A couple of days ago Openreach announced details of the latest phase of their superfast fibre broadband roll-out. If you're one of the unlucky ones in an area where fibre broadband isn’t currently available then this might be just the news you've been waiting for. Carry on reading to find out if and when Plusnet Unlimited Fibre is coming your way ... Openreach, BT’s local network business, plan to upgrade 99 new exchanges to support fibre broadband before or during Spring next year. These exchanges serve approximately 600,000 premises which are mostly spread across Scotland, the Midlands, the North East and North West of England. An additional 600,000 premises, served by exchanges that are already enabled, will also see their cabinets upgraded to support fibre broadband. For further details and a full list of the 99 new telephone exchanges have a read of the official BT press release. If you're wondering what telephone exchange you're connected to then you can find out using our very own Exchange Checker over on the Usertools website. We should probably mention that even if your exchange is listed, there are still a handful of reasons why you might not be able to receive the service when things go live. This is because the technology is dependent on your local green cabinet as well as the equipment in the exchange itself. Just don’t get too excited until you see some dates cropping up over on BT Wholesale’s Broadband Availability Checker. Here are some of the more common scenarios that cause disappointment for customers on enabled exchanged looking to move to Plusnet Fibre.
- The line is connected directly to a telephone exchange, rather than via a green cabinet.
- The line is too far from your nearest green cabinet to support a stable fibre optic broadband service.
- The work hasn't yet been done to enable your nearest green cabinet.
- The green cabinet isn't suitable for fibre optic cabling.
If you want see if fibre is currently available in your area then head over to our website and find out using our availability checker.
Still not sure about this technology. Check our handy guide about how fibre optic works
Is your telephone exchange featured? Are you counting down the days until fibre becomes available? Or are you one of the unlucky ones who always seem to miss out? Let us know by leaving a comment below ...