BT Infinity Superfast broadband rollout in Caldecote restarts

After my previous post on how the rollout of BT Infinity to Caldecote ground to a halt, I am pleased to be able to say that planned but massively delayed rollout is now on the move again. Hurrah!

 

BT released more fibre capacity in the village during the week beginning 8^th April 2013, and during that week, continued to release capacity on different streets in the village, not in any order. It would seem that potentially half the village is now able to order superfast broadband.

 

So, what’s the real story?

 

BT Partnership Director reports to Caldecote Parish Council

 

As had been agreed and I reported in this story, Mrs Annette Thorpe, the East of England BT Partnership Director attended Caldecote Parish Council Annual Parish meeting on Wednesday 17^th April 2013 to report on the status of the rollout.

 

Mrs Thorpe has the task of overseeing the rollout of BT Infinity to the communities served by Madingley Exchange.

 

At the meeting, Mrs Thorpe apologised to the audience for the long delays in the promised rollout saying :

 

“At the time the competition was run, it was not particularly well thought out. When winners were announced we had no idea about the communities we were looking to serve. In some cases we did not have the technology to address the solution for the communities.”

 

So, in effect admitting they got it wrong on so many fronts. That statement was welcomed by those in the audience, many of whom had turned up to express their frustrations at what seemed to be BT’s inability to communicate or to keep its promise.

 

Annette Thorpe then went on to say that BT was looking to release final capacity on network build by the end of April 2013. There were still some outstanding issues with poles and fixing some duct work and assured residents that BT is committed to delivering superfast broadband to our community, though much later than envisaged.

 

Products and Services Availability

 

There are about 60 operators that are using the BT fibre network, of which BT Retail is only one. When BT Openreach releases the infrastructure on the core network, there is likely to be a two week time frame when the operators populate their databases before service can be offered to customers. It is only when the databases are ready that the BT availability checker will show that the service is available to order. The BT availability checker can be found at www.bt.com/infinity.

 

Each operator will also do their own marketing and provide different products and service availability. Some will release fibre services, while some won’t. The most common packages are 40/20 Mbps, 80/20 Mbps, but the product offering will vary with each retail operator. For these other operators, BT Openreach engineers will do the installation at the premises on behalf of the operator, but the contract will be with the retailer, not BT. It may be necessary to change operator from a current one in order to get the best deal.

 

In response to a question from the audience asking if there are enough engineers assigned to Caldecote, Mrs Thorpe replied that there are enough and that more were being assigned and that they are a growing number. Most of the superfast network in the commercial deployment is FTTC, hence there was a shortage of engineers with FTTP experience. These have had to be drafted in from London and Milton Keynes (where the FTTP test bed is situated), and more locally based engineers are being trained in that technology.

 

What this means is that in theory, those who place orders for superfast broadband should be able to have it up and running in a period of 2-3 weeks, and that there will be no delays as occurred in Cambourne when take up overwhelmed the manpower resources that was available.

 

Mrs Thorpe has said that once all the infrastructure is up and running, there are enough fibre connections for every phone line in the village.

 

The Lucky Ones that can order superfast broadband now

 

Grafton Drive was the first part of the village to be able to order superfast broadband, having been enabled on 19^th September 2012. Shortly after that, those on St Neots Road, and the very upper part of West Drive got on the superfast broadband highway.

 

Now, in addition those who live on the following streets are also able to order:

 

 

Residents should continue to use the BT checker at www.bt.com/infinity to check when the service is available to their premises. You can enter either your phone number or house number &postcode combination to check availability for your house.

 

Contact your current provider to place your order. If they do not offer the service, then you may need to switch providers.

 

For BT customers, you can place your orders online. However, the recommendation from those who have gone through the process is that that you place your order by phone. Call BT Infinity Fiber support centres 0800 587 4787 or 0800 032 0843 and talk to some real people.

 

Please feel free to share your experience of the process and service on Caldecote facebook group http://www.facebook.com/groups/Caldecote or the MadingleyX Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/MadingleyExchange , or email madingleyx@gmail.com.

 

 .