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[ej550]

I'm an acadmic researcher attempting to create a model for decision-makers that can be used for national digital infrastructure planning. Ideally, this will help improve access to digital infrastructure across the UK.

I've read many posts on this forum on how to try and locate your street cabinet. Rather than do this one-by-one, which isn't scaleable, I want to do this for all cabinets in the UK. I know many of you here are well versed in this issue. I have a number of questions and I would very much appreciate any help and advice :

1. What data sources exist that may help me in this endeavour?

I have exchange location data already. Additionally, I have data for some parts of the FTTC rollout that incidacte which postcodes are attached to certain cabinets. I suspect this is the best I will get, in which case I will have to estimate locations using the limited data available.

2. How do I estimate expected premises broadband speed?

Richard Moulynox's ADSL calculator is a cool tool that has been used by many. Is anyone aware of something similar for VDSL2/FTTC so that I can try to estimate postcode/premises speed based on distance?

[Dray]

There's no need to estimate distances, speeds or cabinet locations. Just use www.dslchecker.bt.com and it does it for you.

[Ronski]

Trouble with the BT Wholesale checker as linked to above is that it will eventually block an IP address if used too often. I once wrote software that would scrape the checker for data, give my program a list of postcodes and it would scrape the estimates for every single address (revealing the PCP/DSLAM postcodes), but I guess too many people started doing this as I had a report back that they had their IP addresses blocked. Only a couple of people I'm aware of had my software but I know others had also done similar. The checker is also updated, which meant updating the scraper to cope - which I've not done for a long time.  The speed estimates that BT give are based on their knowledge of the line make up, and actual line sync data.

https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm is a great source of data, but is limited to 20 lookups a day, unless you're a paid member or manage to get a free membership.

Many people have also mapped their local cabinets (here's mine), one thing I've noticed is that cabinet locations from BT or code lookup are often wrong, this could be due to the nature of postcodes, but sometimes they even seem to be in the wrong postcode area.

Surely the UK's digital infrastructure is far greater than just street cabinets, you've Virgin Media, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, B4RN, and many others before you even get onto Dark Fibre suppliers. Shouldn't you include these?

[tommy45]

There's no need to estimate distances, speeds or cabinet locations. Just use www.dslchecker.bt.com and it does it for you.

doesn't give location only PCP number and or Exchange name nor does it give distances, and i have to say it's speed estimates aren't really that accurate they are conservative estimates at best thus allowing them to get out of repairing underperforming lines

[Ronski]

@tommy45 If you dig deep enough it will reveal PCP & DSLAM locations. Put CT103AF for example into the address checker and look in the drop down list  But the actual cabinet may not be in the postcode it's listed under, and as a postcode can cover quite a wide area, especially if rural it is not very accurate.

[tommy45]

@tommy45 If you dig deep enough it will reveal PCP & DSLAM locations. Put CT103AF for example into the address checker and look in the drop down list  But the actual cabinet may not be in the postcode it's listed under, and as a postcode can cover quite a wide area, especially if rural it is not very accurate.

I have input house numbers and post codes  (addresses) and also phone numbers and all it displays is exchange name and PCP number
no details whatsoever  of pcp or vdsl cabinet location on the btw adsl checker tool, I followed your suggestion , it still doesn't give any details of the location of the cabinet only a guess that it obviously within 400mtrs or so of the addresses shown.  btw what are those numbers after each address  uprn numbers ?

[ejs]

I think various studies have been done for Ofcom using actual cabinet location data.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-3/wholesale-local-access-market-review-fibre-cost-modelling
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/broadband-uso

[ej550]

Trouble with the BT Wholesale checker as linked to above is that it will eventually block an IP address if used too often.

