Fibre finally lights up but some still in the dark

Fibre optic cables use pulses of light to transmit data a high speed.

Some people living and working in the town centre area of Whitchuch have reported that they can now sign up for super-fast broadband internet. The technology, called fibre to the premise, was lit up – or switched on – on 17 March 2014 using a special green laser light (that last bit may be made up, it is April Fool’s day after all).

A check, though, using the BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER of a half-dozen businesses and residences in the town centre noted that no Infinity was yet available to order by them – a clarification has been sought from BT.

BT SAYS…

BT supplied this update on the installation progress of Faster Broadband and Infinity in and around Whitchurch:

Cabinet 7 [Freefolk] build work is progressing. Duct clearance is required with a de-silting machine; this is booked in for this week. Following this cabling can take place.

With regards Cabinet 4 [joinery shop / old cinema, London Street] moving people between cabinets is not the fix for a cabinet which has reached capacity. As you’re aware we have started the process to increase capacity of Cabinet 4 and this is on track for delivery in May.

The good news is that the remaining FTTP [“Pon 2”, town centre area] is now completed and was released for customer orders on the 17th March and that the EO area [town centre area] is progressing towards being released in the next week or so.

A knowledgeable reader of the website wrote to us that “FTTP is now available to order in Bell street, Bellevue, Kingsley Park, [and] Lower Evingar Road. The other areas should be online soon with Test Road being the only area where work is still on-going that should be complete in April.”

UPDATE 2 April: BT said some “final checks” took place on Monday and that “unfortunately we have a few issues which are preventing us from releasing the EO, one of which was a parked car which prevented the completion of a duct.”

SOME LEFT IN SLOW LANE

Mark Williams, who lives in Hurstbourne Priors, conducted research in February to find out which places are still without any faster broadband availability – he found over 50 places! The detailed list was provided to BT but no answer has come, he reports. The places are:-

• 11 places in Litchfield or Dunley; served by cabinet 3
• 10 places on the road to Kingsclere; served by cabinet 3
• 22 places on or near the B3048 Hurstbourne Priors; served by cabinet 6
• 6 places on or close to Harroway east of B3048; served by cabinet 6
• (5 other places newly built near Harroway had no information available on faster broadband)
• 2 places close to Harroway at Bloswood Lane; served by cabinet 3

SIGNING-UP

David Bright, a resident in the town centre area told us:

Following Whitchurch winning the BT Race to Infinity most of the cabinets in Whitchurch were upgraded to Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) and many within the town have been able to benefit from faster broadband for nearly 2 years.

However, those of us connected to cabinet 2 [Bell Street] were destined to be deployed with Fibre to the Premises (FTTP). The wait for this has been a long and agonising one.

On Tuesday 25th March the BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER finally announced that FTTP was available on my telephone line. I assume that this means that it is also available to all of the other lines connected to cabinet 2, which is located at the junction of Bell Street and Evingar Road. Today I have placed an order with my existing Broadband provider, Plusnet. If you are interested I will let you know how the installation goes [editor’s note: yes, please!].

I know that there are still a few outlying areas where the promise of the Race to Infinity is still not a reality, but hopefully we are now much closer to the 100% availability that we all expected from the campaign.

Separately, the maps showings where faster broadband service is available in the UK were criticised as lacking detail – see BBC: Rural broadband maps criticised for lacking detail. Update: issues of BT broadband roll-out across the UK was raised during Prime Minister Questions in Parliament on 2 April.