UPDATE Entanet Laments Loss of Openreach Approved VDSL Modems

Shropshire-based communications provider Entanet has today warned of the “potential for confusion and misunderstandings” when BTOpenreach finally withdraws its VDSL Modem from their own FTTC “fibre broadband” installation service at the end of March 2016.

The change, which is perhaps a reflection of the fact that most FTTC installations are now of the self-install variety (wires-only where the ISP supplies their own router / modem), is nothing new and those with Openreach’s own-brand VDSL Modem will at least continue to be supported for another year.

Never the less ISPs aren’t especially pleased with the development, not least because being able to use Openreach’s own VDSL modem made support easier (i.e. a familiar / shared platform, quick to update firmware and easy to replace faulty kit).

Similarly some ISPs don’t relish having to put their own choice of kit through Openreach’s Modem Conformance Test (MCT), which is necessary because Openreach may refuse to support consumers who use third-party (unapproved) routers.

Neil Watson, Entanets Head of Service, said:

“A further point of concern for us comes with the key phrase “BT approved and Openreach compatible modem/routing device”. What this actually means is that any device supplied needs to support VDSL2+ technology and have passed Openreach’s Modem Conformance Test (MCT). While Entanet partners are able to identify approved devices through our partner portal (synergi), consumers are largely clueless about this requirement and indeed what constitutes an approved device.

And here once again, the onus falls on the reseller to educate consumers on what could happen if they choose to use a device that supports VDSL2+ but that hasn’t passed the MCT. Should a problem occur that requires BTs involvement to achieve a resolution, they will easily identify unapproved equipment through loopback testing. If unauthorised equipment is detected, BT can:

* Request that the device is disconnected
* Limit or disconnect the FTTC service
* Refuse to fix problems
* Levy charges for either an abortive visit as well as any special faults investigation charge.”

The issue will thus be most keenly felt by smaller ISPs that have tended to stick with the old engineer installations (i.e. those that included Openreach’s own VDSL modem) and some fear that it may eventually result in more calls to the customer support desk.

On the other hand Openreach will still offer an engineer installation, albeit at a greater cost and using the ISPs own MCT approved CPE (router/modem) equipment. Entanet draws the following Pros and Cons from the new approach.

Entanet does make a fair point about the MCT, particularly in regards to the lack of information about which routers have been approved. We have prodded Openreach to supply this a few times over the past few months, although for some reason they’ve always been reluctant to answer.

Thankfully we do have a partial list of approved or under evaluation VDSL routers / modems, which stems from a couple of last year’s BT Wholesale ISP Forum events. Sadly this list is far from complete, but at least it’s better than nothing and Openreach should really be doing more to make the full information available as consumers need to know about it too.

Approved

Cisco C887VA-K9 (Firmware: 39m_B_38h3_24h)
Cisco C897VA-K9 (Firmware: 39m_B_38h3_24h)
Zyxel VMG8324-B10A (Firmware: A2pv6F039q)
Zyxel VMG8924 (Z-400UK) (Firmware: 1.00(AAKL.10)C0_0703)
Huawei HG633 (Firmware: 3_01.32.10)

Under Evaluation (these might have been approved by now)

Zxcel1312 Zxcel
c897VA-M Annex-M Cisco
Technicolor TG598VAC Thomson
Cisco 897 VAB Cisco
Huawei V2R2 Huawei
Cisco 897 NIM Module Cisco
Billion 2.32d.dm2 Billion
Juniper SRX210 Juniper
FritzboxGMBH AVM
Vigor 2860 Dratek
Technicolor 589v3 (Firmware: A2pv6F037g.d24c1)
Technicolor TG598VAC (Firmware: A2pv6F039o1.d26b)
Zyxel 1312 (Firmware: V1.00(AAJZ.5)b2_0331)

It’s worth pointing out that if a device fails Openreach’s MCT test then the wait time for another try is, according to what ISPs tell us, currently 11 months. Not exactly the fastest process in the world.

UPDATE:

One ISP has been kind enough to supply us with the latest list of approved VDSL routers / modems and they also raised another question with regards to the seeming absence of BT’s Home Hub (apparently it’s not available to buy and so that’s why they don’t appear below, except you can buy a HH5 here).

Cisco (chipset firmware all 39m_B_38h3_24h):

C887VA-K9
C897VA-K9
CISCO887VA-K9
CISCO887VA-M-K9
CISCO887VA-SEC-K9
C887VAM-K9
C887VA-W-E-K9
C887VAM-W-E-K9
C887VA-V-K9
C887VA-V-W-E-K9
C887VA-CUBE-K9
C887VAG+7-K9
C887VAMG+7-K9
C887VAGW+7-E-K9
C887VA-WD-E-K9
C887VAG-4G-GA-K9
C897VAW-E-K9
C897VAM-W-E-K9
C897VAG-LTE-GA-k9
C897VAMG-LTE-GA-K9
EHWIC-VA-DSL-A
EHWIC-VA-DSL-M

Zyxel:

VMG8324-B10A
VMG8924 (Z-400UK)
VMG1312-B10A

Huawei:

HG633

Technicolor:

TG589Vac
TG789Vac
TG588v2

Kenton Comtrend:

VR-3030

Draytek (all firmware 05.07.06.0D.01.07):

Vigor 2860
Vigor 2860vn Plus
Vigor 2860n
Vigor 2860n Plus
Vigor 2860L
Vigor 2860Ln
Vigor 2860ac
Vigor 2760
Vigor 2760vn
Vigor 2760n
Vigor 130

UPDATE2:

Just to clarify, this is a very mixed list of generally approved router / modems as extracted from BTWholesale’s approved table (includes VDSL devices, as well as other kit). As such it should not be taken as a complete list or purely VDSL related. Only Openreach can confirm the full list.