Progress Report from BT

I was briefed by BT's Superfast Broadband Programme Director (Johnny McQuoid) yesterday. The headlines are:

Openreach Progress
High-level design has been completed and "work packages" have been defined. Critical equipment and materials have been ordered / reserved for Capel.

High Level Design
BT's high level design is to install "Fibre to the Property" (FTTP) for a very substantial number of properties and "Fibre to the Cabinet" (FTTC) for others. If you get FTTP you are in broadband heaven! If you get FTTC you are also in "broadband heaven" - if the copper run from your cabinet to your property is "not too long". If you have a very long run of copper to either the exchange or your nearest cabinet you may see little or no improvement. There are many shades of grey in between. BT is not planning any new cable routes for Capel exchange (i.e. new "wayleaves"). Various existing copper runs will be replaced by fibre.

Coverage
Johnny tells me that out of 1,920 Capel exchange lines about 1,700 (88%) should be able to get Infinity broadband. Johnny also tells me that the planned split between FTTP and FTTC is 70/30. This implies that around 1,200 properties served by the Capel exchange will have an FTTP solution. This is way better than I had expected and goes way beyond BT's "Race to Infinity" promise.

Unfortunately, 220 properties will not get Infinity broadband - at least this time round. I am trying to get some information about what sort of performance improvement they may get. I know many people at the extremities of the Capel exchange will be disappointed not to get Infinity broadband - but relieved to get enough additional bandwidth for "regular" Internet use.

Timescales
We should start to see some real action (e.g. BT Openreach vans) around October / November 2011. BT engineers will be "pulling cable" - and doing other engineer things! Some time around then BT will also enable all Capel exchange users to "check what speed I might expect" at BT's Broadband Speed Checker. I will e-mail all registered users of this website as soon as that functionality is published by BT. Before then all you will get is the standard "sorry - you can't have it" message.

Johnny tells me that the new high-tech cabinets and exchange equipment will be available for call-off from suppliers from January 2012. I would guess that individual properties will get switched over to Infinity broadband during Q1 and Q2 2012 - as various works in the exchange area get completed.

I also learned today that the technology that will be installed will (at least for most Capel exchange users) support 80 Mbits/sec (headline download speed) by the end of 2012 (compared to 40 Mbits/sec which is the currently advertised "Infinity" headline download speed). Outstanding!

Health Warning!
I am confident that the information published above was provided by BT in good faith. This is a complex engineering project and complex project plans do have a tendency to change - as details emerge. Please read the above in that context!