Yes, I've already thought of this, but assumed it would block you fairly quickly. Would you be willing to share the code? One solution may be to do a daily call of the max limit from the five or so websites that let do these queries, and do that from multiple IP addresses... over a year I could get quite a granular data set, and then I could interpolate from these for the whole of the UK. Thanks for the data you posted on your local cabinet locations - I had found this in a previous thread, and would be willing to share any data I collect.

the UK's digital infrastructure is far greater than just street cabinets, you've Virgin Media, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, B4RN, and many others before you even get onto Dark Fibre suppliers. Shouldn't you include these?

Yes, I totally agree, I'm just working on the fixed access component right now, but the aim is to cut across fixed (access and core), mobile (3G, 4G, 5G), wireless and satellite. SamKnows has some data on the Virgin Media footprint which I was going to use, but I would very much welcome any suggestion on where Project Lightening rollout may be taking place as I don't know how to tackle that yet.

As for Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, B4RN etc. I may have to result to taking national market share and disaggregate this based on network presence. In the absence of any better data, this may be the best available option, unless there are any further suggestions?

[ej550]

I think various studies have been done for Ofcom using actual cabinet location data.

Yes, you are correct, Ofcom annually take cabinet lat long coordinates under their Communications Act 2003 powers, but aren't really allowed to share it. I'll see if these reports shed any further light. I might have to take an aggregate  cabinet density for an area based on total domestic and commercial premises (as a last resort), to try and tease out a general relationship. I presume these systems are all engineered in fairly similar ways, and therefore the network ends up displaying similar properties whether it's Cambridge, London or Manchester?

[Ronski]

I have input house numbers and post codes  (addresses) and also phone numbers and all it displays is exchange name and PCP number
no details whatsoever  of pcp or vdsl cabinet location on the btw adsl checker tool, I followed your suggestion , it still doesn't give any details of the location of the cabinet only a guess that it obviously within 400mtrs or so of the addresses shown.  btw what are those numbers after each address  uprn numbers ?

It shows the PCP and the DSLAM in the drop down list, therefore BT's records have it listed in that postcode, but like I said it's not always accurate but it's an indication of it's location.

UPRN is an acronym for Unique Property Reference Number and is a unique twelve digit number assigned to every unit of land and property recorded by local government, these numbers started appearing whilst I was working on the scraper, and I guess that BT is switching to or at least incorporating them into it's records.

[burakkucat]

Put CT103AF for example into the address checker and look in the drop down list 

That's a good one!    But surely its an exception rather than the rule. 

[tommy45]

It shows the PCP and the DSLAM in the drop down list, therefore BT's records have it listed in that postcode, but like I said it's not always accurate but it's an indication of it's location.

UPRN is an acronym for Unique Property Reference Number and is a unique twelve digit number assigned to every unit of land and property recorded by local government, these numbers started appearing whilst I was working on the scraper, and I guess that BT is switching to or at least incorporating them into it's records.

Well for my post code it does not list anything for dslam or pcp  lots of urpn's without addresses  other than that just addresses and none on the road where the pcp and dslam are located However if i enter the post code for the road that the cab's are located  it does list them, though they put PCO instead of PCP and there are several letters before the Dslam location maybe some unique BT OR id used for each cab , funny enough it also lists a traffic camera too,
So my take on this is unless the Dslam and PCP are located on the same street or area that the post code entered they won't show up in the list ,

[Ronski]

@BC, no not an exception, I've found dozens of cab's and DSLAMs listed in my local area. CT103DQ CT101HG CT102UU etc.

@Tommy45. PCO = Public Call Office, which is a telephone box although it may no longer exist. There's all sorts listed in there, water/gas metering stations, anything that's had or does have a telephone line, which means the database is full of stuff that no longer exists as well. You won't find a PCP & DSLAM listed for every postcode, in theory they should appear for the postcode area they are in, but as you've found out that is not always the case.

[burakkucat]

@BC, no not an exception, I've found dozens of cab's and DSLAMs listed in my local area. CT103DQ CT101HG CT102UU etc.

Ah, that is very interesting. Knowing the exact physical location of the PCP (& its "fibre twin") through which The Cattery's circuit passes, I made a comprehensive search and found the details in the BTW Checker . . . under completely the wrong post-code!