Very worried about 'fibre switch over day' - please help

[biscuitcase]

Hello,  I'm not tech-savvy at all,  so please bear with me,  I received a letter from BT today announcing that they're switching our old copper broadband to 'faster more reliable fibre' at no extra cost and that they'll be sending me a hub soon before switch over day on July 17th when apparently copper broadband will be turned off. 

We live in a very rural part of N. Ireland and I'd been looking at a new contract with BT (they kept offering me one when I logged in to pay bills)  for a fibre upgrade and a Fibre 1 package,  I think it was, but the problem is that I'm currently caring for my elderly parents who are both immuno-compromised and have been totally locked down for nearly 3 months.  No one's been allowed in the house.  So I checked,  twice,  on live chat with an operator whether I could get the new fibre package without the need for an engineer's visit,  and they told me,  twice,  that no,  an engineer would need to call,  so I said thank you,  I'll have to leave it then. 

Today I called the 0800 9173245 helpline to check again,  and the operator told me that an engineer *wouldn't* need to call.  So I don't know what's happening.  I know that an engineer can't call, and I'm worried that I'll end up with a hub that doesn't function and no internet on July 17th. We rely on the internet as a lifeline to the outside right now.  We use it for shopping and ordering prescriptions etc.  We're so rural that I'm guessing this fibre upgrade must be FTTC,  but I can't see any trace of a cabinet anywhere on our country road,  but BT have made no mention of plans to send an engineer out at all.  The FAQs on the back of the announcement letter I received today include:  "Why are you moving my connection to fibre?  Answer: We want to give all our customers the best broadband possible. To do this it (sic) we're moving everyone in a fibre-enabled area to a faster fibre connection. "

So I'm in a fibre-enabled area?  I'd be surprised.  We're a few miles from a small village and over 20 miles from Belfast. We have a very basic socket in the front porch and I think our router connects with filters. 

Does anyone know how I can confirm just what set-up BT are going to be shifting me to,  and can I opt out if it requires an engineer to enter the property? 

Sorry for the essay,  any advice would be much appreciated - really anxious about this. 

[pippincp]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I can understand you being anxious to help us find out what you will be getting enter your phone number HERE and post the results. Remove your phune number before posting.

[licquorice]

You will in all probability be moved from standard ADSL copper broadband to VDSL  FTTC 'fibre' broadband. That being the case, no engineer visit will be necessary and the new hub will work both before and after switchover. If you are in a remote location some distance from the cabinet, there is a slight possibility that your FTTC speed might be lower than your current speed depending on the distance from the exchange and distance from the cabinet.

If you post the results of the checker as requested, we can see type of service and predicted speed.

[biscuitcase]

Hello,  thank you both - here are the results,  I haven't the foggiest what any of them mean,  so a translation would be very much appreciated. Not sure if this is relevant,  but we have quite a few tall trees around our cottage and a pole in the lower part of the garden - engineers have been out to fiddle with it a few times over the years. 

[biscuitcase]

I hope the attached pic is viewable - I tried copying and pasting the table,  but got an error message over invalid html characters or something.  Out of my depth.  😬

[licquorice]

Picture viewable fine.

Ok, because both FTTP and FTTC are available its not clear what your upgrade will be. You must be a long way from both your exchange and cabinet for the speeds quoted in the checker. I suspect the upgrade will be to FTTC which might give you a very small increase in speed but nothing spectacular, you are currently getting around 3Mbs with your current ADSL and might get around 7Mbs with  a following wind with FTTC. Under normal circumstances, I would recommend that you order an upgrade to FTTP to give you up to 330Mbs but that would involve an engineer visit.

As far as the current situation is concerned, as stated, I'm not sure what will happen.  At a guess, when you enquired about upgrading you were given information pertinent to FTTP but the letter you received is pertinent to FTTC. If the upgrade is to FTTC, no engineer visit will be required, if FTTP, a visit will be required. Hope that all makes sense.

I think the only thing you can do is call again and ask if the upgrade is to FTTP or FTTC. If you can't get a sensible answ er from the helpdesk, post back and we'll see if the mods can shed any light. They are very busy at the moment though.

[pompey1898]

Your picture has posted fine and it say FTTP ( Fibre To The Premises ) is available

[biscuitcase]

Thank you licquorice and pompey.  I did ask the live chat folks specifically about FTTC ( I believe that's what the Fibre 1 package I was hoping to get entailed)  and they seemed quite adamant that an engineer would need access to the house.  The operator on the helpline was a little unclear precisely which type I was meant to be getting, but she said she was confident that all I'd need to do would be plug in the hub and I'd be up and running. Can you see any clear indication on the chart showing that my actual home address has all it needs at the moment for FTTC?  It's all Greek to me. 

The hub is due in a couple of weeks,  I think, but even if I get it working with my current set-up,  that won't give me any indication what will happen on July 17th when copper broadband is switched off,  will it? 

We find we're able to stream okay from Amazon Prime on our current broadband,  slow as it is,  it's very stable.  Sorry to pester you with daft questions,  but would the 'upgrade' be as reliable and stable?  If the increased speed isn't significant and not even guaranteed,  would it be wiser to call and ask to opt out,  considering how crucial our internet connection is to us in lockdown?

Thank you all again for your help! 

[licquorice]

If the changeover is to FTTC, it will simply be a case of changing over the hub as soon as you get it as it will work with both your existing service and FTTC. In fact if you have a Home Hub 5 or later you won't even need to swap it out, you can just use your existing hub. With the distance you are from the cabinet, it is possible that ADSL is a more stable service but BT will be switching it off at some point.

Obviously the choice is yours, but I would consider perhaps asking if the upgrade can be cancelled, if you are relatively happy with your current service, and then upgrade to FTTP at some time in the future when an engineer visit is acceptable.

[biscuitcase]

Sorry to be such a dolt,  but I don't know how far we are from 'cabinet 29' - is it likely to be somewhere along our road,  or nearer to the closest village (about 4 miles away)?  Why might the FTTC be less stable? I'm afraid I have no clue how it all works,  but I thought that if an engineer wasn't needed then the same cables must be used? Do you know if the trees in our garden are more likely to interfere with the new set-up than with the ADSL? 

I'm just worried that our internet might drop out entirely and we'd be kind of lost without it right now. Are customers in rural areas more prone to unstable FTTC? 

Thanks for the advice - really appreciate it. Just not sure what to do for the best.