Sponsored Links

BT ExtendedReach Trial

  • Thread starter Thread starter Web Buddy
  • Start date Start date

Web Buddy

Guest
BT are currently running an Extended reach trial in Milton Keynes on Exchange 01908. There is no line length limit at all. The aim being to find just how far it can go. The trial comences on the 11th May and BT will publish a list of ISP's taking part in the trial who you can order from. From the 17th May Advance orders may be made. The trial will then run from the 1st June to the 30th September. Only those on exchange 01908 that cannot currently get 512Kbs will be allowed to take part in the trial.

At the end of the trial a decision will be made as to whether the dB limited can be increased and if so to what level.
 
This was news from 2 weeks ago, when the extended trials were introduced.
 
O.K we all know about the Milton Keynes trial now so surely some of the lucky folk taking part will be keeping us all posted via a forum ??????

Is anyone taking part or does anyone here know of anywhere we can here from the people involved. These people will have a (rough) idea how far they are from the exchange and presumably will know if they are receiving broadband or not

cheers Mas
 
Sponsored Links
Has anyone an idea what the longest phoneline or highest Attenuation dB reading is for a succesfull connection for those on the trail?

I see a few getting lower than normal connection speeds for a 512k line but I expected to be on RDSL myself at 3.4km but always had a solid 256/576 including overheads, so wondering what the actual workable limit is likely to be.
 
Gus said:
Has anyone an idea what the longest phoneline or highest Attenuation dB reading is for a succesfull connection for those on the trail?

I see a few getting lower than normal connection speeds for a 512k line but I expected to be on RDSL myself at 3.4km but always had a solid 256/576 including overheads, so wondering what the actual workable limit is likely to be.

There seems to be no real meaninigfull data available. A couple of people on the Milton Keynes trial have reported dropped connections but that could be anything and may be down to their setup rather then line length. I would guess that most of the Milton Keynes lines are marginally over the limit
 
Lo people. Not disagreing with Webb buddy for the sake of it as I can't stand peeps who rant and are unhelpfull on forums but can we assume they are all marginally over the ' line length / loss limit '. Hopefully some of them are WAY over the limit thus giving us poor country dwelling 56k plebs some real hope :)

This forum and the postings of its users ( including Webb Buddy) have cetainly given me a ray of hope , as well as some interesting reading

Yours Mas
 
Sponsored Links
In fairness I don't think they are all over the limits at all... From what I've read a few have been under the limits, some marginally over. I've only heard of one or two way over the limits...

There does seem to be very little specific information, I assume most people are using modems that don't report line info or haven't yet got round to figuring out their routers. Hopefully we'll see more specific info as the trial goes on? :/
 
This looks interesting - a snippet taken from the latest MK e-mail Newsletter:

Just a quick update from the wilds of Newton Longville.

BT engineer called last week and did a lot of testing (both locally and
remotely) on my noise levels. Final figures came back at 72db for an
approx 7km distance from exchange. He installed a new faceplate as part
of the visit.

So far no dropouts and good speed. Figures are;

Direction Actual Speed True Speed (estimated)
Downstream 461 Kbps (57.6 KB/sec) 497 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream 241 Kbps (30.1 KB/sec) 260 Kbps (inc. overheads)

We need more reports back like this - distances and line attenuations.
 
72db & 7km. That really gives me hope of getting it here at 6.5km.

I wonder why we can`t have say, a 128kb service when we`re a little too far over the limit/noise level? Like I am.
 
Sponsored Links
Maestro said:
72db & 7km. That really gives me hope of getting it here at 6.5km.

I wonder why we can`t have say, a 128kb service when we`re a little too far over the limit/noise level? Like I am.

the attenuation etc wont make any difference to any of the slower speed the packages, as the slower speed packages come from crippled 512k connections at the exchange , so if you cant get the full 256up/512kdown then you can't get it at any speed.
 
Heh, sounds like the sub 512kb rates were a bit of an afterthought but I bet they could do it properly if they wanted to. At least I wish they would! :)

Anyway, hopefully these trials will lead to a 512kb service for me and others, to which I won`t complain. ;) It`s just a question of how long will it take for it to be deployed on a grand scale once the trials have completed successfully. I hope it`s not another `wait until your exchange is upgraded` message.
 
Last edited:
Maestro said:
Heh, sounds like the sub 512kb rates were a bit of an afterthought but I bet they could do it properly if they wanted to. At least I wish they would! :)

Anyway, hopefully these trials will lead to a 512kb service for me, to which I won`t complain. ;)

If they implimented a Firmware change then the 256K should have a slightly longer range. What is needed is to restrict it to the Lower Frequencies.

It should work with the current ADSL kit but would be far from ideal as it could losose sync & they would be a lot of errors with data having to be resent but then again it maybe ok. A lot depends on the outcone of the BT trials, it may establish that ADSL can go further then the current typical distance.
 
It looks like it can go much further, going by the number of successful posts on the mkbag.co.uk site. I just hope they don`t pull the plug on it and not deliver it to the rest of the UK.

I wonder what they`ve done to these exchanges that has enabled it to work over distances/line losses that were previously given the red flag. Especially considering that it`s the 512kb service too! If I get it they`ll pry it from my cold dead fingers. ;)
 
Sponsored Links
They added further trails during June in highlands for Dingwall and Fort William, so guess it might be good news.
 
so whats the latest news then? i am really hpoing bt can put the db loss limit upto 70 db as i am on 65.9db.

still dont know why 300 metres exisits between the 2 phone lines in our house, and nearly 2km from my friends house over the road.

Seems to me that bt could quite easily re-wire all of the exchanges if they really wanted to
 
I rang BT on Saturday to see if they'd be prepared to sneak us onto adsl, considering how well the MK trials are going and that we're only 2dB outside the current limits. Despite me turning on the charm with the nice lady at the call centre I was unable to talk her into giving us adsl. :hrmph: I was told that we'd be better off waiting until the trial was over at the end of Aug (I thought it was the end of Sept?!). Apparently BT are really pushing the technology to the limits and are aiming for a 10km reach.

Ah well roll on end of Aug - and keeping everything crossed!
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6026)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2439)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules