The roll-out of the original ADSL services took a few years, but now most
people have had a taste for broadband, the addiction is kicking in, and
announcements of the superfast broadband roll-outs are always being asked
about. Openreach has announced another 73 exchanges as part of phase 9b
for its Fibre to the Cabinet (VDSL2) service.
The 73 exchange areas cover some 705,000 homes and businesses, and while not
all cabinets are enabled, and exchange only lines will miss out, the general
estimate is that 85% of lines on an exchange will benefit. The ready for
service (RFS) date is Spring 2013, but as people in other areas have
discovered, this date can move around due to local delays. With these 73
exchanges added to the roll-out, Openreach is now set to have its FTTC/FTTP
services available to around 16 million homes and businesses.
| ABERDEEN NORTH | Aberdeen City | KIRKBY IN ASHFIELD | Nottinghamshire |
| ACOCKS GREEN | West Midlands | LARBERT | Falkirk |
| ALVASTON | Derbyshire | LEIGH; GREATER MANCHESTER | Greater Manchester |
| AYR | South Ayrshire | LLANELLI | Sir Gaerfyrddin – Carmarthenshire |
| BARROW-IN-FURNESS | Cumbria | LONGRIDGE | Lancashire |
| BONESS | Falkirk | LOW FELL | Tyne and Wear |
| BRADFORD-ON-AVON | Wiltshire | MANNINGHAM | West Yorkshire |
| BRIXHAM | Devon | MELTON MOWBRAY | Leicestershire |
| BROXBURN | West Lothian | MERSTHAM | Surrey |
| BUXTON; DERBYSHIRE | Derbyshire | MOTHERWELL | North Lanarkshire |
| CANFORD CLIFFS | Dorset | PAIGNTON | Devon |
| CHIPPING SODBURY | Gloucestershire | PARKSTONE | Dorset |
| CLAUGHTON | Merseyside | PORT TALBOT | Castell-nedd Port Talbot – Neath Port Talbot |
| CRADLEY HEATH | West Midlands | POULTON; LANCASHIRE | Lancashire |
| CULLOMPTON | Devon | PRIORY | West Midlands |
| DAVIDSONS MAINS | City of Edinburgh | RAVENHILL | Abertawe – Swansea |
| ECCLES | Greater Manchester | RHYL | Sir Ddinbych – Denbighshire |
| ELLESMERE PORT | Cheshire | SANDIACRE | Nottinghamshire |
| FALKIRK | Falkirk | SEDGLEY | West Midlands |
| FISHPONDS | City of Bristol | SHAFTESBURY | Dorset |
| FLEETWOOD | Lancashire | SHARROW | South Yorkshire |
| FORFAR | Angus | SIDMOUTH | Devon |
| FRASERBURGH | Aberdeenshire | ST ANNE’S | Lancashire |
| GLASGOW KIRKINTILLOCH | East Dunbartonshire | ST. BUDEAUX | Devon |
| GLASGOW MARYHILL | Glasgow City | ST. MARYCHURCH | Devon |
| GLASGOW PAISLEY | Renfrewshire | STANECASTLE | North Ayrshire |
| GLASTONBURY | Somerset | STREET | Somerset |
| GOUROCK | Inverclyde | SWANSEA | Abertawe – Swansea |
| GRANGEMOUTH | Falkirk | TROON | South Ayrshire |
| GREAT YARMOUTH TOWN | Norfolk | VENTNOR | Isle of Wight |
| HEBDEN BRIDGE | West Yorkshire | WADSLEY BRIDGE | South Yorkshire |
| HIGHBURY | West Midlands | WEST WIGSTON | Leicestershire |
| HIGHCLIFFE | Dorset | WHITCHURCH;SHROPSHIRE | Gwynedd – Gwynedd |
| HORWICH | Greater Manchester | WILLENHALL | West Midlands |
| INVERNESS | Highland | WOBURN SANDS | Bedfordshire |
| KINGSWINFORD | West Midlands | WOLVERHAMPTON | West Midlands |
| WORKINGTON | Cumbria |
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Nice see NESUN change to CS.
It would be good if BT concentrated on areas with no cable access. At present much of this development just give people a choice of superfast provider while others remain with old copper connections!
@Spartan
If this reaches around 16 million homes then it will of course include pretty much all those covered by cable plus another 4 million or so. Many of the remainer in the “final third” will hopefully be covered by the BDUK-funded project.
Amazing we are on that list yet haven’t got 21cn yet, years late.
I cannot believe my exchange is there RAVENHILL, I thought they’d forgotten about Wales.
Can’t see my exchange getting FTTC anytime soon due to virgin media serving half of my exchange and I’m not in that half about 6 months ago my exchange got 21cn but already had adsl max so think we’ll be left out for the near future
@aqualung an exchange does not need 21CN to offer GEA, the fibre backhaul can go to another nearby exchange and long term that will be plan, i.e. close some of the smaller exchanges
@spartan64 targeting areas that have Virgin cable access does have one benefit in that competition helps to drive price down.
@spartan64
Thought i was the only paranoid one who thought that also.
Only one on the list north east and again (like nearly all the exchanges) its in a heavily vm populated area!
Looks like bt just want to steal vm customers and two fingers to us stuck on 1.5 meg with no other options..
