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[lewisp8]

Hi, my property is in a somewhat limbo land for broadband I live in a semi-rural area in Oxfordshire, the houses opposite me have access to virgin media's 200Mb service where I do not (small stream separating us) and would cost in excess of £6000 to connect us to their network from their last quote, and that would require a 5 year contract with no guarantee of the speed they will offer so that is a big no no. I'm currently connected to BT's FTTC service and can reach about 19Mb's maximum and an upload of around 3Mbs as I am about a mile from the cabinet. Looking on the OR ADSL checker I have access to BT's FTTP on demand service not the WBC FTTP? Does this mean I have the ability to order FTTP? If so how would I go about doing that?

[c6em]

You cannot...is the sad answer...at the moment:

BT's native FTTP is done on an either/or basis compared to FTTC.
So an area is defined as either native FTTP or native FTTC.
You cannot mix and match (Native FTTP areas do not have fibre cabinets)

For those with FTTC like your there WAS an option to order FTTP on demand HOWEVER....BT is currently as I understand it suspending all orders on FTTPoD.
There is no official reason but various unofficial reasons including simply they do not have the manpower to do it and would rather focus their attention on putting in FTTC cabinets for the many rather than sorting out FTTP for the few.

The costs can been substantial as your supply were such an option actually available is taken from the nearest aggregation node and not from the fibre cabinet

[gt94sss2]

To expand on c6em's reply slightly.

FTTP on demand is technically still available from Openreach but BT Wholesale (which most ISPs buy their services from) are not offering it at the moment. BT have found that its very expensive and slow for them to install FTTP and so FTTPoD is effectively not available (with a few exceptions).

However, along with their trials for G.Fast, BT are also trialling a new system for delivering Fibre on Demand - designed to be cheaper and quicker to install. Once they are content, I would expect this to be released to all FTTC areas. See http://www.ultrafast-openreach.co.uk/ for details of the trials (the 1Gb trials are the new Fibre on Demand ones)

[William Grimsley]

BT's native FTTP is done on an either/or basis compared to FTTC.
So an area is defined as either native FTTP or native FTTC.
You cannot mix and match (Native FTTP areas do not have fibre cabinets)

Does that mean that exchanges such as mine (Colaton Raleigh) that are only FTTC will never get FTTP?

[gt94sss2]

Does that mean that exchanges such as mine (Colaton Raleigh) that are only FTTC will never get FTTP?

You should never say never.

You will be able to get fibre on demand if you're willing to pay.

However, FTTC areas will get G.Fast next, then probably XG-FAST/G.Fast2 and perhaps another technology before FTTP - though with each generational change, the speeds will get faster and fibre will move closer to your house..

[William Grimsley]

Does that mean that exchanges such as mine (Colaton Raleigh) that are only FTTC will never get FTTP?

You will be able to get fibre on demand if you're willing to pay.

However, FTTC areas will get G.Fast next, then probably XG-FAST/G.Fast2 and perhaps another technology before FTTP - though with each generational change, the speeds will get faster and fibre will move closer to your house..

I can't order FTTPoD, it's not available to me.

Yeah, I hope G.fast does come to my area soon. Though, 38 Mbps is fine for the moment.

[Ronski]

OP. Have you considered running two FTTC lines and using line bonding?

However, FTTC areas will get G.Fast next, then probably XG-FAST/G.Fast2 and perhaps another technology before FTTP - though with each generational change, the speeds will get faster and fibre will move closer to your house..

And as the fibre gets closer FTTPod will get cheaper as there should be more aggregation nodes and thus closer to each property.

[William Grimsley]

Wait, I thought FTTPoD was discontinued? So, basically FTTPoD will have a node on the pole outside my house and I will get 1 Gb/s?

OP. Have you considered running two FTTC lines and using line bonding?

I've thought about doing that, but it would be expensive. However, I would get the full 80 Mbps Downstream Rate.

[Ronski]

Yes it would be expensive,  but it depends how much the OP needs the extra speed and a gamble on things improving in the near future. For instance if it cost £100  a month it would take 5 years before the OP spent the £6000 he been quoted, and he'd still need to allow for the ongoing monthly costs if he spent 6k up front. The gamble is whether g.fast or another suitable product would become available within a reasonable time frame.

At least with having two lines he could assess his on going costs and cancel one line if need be.

[William Grimsley]

I was driving through Newton Poppleford today. I swear I saw some new FTTPoD nodes on some of the poles but it's not coming up as available anywhere?

[lewisp8]

On further inspection of BT's infrastructure surrounding me I believe I have an agrigation node on my pole outside my home, it is a little black plastic cylindrical object fastened adjacent to the DP, and has a black and yellow striped cable that says 'fiber optic telecommunications 20mm' there appears to be absolutely nothing to be connected to it though from the top. There is one on every pole in my area but stops on the ones closer to the cabinet about 1000m away . Looking at the roadworks applications they have put multiple applications in to 'excavate and extend polyducting to provide new fiber services' along my road, and
I gave BT a call and enquirer about fttp but the agent had never heard of it and just kept saying that I already had fiber.

[gt94sss2]

On further inspection of BT's infrastructure surrounding me I believe I have an agrigation node on my pole outside my home, it is a little black plastic cylindrical object fastened adjacent to the DP, and has a black and yellow striped cable that says 'fiber optic telecommunications 20mm' there appears to be absolutely nothing to be connected to it though from the top. There is one on every pole in my area but stops on the ones closer to the cabinet about 1000m away.

If it looks like this - its an FTTP Manifold not an aggregation node which are larger and tend to be close to existing FTTC cabinets (and are normally underground)

I don't know where you live - however, it does sound as if BT are installing FTTP in your area - they are doing so in some parts of the country for properties who are too far away from existing FTTC cabinets to get a minimum speed of 24MB.

[note this would be 'native FTTP' not FTTPoD so you would also expect WBC FTTP to show as available on the checkers one day]

I gave BT a call and enquirer about fttp but the agent had never heard of it and just kept saying that I already had fiber.

FTTP takes a lot longer to install than FTTC and sales are dealt with by a special part of BT who can be contacted on 0800 587 4787 (assuming you want them to be your CP/ISP)

[lewisp8]

Yes This is exactly how it looks