Milton Keynes / Bradwell Abbey Exchange / FTTP Trial

[hippey]

I was told exactly the same thing from BT, infact I managed to sign upto BT Infinity which accepted the order even though it could not be done! Im now on the FTTP trial in Monkston Park. The speed does vary as it's a trial but a minimum of 40mb (the fastest I have reached is 38) can be expected, some trialists are on 100Mb. The only CPs participating are BT & Plusnet that I know of but you won't normally be able to sign up via the normal sales route as it is a specialist team who sets up the orders.

The installs are different too, I had a two stage install, some people had one! Basically fiber is run from the street to the outside of your house, a white splice box is a give away of a fiber install. Another cable runs from here into the house to an ONT, which is supplied by openreach and your hub / router is connected to that. This service only runs the broadband at the moment, the telephone service is still on the copper pair. My ADSL service was switched off so it is all via fiber.

If your neighbours have these small white boxes above the grey cable box on the front of the house then FTTP is in your area, but the trial is by invitation only. Just try and get on that list!

[PeteandKath]

We are in Monkston and have just been thru the first stage of FTTP - BT sent us a letter asking if we wanted to go on the trial - FOC. 100mb down and 15mb up is the estimate!

The install of a small box on the outside of the house, fibre being blown up the ducting from the nearest roadside manhole and the splice to the junction in the manhole took a few hours. The next step is connecting the box to an inside box and wireless router in about a week.

Having talked to the Openreach guy about what was possible, he understood that the speed could be much faster in the future, time will tell. MK, he says, is much easier to connect fibre to as it already has (in most places) underground ducting that allows the fibre to be installed. Areas that need laying underground or even above ground will find that is not going to happen fast, cost will slow this down or even stop it altogether.

BTW: he did turn up on time, explained what he would do, asked to put the box on the wall and kept me upto date on what he was doing even when he had to go away. Finally, when done, he confirmed that the next part would be completed on the 12th. All you really want is the thing to happen when you are told it would and be informed, if only all were as professional.

Update at the next stage...

[miles_safer]

I am on that trial too and am getting about 88 down and as of today 13 up on average. I wonder if as it is a trial they are using more highly trained generally better Openreach staff or if they are just not as over worked as those doing regular Infinity installs as BT want to get the trial right. When I have had to call the tech heads on the support line it is a genuine UK based tech head who can actually help. Very pleased so far.

[Wingman_1]

**bleep**, 88 mb down, man thats just geedy 😞
I feel impotent with my 2.5 mb!

[miles_safer]

Sorry. I know. But until I got onto the trial I was maxed out at 1.4 down.

[Wingman_1]

Just spoke to a BT engineer in Broughton. Current ETA for go live for all providers is end of June. They are still in the process of 'surveying' trial customers apparantly. But he said most if not all new builds in Broughton should be able to receive FTTP.

[goosefraba]

AWESOME

[einsteinradio]

Excuse me for not waving flags at the moment, but I'll believe it when I see it!

Paul (Broughton Gate)