Forum Topic

When does BT Infinity finally come to town?

Does anyone know when we'll be able to get BT Infinity in Acton? I assume others don't have it, and it isn't just a case of it being unavailable in my street?Cheers, Carl

Carl Tamboli ● 4955d30 Comments

It depends if you are on the Acton or Shepherds Bush exchange (which goes roughly as far west as the railway around Acton Central).  Ealing and Acton exchanges already have it in some areas and Shepherds Bush is coming soon (I think I read September somewhere).http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/

N Roberts ● 4955d

Thanks for that. I'm in Acton Central Goldmith Road - the first road on the right after the level crossing.Their website has been teasing me for months now and they keep moving the proposed date out by 3 months. I note today that they've grown bored of doing that and don't even provide a rough date at all now!Carl

Carl Tamboli ● 4955d

That reminds me. Chris Marshall who advertised BT for 4 years or more said he never got anything free from BT and is now with Sky!

Phaddaeng Thumraksa ● 4955d

I spent over a year waiting "3 months" for BT - they just kept moving the date back and back. I gave up a year ago and got cable with Virgin. Am one of the few satisfied customers. Very fast speeds and never lost connection. Glad i didn't continue waiting for BT and would never go back to them. If Sky had been available to me me, I would have gone with them. My son in North Acton has had fabulous internet service from them.

Annie Trevaskis ● 4955d

FTTC is avasilable to me on Western Avenue, North Acton, but I am not able to justify the extra cost. I do download plenty of data, but almost all overnight when there is often no charge. Businesses in Park Royal on the Harlesden exchange have been told that the exchange is ready, fibres are in the ground, but there is no sign of them being connected at the cabinets without paying BT large bribes (I do know of one company moving to larger premises nearby that has had to pay BT lots of money to get connected).

Chris Bell ● 4955d

that's odd CarlI live in Goldsmith Avenue and have BTinfinity. You've got me worried now

Jeremy Thorpe-Woods ● 4954d

There is a lot of information on what is currently available in any areahttp://www.thinkbroadband.comhttp://www.samknows.comand even my ISP can show whether FTTC is available to you:http://www.ukfsn.org

Chris Bell ● 4954d

Had it up here (near N Acton Rec) for over a yearFriend of mine tells me that they've only just got it where he is (Queen's Drive). The holdup wasn't technical but bureacratic. Apparently the installation meant replacing the street box(es) which needed planning permission, possibly because it's a conservation area.Don't know if that applies where you are

Roy Gillett ● 4954d

Although FTTC is available at the Acton exchange, availability for households is dependent on which cabinet you're connected to. There is a checker here which can tell you: http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcomeThe problem seems to be that the checker is not all that reliable. The date for my cabinet has slipped back by 3 months for the past 18 months, so I'm highly doubtful that FTTC will arrive by the 31st March! Is there anything that can be done to find out exactly what is causing the hold-up? If it is bureaucracy, perhaps contacting our councillors could help?

Nicholas Shaw ● 4953d

I think that BT can be made to extract their digit(s) if sufficient customers connected to the cabinet demand FTTC.

Chris Bell ● 4953d

I don't think councillors can help. Probably harrasing BT and threatening them with Ofcom which is boring and time-consuming but sometimes effective.

Sara Nathan ● 4953d

Jeremy, if it doesn't come soon I'll be tempted to sit in the car outside goldsmith avenue and look for any Infinity signals without password protection (that was a joke - although it is a surprise just how many aren't protected. On a slight shift, would the BT Openlink connections be Infinity - or is that a really stupid question - I can't decide???Regards, Carl

Carl Tamboli ● 4952d

I believe that any BT hub with wireless can be accessed by anyone who has a BT roaming facility offered by their contract unless the BT hub is supplied under a contract which prohibits roaming, (and this has nothing to do with BT infinity).I do not know about BT Home Hubs, but at least some BT Business Hubs have provision for either normal ADSL or FTTC (which uses a different data protocol).There are at least two FTTC "up to" maximum speeds on offer at present, both should be much faster than ADSL, and more expensive per month, although you may need to carefully consider whether the maximum data transfer limit per month is good value.

