Aluminium cables in Milton Keynes

Im due to receive BT infinity in the near future and im getting slightly concerned about that aluminium cabling in the Milton Keynes area, i was just wondering if anyone in the local area has BT infinity and have they experienced any problems! I am in the Oldbrook area of MK1 Cheers

I think you will be served by Bradwell Abbey exchange which is a mix of FTTP & C, do you know which version your grid square has? BT class it as BT Infinity Option 3. I know over the road is FTTP which if it is you won't need to worry, the fibre will replace your aluminium all together.
You may find that you have your current WLR line is replaced and you move over to FVA & BB on a simultaneous provide so that your Openreach modem runs your phoneline and BB.

Similar Messages

Email Offering 100Mb Infinity Trial in Milton Keyn...

Hi all
Today I received an email from BT offering access to the FTTP trial. I eagerly called the number and was told (not unexpectedly as I've been checking the Infinity checker regularly) that I can't get FTTP at my house.
I've read the FAQ's re: availability, but my neighbour's house which is physically attached to mine (which mine is an end of terrrace in Walnut Tree, Milton Keynes) can get it. So can my neighbours on the other side (not attached to my house).
In 2003, I took part in the 21CN fibre trials where BT tested speeds up to 10MB. What I don't understand is how I could have fibre back then, but not now?
The lady I spoke to earlier at BT was very helpful and genuinely sorry that she couldn't get me on the trial. I'm on the Bradwell Abbey exchange which is enabled, but she said the problem was likely to be at my cabinet. She also said that there's nothing she can do and it's down to Openreach and unless they say the service is available, then I'm stuck on my 1.5Mb ADSL.
Now I know my cable goes a different route to my exchange than my neighbours as they were able to get ADSL long before I could. But surely my copper cables aren't involved with FTTP? I thought FTTP would involve new fibre cables going straight to my house? During the 2003 trials, the BT engineer accessed a BT man-hole cover immediately in front of my driveway and attached a box on the outside of my house. 10Mb in 2003 was heavenly!
I don't mind not being on the trial, but I'm really worried that I'll not be able to get Infinity even when it is launched as a full product in January 2012. If any BT guys are reading this, I'll happily swap everything to BT - tv, telephone, internet, etc if I can get Infinity. I'll happily kick Sky into touch
It's so frustrating that every house around me can get it, yet mine seems to have been excluded. If I'm never going to get fibre, I'd just like to understand the reasons why.
Any suggestions on what I can do? The key point is that I had fibre in 2003 - I'm really at a loss to understand why fibre may not be physically possible now?
Thanks
JTG
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi all
Thanks for the responses.
I have a BT manhole cover right outside my house and when I was on the 21CN trials back in 2003, the engineer did some work on that and routed the cable right up to my external wall where the master socket is and added the box.
I also guess the people I speak to in BT are reliant on what their pc tells them. The lady I spoke to last was the 2nd in about 4 weeks. Prior to that I got the same answer about 6 months ago. Could the information held on their database about my line be reliant on the distance to my exchange and therefore wrong in some way?
My delay in getting ADSL I think was down to technology advancements - my copper wires take a longer route (about 6.5km I think) than my neighbour's, so the noise levels on my line were too high. There's no aluminium on my line as far as I know.
As for the email, I'm guessing it looks like the standard email the earlier participants on the trial received - it said the trail ran until 31st December, was free etc etc.
I have no issue waiting for the full retail product as I've waited this long already. But it'e the reassurance that I will be able to get the service when it's released that I'm after

Milton Keynes / Bradwell Abbey Exchange / FTTP Tri...

Hello all.
I live in Broughton on the eastern edge of Milton Keynes, served by the Bradwell Abbey exchange.
I've read various reports of FTTP being trialled here instead of infinity.
At the moment I get a quite good-ish 3.5 - 4 mbps speed on a new estate.
I've contacted BT who have no information about any FTTP trial or if/when Inifnity is coming.
Here in MK, we don't have the option of Virgin Media, they run the old Cable TV system but it's not digital, so most have Sky, but for any broadband in MK, you need a BT phone line.
I've seen lists of exchanges due for Infinity (Stony Stratford, Wolverton, Newport Pagnell, Milton Keynes (Bletchley)) but not SMBA listed due to this FTTP trial.
Openreach vans are here there and everywhere in MK digging up beside the grid roads (phone lines follow the grid roads, reason why the lines are so long and alot of MK people get vast differences in speed).
In our new flat, there is an openreach faceplate (flat is 1 year old).
Anyone in BT or on this forum that can advise what is and what is planned to happen for those on the Bradwell Abbey exchange in MK as reliable informaion is more or less non-exisitant.
Thanks all

