- 93.2% will get between 15 and (up to) 100Mbps - BT Infinity
- 4.6% will get between 2 and 15Mbps
- 2.2% will get between "no change" and 2Mbps
Most of the properties getting BT Infinity will get fibre all the way to the property - i.e. (up to) 100Mbps. The Capel exchange will then be one of the best enabled in the country - BT is delivering way beyond its Race to Infinity promise.
This will be delivered by upgrading three existing cabinets (one in Anstie Lane and two in Horsham Road) to FTTC (fibre to the cabinet then existing copper to the property) and five other existing cabinets to FTTP (fibre all the way to the property).
Work is underway at the moment building the "spine" of the network. The three FTTC cabinets should be enabled before the end of February 2012. Work on the FTTP cabinets is running in parallel but will not be completed until the end of July 2012. This is later than orginally estimated but nobody should complain. BT will install 133km of fibre during the exchange upgrade (much more than the campaign team ever expected) and this will obviously therefore take more time. Delivery dates are - as always - subject to the usual proviso that everything is subject to what BT discovers when carrying out the work (e.g. collapsed ducts etc).
In a nutshell if your property is currently connected to a cabinet slated for an upgrade to FTTP you will get (up to) 100Mbps but BT (quite reasonably) adds the proviso "there might be a few isolated exceptions depending on plan & build issues". If your property is connected to a cabinet slated for an upgrade to FTTC the theoretical maximum you might get is 40Mbps (but BT is installing equipment in FTTC cabinets that is capable of providing 80Mbps - as and when BT upgrades its FTTC Infinity headline speed). In practice actual performance degrades in line with the length of the copper run between an FTTC cabinet and a property.
6.8% of exchange properties will get something between "No uplift and 14.99 Mbps" depending on how close they are to their (FTTC) cabinet - note that most will get a decent "uplift". It's a matter of fact that the copper network that BT inherited from the GPO (if you don't know what that stands for ask your dad) was installed pre-war. The copper network grew "phone line by phone line" so the actual route from property to cabinet (and then exchange) could be quite convoluted. You may be able to throw a stone at your nearest cabinet but the actual copper run may be much longer. Hypothetically your copper run may not actually come from the cabinet that is closest to your property "as the crow flies". BT cannot be blamed for this - it's just the way it is.
Everybody will want to know "what about me". BT tells us that as cabinets are enabled (or perhaps shortly beforehand) it will update the database that drives the "broadband speed checker" tool at its public website. You will then be able to enter your phone number and be told what speed you might expect. We will let you know when that's available.
Based on the information that BT has disclosed to us so far, it appears that most properties in Capel, Beare Green and Ockley (North) are likely to get BT Infinity (with a very high proportion getting up to 100Mbps). Some properties in Coldharbour / Leith Hill (and some between Coldharbour and Beare Green) will not get BT Infinity.
The cabinet in Anstie Lane (Coldharbour) serves the most remote properties in the exchange area and consequently it was not viable for BT to run fibre to every property - note this was never part of the "Race to Infinity" promise anyway. About 40 properties won't get 2Mbps (but may possibly get a very basic or perhaps more reliable service for the first time - the Anstie Lane cabinet effectively becomes the exchange and that's a lot closer than Capel). I know quite a few of these properties have a broadband service from Kijoma already - so probably best to stick with that. Of the remaining 110 "Coldharbour" properties about half should get Infinity and half will see an increase from existing speeds (probably around 0.5Mbps) to something between 2Mbps and 14.99Mbps.
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