Monday 25 January 2016

Ledaig exchange not upgraded to handle new FTTC

The fibre for the new cabinet in the village that was FTTC enabled January 2016 apparently comes up from Oban, rather than down from the Ledaig Exchange itself. I was hoping that the Ledaig exchange had been upgraded to a '21CN'  backhaul in order to pass the data from the new FTTC connections off to the rest of the internet. 21CN at the exchange would open the possibility of "ADSL2+" connections for exchange-only lines, giving "up to 24Mbit/s" connections for those close enough to the exchange, and a more stable connection for longer lines. This is not the case.

BT still plans to retire the old 20CN network, but the last estimate I could find for upgrading Ledaig to 21CN was "Calendar year 2014"....

4 new cabinets for Ledaig exchange

Ardchattan Community Council were told last week that there are plans for four additional "FTTC" cabinets for the Benderloch / Ledaig exchange area.
Their locations or go-live dates are not known.
It should be noted that properties over approx 1km from a cabinet will not see the benefits of 'superfast' broadband.

Thursday 7 January 2016

It's here!

Benderloch's Fibre cabinet is now enabled and accepting orders!

What if you are not connected to the new cabinet? Apparently BT will be releasing more information towards the middle of 2016 with plans for connecting some of the exchange-only lines.

Gigaplus Argyll are going live with coverage in Lismore at the end of 2016 which might open some avenues for wireless broadband for those with line of sight to Lismore.

Some information is floating around the internet about 'BackOfBeyond' ISP based in Oban - have a search on Facebook.

Community Broadband Scotland has been set up to assist communities outside BT's planned superfast region get next-gen broadband speeds. There is the possiblility of creating a wireless broadband system via this.

It might also be technically possible for a small number of houses and club together to create their own small wireless link, using some friendly contact in the village who IS connected to the new cabinet and installing some wireless kit on a suitable prominent position.