BT organised a photo-shoot last week, to get some photos ready for the formal launch of Infinity in our area. It was pretty cold, but Bill from Church Road Garage braved the weather to join us on the Green in Baschurch - well done Bill.
BT are broadly keeping to the schedule they gave me in mid-December, which was pretty much in line with the original plan, which was mostly Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) in April 2012.
The thing that does seem to have changed a bit is the proportion of Fibre to the Premises compared to subscribers who will only get Fibre to the Cabinet (with the last "leg" from the Cabinet to the property remaining as copper) As work has progressed it seems that most of the three Baschurch Cabinet Areas (which includes lines directly from the Exchange) will now get FTTP - potentially even faster than FTTC.
Most homes in Ruyton will be fed by copper from the new Cabinet which has been installed and commissioned by the Bus Shelter opposite the Victoria Room in Little Ness Road. This means that about a quarter of Exchange subscribers will be FTTC while about 75% will get FTTP - the original split was about two-thirds FTTC with only one-third being FTTP.
The other change is that overall coverage will hopefully be over 95% rather than the 90% that we "won" in the Race. In such rural areas no supplier will promise 100%, but 90% seemed a bit mean. Sadly, the two hardest-to-reach areas are in Ruyton - around Wykey and around Shotatton. This is not surprising because these areas are miles from our Cabinet. This means that around 97% of Exchange Subscribers in the Baschurch area will gain some appreciable improvement.
The FTTP process takes a little longer than FTTC (BT tell us that they plan for many FTTP homes to start being connected in July, rather than FTTC planned to be starting in April - hence the photo shoot) But it is obviously a superior service and therefore presumably worth waiting for. It is also a little less visible - until the actual delivery begins of course. There is no big green cabinet - all the fibre connections are underground, and several "hub" points have already been installed - the main one on the corner in Baschurch near Byways and the smaller new one in front of the cabinet up the road to Weston Lullingfield just over the railway bridge - although this one has already been cracked by a farm vehicle - BT/Openreach know about this damage - and it hasn't affected the glass wires underneath.
So Ruyton Cabinet Users should be able to order Infinity within a week or two - hopefully by the end of April. Baschurch FTTP areas will be a couple of months later.
OpenReach have given me some leaflets - I still have some left if anyone wants one. Or visit a copy here:- http://www.rxit.org.uk/openreach.pdf
It seems that you don't have to be a BT Internet Customer to get it - several other providers will be using the fibre infrastructure to provide the superfast service - though I am not sure of their timescales. There is a list of such providers on the openreach web site here :- http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/at-home/buy-it-now.aspx
If you check availability dates on the BT Infinity web site, it will say June 30th. The web site lists the "end-of-the-Quarter" date - so means the period from 1st April to end June.
Watch the local Press for more Launch information - and I will circulate the Press Release as soon as I get it - subject to the normal "embargo" to make sure I don't release before the Press.
--
Colin Case
