This topic

No FTTC but cabinet supports it

ikoz4 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 08:26:42 GMT

This is a strange situation.

The openreach checker shows that my cabinet supports FTTC (since 2011!), and all of my street, same postcode, is served by the same cabinet along with a few other streets. This is in London zone 4.

However according to the BT broadband checker half of the street can get only 24mbps ADSL and nothing else with no plans for any upgrade either. This includes my house. Thus there are no fibre options at all when I try to buy.

However, the other half of the street, same cabinet, can get FTTC up to 80mbps! Say numbers 1-40 can't get FTTC but 41-70 can. Some of the other streets served by the cabinet can also get fibre according to the checker.

This situation has remained the same for the past 5 years,ive been checking once a year or so.

What to do to figure out why this is happening? Who to contact and how? Isn't this odd? Some kind of malfunction?

Thankfully my house is serviced by Virgin cable so can get high speeds, but I'm only with them as I have no alternatives if I want anything above ADSL.

I'd very much like to have more choice of providers and switch. Any help welcome.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

Keith_Beddoe — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 08:42:54 GMT

@ikoz4

Welcome to this user forum for BT Retail phone and broadband customers.

Only Openreach would know the reason, as they provide the external network for most providers.

https://www.openreach.com/broadband-network/fibre-availability

This forum has no connection with Openreach.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

Devon_Dave — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 08:43:42 GMT

The fibre cab (dslam) has probably reached its capacity., so would either be waiting for an additional card or a 2nd DSLAM.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

ikoz4 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 09:08:16 GMT

I'm aware this is an openreach issue. However whenever I try to contact BT they just tell me that FTTC is not supported and nothing beyond that. There's no way for me to tell BT that the house 4 houses down in my street, in the same cabinet, supports FTTC.

Moreover BT doesn't tell me the cabinet is at capacity and as far as I'm aware there's no way for me to verify that, is there?

To be honest I'm doubtful about the capacity explanation. The availability checker shows FTTC as available for all house above humber 41 and not available for all houses under 40. The street has 70 houses only, all same cabinet.

Is there a process for me, a retail customer who wants BT fibre, to get someone to take a look and let me know what is going on with my cabinet? For example if it is at capacity or not? Who can confirm this?

There's also no way for me, as far as I know, to contact Openreach directly about this either, so it's pretty frustrating.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

Keith_Beddoe — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 09:11:18 GMT

BT Retail would tell you the same as any other provider that uses the Openreach network. BT Retail have no special information and would not be able to help. Openreach are a totally separate company.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

ikoz4 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 09:15:54 GMT

Thank you, I understand this. Is there however a way for a retail customer to contact openreach directly? I believe there isn't,as they don't service retail customers directly.

That's why any contact needs to be done via a provider, similar to filing a malfunction report for openreach to investigate.

And that's why I'm trying to figure out if BT can contact Openreach about this.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

Keith_Beddoe — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 09:20:51 GMT

Have you tried placing an order with BT Retail, and see what shows up? You do not need to finalise the order, just see what is on offer.

https://www.bt.com/products/broadband/deals

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

ikoz4 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 09:28:32 GMT

I have tried yes, of course.

It doesn't give me any Fibre options at all,so I can't place an order!

However for houses a few numbers away from me, same cabinet, it does bring up fibre options.

To be more precise the checker only brings up adsl as the only option for all houses up to number 40 while every house from 41 to 70 shows both adsl and fibre options. I've checked the whole street.

That's what is odd here and I'm trying to figure out why and how to get someone to check.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

Keith_Beddoe — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 09:37:20 GMT

So it offers ADSL but not FTTC?

Its possible that the cabinet is full, as @Devon_Dave has already said.

If you look at the availability checker, the VDSL probably shows "Waiting List" at the right hand side.

You will need to use the address checker, as you would not have a BT phone number.

Perhaps you could post what it says, after editing out your address details, but keep the exchange and cabinet number showing.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 10:24:50 GMT

@ikoz4wrote:
Moreover BT doesn't tell me the cabinet is at capacity and as far as I'm aware there's no way for me to verify that, is there?

The BT Broadband Checker will tell you if the cab is full as shown below.

