No FTTC but cabinet supports it

[ikoz4]

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)

[rbz5416]

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.

[ikoz4]

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.

[rbz5416]

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.

[gg30340]

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.

[ikoz4]

@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?

[gg30340]

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

[ikoz4]

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.

[rbz5416]

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.

[ikoz4]

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.