No FTTC For Me

Dougc · Jul 25, 2012, 09:35:23

After almost a year of emailing and phoning BT, I've finally got my answer about why there are no plans to install FTTC in my area. Apparently I - and my entire estate - are on lines which are connected directly to the exchange. This is a practice that apparently was common for Openreach to do when a new-build estate sprung up and they didn't have enough capacity to service everyone from local cabinets. I'm told that - at the time - this was perfectly okay for normal ADSL services, but with the roll-out of FTTC, it means you're pretty much screwed.

Very depressing. I really don't want to have to move just to receive a connection which is faster than 4Mb down, 0.5Mb up. But at the moment, I can't imagine that situation changing for a long time

Does anyone have any bright ideas about anything I could do or try?

Steve · Jul 25, 2012, 09:58:20

I sympathise but I've no solution, LTE networks are not here yet but may provide a solution as would FTTP at great expense.

Glenn · Jul 25, 2012, 10:00:07

Are you in a Virgin cabled area, Doug?

Dougc · Jul 25, 2012, 10:14:49

Quote from: Glenn on Jul 25, 2012, 10:00:07
Are you in a Virgin cabled area, Doug?

The area around my immediate estate is, but unfortunately they haven't cabled my my street and I've been told by Virgin that extending their network 500m to my house would cost too much per household to be worth doing

I think my only option would be to pay the £2k installation and £500 a month for a leased line. Which - unless I win the lottery - I can't really see happening

Steve · Jul 25, 2012, 11:00:33

Are you on adslmax pro or adsl2? I'm assuming the latter.

Dougc · Jul 25, 2012, 11:07:34

Quote from: Steve on Jul 25, 2012, 11:00:33
Are you on adslmax pro or adsl2? I'm assuming the latter.

Yeah, I'm on the ADSL2+ Home SuperPro package from IDNet. Even then I can still only sync at between 4 and 5 Mb down and 0.5 and 1Mb up

mervl · Jul 25, 2012, 13:50:34

I believe that OpenReach are trialling methods of bringing superfast broadband to Exchange Only lines as part of their Cornwall project. Also why not nag the local county council as things should be addressed as part of the BDUK tenders now going out - they should have a dedicated website. After 2014 probably for the earliest progress, but after all the major part of ADSL has only been with us for little more than 10 years! I was lucky being able to get a Fixed Wireless service in your type of situation, prior to BT (unexpectedly) enabling the cab.

Glenn · Jul 25, 2012, 14:05:02

My brother should be getting FTTP in Helston in Dec 12 as far as I know.

https://www.superfastcornwall.org/

Technical Ben · Jul 25, 2012, 16:18:25

Could they not put an exchange cabinet and some cables in the exchange room? The ones around here are big enough to fit an entire BT office, let alone a spare cabinet.

Steve · Jul 25, 2012, 18:04:22

As I understand it,there's too much 'noise'/interference in the exchange itself for vdsl to function (as that's obviously where the copper wire lines start with a direct connection)

.Griff. · Jul 26, 2012, 17:24:48

Quote from: Dougc on Jul 25, 2012, 09:35:23
After almost a year of emailing and phoning BT, I've finally got my answer about why there are no plans to install FTTC in my area. Apparently I - and my entire estate - are on lines which are connected directly to the exchange. This is a practice that apparently was common for Openreach to do when a new-build estate sprung up and they didn't have enough capacity to service everyone from local cabinets. I'm told that - at the time - this was perfectly okay for normal ADSL services, but with the roll-out of FTTC, it means you're pretty much screwed.

Very depressing. I really don't want to have to move just to receive a connection which is faster than 4Mb down, 0.5Mb up. But at the moment, I can't imagine that situation changing for a long time

Does anyone have any bright ideas about anything I could do or try?

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/06/bt-preps-new-uk-superfast-broadband-cabinets-for-exchange-only-lines.html