Chris Bell ● 4952d

all, please note the response I received today from BT - it isn't very encouraging! I live on Goldsmth Road for reference:Thank you for your enquiry about fibre broadband, I can confirm that you are connected to Acton exchange cabinet LW/ACT 57.When deploying cabinets, we must inform the local planning and highways authorities of our intention to site a cabinet. This is performed by send a noticing of intent to the council. (This is not part of the normal planning application process).When planning our deployment, we must ensure that the DSLAM cabinet is located within 100m of its associated telephony connection cabinet and that there is adequate access to power and existing telephony infrastructure. Also, ensuring that the cabinet does not obstruct pedestrians, or provide a danger to road-users. To further enable the location of the DSLAM, we must accurately survey for other utility underground structure and obstacles. However, there are occasions when local councils refuse our applications or we cannot actually find a site to erect the DSLAM that fits with the above criteria. Unfortunately, at the moment all our surveys have proved fruitless in that we cannot find a place to put the fibre cabinet that satisfies our deployment criteria. We are still looking for a new position, however at this point I cannot inform you when or even if your cabinet will go live. I suggest that you write back in around 3 months’ time when a clearer position may be known.RegardsTony FranklinNGA EnquiriesEmail:-  nga.enquiries@openreach.co.uk|W Web: www.openreach.co.uk

Carl Tamboli ● 4922d

Carl, can I ask who you contacted them to get that information? It would be useful to know for Shep's Bush exchange too.

N Roberts ● 4922d

There are links and information fromhttp://www.samknows.comhttp://http://www.thinkbroadband.com

Chris Bell ● 4922d

Once again I've just discovered that BT have made a mistake on my account, costing me lots of dosh and inconvenience.  I called them, for the 3rd time over the last few weeks only to find I went round in a loop on their automated system.  7 times I had to call back.  They have made a mistake and I'm told I now have to CALL THEM to get a refund in 3 weeks.It's about time they woke up to the real world.  They treat their customers with contempt.  It's intolerable.  I'm not leaving it there.  Oh, and if I wish to complain, I'm told, I need to WRITE to them, not email or call them.  Which of course deters one, but not me.  It will also cost me a stamp, which I will claim back.  Terrible and poor service.  Avoid.  I will dump them as soon as I can and avoid them like the plague.

Angela White ● 4922d

Unfortunately, as a regular customer, you have to deal with BT Retail.

Chris Bell ● 4922d

Hi, I used the search function on the BT home page to see if Infinity was ready and from there you can navigate to some page that allows you to ask these questions.Or you could try emailing the contact at the bottom of the reply that I received?Carl

Carl Tamboli ● 4920d

Thank you. I tried the live chat and apparently shepherd's bush is enabled but I still have to wait 6 months before they come as far as east acton.

N Roberts ● 4920d

Don't hold your breath, Harlesden exchange was ready and the optical fibres installed about two years ago, but the cabinets in Park Royal are still not connected, although BT are delighted to provide Fibre To The Premises at a huge price.

Chris Bell ● 4920d

A year on and there hasn't been any change to the cabinet that I am connected to. There is still no availability for Fibre broadband...Is anyone else still waiting?

Nicholas Shaw ● 4565d

Friends in business connected to the Harlesden exchange are still waiting, although there are fibres running past their cabinet. I again asked whether they had "registered their interest" online and had to show them where to find the online request form.

Chris Bell ● 4565d

I have had FFTC for a year. And am connected to the Acton Exchange - just not with BT. The engineer told me that there were only 30 spare fibre connections still available in my cabinet and hundreds of people wanting fibre.

Bob Crossley ● 4565d

BT offered this to me just before Christmas and came and installed the necessary equipment, together with a new hub. Unfortunately the engineer who installed it, a contractor, didn't do it correctly and it took until beginning of February for BT to send a proper engineer to sort it out.  Since then no problems, although it doesn't seem to be much quicker than the old system.  So perhaps it's a case of don't hold you breath!

Nina Battleday ● 4564d

I think I have it. Installed early Jan. Numerous problems including a cost of 20 pounds per month as the offer so widely advertised ran out mid month. Four engineers have attended but it remains unstable. Takes about 40 minutes to report a fault.

Maire Lowe ● 4563d

We have had it at home for several months now, can't say it has made much difference at all, the other evening it was horrendously slow, when our contract is up we will probably go somewhere else

Kevin Bell ● 4563d

Do you have any access to your BT hub? Do you have any way to monitor your data rate? BT grab some of the available capacity so that they can supply WiFi to other subscribers in exchange for you being able to use the same kind of facility when travelling. Have a look at www.thinkbroadband.comandwww.samknows.comfor speedtesters, BT Wholesale expected line capabilities, etc, but bear in mind that any restriction may not be due to your line.

Chris Bell ● 4562d

Quite honestly I am not that clever, fortunately we use it so infrequently and we got a really cheap deal, but I am not impressed at all

Kevin Bell ● 4562d

I have never used FTTC but am well awaret that your local phone cabling within your premises can make a tremendous difference to ADSL data rates unless the data is totally isolated as soon as possible after the BT NTE5 line termination unit using a replacement faceplate filter. It is designed by BT to replace the lower half front but is not usually supplied. I know of two UK suppliers,www.clarity.itwww.solwise.co.uk

Chris Bell ● 4562d