Actually TalkTalk, Sky, BT Retail and all the other ISPs wanting the existing VM customers.
@john i would glad pay bt twice what i pay them now if they could deliver.
Competition may drive down prices but doesn’t help people stuck without any options, in fact may cause harm if there is little profit involved in upgrading those services.
@Borisvon
You’ve struck the nail on the head… the absence of other ISPs (physical presence) shows that there is little to no profit to be made in rural areas.
Otherwise, they would be a plethora of ISPs rolling out services. We’ve already seen Fujitsu revise their statements regarding BDUK rural roll-out, especially for Scotland, saying that the numbers don’t add up.
Even using B4RNs not for profit figures for roll-out it’s ~£27B for national FTTH. It’s just a massive and expensive undertaking for any ISP.
Since when is Whitchurch; Shropshire in Gwynedd (Wales)? lol
@New_Londoner, Don’t bet on it
@themanstan I wouldn’t care as much if i was in a very rural area,
Im only 5 miles from the town centre and bt has fibre 1/4 mile in one direction (different exchange to mine) and vm 1/4 mile in the other and im a black hole and neither company will fill in the hole!!
No exchanges in Kent. I expect that BT are after BDUK money!
@Borisvon
In some respect’s it’s luck of the draw.
Is it the case that the exchange you are connected to is not part of FTTC yet or that not all cabs have been upgraded?
I’m just outside a city in a village, but wer’re fed from an exchange in the city. We were lucky that BT decided to include us as part of the roll-out, as the village is just outside the city limits.
BT is more likely to backfill than VM.
General consensus is that VM has reached a physical limit at which OFCOM will allow them to operate without having to wholesale services.
Hence, why they were keen advocates of Fujitsu, whom they would wholesale off.
Andrew, Inverness has 2 exchanges: Inverness Macdui & Inverness Culloden. I presume you meant Inverness Macdui?
I see that my FTTC date has slipped another 3 months in the BT Wholesale DSL checker since yesterday – it’s now due by 30th June 2012, a year on from the first date shown in the checker
@themanstan My exchange is not updated for fttc and not on any update lists, i just wish i understood there upgrade logic as it seems totally sporadic to me!
Miss out again 🙁 It feels like every exchange around will be done, I thought it was because we have less than 10k properties but other have less than that too! I can’t really moan as I do get a solid 12mb connection.
My FTTC date has slipped also, loosing count of the number of times – since early last year – then 31 Dec 2011 then 31 Mar 2012 – NOW 30 Jun 2012.
@FenTar.
I’ve been seeing all day lots and lots of exchanges dates being moved to June 30th, maybe because of the football ?
FEntar is this your exchange or cab — if cab suggest planning, siting or power issues as cab prob not stood up or powered adn then recurring 3month delays until fixed
The news for me in central London gets worse!
Nice to see Devon actually getting some exchanges updated. Why the hell isn’t mine on there, Totnes. Over 6000 connections and the central hub of the South Hams. Oh well, better wait for the next update…
Why is the government pissing into the wind?
The UK has an annual GDP of 2 trillion dollars.
£28 Billion is eff all and will provide a massive boost in GDP.
It is time for our politicians to stop talking shit and pull their finger out of their arse!
We should be going for unlimited speed and leave all these dubious download caps in the bin.
Fiber tech with WDM is currently at 100gbps per wavelength and you can fit 40 of those into a single fiber strand.
This is not taking into account the leaps being made lately in splitting that light into even more wavelengths.
As per usual, Suffolk swerved.
That’s at least another year with line bonding at £60 per month just to get 2 meg. Best wishes to you BT from West Chiltington in deepest Sussex!!!
Cheltenham has FTTC, Gloucester getting FTTC, large village midway between the two (pop.>11,0000) still waiting
well surprise surprise….. nothing in the stoke-on-trent area is been upgraded again
come on ISPS pull your finger out
zemadeiran whilst I agree, I would still expect even with a government owned fibre isp’s to sell it as cheap as possible with caps as the market is too competitive, and also due to piracy pressure for the up speeds to be less than 100mbit.
Yippee, the list of towns outside of Suffolk gets shorter, hopefully meaning Suffolk gets nearer to having towns/areas which might make it someday!
BT Sceptic to Fanboy in one news article!
As if Rhyl is planned?!? Yay!
Thanks BT!
I am not in a VM served street (all the surrounding streets have VM) and my exchange *is* finally in the above list.
Don’t cellarbrate yet, your cabinet might not be part of the rollout.
Posted by mabibby
BT Sceptic to Fanboy in one news article!
As if Rhyl is planned?!? Yay!
Thanks BT!
It seems somewhat unfair when I struggle to get 2.5mbps a mile from the exchange (in a rural area) and still have to pay the same price per month as someone who gets 8, 10, 20mbps or more.
Well Guildford was connected by end March with BT advising FTTC would be available then on my phone number. But guess what? Date was frevised to end June 2012. FTTC-enabled exchanges dates are no guide as to when BT will actually connect to the street cabinet. BT are a shambles.
Well, I have to say that Openreach are not going to do my cabinet. Tossers.
Horay…..!! Got my fibre today…
Two whole years later when this appeared…