Is Plusnet Fibre coming to a cabinet near you?

[#1]

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.

1. The line is connected directly to a telephone exchange, rather than via a green cabinet.
2. The line is too far from your nearest green cabinet to support a stable fibre optic broadband service.
3. The work hasn't yet been done to enable your nearest green cabinet.
4. 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 ...

[#2]

Good news for most of those customers connected via a cabinet, but when are BT going to do something about the large numbers of people who are on Exchange Only lines. BT promised some time ago that the problem would be addressed but there is still no sign of any progress.

[#3]

Oh, one of the unlucky ones . . . Guess I might have to consider going back to Virgin Media . . . shame really

[#4]

I don't understand the problem with direct exchange connected lines. In the village I grew up, everyone is directly connected. Surely these customers can be FTTC'd very easily by installing the rack equipment at the exchange! Absolutely no civils are required. People at the furthest end of the village get a stable 8mb on ADSL so I don't see the problem

[#5]

Also, my exchange has now been included in the 'FE.' I have waited ages for this as I can only sustain 11mb on ADSL2+. I cannot wait to click 'Product Change' and 'Plusnet Fibre Unlimited'

[#6]

My exchange which is not part of the commercial deployment, but part of the BDUK/Superfast North Yorkshire project, has moved from 'Future exchange' to 'Coming soon' with an expected date of September 2013. Just hope there is no slippage...

[#7]

New customer to Plusnet, but feels like I’ve made a big mistake. I live in a one bedroom flat and can’t get the internet if I change rooms. The rooms are only a few feet away. Customer services asked me to test 13 channels. I spent all day moving from room to room to test the internet. What an absolute joke. If they send me a new router I fear I will be doing the same. I can’t wait for the year long contract to end so I can go back to Virgin.

[#8]

No exchanges in Wales - no surprise there then !!

[#9]

Hi Manisha, you certainly shouldn't be having problems like that unless your walls are made of impenetrable steel or something of the sort! The wireless coverage should be akin to what you're able to achieve with other routers. The advice you've been given is good. It's definitely worth trying at least channels 1, 6 and 11 to see if explicitly choosing one of them improves the situation. You can even check which channel has the least 'noise' on it using a free application like inSSIDer (I think they've also got a smartphone app) - http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/ You're not tied to our equipment and can use any ADSL compatible router/modem but as mention above, you really shouldn't need to. If it was a problem with the router itself then I'd expected it to either work, or not work at all.

[#10]

It seems to be a common misconception that exchange only lines can get reasonable speeds anyway because they are located near to the exchange. On the contrary many EO lines are located some distance from the exchange. When our estate was built in the early 1960's, the then GPO ran a 2 mile+ cable from the exchange just to serve the estate. Of course broadband was still many years in the future and the POTS was well served by such a solution. We are surrounded by other houses which are PCP connected and able to get FTTC. It would appear to me that if BT placed a PCP cabinet where the cable comes on to the estate, then a FTTC pair could be easily provided in an area with many professionals where FTTC would have a very high take up.

[#11]

THE RUMOURS AND INFORMATION TELLING PEOPLE THAT IF THEY SWITCH TO ALL THESE LATEST PLUSNET FIBRE PRODUCTS THAT ARE RENTED FROM THEIR PARENT COMPANY BT OPEN REACH FOR PLUSNET TO HELP BT GET MORE CUSTOMERS... YOU THE CUSTOMER WILL PAY ALOT MORE MONEY FOR THIS NEW EXPERIMENT CALLED SUPER FIBRE BUT ITS NOT GUARANTEED TO BE SUPER FAST AND IT MAY EVEN CAUSE YOU MORE PROBLEMS...ITS ONLY GUARANTEED TO COST YOU ALOT MORE.....PLUSNET SUPER FIBRE VIA BT I WILL NOT PAY ANYMORE BECAUSE MY EXCHANGE LINE IS FINE....HOW ABOUT YOU LOT.

[#12]

Keith, BT Wholesale are our fibre suppliers which is true for all of our non-fibre products too. We are part of the BT Group so it stands to reason that BT are going to want us to acquire custom - Isn't that the whole point of running a business? Fibre isn't an 'experiment'. It's now pretty well established. At the last count there was well over half a million active fibre to the cabinet connections across the UK - http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2013/02/ofcom-reports-uk-broadband-lines-total-21-37-million-in-q3-2012.html

[#13]

BOB PULLEN,,,I SWITCHED FROM BT TO PLUSNET ONTO A NON- FIBRE PRODUCT AND I AM SURE ALOT OF PLUSNET CUSTOMER DID THE SAME. VIRGIN FIBRE,SKY FIBRE, HAVE PROVED THAT ALOT OF CUSTOMERS WERE NOT SATISFIED WITH THE OVERALL SPEEDS THAT ISP PRETEND THEY CAN AND WILL GET. THEY SWITCHED TO PLUSNET AND HOPE THAT THE NEW SUPER SPEEDS THEY ARE PAYING FOR WILL BE RELIABLE AND CAN BE DELIVERED ALL THE TIME NOT JUST NOW AND AGAIN LIKE 2 AM IN THE MORNING WHEN LESS PEOPLE ARE ONLINE. WITH ONLY ABOUT HALF A MILLION PEOPLE CONNECTED VIA THE GREEN CABINETS ACROSS THE ENTIRE UK USING YOUR FIGURES IT IS NOW UP TO BT AND PLUSNET TO PROVE THE SPEEDS WILL NOT SLOW DOWN AS MORE PEOPLE CONNECT TO THIS EXPERIMENT CALLED SUPER FIBRE. I LIKE OTHERS WILL LOOK AT ALL THE HYPE AND SEE IF BT CAN DELIVER ON THE PROMISES THAT THEY HAVE MADE TO CUSTOMERS BEFORE BUT HAVE FAILED TO DELIVER THUS FORCING FED UP CUSTOMERS TO SEEK AN ISP THAT WILL DELIVER THE GOODS TO WHAT THEY ARE PAYING FOR....WATCH THIS SPACE.

[#14]

Keith, not sure why you are writing in capitols, its very hard to follow. I'm also not sure where your scepticism comes from but EVERY fibre provider uses the Openreach network (including exchange equipment) there are no 'unbundled' providers at this stage. FTTC has proven to offer vastly increased speed's compared to the ADSL equivalents and the price increase (certainly in my opinion) is not 'alot more'. I currently get 16mb ADSL and have been estimated to get 75.4mb with Fibre so even if i got half of that i would have a %125 percent faster service. Naturally the network load has some bearing on the speed but this is still a huge improvement. It seems like you can't get FTTC in your home but If you have a 1mb broadband service as your 'name' suggests i don't understand why you not chomping to migrate to a fibre service. Even with network slowdowns the performance benefits to yourself would be massive! Also keep in mind no domestic internet is 'guaranteed'. The only way you get guaranteed internet access is with leased lines costing about £900 per month (for 100mb service). If we assume every domestic broadband service will slow at certain times of the day i would rather my 75.4mb service slows to 50 than my 16mb service to 13mb. I will sign off by saying i can't wait to order my FTTC service and with PN would hurry up with their business fibre portfolio.