We have a new cabinet…

new fibre cabinet 25

Well the building work has finished and there is now a new fibre cabinet next to cabinet 25.

It’s in the corner just a few feet away from the original cabinet 25 (which in the photograph above is hidden by the larger green cabinet).

new fibre cabinet 25

Now they have finished the “build” phase the next stage is the “connect” phase.

For a Fibre to the Cabinet connection this stage is about connecting the power and fibre cables to the cabinet in your area. The existing and new cabinets are now connected to each other by underground copper cables. The physical build is now completed and there shouldn’t need to be any further works in your area.

After that they can activate the cabinet and ISPs can start taking orders…

They’re building, they’re building…

After mentioning last time that BT Openreach had registered their “roadworks” it was nice to see today that they had been doing some work around cabinet 25.

They're building, they're building...

Though in this picture you can’t actually see cabinet 25, it’s behind the green cabinet in the middle of the picture. They appear to be digging up channels to lay cables between the old cabinet and the new one. I believe that the new cabinet is then connected direct to the exchange with fibre, hence FTTC Fibre To The Cabinet. The last stretch of cable from the cabinet to the house is still old copper cable.

So will BT Openreach achieve their end of June deadline? Remember this was an extension from their original end of March deadline.

No.

According to a Facebook thread, it appears BT Openreach have pushed their deadline to the end of August 2017.

As you might imagine, disappointed.

We have roadworks…

Well according to the Roadworks website, it looks like BT Openreach will be working on Cabinet 25 upgrading it for FTTC service. It had looked like nothing was happening for a while…

Looking at the detail you can see the roadworks refer to cabinet 25.

The roadworks website outlines what companies are undertaking roadworks.

Once this is done then we are at the next stage of the fiber journey.

Build Phase, what Build Phase?

As I have mentioned previously, according to the BT Openreach Fibre site they are in the build phase for cabinet 25 in Weston Village.

Over the weekend I ventured down to the cabinet to see what was happening and see how far BT Openreach had got with putting in the new fibre cabinet, as I had heard that BT Openreach vans were sighted in the area!

Well as I could have guessed there was nothing there, nothing had changed.

Now I know that BT Openreach could potentially site the new cabinet somewhere else, but if you look at other upgraded cabinets the new ones are quite close to the existing cabinet.

Here is cabinet 24 in Weston village, the old cabinet is on the right, the new fibre cabinet is on the left.

Cabinet 24 in Weston Village

I don’t know what I was expecting to see, actually that’s a lie I was expecting there to be nothing there…

Well, BT Openreach did say the end of June, I will believe it when I see it.

Openreach vans “sighted”

I recently posted we were in the “build” phase of the fibre journey for cabinet 25 in Weston Village.

Well according to a recent Facebook posting (hearsay evidence) BT Openreach vans were sighted next to the cabinet on Moor Lane.

I did check roadworks.org however as Moor Lane is no longer a road and the site of the cabinet is off the lane, the work wasn’t seen on that site.

The roadworks.org website is a useful site to see what is happening with roadworks and BT Openreach to log their work on this site. It was also where I found out that Virgin Media were laying down cable on the other side of the village.

And then we move along again…

It wasn’t that long ago that I was complaining again about the slow progress of enabling cabinet 25 in Weston Village for fibre. When I checked this morning it was still at the Field Survey stage, however since this morning we have progressed along the fibre journey and are now at the Build stage.

We’re installing the new fibre cabinet and laying the fibre cables to serve your home or business.

You can get more detail on the fibre journey page.

At this point we’re ready to start the physical work in your community. We’ll be installing the new equipment and bringing fibre cables from your local telephone exchange to your area. You might see our teams working in the footway boxes along your street as they bring the fibre cable through the underground ducts or overhead on telephone poles. Putting our equipment in position might cause a bit of disruption with traffic diversions and closed pavements and we’ll do our best to reduce this. Throughout the build phase we continue to work closely with the power companies and local authorities to reduce delays and keep disruption to a minimum.

As you might imagine I will be taking a look round to see if they have actually started work…

…and so it continues…

Well the fibre journey continues…

Back in January I wrote about how on the fibre journey, cabinet 25 in Weston Village had moved to the Design stage having spent years in the “we are exploring solutions” phase, which I actually believe means “it’s at the bottom of the pile of a large number of ‘solutions’ and we will get to it once we have had enough bad press, someone else starts laying cable or we have nothing better to do….”

Well as of the beginning of April we have moved along that fibre journey. We have entered the Field Survey.

Field Survey

We’ll now take the blueprints from the design stage to your community, and check that what looks good on paper works in the real world. Our surveyor needs to check that there’s enough space alongside all the existing utilities underground for our new cables, and whether there’s enough space to accommodate our equipment. We’ll also need to determine whether we’ll need to close any roads to install fibre and, if so, apply to the local authority for road traffic management, traffic lights etc… We’ll work closely with your local authority to make sure fibre is installed safely and with the minimum of disruption to local people.

This says we should have fibre in the next nine months which does make me wonder if BT are still hoping to have everything done by the end of June?

Nothing beats having a field survey of my own, and looking around that part of Weston Village where cabinet 25 lives, there doesn’t appear to be anything happening. No BT Openreach vans, no roadworks or cabinet installations. When other cabinets were upgraded, a new FTTC cabinet was put in place, usually just a few feet away.

