in the utilities cabinet this is where they splice the fiber together they are again spliced at the manhole. The cable within your house can not have any sharp 90 degree bends as this will break the fiber nor can it run under any carpets etc so this can be an issue as you will see the cable running along your skirting board. This all took the Engineer about 5 hrs to complete.
Hope this helps

Chris H

Steve · Aug 31, 2011, 08:03:53

I guess they're bringing 2 plastic cups and a piece of string this time.

pctech · Aug 31, 2011, 09:28:38

Hi Chris

Been looking into this myself, I take it to the internal fbire router has to be plugged in somewhere or does it draw power from the BT infrastructure? (I expect the former rather than the latter)

Lance · Aug 31, 2011, 10:04:27

I don't think there is such as thing as power over fibre!

pctech · Aug 31, 2011, 15:29:20

Nope didn't think so but just wondered if they ran any additional wiring thats all.

Just thinking as I'd need a spare socket if I was going to have it installed as Zen are also offering FTTP trials and I don't live too far from chris.

chrish · Aug 31, 2011, 15:57:22

You will in effect need 2 spare plug sockets 1 for the fiber rooter and one for the bt homehub. The box that they will attach to somewhere outside your house is just so they can splice the fiber together

Chris H

Lance · Aug 31, 2011, 16:22:34

Did you have any luck with your 6pm visit from BT?

Steve · Aug 31, 2011, 17:43:26

I think it's 6pm today Lance

Lance · Aug 31, 2011, 18:32:09

You expect me to remember if I've read a post either this morning or last night?

Steve · Aug 31, 2011, 18:34:00

Rik · Sep 01, 2011, 11:24:10

Or at all?

chrish · Sep 01, 2011, 19:13:14

Hi
Well the engineer came last night and the light on the fiber router was blinking there was a team all in a conference call (openreach ,ASG team and the engineer ) unfortunately the fibre router and the node at the exchange would not sink up

. The guy at openreach reentered the serial number from the Fiber router and the light went solid but 2 secs later it dropped out

. He then contacted openreach and was told the ASG team had all gone home (these are the guys who can connect to the exchange and see what is happening) i can tell you the engineer was less then impressed. So there was nothing he could do !. But he retained the job and arraged to come this evening. When i got home the Light was solid green he ran a few tests then i hooked up my PC and hey presto it worked

. This is the speed test i took earlier. He also told me that he took a measurement i guess like snr and he said that the range is between 12 and 30 and that mine 16.4 (12 being the best connection and 30 being unworkable).

BTW these test results where taken while i had iplayer on the ps3 playing

Steve · Sep 01, 2011, 19:17:06

Those speeds are very impressive,shame about the ping though (only jealous)

it's stable.

.Griff. · Sep 01, 2011, 19:19:17

I'm probably going to sound like an idiot but how can you have an SNR reading on a fibre connection?!?

chrish · Sep 01, 2011, 19:22:35

i am not sure mate he did not say SNR i am just guessing that its the equivalent of . But they do some kind of test and it has to fall between 12 and 30

chrish · Sep 01, 2011, 19:26:41

Yes the ping is high ... i guess its the bt network

Lance · Sep 02, 2011, 08:17:56

Nice speeds, I'm very jealous!

chrish · Sep 02, 2011, 08:37:16

Well did a test this morning with nothing running on my network -

zappaDPJ · Sep 02, 2011, 08:40:37

I'd guess that the ping reflected by the speed test is not really representative. Try running a ping command from a command prompt and see if it drops. Very nice throughput though

Technical Ben · Sep 02, 2011, 11:46:36

I'd be tempted to say "photoshop" if' I did not know better.

Rik · Sep 02, 2011, 12:08:15

No, you can tell it's GIMP, Ben.

Technical Ben · Sep 02, 2011, 16:00:07

GIMP puts a little header in "made in GIMP" usually.

pctech · Sep 02, 2011, 16:04:07

You can't Griff.

chrish · Sep 05, 2011, 12:28:45

Got a phone call on Friday from a Manager at BT, who apologized for the time it had taken to get the fiber installed, he said that he had been authorization to offer me compensation, i refused the offer of cash and told him that the trial was only until October 2011 and could i have a extension instead, i got an extra 3 months so that will take me to the end of January 2012.

There are a couple of reasons i opted for the extension instead of cash,

1. I do not have to sign a 18 mths contract at least not until the end of January.
2. I am hoping that the FTTP product is on open sale so i can chose/keep with idnet.

One question though - If the product becomes available can ISP such as IDnet offer it at the same time as BT or do BT get a grace period (Get the chance to offer it first before other ISP can)

Thanks

Chris H

Lance · Sep 05, 2011, 12:31:22

As soon as its offered by BT wholesale, it should be available to all ISPs. Of course, whether that happens or not is a different matter!

pctech · Sep 05, 2011, 14:00:49

At the moment chris only a few ISPs are involved in the trial.

Off the top of my head these are BT Retail (BT Broadband and Plusnet), Zen Internet, Andrews and Arnold and probably others by now (there was a list which I am attempting to find)

Once the trial is over though it will get opened up to all I believe.

chrish · Nov 16, 2011, 17:50:08

Hi
Well i see Bt have the FTTP product for sale, any news from Idnet ? i am in no rush as i have until the end of January 2012 until my trial runs out.

Thanks

chris H

Rik · Nov 16, 2011, 18:02:11

Sorry, you'd have to ask directly, we haven't been told anything as yet.

pctech · Nov 21, 2011, 10:20:07

Quote from: zappaDPJ on Jun 03, 2011, 21:13:37
A typical day with BT then. Sorry to hear that

It's really latency and real money throughput I'm particularly interested in. As all the copper is gone I'm wondering how much of an effect it has.

From a couple of people I know that have it they get about 77 Meg up and down as its contended.