BT's Christmas Carol - or you can wait 'til your hoop freezes over

[RainbowFire]

Nick, given you seem to be a lone voice here (****ing in the wind would be an apt phrase methinks), I do have you ask you the re-curring question that you continuously avoid. So, I'll basically make it the only thing in this e-mail...........

If you have such a continuous problem with BT, why are you still with them after all this time?

[RainbowFire]

As Nic has gone into "silent running mode" we'll just have to wait until next time for an answer on that one ;)

Or maybe the question was just too hard to answer :o

[domhnall]

I ordered FTTC from BT.

They gave me a time window, turned up, were really helpful in moving the master socket to get it near a plug.

The engineer did exactly what I asked and left no mess.

The engineer also made sure it all worked fully, then waited while I tried my alternative router on the VDSL model.

He didn't screw it to the wall as it's rented and was very clear I have to keep airflow and away from carpet etc.

I got a call when they left the previous job to get to me and everything works as well (well actually faster then said).

Yep, those BT people are useless

Actually it's Openreach so the same people turn up even if you don't order from BT :lol:

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Hedge]

Love mine.

[Clunkclick]

At the end of last week got a telephone message back from Customer Service just saying that the instal date had been re-arranged for the 14th. When someone just says the 14th, you assume that its going to be in the current month. So I readied everything for an instal for wednesday this week.

Come Tuesday, I thought I'll double check to make sure that was the date. Phoned 'em and was told, "Oh no, your installation date is now recorded as 14th December 2012".

Ok. That means that the whole thing is done and dusted before Xmas, so that I'm not pinned in the house over Xmas waiting for the modem delivery before Xmas and the engineer to arrive after Xmas, as was originally scheduled ! But, I still think a month wait is a little long just for a service update to an existing user, especially in London. Nevertheless, I said I would go along with it.

I then asked whether their system had automatically brought foward the delivery date for the modem from the original delivery date of at the end of December - No point in the engineer turning up if there is no kit to fix. "No" came the answer. "Would you do it then ?" -"Yes" - apparent hurried keyboard tapping in background. "I've arranged for the modem top be delivered tomorrow (14th November) - cheeky barstewards.

Modem duly arrived.

From what I can glean from various sources, if you're being connected to an FTTC cabinet, the engineer is only needed to install a new master socket face plate which incorporates integral microfilters.But, apparently, that isn't essentail. Looking at the BT site I see that they issue two types of Infinity Home Hub pack one for Engineer installation and one for user installation - and guess what, the user install comes with external plug-in microfilters.

So, if I had been told about this, I would have opted for the self-install and probably could have done the connect myself as the fibre only runs to the cabinet and not the house - the link from house to cabinety is still ADSL. It only goes VDSL from the cabinet to the exchange.

I would imagine that the work at the exchange can't take more than 2-3 days to schedule and execute. Meaning that I could probably have been on Infinity within a week, If they'd pulled their fingers out instead of playing bureaucracies.

In these circumstances, it is a little bit galling to hear Customer Service trotting out the stock excuse that there are delays to installation due to unavailability of engineers, especially after being battered by a tirade of marketing over the previous 4 months.

Lets see what happens on the 14th. I've got an idea that they may be employ a contract engineer (rather than a staffer) to do this area, as there is relatively low take up (Everybodies on Virgin cable round here).

Nick

Edited 17 November, 2012 by Clunkclick

[Hedge]

My mate at work rang up this week for an up grade to Infinity. 2 weeks was the date he was given.

[RainbowFire]

Lets see what happens on the 14th. I've got an idea that they may be employ a contract engineer (rather than a staffer) to do this area, as there is relatively low take up (Everybodies on Virgin cable round here).

Three things:

1) Really can't wait for the rant on the 15th :)

2) "Everybody's on Virgin Cable round here".....maybe that's a subtle hint? :| :|

3) Still afraid to answer The Question then Nick. :D :D

[RainbowFire]

My mate at work rang up this week for an up grade to Infinity. 2 weeks was the date he was given.