But you seem to be suggesting that's it's not showing VDSL at all. I don't know if there's any enquiries a forum Mod can make on this but otherwise you're correct, you're stuck in "Computer says no" territory. Might be worth a chat with the next Openreach engineer you see working in the area, in case they have some local knowledge that may shed some light on the situation.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

ikoz4 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 10:03:18 GMT

Here's the checker for my house (and all houses 1-40 on the street)

And here's the checker for a house 6 numbers down the same road (same for all houses 41-70 on the street)

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 10:04:12 GMT

There seems to be no cabinet listed for your address, which maybe explains the issue. If the "system" doesn't know which cab you're connected to, it can't know if there's a fibre cab connected to it.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

ikoz4 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 10:18:25 GMT

Yes just noticed that, it's odd. Cabinet 18 is about 150m away. Maybe half the street is not on the same cabinet after all? And if not, how does that work, which is the correct cabinet? Again, no process to contact anyone about this! BT doesnt want to know about it since I can't place an order, and I can't contact openreach directly.

I guess stopping openreach vans on the read is the only viable option, it comes to that.

Note that a different checker (the one at https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm ) when using the postcode, says that the postcode is served by Cabinet 18 and also "All addresses within the post code are connected to the same cabinet."

While using this checker (https://availability.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker ) with the postcode and my number it shows "BT FTTC: Available" (along with ADSL and other services).

I feel like half my street is in a fibre black hole due to some computer error somewhere, and there's no way to contact anyone to investigate.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 10:16:31 GMT

My (limited) understanding is that the cabinet number will be ye olde copper (PCP) cab, which will then have a FTTC cab attached. So I suspect it's a data error, but how you get it fixed...

There are a few Openreach guys on here so maybe one of them can shed some light. Otherwise maybe a Mod as I suggested previously.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

gg30340 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 10:55:59 GMT

It may be that you and the other houses are on an Exchange Only line and as such are not connected to a cabinet. This would mean you can not get FTTC.

Openreach were placing cabinets out side exchanges to allow those lines to be able to get FTTC but due to the push for FTTP it may be the case they have stopped installing cabinets at exchanges.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

ikoz4 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 11:13:04 GMT

@gg30340 Oh, that's interesting, did not know about "Exchange Only" lines, how does that work? I have assumed my line terminate at Cabinet18, however if that its not the case it must go to some other cabinet elsewhere right? Or do you mean the actual central exchange which all cabinets connect to - the one for my area is 1.2km away. Surely the line must connect to something else nearby (cabinet 18 is 150m away and there are plenty of other cabinets between me and the central exchange.

Is there a way to find out if I'm not at Cabinet 18 and where my line actually goes?

Also, is there any proceess for a line to be relocated from "Exchange Only" to be allocated to cabinet18 like half of the street?

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

gg30340 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 11:32:26 GMT

An Exchange Line goes to the exchange. It does not connect to a cabinet nor can the line simply be moved to a cabinet. Openreach will not move you to a cabinet just to get you better broadband.

You would need to contact Openreach to ask if there are future plans to supply you with FTTP per the link in message 2.

See link about EO lines

https://www.choose.co.uk/guide/exchange-only-line-fibre-broadband.html

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

ikoz4 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 12:06:37 GMT

Looks like this must be the case here, thank you. At least now I have a reasonablee explanation.

Half my street including my house must be in Exchange-Only lines (for an exchange 1.2km away) for whatever reason, while the other half is in a cabinet that has FTTC about 150m away. And there are plenty of other FTTC cabinets nearby between us and the exchange too. That's really unlucky 😕

The way I understand it, even if Openreach fit a cabinet next to the exchange, it'll still be very far away from the house so speed will be poor anyway. Moving the line seems unlikely technically from what you suggest. And also fitting FTTC cabinets seems to be no priority at all anyway.

This area also is not in any FTTP plans at all from what I have seen, even if it is in london zone 4.

I guess only option is to stick with Virgin cable as there is not and likely will never been in the next 10 years any otheer fibre options, and also nothing anyone can do about it.

Looks like 5G will be the only alternative to Virgin cable.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 12:05:44 GMT

EOL isn't something I was aware of either, so thanks @gg30340. How likely it is to be the case for half the street I don't know. Is it possible the houses listed on the cab were a later addition to those not? Again a local OR engineer would likely be in the know.

It might be worth leafleting the other affected houses to confirm that are indeed limited to ADSL & whether they want to join together to see if anything can be done under USO or similar. Otherwise you may have to look at a 4G solution if coverage is decent.

Edit: If you mentioned it previously then I missed that you have access to Virgin. That would rule out USO.

Re: No FTTC but cabinet supports it

ikoz4 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 12:11:25 GMT

just to add that the street is your typical 1930s terraced houses - no new builds whatsoever anywhere nearby.

My assumption now is that when they fitted cabinet 18 nearby they rewired half the street to this cabinet - the part of the street that shows up as serviced by that cabinet is indeed the part nearest to it.

While the other half of the street was left at its original wiring to an exchange far away.