Actually, although my telephone number does not give an Infinity date on the BT site, I see there is a new(ish) section that lists Milton Keynes as getting Infinity around 30 September 2010.
On the www.bt.com/infinity site "How to get it" sub-section:
Follow the "when we're planning to come to your area here" link for South East.
http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=29017#fiberMapConsume...
I will add that I read somewhere that when they refer to "Milton Keynes" on Exchange lists, they exclude Bradwell Abbey Exchange (code: SMBA, in Fishermead) as that is part of the FTTH trial. So:
- if you in MK but not on SMBA exchange, Sep/Oct 2010 may be when you get lucky.
- if you are on SMBA exchange, and possible outside the FTTH trial area (If that part turns out to be true), not sure what this will mean (like me, also Broughton)
One the subject of how much of SMBA will get FTTH, I read on of the BT/OpenReach public docs, that they intend to roll out FTTH to as much of SMBA as is practical (economical) possible. Still room to exclude the far reaches of MK, but I am hopeful.
"early summer" is here BT - get a move on!

Can anyone explain why my Dell laptop and my iphone can "see" a server in Luton when using a wireless broadband (I get 20 Mbps download speed) but my ipad can not see this server and finds one in Milton Keynes which gives me 0.37 download speed.

Can anyone explain why my Dell laptop and my iphone can "see" a server in Luton when using a wireless broadband (I get 20 Mbps download speed) but my ipad can not see this server and finds one in Milton Keynes which gives me 0.37 download speed.

Can anyone explain why my Dell laptop and my iphone can "see" a server in Luton when using a wireless broadband (I get 20 Mbps download speed) but my ipad can not see this server and finds one in Milton Keynes which gives me 0.37 download speed.

Aluminium cable causes slow speed what's Open Reac...

Hi
I have had Infinity for 12 months and have had speeds issues since day 1.
I now have dropped to 6MB down and have never exceeded .5MB up (not a typo 1/2 of 1 MB up)
The problem is due to Aluminium cable between my house and the FTC. BT wont replace the cable so I will never get the promised speed.
How can I get a stable service and what is the policy on these old cables as I am sure a copper connection will resolve the issues.
This weekend a BT engineer will visit my house and probably lift a few man holes and re-terminate the cables which will result in speeds of upto 15MB if I am lucky which will last for a few weeks or until heavy rain. At that point it will revert to 6MB.
Any advise greatly received.
Peter

peterdavies wrote:
Thanks to everyone for the helpful comments.
Quick update - Open Reach came on Saturday and confirmed the speed was 6MB and did a test that showed a sync speed of 10MB was obtainable.
They then left it at the original Sync speed of 6MB since they said it would just degrade again.
They have raised the cable as a fault but I get the impression that the only way to get the cable replaced is if someone steals the existing one. The post code for anyone wanting Aluminum is BH24 2LG.
Does not seem much point in Open Reach investing in high speed services if the old infrastructure destroys the benefits.
Probably going to switch to Sky broadband to see if a new line service will improve the speed since it will be a different pair of wires and maybe different equipment?
Any thoughts please.....
6MB is a very good speed, it equals to a 60mb connection. The highest you can get on Infinity is 76mb.

Video issues on A1286 MBP (denounced by Apple Milton Keynes)

I have an MBP.
The problem is that the video appears garbled when going from full screen to minimised. I cannot press icons at all.
Apple store replaced my logic board as it had a fault but still I am having problems with video.
Apple store (Milton Keynes) say it's "not their problem" and they have turned me away (after spending £1600) on an MPB with the excuse that it's firmware related and they had seen it before but Apple dealt with it. They said that Apple haven't acknowledge the fault on my model.
So I am left with a product that is not "fit for purpose" as there are video problems.
I dont care what is causing this. I know its Apple's fault as I have booted it off one of their generic OS/drives and the problem is still there.
I am fed up with Apple now and the customer service at MILTON KEYNES store is a disgrace. So much so that I as a customer have had to contact Trading standards to investigate this case.
All I want is my Apple Mac Book Pro to function correctly.
See screenshot here:
http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae269/seanoturbo/Screenshot2011-02-26at150240 .png
To view you have to remove the space between the 0 and .png that Apples code keeps inserting. They are doing this to stop spam I guess but it's simply a case of deleting the space between the . and 0 so its 0.png and not 0 .png

I've read your post five times now, looked at your screenshot three times, and I still can't make heads or tails of what your problem is, never mind suggest how to solve it. Can you explain clearly what isn't working as you expect? Your problem statement above ("The problem is that...") is completely opaque.

