> On 23 Aug 2017, at 10:09, Tim Bray <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> On 16/08/17 22:19, Neil J. McRae wrote:
>> We have some stupid things such as EO lines that we need to do more to solve 
>> (but requires co-op from others who would rather they keep you on a slower 
>> platform). And yes over time I believe we will move away from ADSL as a 
>> solution. But remember some customers are only just getting ADSL2 now such 
>> are the economics of build.
> 
> I thought EO lines were just a doomed outcome.   But I just yesterday
> ordered an FTTC on what was an exchange only line.  A new cabinet has
> appeared in the BT exchange car park.   It looks very new.
> 
> So a solution is possible.   Albeit, a silly one.  I'm sure VDSL inside
> the building would be easier.

FWIW, I have an 8 mile EO-line to a 20CN (tin hut) exchange which itself is 
many many miles from somewhere sensible. The last mile is over my land up the 
mountain and the line has been dead for 3+ years given we couldn’t get line 
sync on ADSL2 when we tried then. IIRC the Assembly topped up the central 
Government funding with a further £400m for FTTx deployment but I understand a 
stipulation there was that any property more than 400m from a new FTTC cabinet 
got FTTH. So, amazingly, we now have FTTH to the top of a mountain in deepest 
Wales!

Deployment was scarily quick when it happened. The fibre was all strung from 
poles and whilst I only observed the bit over our land (without advice or 
permission presumably as they were using existing poles and way-leaves) they 
did that in less than half an hour, and then the final pole to the house was 
done in under an hour. There was a year or more in between obviously but it 
still shows it can be done and land-owners don’t necessarily need to be 
involved. Given EO lines are generally in this kind of setting they’re probably 
an easier nut to crack than urban HMOs and the distance or remoteness isn’t 
necessarily the bit that makes it expensive.

The only fishy part is that this fibre apparently does not exist as an asset in 
the OR database. In the interim (i.e long after fibre install when I was 
doubting FTTH was ever going to happen) I tried ordering an EAD and the ECCs 
came back as £55k to run new fibre! The surveyor didn’t believe the fibre 
existed until I shows it to him and then couldn’t find it on the system when he 
checked back at the office. I might have bought the fact that there’s some 
transmission issue rendering it unsuitable for EAD but instead I got the 
feeling the tax-payer funding had somehow ring-fenced that fibre as a BTW asset 
rather than OR.

W

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