No FTTC but cabinet supports it

[ikoz4]

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. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

@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.

[Devon_Dave]

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

[ikoz4]

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. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

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.

[ikoz4]

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.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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

[ikoz4]

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. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

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.

[rbz5416]

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@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? 

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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.