So my cabinet has just been activated so I can now order FTTC.

However, the BT Broadband checker tells me that I can't get Infinity but "Unlimited Faster Broadband" is available to me.

According to BT, 'Unlimited Faster Broadband' is:
"If you live a long way from the cabinet you're likely to receive slower speeds. To make sure you get the right product for you, if you receive a speed estimate of 2-15Mb, we’ll offer you Unlimited Faster Broadband instead of BT Infinity."

So it seems to be that it is a FTTC offering, just not Infinity branded.
Can anyone explain what the difference is or give any advice regarding this? If I order this, is there anything I am not getting that 'Infinity' would?

To me it seems strange that the speed is so slow. The BT Wholesale checker has forecast around 20mb/s down and 2mb/s up, I am no more than 100 metres from the cabinet though I am in a block of apartments - the cabinet does exclusively serve the cabinets and is less than 30 apartments in total.


TIA.

Not sure if there is somewhere you can check how long the phone line is. Sam Knows is where I get my info. Maybe you're unlucky with the length of the copper wires. The only difference is the speed and/or the price compared to what you pay now.

I doubt that there would be a cabinet that served only 30 homes. Are you sure it is not some other sort of cabinet that you are seeing?

Publicly funded rollouts could result in that. I'm in Cornwall and there's fibre cabinets that are literally in the sticks, and cannot possibly be serving large numbers of properties. In a more urban area it's possible that BT installed a new copper cabinet when the block of flats was built because of the capacity of the local network at the time, and that's been replicated with fibre.

You are a long way from your cabinet, so speeds will be slower. BT will brand this service as BT Faster Broadband. It's functionally identical to infinity, they just won't brand it as such, as it's not fast enough.

There may be a cabinet close to you - however it would appear that your particular line is not connected to it.

Also, a cabinet only serving 30 homes would not be enabled for FTTC. It mustn't be the cabinet that is serving the apartments. He must be connected to another cabinet far away.

No it's definitely the correct cabinet. I checked the plans where it is located also.
The new cabinet by walking distance (and likely cable path) is no more than 100 metres away, and less than 2 miles from the exchange. The apartments were built 5 years ago so the wiring isn't really old or anything.

I have waited over 2 years since the exchange was upgraded for the cabinet to be done - it was installed just a few weeks back. I spoke to the people doing it and it was definitely for FTTC.

The absolute maximum is can be for is 29 Apartments and 9 Houses, although IIRC, I don't think the houses are connected to the same cabinet. There is no other residential housing nearby that isn't already served by another cabinet. I'm not convinced it has been publically funded either. It was in the original plans but got delayed until the end due to problems apparently with its sighting/power etc.

Have you asked any neighbours to check their phone lines to see what result they get just in case there is a problem with your line specifically.

Brian

No not yet, I do plan to though. As it was only activated yesterday, I haven't yet seen anyone to ask.

I highly suspect you are actually connected to a different cab that is significantly further from your property. Just because you have a cab within 100m doesn't mean you are connected to that particular cab. BT Retail know the distance between the PCP (cab) and your premises so wouldn't make a silly mistake like this.

edit. BT would also NEVER provide a FTTC cab for only 30 properties, they need to feed at least 200 properties for it to be financially viable. My cab feeds only 300 properties and has no Fibre cab yet, despite the majority of other cabs in my exchange area being enabled over 2 years ago. (ps, I'm an Openreach engineer so I am not talking rubbish).

No, definitely not, I have the cabinet number that I am connected to and this is literally next to the block in which I live.

All the other cabinets in the area were upgraded at least 12-18 months ago. Just a few were missed out. This one was only installed a few weeks back and was just activated.

One of my neighbours has just checked too, he is getting told the same speed as I got.

IF you are sure just order it and see what happens and report back. If you're right only thing left is that there is probably a fault on your line/ poor cabling/ poor quality cabling in the area may be putting the estimates out of whack from ADSL?. Just ask the engineer when he comes which cabinet etc and what sync speed he is seeing on his tester. (unless you get a contractor then you're screwed anyway)

If the speed on offer is greater than what you receive currently you should consider "Hurlley's" suggestion of ordering the service anyway and see what you get. Whether it's an OpenReach engineer or a contractor you would at least be able to confirm the FTTC cabinet location.

One thing I don't understand though. If the new cabinet was installed a short while back but the flats were built around 5 years ago then you must have an original BT cabinet somewhere in the mix. As I understand things, the FTTC connection is "coupled" to your phone line in the original cabinet to give you the service. So, the distance would be to the old cabinet, not the new one.

Brian
PS If you supply your postcode then someone somewhere might be able to dig up information from other sources or have local knowledge - just a thought.

Yes, it's about 10x faster than I currently get so I have ordered it, I figured the same - I want the faster connection anyway.

There is an original cabinet also, but that's about 3 metres away from the new cabinet.
My postcode is GL51 0FH if that helps anyone.

Thanks for the replies though, I have installation booked for 2 weeks time to will ask the engineer a few questions then.

What does the BT Wholesale checker say for your line estimates?

http://dslchecker.bt.com/

The first line (TELEPHONE NUMBER XXXX ON EXCHANGE XXX....) should confirm the cabinet you are connected to - check it's the one you think it is. The number of the cabinet will be stenciled on the outside.

Then have a look at the FTTC estimates for impacted and clean.

It may just be a bug in the estimate

EDIT: Looking at your postcode, with a house number guess of 1, cabinet number is 211.

Estimates are low - is it definitely cabinet 211 that is the close one to you?

This doesn't add up to me. Maybe this cabinet with 30 people on is a pillar cab (SCP)?

Not directly related to this thread but the following link to a YouTube video shows FTTC equipment and how it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=53NcsctuxV0

Brian

Why have you quoted me?

I know how FTTC works, it's my job. Hence why I'm talking about pillar cabs and stuff!

What's a pillar cabinet? I'm guessing some kind of extension from an existing cabinet which is connected via copper?

That would sound like a plausible explanation.

A Cabinet is a PCP , primary cross-connection point, usually a green rectangular box, a Pillar is a SCP , a secondary cross-connection point, a SCP is another point where a cable pair in one cable can be connected ( jumpered) to a cable pair in another cable,a flexibility point, and are a lot smaller, in fact vey easy to miss, and are pretty uncommon anyway, but in the OP's case given it's a pretty new development it's unlikely to be a SCP,as they are a bit old school as far as the external distribution is concerned, if the OP returns perhaps they could link to a picture of this cabinet

Thanks for the info, btw I was the OP'er.

I will try to get a photo tomorrow.

Actually, this works - If I got it right, it's in the middle of the screen, if you need orientate it then its to the west.
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8964...vwZtesC6ww!2e0

This is only the older original cabinet, the new cabinet has been installed since this was taken - but is about 3 meters to its right.

Can you take a closer up photo of it? It's hard to tell from that distance whether it is a BT cabinet or not.

No problem, I know that image is not the clearest. It doesn't seem to be any imagery from the other side of the road which would have been clearer.

Will take a photo tomorrow, and of the new cabinet.