Hedge, you have to remember that there's a huge BT conspiracy against Nick going on here. ;)

[DaveI]

There's no such thing as a user install FTTC connection, you still have to have the engineer work his magic in the cabinet outside.

BT can advertise what they like for install times, it still comes down to Openreach having the engineering capacity in your area to actually do the install. At the minute Openreach have a Matters Beyond Our Reasonable Control in effect for most of the country trying to catch up after the storms. So fixing faults is the priority then new installs.

BT (The sales arm) shouldn't be estimating such low install times across the board, they can hit that in certain parts of the country but it's unrealistic in the majority.

I work for a company that deals directly with Openreach and we have the same issue, new install dates are now into January for even the most basic of installs.

You aren't being singled out, there's no conspiracy, there's a queue.

[Clunkclick]

Dave I

At last . . .so two months is the average actual lead-time for an instal that the installers can actually achieve . . . that's all I was after. Now I can compare it with what I was told - my initial thoughts were that two months was rather a long time especially after BT had been badgering me to take-up the service, but if this is the average then I'll leave it there.

Why BT have to go to these lengths to obscure this fact . . . . .

Nick

[cheezemonkhai]

It's not BT, it's some twit either not updating the system or not doing what they were told.

If you already have a line, then the cab update shouldn't take long at all and the BT website should have given you a slot for the work.

[Schern]

The engineer will bring an open reach modem with him so you'll have that as well as the home hub. You won't currently have all the bits you need.

[cheezemonkhai]

The engineer will bring an open reach modem with him so you'll have that as well as the home hub. You won't currently have all the bits you need.

Indeed, but hardly the end of the world if you already have a line.

The install is a quick one compared to a new line.

Edited 18 November, 2012 by cheezemonkhai

[Clunkclick]

Yesterday, i received another marketing missive through the post from Mr Buckeley asking me whether I wanted Infinity !!!!!

- needless to say, my on-line BT account now bears an annotation (Which I can see) stating that work to provide me with infinity will be complete by the end of the December (27th).

Taking a worst case view, this suggests to me that whilst the kit install will take place on 14th, there is lattitude in the terms and conditions to permit a switch of the signal from ADSL to VDSL up to the end of month ?

Anticipating the worst, i.e. no broadband signal between 14th and 27th Can the Open reach modem support an ADSL + (i.e. Total Broadband signal) ?

Don't they do a Home Hub 3 with an integrated modem ? - personally, I don't want any more holes in walls (masquerading as a BT advertisement billboard) even if it is for the greater good of BT broadband long-term marketing

Nick

[Schern]

If its anything like my install then it won't mean any more holes. They'll change the faceplate of the master port (and in my case were kind enough to relocate it to a more convenient place). The data cable will plug into the open reach modem and then an Ethernet cable will connect the modem to the home hub. Mine was all up and running on the same day as the engineer came. I don't think your install will be any different.

[DaveI]

Total down time on my FTTC install was around 30 minutes.

[RainbowFire]

Anticipating the worst, i.e. no broadband signal between 14th and 27th Can the Open reach modem support an ADSL + (i.e. Total Broadband signal) ?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=homehub+3

By the massive effort of typing "homehub 3" into Google and clicking on images:

I draw your attention to the bottom left corner of the picture where there are two connections: ADSL (grey) and Infinity (red). Do you think from that it might possibly support both? Or would it be more BT propaganda?

What do you think Nick? Bit of effort first next time before unleashing the whinge machine? :p

[Clunkclick]

Thanks for the pretty pic Rainbow. I had seen that before.

Looking at the pictures of the new Openreach master socket, its apparent that the socket looks like it will take a standard BT phone jack plug (631) and there's no marking on the faceplate to indicate that its Infinity only or will not accept ADSL + signals.