Aluminium cable and Infinity

I'm not on Infinity yet, but the Infinity checker telles me I'll be due on 31st December! My question relates to the cable from the cabinet to my home. I am assuming that the fibre optic cable only goes to the cabinet. I believe (having spoken with an ex-BT engineer who was employed when my estate was being built) that the underground cabling is aluminium rather than copper and that aluminium is very poor when it comes to broadband - hence my diabolical speeds at the moment. What I would like to know is whether the aluminium cable will render the change to Infinity pointless. At the moment I get around 1.5mbps - and that only since BT upgraded the exchange. Does anyone have experience or knowledge of this?

Just as a guide. My line to the cab is aluminium (laid early 1980's). When I was having "issues" with my previous broadband, OR did some extensive testing. The loss to the cabinet was 9db, and then another 51db back to the exchange. So overall my line was around 60db loss. Add a noise margin of 15db onto this, and I was lucky to see 1 meg. The line to the cabinet was also very noisey, and so the DLM used to stick me at around 135k-160k for weeks on end, until I managed to convince someone to get it to re-train. Then I would get 1-3 megs, dropping to 1, and then back to sub 0.5megs. I had lift and shift, etc, to no avail.
Moved to O2 LLU, and was getting a very respectful 3.5 megs with a NM of 3db (got lots of disconnects, but no DLM to stick its nose in and drop to a "stable" speed).
Now on Infinity, and I get 37.5 over ethernet (sometimes a bit more). Just great.
Using wireless (and "g" as well!), I get around 20 megs, which drops to around 15megs when everyone comes home and starts up. But, in reality, makes no difference to my internet use.
Very very pleased with the "uplift", and apart from problems which have beset the whole network over the last couple of weeks (not just BT), the speeds and stability have been wonderful. Can't fault it. Option 2, unlimited - brilliant.
Oh yes, the best bit, 10 megs upload, and I get about 9meg, is just great. If you move photos and music around (I use DropBox for sharing preliminary mixes of locally recorded music), then life is SO SO much better.
Cheers,
Rob
PS Have a HH3 type B

Is ipad2 wifi 3g 64mb have stock in Milton Keynes or London in white colour

Is it possible to get any supplier in London or Milton Keynes today with stock

User to user forum, no Apple here.
Since we have as much control over who receives iPad stock as you do, not much we can do for you.
Call around and find out.

Thankyou Apple Milton Keynes! Dust under screen!

Hi everyone!
I've never felt compelled to write on the forum before, but today is different!
Thought I would lighten the mood a little bit.
Over the past few days I have noticed several dust specks appearing under the screen of my 3g. I have had the phone since launch day and so far been delighted.
So today I booked an appointment at the Genius Bar at Milton Keynes, where I was treated very nicely, and walked out 10 minutes later with a brand new flawless device without any argument at all. All of the staff were very sympathetic and helpful. Not like any other phone company that will argue till the sun goes down that it's not their fault!
All in all, very impressed, and delighted with my perfect new iPhone 3g!
Thanks for reading!

Funny... I've been compelled to write in these forums ever since I purchased my iPhone! Dust started collecting under my screen after a week, so I sent it back. Eager to please and with great enthusiasm, they replaced my iPhone immediately! with a refurbished phone that had a blown speaker...
Then I got a dropped call while talking to customer support. I'm so absolutely infuriated and on the edge that I can barely NOT kill everyone in sight. But at least I was nice to CS agent on the phone. That's good karma, right?
Message was edited by: editsowens

How do I get an old aluminium cable replaced?

