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FTTC Alton, Hants - question for ISPs

Hi

Have spent ages looking for something that ought to be quite simple - a fibre to the cabinet service on a FTTC enabled exchange.

Exchange is Alton, Hampshire. RFS date was about a year ago, but only a percentage of the town was done. The rest has to make do with ADSL. There's no cable or other operator.

Specifically I'm looking to lease an office. I keep coming back to this since at home we can only get 6Mbps which just about suffices as basic broadband. And I'm only looking for about 20Mbps down which isn't asking a lot. That may just be possible with ADSL2+ in a property right next to the exchange but it's not something I'd take a punt on, it's too much money to lose (cost of lease + cost of line + cost of ADSL, only to then find broadband is useless = too late). Been there, done that.

Shot in the dark: have any ISPs got any business FTTC customers connected to that exchange who could point me at a postcode - even just the first 4 characters as a clue, as trawling Google/maps/the BT rollout list is tortuous and has turned up nothing. I need to isolate the location first based on broadband options then look for an office, not the other way around. Had previously ruled out Alton because of this, but has to be worth a final try (before commuting to Aldershot to pick up VM's network) since it's so convenient, and I can't see any other way of finding this information.

Mark
 
Hi Mark,

Have done some investigating and have found some weird results.

A postcode such as GU34 1AA (Alton High Street) is showing as not enabled for FTTC. Same for GU34 1AG.

A postcode such as GU34 5DL, which is Lymington Bottom Road/Four Marks, Alton is showing as not enabled for FTTC. Same with GU34 4ED (Rakemakers)

But, postcodes like GU34 1EB, listed as Kingsmead, Alton, is showing as fully enabled for FTTC. Also found GU34 2UW which is enabled (William Way, Alton)

Looked on SamKnows and it says: "FTTC status: Available in some areas".
Exchange code: THATN - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/THATN

If you'd like, PM some details to me (postcode areas you were looking at, etc) and I can raise the issue with BT Openreach, to find out if/when the rest of Alton is due for upgrade. It may be a problem with the reporting system BT uses, as one site says Alton is fully upgraded but using our systems it seems that very few postcodes are actually connected.

Richard
 
Last edited:
@ Richard. The results really are not that confusing.


@ Mark, Alton has a number of PCP (Cabinets) that are currently not enabled...eg: PCP 1, PCPs 15 -> 17, PCP 22, PCPs 25 -> 26, PCPs 28 -> 29.

The bulk were enabled in Phase 4b, PCP 25 and PCP 26 are earmarked for Phase 6b. The rest currently have no phase date. Of the enabled cabinets I can see some postcodes areas don't have full coverage, with some areas split between 2 cabinets (1 enabled and 1 not). I would say coverage in Alton is about 85%+.
 
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@Invictel. I see you have now edited your wording, 5 minutes after posting your above comment. handy ;)
> Last edited by Invictel; 04-12-2011 at 03:33 PM.
 
@Invictel. I see you have now edited your wording, 5 minutes after posting your above comment. handy ;)
> Last edited by Invictel; 04-12-2011 at 03:33 PM.

Is there any reason why you are so patronising every where I see you posting? Or are you just having a bad day?

Seriously Martin, no need for the bad attitude all the time!
 
Thanks for taking the time - it's a small to mid size town and most of the businesses are near the middle. The exchange isn't in the middle, it's nearer to one edge (was probably in the middle when the town grew up originally). It looks as though many of the areas nearer the edges have been done, but none of the town centre, business parks etc; another business area is 3km from the exchange on the outskirts but can't have FTTC (guess the D-sides are too long, even if it is connected to an enabled cabinet)

Pragmatic in terms of raising speeds overall perhaps but does appear that only residential customers can get it at first glance. Think my only option might be to have a drive around some of the enabled areas and see if anyone has anywhere to let (e.g. business premises among residentials).

Anyone know when phase 6b is, or does it not have a date, rather it's just the sequence order so that's towards the end of the current plans whenever that might come?
 
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Thanks for getting back to me. Shame there aren't any plans to do any of the other cabinets as yet, looks like Alton is stuck with ADSL for the forseeable future. Had to be worth one last try since the town is so near, and the residentials must be happy with their upgrades, but it's a poor choice of town for businesses who rely on and need a near guarantee of useful broadband at any sensible price since there's not a scrap of fibre to be seen serving any of those.
 
Might have found somewhere that's easy enough to get to - problem is that I can't verify whether it can have a fibre service or not. Address says "yes" if you put it in, in full, but there's no phone number I can check. The given one doesn't work, no checkers seem to recognise it. Plus, I can't be 100% certain that number is at that address anyway.

This is the place:
http://www.oldchambers.com/index.html

"Old Chambers"
93-94 West Street
Farnham GU9 7EB

When last I looked all the checkers were knackered for Farnham and no results ever came back, looks like that's fixed now.

--

For Address OLD CHAMBERS, 93-94 WEST STREET, FARNHAM, GU9 7EB on Exchange FARNHAM

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 40 Mbps and upstream line speed of 15 Mbps.

--

I don't actually need serviced offices as such - it's just they're easier to find, and places I've leased in the past have never minded me having cable broadband/my own connection plumbed in to my own room.

It's further away than Alton, but not quite as far as Aldershot.

Does this look like a "goer"... the address says 40Mbps down. I don't know the area well enough to know how far away the cab is, but if that's right then it can't be far.
 
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What about trying a number for the next closest building / home?
 
I tried that with all the numbers I could find at that building, all come back "no data for this number" - they're all in a block together by the look of it.

There's a hairdressers next door at #92 and that says it can have it, same speeds - that phone number does work.

I'll give them a call and see if anyone's had it wired in yet, and of course if they have spare offices. Doesn't have to be this place, I was just so startled to find a business address which can have fibre I stopped investigating at that point. There may well be other places in Farnham which can have it.

Given how poor business is, in the rented office space market (being practically given away in some places), my intention was/is to try to get a deal whereby I don't pay until the line is in and working (expecting that to take at least 6 weeks, 2 or more abortive/missed appointments, and endless phone calls and chasing, it always does) and running at a decent speed. If it isn't up to it, then I only lose the cost of the connection mitigating my risk.
 
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