So the story continues…

Will there be fibre?

Weston Village

So I recently contacted BT Openreach about Cabinet 25 in Weston Village and asked for an explanation of why it hadn’t being upgraded to fibre and why the original date of March 2017 was now delayed? I specifically asked them for an explanation.

Their reply was

In response to your query regarding delay in providing fibre we would like to inform you that the cabinet is not fibre enabled yet, however, a project is ongoing to provide fibre to the cabinet.

The project is expected to be completed by the End of June, 2017, however, this date is subject to change as per the amount of work left.

Please keep an eye on our website from the End of June, 2017 for an update. It’s where we publish the very latest fibre coverage information and we update it daily. This is when we would estimate that you should be able to place your order, all being well.  

They are saying the end of June 2017…

Really…

Somehow, and for some obscure practical reason I think, it will be delayed a they say themselves

this date is subject to change as per the amount of work left.

As you can also see there was no explanation as requested.

Hopefully not too long now….

We will have fibre in “12 months”!

Though to be honest I will believe it when I see it!

Those who have been following my FTTC fibre journey will know that I was one of the first people in my area to get fibre back in October 2010.  I was impressed with the 40Mb download speeds.

Really fast…

I was less impressed when I moved house in 2012 and having moved (literally) just down the street I was back on really slow ADSL. So for nearly the last five years I have had an ADSL connection that struggles to get to 1.5Mb download speed!

The story of the fibre journey of cabinet 25 connected to the Worle Exchange has been one of mis-information and downright confusion.

Back in 2015 I outlined the story so far…

Still no fibre

I have written previously about my woes with fibre before, when we first moved house and lost fibre and then my initial investigations into why I couldn’t get FTTC and back in 2012 writing about the confirmation of no plans to upgrading cabinet 25.

It would appear that BT Openreach decided initially that cabinet 25 wasn’t commercially viable, as a result passed it over to Connecting Devon and Somerset. Then at some point BT Openreach changed their mind about the commercial viability, so when Connecting Devon and Somerset came to plan to upgrade the cabinet, they found it was part of a commercial plan, and under the rules they adhere to, they weren’t able to upgrade it. Now we are in a situation where BT Openreach are saying that it is under review with no indication of when or even if it will be ever upgraded.

In May 2016 there was an article on the local paper.

Well, that’s a surprise…

According to the report in the local Weston Mercury, BT Openreach had changed their mind and would be upgrading cabinet 25 to fibre so that we can get FTTC.

In theory we were supposed to be getting fibre by March 2017… then it all fell apart and BT Openreach backtracked on the date!

So last week when I checked the BT Openreach linechcker I was surprised to see that the fibre journey which had been stuck on “We are exploring solutions” for years had moved along to “Design”.

According to the BT Openreach website this means

You’re in a fibre plan and we’re looking at the existing network in your area to see how we will design the upgrade. You can’t order a fibre service today but typically it’ll be available to your premises within the next 12 months.

So we could be connected to fibre in less than 12 months!

We’re drawing up our network plans and assessing the best way to bring fibre to your area. We currently deliver fibre to you in two ways. Sometimes we use a combination of fibre and your existing copper line to deliver our Superfast network (Fibre to the Cabinet). At other times we connect fibre directly to your property (Fibre to the Premises). We often need permission from the local authority while also considering the wishes of your community in terms of look and practicality. At the end of this design process, we’ll have a blueprint in place for delivering fibre to your community.

Possibly we might even get FTTP (fibre to the premises) but I think I am just blue sky thinking there!

Well, that’s a surprise…

Weston Village

So those who follow my trials and tribulations with getting better broadband, will know that following a move in 2012 I lost my FTTC connection and had to revert back to an ADSL connection, a slow ADSL connection at that generally getting between 1-1.5 Mbs. This was because my house was connected to cabinet 25, and this was the only cabinet connected to the Worle Exchange which was never upgraded to FTTC. My expectation was that within a year it would probably be upgraded, it never was…

I have written previously about my woes with fibre before, when we first moved house and lost fibre and then my initial investigations into why I couldn’t get FTTC and back in 2012 writing about the confirmation of no plans to upgrading cabinet 25.

When I first approached BT Openreach about this issue, they said it was not commercially viable and that they wouldn’t be upgrading the cabinet. The only alternative I was told, it would probably be upgraded by Connecting Devon and Somerset as part of a public private partnership.

Their first response was that it wasn’t part of their initial roll out. I wasn’t too surprised by this, as I was sure they would focus on the rural areas away from the places that already had FTTC to show real impact.

When they updated one of their maps I discovered that we were no longer part of their plans, it followed that we were now part of a commercial roll out and wasn’t

BT Openreach still wasn’t providing any sensible or details.

It was apparent that there was no solid information on when, or even if, we would be getting fibre…

In a side story, on the other side of the railway tracks, on the other side of the village, Virgin Media were laying cable. Now there was very little information on this installation, the Virgin Media site was giving even less away than BT Openreach!

Then some news…

Weston Mercury News Report

According to the report in the local Weston Mercury, BT Openreach had changed their mind and would be upgrading cabinet 25 to fibre so that we can get FTTC.

So what changed?

Personally I did wonder if the Virgin Media installations were getting them worried?

Who knows?

Well in 2017 I may finally be getting a faster internet connection, until then I will have to contend with slow ADSL and 4G for my connectivity.