FTTC enabled cabinet but on a long line. BT say no. Who do I speak to next?

[dsl1234]

I found out today that my cabinet (Caversham, 19) has long been FTTC enabled after waiting an age for Infinity to come to this area.  I am 1.9km from the cabinet and BT Wholesale have determined that my line isnt good enough for Infinity.

I'm currently on ADSL2 getting just 512kb down, but 3 months ago this was 1mb down.  After 2 engineer visits, no-one can tell me why the speed has dropped 50%.

Both engineers said Infinity will improve things greatly, but not to expect 40mb+ speeds.

I am more than happy to pay the cost of Infinity if it would provide just 2mb down.  I dont expect to get 40mb+, but following a call to BT today I was told that they wont sign me up as Infinity wont work on my line.

Has anyone had any success getting BT Wholesale to accept new signups under these conditions?  Is 1.9km really so far from the cabinet that I wont get better than .5mb?  Or is it a case of computer says no?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[sjtp]

You'll find a distance/speed graph in the thread http://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Infinity/Is-there-a-distance-vs-speed-calculator-out-there/td-p/374631.  That suggests 10Mb for 1.9km; with all the usual disclaimers.  I suggest you contact the mods at http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/4951 to see if there is anything you can do about it.  I thought they had a special non-Infinity FTTC offering for cases like youers, but ...???

[sandfire]

You mean BT Total Broadband Faster Option 3 ?
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/07/01/bt-launch-uk-faster-total-broadband-option-3-deal-for-su...

[davidf2012]

Im in exactly the same situation, my neighbours 50 yards away can get "faster total broadband" but i cant. I sync at 10mb down and 1.3mb up on adsl2+ which suggests even though my line is long it is good quality and could probably support something more, the checker says no, so its no, i suppose

[Webby]

What is your estimated speed for FTTC when using the Wholesale availability checker?

[davidf2012]

it doesnt even give me an estimated speed for FTTC! the estimate for adsl is 2-6 mb which is rubbish as i get 10mb+

[dsl1234]

Many thanks for the answers!

I spoke to BT about faster total broadband but if BT Wholesale say no to the line then there is little BT can do about it apparently.

I emailed the mods so fingers crossed they will be able to influence things more than the folks on the phone.

Would it help my cause if I moved over to Business Broadband?  Does a company have more clout than a residential customer?

Can a customer pay to have a line re-tested for Infinity by an engineer? 

[Webby]

Business or res makes no difference. The services use the same technology.

If the service isn't available on your line then it's not available on your line. Be that due to distance or any other reason.

You can pay Openreach for a survey to see if your line can support it, I'm sure the mods could organise that.