BT Broadband when you're EO

drumhead61

Anyone else having any problems or solutions getting BT Infinity when you're connected via EO to the exchange?
i live on a main road where everyone on our road can get access to infinity apart from a bunch of four on each side of the road who run off one telegraph pole which apparently goes direct back to the exchange.
after calls and online chats with BT, they confirm that the cabinet at the end of our road is only at 80% capacity - but that even if we had a brand new line put in they can't say whether we'd get infinity or not.
after getting hold of someone at openreach via online contact form, they come back and tell us that there are no plans to help EO customers but that we could all get together as a community and perhaps pay for the connection.

we're not in the middle of nowhere, we're on a main trunk route!

anyone else stuck with this?

lee111s

It's an issue that can only be solved by either having your line rerouted to a cabinet (which Openreach won't do upon request), or by an all in one cabinet being built to move bundles of EO lines onto.

Have you spoken to the BDUK partner for your area?

rusty_f

Had the same problem while living in SE London. A large chunk of our street was EO, and the lines were between 4-5km long so we had really poor broadband speeds. Nothing we could do about it, especially as Virgin were in our street so we had an alternative provider (against BDUK rules to fund to overbuild on an existing network).

Openreach's official line on EO is they are 'Exploring Solutions'. Some areas of the UK have had very expensive network rearrangements happen to introduce cabinets to enable FTTC, but others may not be cost effective. Openreach does allow you to 'club together' as a community to fund it but you are talking thousands of pounds.

drumhead61

thanks for your replies - it just seems odd that they didn't have a resolution for this issue from day one.

looks like i'll be knocking on the door of virgin media for a bit of speed.

Agram

I was getting my hopes up when fibre connected up my area. But my village is probably all Exchange Only Lines.


Having a short line directly connected to exchange was good for ADSL service, which I'm going to be remaining on now. Unless FTTP (premise instead of cabinet) becomes common.

lee111s

Agram wrote: »

I was getting my hopes up when fibre connected up my area. But my village is probably all Exchange Only Lines.


Having a short line directly connected to exchange was good for ADSL service, which I'm going to be remaining on now. Unless FTTP (premise instead of cabinet) becomes common.

You can check by putting your number into http://www.dslchecker.bt.com and if you're connected to a cabinet it'll tell you what number.

If it comes back saying connected to exchange XXXXX with no cabinet number, then you're on an Exchange Only line.

spyhunter

This link will give you information on Openreach plans for your line.

https://www.homeandwork.openreach.co.uk/when-can-i-get-fibre.aspx