Ewhurst Broadband

We hope that “fibre” broadband orders are now being accepted again for lines connected to cabinet 19 following a two month suspension. BT Openreach have not provided a full explanation, but we believe that cabinets 19 and 20 have been subject to frequent “WBC FTTC not available” blocks since December last year, because Openreach ignored the data we supplied and initially allowed for only 64 connections per cabinet. In spite of regular protests from Walter that this was woefully inadequate, the underground ducting and cabling installed appears not to have allowed for sufficient expansion, so further excavation and installation work has been required in both cases. This has led to the long delays and inconvenience to residents. Unfortunately the BT availability checker does not indicate the true situation, which has led to many complaints and much confusion, and some have apparently given up in disgust.

It is unclear how much capacity is now available in each cabinet, and there is also some controversy about whether the existing cabinets can eventually provide sufficient FTTC connections for anyone requiring one. Meanwhile there are still a significant number who cannot obtain a “fibre” broadband service at all, because they are too far from the cabinet. It appears that orders are now blocked on any cabinet if the estimated download speed for WBC FTTC is below 2 Mbps. A list of those numbers we know about in Ewhurst has been sent to BT Openreach, but with no response so far.

In his election flyer, Alan Young claims that he has helped to achieve “Access to superfast broadband available for those choosing to switch to this.” This has angered some in Ewhurst who have tried to order “superfast broadband”, but either found it apparently unavailable, or discovered that their new “fibre” service is far from “superfast”.

For example, my home is about one mile from cabinet 18. The BT availability checker estimates that I should get 4.6 Mbps downloads using WBC FTTC services. In fact my new Plusnet Fibre Broadband service did achieve this speed between 20th February and 4th April; hooray! But after a week away on holiday, on 15th April, it had dropped to 4.3 Mbps and has continued to deteriorate since; I see that today it is down to an even more pathetic 3.2 Mbps. I am using this connection with difficulty to provide essential software and support services to a number of SME clients.

My immediate neighbours doubt that such a very small speed improvement is worth the cost and hassle of switching their service. Just a few yards further up the road, FTTC estimates drop to 2.7 Mbps, compared to ADSL speeds of up to 3.5 Mbps! A couple of hundred yards beyond that, FTTC is not available at all.

Now, ADSL has long been able to achieve up to 24 Mbps for those very close to an exchange, so the term “superfast broadband” is generally accepted to refer to any speed in excess of this. In the “intervention areas”, the SCC Superfast Surrey programme is promising to deliver a minimum of 15 Mbps to everyone. In light of this, I contacted Alan to question his claim. I found that he is perfectly well aware of these issues, and has been raising them with BT management. I just hope that, following his re-election as our County Councillor, Alan will renew his efforts to get this resolved quickly, before we get left behind and our businesses suffer yet more.

Cranleigh Arts Centre is connected to cabinet 16, and it was reported in the Surrey Ad last week that residents objected to the proposed new FTTC cabinet location in the 2011 planning application. Being so close the the Cranleigh exchange, download speeds are already very good, but like other businesses, the Arts Centre desperately needs better upload speeds. FTTC can offer up to 20 Mbps uploads for those close to the cabinet, such as the Arts Centre. Mark Konieczko helped the Arts Centre put pressure on BT to find a more acceptable location in this conservation area, and a new planning application has now been submitted. Click the thumbnail to read all about it in the Surrey Advertiser article of 3rd May. 

Sky Broadband (BSkyB) are finally offering FTTC “fibre” broadband services in Ewhurst and Cranleigh. Several Sky customers contacted us after the Ewhurst cabinets were activated last year, complaining that Sky were unable to upgrade their connection, or even to give an availability date. Some decided to change their ISP as a result; the others can now try to order “Sky Fibre Unlimited”, and please let us know the outcome.

Last week all O2 and BE broadband and home phone customers were notified by email that they are now legally Sky customers:

Back in February, we announced our decision to sell our Home Broadband and Home Phone business to Sky. That sale has now gone through. Which means your home broadband and home phone are now officially with Sky. I’d like to explain what’ll happen next and draw your attention to the legal information at the bottom of this email. You won’t notice any changes straightaway. You can still use My O2 to access your bill, and it’s the same number to call should you need a hand with your broadband or home phone. You’ll receive a separate email about your payments. And remember, your O2 mobile isn’t affected by the sale in any way.

Shortly afterwards they were welcomed to Sky:

As you may well know, we’ve now bought O2 and BE home broadband and home phone businesses, and we’re really excited to welcome you to Sky. We’ll be bringing your services over to Sky’s network starting later this year. Until then, you’ll continue to get exactly the same home broadband and phone service (if you have it with O2 or BE) as you do now.

Large numbers of O2 and BE customers decided to change their ISP following the news in February, to avoid being transferred to Sky. Some of these were persuaded to change their mind by offers of free broadband and similar incentives. Once this was revealed on forums, the O2 customer retention team were kept very busy! Presumably they are now looking for new jobs.

Whilst ideally we should all have a fibre-optic cable right into our homes and businesses (FTTP), that is not going to happen any time soon. In the mean time the boffins are working on ways to squeeze a bit more performance out of the copper and aluminium cabling between the fibre cabinets and the premises (FTTC). One of the more promising developments is likely to be vectoring technology, which essentially reduces the “crosstalk” interference between lines in the same cable bundle. It is hoped that this will provide a relatively low cost method to improve the speeds of the longer lines, and perhaps extend the reach to make “fibre” broadband available to more people. BT Openreach plans to trial the vectoring technology this summer.

Installation costs for FTTC could also drop later this year, if BT Wholesale goes ahead with a self install version of their “fibre” broadband products.

Updated Openreach FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on the “superfast” broadband rollout, including a contact email address for enquiries (replies can take several weeks).