hi

i have a problem trying to get bt infinity installed. our exchange is forest green in surrey and bt infinity has just become available, we are based just 18 meters from the exchange. our phone lines are connected directly to the exchange and not the infinity cabinet. openreach have now come out twice to try and connect us, but cannot set us up for the above reasons. does anyone have a solution? is there a way round this problem?

many thanks in advance

john

I'm afraid you are one of the unlucky ones. See this thread here:-

https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Infin...ge/td-p/461137

Unfortunately I think you are stuffed as far as getting Infinity is concerned. Lines connected directly to the exchange rather than via a cabinet are unable at present to get Infinity (and presumably any other providers equivalent service). Whether this situation will ever change is another matter.

So your options may be limited. Short of moving home the only alternative might be if fibre to the home is, or becomes, available. Or of course Virgin Media who have their own network, if their cable service is available where you live.

Many thanks for the answers guys, i managed to talk to a friendly openreach engineer this afternoon and he tells me it is possible the cabinet is less than 5 m away from the exchange and he reckons that the fibre cable could easily be run through the existing ducting to connect us.

My problem now is that i cannot get it through to the indian call centre that we require a visit from a openreach engineer rather than one of the contractors who dont have access to the exchange..

Does anyone have any ideas before my brain explodes?

Many Thanks

Not sure what you mean by this? Does this mean that your phone line goes via this cabinet or is it directly run into the exchange? And if it does go via the cabinet is there a fibre cabinet alongside it?

If your phone line does not go via this cabinet then I would be surprised if BT would go to all the hassle of re-routing it so it did. And if there is no fibre cabinet next to it there would be no point anyway. Not until Openreach get round to installing one. Which is never a given.


If you have a direct connection to the exchange and there is no fibre cabinet that you can be re-routed via then it won't make a blind bit of difference how many Openreach engineers get sent out, you will never have Infinity. And even if there is a fibre cabinet BT may well turn around and tell you they won't re-route your line via it. Even assuming such a re-route is possible.

According to SamKnows FTTP is not available from Forest Green (even if an OpenReach engineer says otherwise !!!)
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/THFTG

If you're willing to try another ISP PlusNet generally have good (UK based) support staff who might be willing to take on OpenReach.

PlusNet are owned by BT and are the low value (basic) brand - BT offer more from the connection if I remember correctly.

Brian

Once again thankyou for your answers

In my earlier reply i meant to say that both cabinets are 5 m from the exchange, would it not be possible to route our line that runs into the exchange , back to the fibre cabinet 5 m away as there must be ducting there anyway ie a connection from the cabinet into the exchange.

Sorry for the lack of correct terms

Many Thanks

John

So there is a normal phone cabinet and a fibre cabinet near the exchange?

In theory (and I stress - in theory) it would be possible to joint your line onto a pair going into the phone cabinet. This could then be linked to the fibre cabinet to pick up the broadband service and routed back on another pair from the phone cabinet into the exchange to pick up your phone service.

The fact that it may be technically possible to do this in no way implies that BT, or any other service provider for that matter, will instruct Openreach to do it. I rather suspect that if you suggest it either the request will not be understood or you will politely be told to go forth and multiply.

5m from the exchange does seem a bit close to have a cabinet. At that range I would have thought the circuits would be routed directly into the exchange. After all an extra few meters of cable has to be a load cheaper than a roadside cabinet and the labour costs involved installing it. Unless the original phone cabinet pre-dates the exchange and was originally connected to a different exchange? And how certain are you that there is a fibre cabinet alongside the phone cabinet. They could be two phone cabinets and there is no fibre.

Its possible but would be pretty expensive involving extensive excavations to run a pair between your home and the PCP and Openreach simply won't do it.

The only practicable option is for Openreach to put a PCP and fibre cabinet in the exchange or just outside the building and splice you into that, or given your proximity put you on FTTP. Openreach have done both this in some cases, but it's usually low down the priority list.

Annoyingly you would be an ideal candidate for FTTP on demand but to date no UK ISP has taken up the product.

Your best chance is to get it done as part of the government funded scheme, I'd suggest finding out what the scheme is in your local area and reaching out to them to find out if your property is (or can be added to) the scheme and to get an idea of the likely timescales.