Broadband for Monkston and Middleton

Interested in lobbying BT for Broadband access? Contact us!

BT Meeting

Here's a report from our positive meeting with BT held on the 10^th of June 2003. (Organisation notes here.)

BT representatives:

John Small
Ian Lawrence
Tom Hamilton

Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes the challenge: 30,000 new homes to be built longer term.

The growth of MK in the next 30 years will require significant investment in infrastructure. BT are actively considering what will be required. New exchanges may well be needed.

Short Term

The short term solution will result in 3 groups of residents:

1, TPON - success

TPON (Telephony Passive Optical Network) uses a 1980's fibre-optic technology that doesn't support BT's broadband technology.

The western half of Monkston is served by TPON. Some of the 709 TPON customers in Monkston will have the opportunity to switch to copper cable. It is expected that 6%, 42 residents, will switch over immediately. There will be capacity for 25%, 200 residents, to switch over.

There is no question "Will it work?" The new copper cable will work for ADSL. There would be no point in running it in otherwise!

The cable will be laid in the second week of July 2003, subject to the Council allowing access for BT "digging up up the road."

The ducts laid for TPON are not big enough for copper, hence the ground work.

BT no longer deploy TPON.

Is your phone number on a TPON cable? Email me. I will collate and forward requests to Mr Small. ("Not the entire MK phonebook please!")

2, Copper threshold change - success

There will be an increased coverage for residents in the Bradwell Abbey exchange area. Currently, with the 55dB attenuation level threshold, 70% of customers get ADSL.

By changing the threshold to 60dB attenuation there will be an increase to 90% of customers getting ADSL.

Possibly 20% of customers will benefit.

This change is planned to occur sometime in September.

The new threshold would be up to and including 60 dB. (<= 60dB)

3, Copper threshold change - failure

These are the unfortunate folk that are in the last 10%. They will have telephone lines that have crosstalk noise, or that have more than 60dB loss.

Crosstalk problems would occur if BT allowed a loss greater than 60dB. Crosstalk, noise from one circuit affecting another, cannot be easily predicted. This depends on cable layout and how many customer are clustered together in one locality.

Crosstalk is not an issue with lines with a loss less than 60dB.

BT are into providing services that work. They are not too keen on exceptions or waver forms. In US attenuation levels up to 70 dB are allowed, but they are iffy.

BT see exceptions causing dissatisfaction and excessive customer support. (John noted that several members would be prepared to sign a waver and "give it a go". He'll report back to Ben. {Note it's all first names now!})

There are other options - satellite. Other technology may be around the corner, subject to legislation / approval.

BT are actively looking at what can be done for the remaining 10% but they made no promises for a short term fix.

"Trans Parenting" is an option for a group of people.

Aluminium

A lot of rubbish is spoken about aluminium cable.

There was a copper shortage in the 1960's. Various runs were made in aluminium.
Aluminium is fine. The extra resistance is accounted for in a heavier gauge cable. The ability to carry the ADSL signals at 300kHz is fine.
It's the joints. Moisture ingress - electrolytic action with copper causes high resistance / noisy connections.
BT know what cable runs into exchanges, and into houses, but poor record keeping from the 1960's means it's uncertain what's laid underground elsewhere.

No customer is supplied a telephone service that's wired by an entire run of aluminium.

Testing ASDL over ISDN2

ISDN2 (Home Highway) lines cannot run ASDL, but they can be tested for ADSL suitability without changing over to analogue. The attenuation and noise tests can be carried independently of the line carrying ISDN or POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service.)

(This message may need to be communicated within the departments of BT. I have Home Highway and POTS on 2 separate lines: "You can't have ADSL if you've got Home Highway, sir")

Helpdesk

A contact number with an knowledgeable person to progress matters is to be made available to us. Number details to be advised. The details will also be advised on MKWeb.

It was noted that communication between various BT divisions and with their customers "had room for improvement."

Map

A map of Milton Keynes was shown highlighting the problem broadband areas. Correlating blobs to the geography was confusing, but this was work in progress. An improved map is to follow and will be available on this web site.

TPON areas were not shown.

Trans-Parenting

From the map it was noted that some exchange buildings were close to poorly served customers in neighbouring exchange areas. Customers can be connected to exchanges not in their designated area. Usually this means a number change.

Trans-Parenting is a long shot for most BT customers on grounds of cost. It would not be on a one-to-one basis: a number of people in the same area would want to do this.

Ian Lawrence said that this option would not be top priority for them because they do plan to make Broadband available long term. They would rather invest the money in that than re-parent a block of people.

An option for Kent's Hill, Wavendon?

What might be nearer for Kent's Hill, Wavendon, etc is the Woburn Sands exchange, not the Fishermead exchange. BT would only re-parent a group of people not a single individual, as it would require reconnecting the street cabinet. All the people connected to that cabinet would then get a new number.

Broadband Interest Registration.

It was noted that the BT has set up a successful broadband registration scheme, that tracks demand and puts broadband in local telephone exchanges when enough people are found.

What the registration scheme fails to do is track people that want Broadband and their exchange IS Broadband enabled but line length or other circumstances prevent connection.

What is the failed registrant to do?

Mr Small noted this.

Follow up Meeting

A follow up meeting is planned for August.

Links

Follow these links to read the previous and future BT meeting reports:

September 2003
November 2003
February 2004

Monkston and Middleton Broadband Home

Activities

If you live in or near the Monkston grid square, and want Broadband, let us know!