Fibre to the cabinet ?

Mary_Hartnell

My local semi rural BT exchange is in the process of installing fibre to the cabinet.

Now I am no fan no BT, finding them product focussed not customer focussed and up to now over priced, for an "up to 8 Mbps" service.

I am approaching a couple of miles from my exchange and toddling along on a 4+ Mbps.with Talk Talk, there is no Virgin available and few other LLU offerings.

I have managed to establish that I am (most probably) attached to (say) cabinet 21. Is there any way of establishing where that cabinet is and the area it covers??(so I could double check with some "neighbours"?)

If the new service is becoming available how much "better" and how much more expensive is it likely to be?

Johnmcl7

You can check definitely which cabinet you're on through this checker:

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/

I'm not aware of any site that shows where all cabinets are but you can check which cabinet your neighbours are on by putting their phone number into the checker above.

John

Yolina

I am in London but a long way from an already overloaded exchange, and with very limited choice too due to the distance...

My BB speed was between 500Kbps to 1Mbps and so when BT Infinity came available in my area a couple of years ago, I didn't dither and just jumped on it - 32Mbps does me fine I'm on a 40GB/month plan and it's costing just under £20/month (there should be offers when you sign up). So yes it's certainly more expensive but it's worth it for me due to the BB speed I was getting which was barely usable really. But if you're ok with your speed, then there's no reason to pay more for FTTC

Ralph-y

http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/fibre/checker.php

Ralph:cool:

Weird_Nev

I's absolutely worthwhile going with BT infinity. It's night and day if you've had a crappy internet connection.
You can blame BT for overpriced low performing internet if you like, but the fact remains it's the technical difficulties of transmitting high bandwidth information down degraded and ancient copper (aluminimum) lines that is the problem.

With BT infinity, you will get a vastly improved service. You will get very low ping (latency), you will get huge bandwidth and high performance when streaming video or downloading large files.

IMO it represents excellent value for money. At least you're getting it in your "rural" area.

I paid £30/month for an unlimited download connection. I got 40Mb/s initially (the line limit, it increased to 60Mb/s when they upgraded it about 6 months in) and ~30ms ping times, along with complete reliability. I felt it was excellent value for money.

If you only browse forums, send email and don't download or stream much video, you might find it overkill, but then when you realise how powerful a good broadband connection is, you might find yourself using the internet in ways you don't now.

forgotmyname

Plusnet are BT but with UK call centres.. Better customer service. So i keep reading anyway.

So tempted, But its double what i pay now. I get a measly 4mb also. Checker
says i can get 68mb.

WTFH

My dad recently thought about upgrading his broadband so he could watch stuff on his iPad.
He's been with AOL for years and has had lots of issues with them regarding billing, etc. I suggested he tried BT.
BT offered him 16Mb, AOL said a max of 8Mb.
AOL was £1 a month less.
He's not skint.
He went with AOL.
AOL delivered about 2Mb.
...but while he can't watch a lot of streaming stuff he'd like to, he's happy to tell me how much money he saves by not being able to do what he wanted to do in the first place!

mwddrwg

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

You can check definitely which cabinet you're on through this checker:

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/

I'm not aware of any site that shows where all cabinets are but you can check which cabinet your neighbours are on by putting their phone number into the checker above.

John

Sorry to hijack the thread but do you know what this means? (Comes up when I check my number at the link above)

"The Stop Sale date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2012; the Formal Retirement date for Datastream is from 28-Feb-2014. The Stop Sale date for IPstream is from 31-Oct-2013; the Formal Retirement date for IPstream is from 28-Feb-2014."

Thanks

WTFH

Datastream and IPstream were very early versions of broadband...
https://www.btwholesale.com/pages/static/Products/Broadband/BT_Datastream/index.htm

mwddrwg

WTFH wrote: »

Datastream and IPstream were very early versions of broadband...
https://www.btwholesale.com/pages/static/Products/Broadband/BT_Datastream/index.htm

That must mean the end of 'normal' broadband to be replaced by fibre in February 2014. Can't wait

mwddrwg

espresso wrote: »

It does not mean that at all.

No? Never was any good at deciphering tech details... :)