That said, my concern is still that there may be action which needs to be taken in the exchange which is separate from the home visit/street cabinet action.This could give rise to the situation where the hardware changes in the home and the cabinets (I would think that at the very least a spur has to be taken off my line in the old copper cabinet and joined to the co-located fibre cabinet) occured first followed by some sort of enabling action in the excahnge. I'd originally been told that the Infinity signal would go live by midnight on the day of installation. Since the installation date was brought foward (At my request), I'm now getting a message on my on-line BT web account saying that "Completion" (Whatever that means) will occur by the end of December. As previously said, this suggests to me that whilst the hardware installation has been brought foward, the enabling action in the exchange (If there is such a thing) could be a delayed.

From what other people have said, my concerns may be misdirected, as their experience has been that the full service was enabled on the day home installation occurred. But then again, they may not have had the installation date brought foward, as I have.

If there is a delay in exchange work, then I may find myself with all the hardware links switched to VDSL in the home and street cabinet and the facility to use the ADSL port on the Home Hub 3 will count for nothing if the cabinet hardware has already been linked to VDSL but is still awaiting enabling of my account access at the exchange.

May be my concern is groundless, in that even though a VDSL switchover is done to the home and cabinet hardware, there may still be a copper link direct to the exchange for the phone line and the ADSL + signal may be maintained on that until the VDSL enabling action is executed in the exchange. Perhaps, one of the telecomms teccies on here knows.

Nick

Edited 24 November, 2012 by Clunkclick

[Hedge]

All work is done in the street. They take your existing line and run it through the new Infinity cabinet. Simples.

For someone with so much hate and scepticism towards a company I really can't understand why you are using them.

[gac]

For someone with so much hate and scepticism towards a company I really can't understand why you are using them.

Purely to give himself something to complain about on Briskoda. That's why he does everything in his entire life. Try reading his previous posts sometime, you'll soon spot the pattern...

[Clunkclick]

Does anybody know whether the telephone uses the fibre link under Infinity ?

If so, are new handsets needed ? i currently using a 22 year old BT Falcon wired tone

Phone and an 8-year old wireless BT studio handset.

The wiki article on BTs 21 CN spefication states that the objective in 2005 was to put everything on the fibre and make an effective IP address out of every user connection. I know that, in the interim, there appears to have been a rolling back of that objective.

Just wonder what the current situation is regarding phones ?

Nick

[gac]

As I understand it, it travels over the same copper to your street cab, so in your house you just get a new faceplate which does both broadband and phone (think back to very early ADSL where an engineer fitted you a new faceplate, before external microfilters became common).

edit - also 21CN is now old technology, and I think mainly refers to the rollout of ADSL2+ over ADSL (or 20CN).

Edited 24 November, 2012 by gac

[RainbowFire]

All work is done in the street. They take your existing line and run it through the new Infinity cabinet. Simples.

For someone with so much hate and scepticism towards a company I really can't understand why you are using them.

Nick can't/won't answer that as a question, despite being asked numerous times.

27 years of bitchin' and still going strong.

Purely to give himself something to complain about on Briskoda. That's why he does everything in his entire life. Try reading his previous posts sometime, you'll soon spot the pattern...

I think that sums it up perfectly. Never actually seen Nick post in the car forums. I don't even think he's got a car. Every post is a conspiracy theory, usually about BT.

It makes for a good giggle each time though ;)

[RainbowFire]

Does anybody know whether the telephone uses the fibre link under Infinity ?

You could always look it up yourself, or would that be more effort (again). :|

Why don't you wait until BT have completed the job (most probably without issue) before you continue to complain about stuff you don't understand and that hasn't happened yet?

As usual:

Other service providers are available. IIRC you have said Virgin are quite prevalent in your area. Why don't you find one of the neighbours you haven't threatened yet, and see it they'll refer you. They get a bonus and you get a bonus for doing so.

[DaveI]

ADSL, in the telephone exchange a pair of wires from the DSLAM is connected over the top of the two wires that provide the traditional voice service to your home, this gives you ADSL.

VDSL, the pair of copper wires come from the exchange as they always have which provide your voice service. A fibre goes to the cabinet near your home which is now where the DSLAM cards reside. The copper pair from the DSLAM is connected to your voice pair within the cabinets near your home.

Bascially situating the DSLAM cards closer to your home drastically reduces the distance data has to travel over copper to bring the speeds up.