I have been visited by an Openreach engineer who advised me my cable is very old and needed replacing. I spoke to BT who said my Broadband was above the min (20mbps) so they wouldn't do anything. I am paying for 76Mbps and my neigbour (on a better cable) gets 60+ Mbps
I spoke to Openreach directly as adivsed by the first engineer to raise a ticket and get the cable replaced, another engineer came out and said as it wasn't 'Damaged' they wouldn't do anything. Implying if I damaged it they would replace it....
Now I was happy to pay for the replacement but it seems no one wants to do anything about it apart from say its not their problem!
Who do I call?
My experiance with BT to date has been absoloutley awful and I will start anther thread about that.

ukjonnyboy wrote:
Thanks for all the replies.
Hi if they put a second line in would they lay a new cable to the property, if so I will get this done.
The pole is directly outside my house and the ali cable goes down the pole and then underground to my property. Round 40 foot away.
It was the Openreach engineer who told me it was an original Ali cable from the top of the pole into my property, so I only have his word for it.
Thanks again.
How did this pan out? It's what I need too.
One of the things I'd like to know about ordering a new line is can one ensure that they pull copper and not reuse spare aluminium.
Seph
My advice is at your risk.

Beware Aluminium Cabling and Speedcheck Results BE...

Hi, just to let you all know and be aware of signing up on the promise of speeds based on the BT Infinity speed checker. Our village is mostly alumunium cable, not copper, and this halves the speed you will get. I cannot get out of the contract as I've been in for several weeks but:
a. was never informed of this (I signed up by telephone - note you get better deals by telephoning too - 12 month discount of Infinity 2 at £17.25 a month);
b. it took 3 weeks and 2 engineer visits to be informed of the cable issue;
c. the installation engineer informed me he was getting 40/10 speeds when clearly he was not, then tried to blame a worn cat5 cable;
d. the second engineer told me it is a known issue but retail never inform customers.
Ask before you sign up. Hope this helps someone. I will be contacting the Ombudsman Services: Communication next.

Hi, I got a short reply saying I was achieving the expected speeds when clearly I was not. I assume he hadn't read the thread. I asked again with no response. Since then the speed has crept up by rebooting once a day to almost back to where it was before the loss of the phone and broadband service.
I am going to go via the Ombudsman route to see if I can get satisfaction and some decent compensation/cessation of the contract.

Has any one got an email address for the apple store in Milton Keynes?

Please?

Info for the store is here -> http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/miltonkeynes/
Is there something we could possibly help you with?

Genuine Apple lightning charger not working with my iPhone 5S. a notification comes up that's says 'this cable is not a genuine Apple product and may not work reliably' and although the charging symbol comes up, it does not charge

genuine Apple lightning charger not working with my iPhone 5S. a notification comes up that's says 'this cable is not a genuine Apple product and may not work reliably' and although the charging symbol comes up, it does not charge - went to Apple in Milton keynes to get a replacement charger this weekend that does not work as well!

Well, if this problems is so old I think it is strange that Apple hasen't fixed the bug long time ago, and certainly after the release of iOS 8.1.
Well, thank you very much for your answer, Lawrence Finch. I think the best thing to do is to send the phone to repair, if there is no solution to fix this by my self. I will anyway call the Apple support tomorrow, but I don't think they will illuminate me...

Infinity Checker - Neighbour can, I can't (Milton ...

Hi
I'm in Walnut Tree, Milton Keynes and have Sky BB and calls, but BT line rental.
I've been checking my BT phone number and that of my neighbours' on the Infinity checker and recently Infinity has appeared as an option for my neighbours, but not for me. My house is physically joined to my neighbours (mine is end of terrace).
Some time ago, someone mentioned that my telephone line may take a different route to the street cabinet - I've also tested house numbers and post codes and it seems just about everyone near me can get Infinity except me.
In 2003, I took part in a fibre trial with BT which was much faster than my current ADSL connection. So if I was able to get fibre then, can I still get it now? There is a BT manhole cover in the pavement immediately outside my house too.
I'd happily transfer my BB, calls and even tv package to join the FTTP trial...

check here
if you know the exchange you are on
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search
If any post helps tick the star box on the left
Just cause Im paranoid dont mean they are not out to get me

BT TV with no Freeview reception

I have no usable Freeview signal where I live (Milton Keynes). I'm currently a Sky customer for TV so I have cabling that would receive Freesat, but I understand the BT YouView boxes cannot connect to those. I am also BT Infinity customer so am considering switching.
I need to know how much of BT's TV I could actually watch. A lot of the literature on the BT website imples that we are watching TV across the broadband connection rather than from a broadcast signal - what's not clear is whether that's true of the Freeview channels; the reference to requiring BT Infinity to watch the HD versions of those channels (for example) implies that it would use the broadband to stream them.
So where would my BBC One HD signal come from?
If I need a Freeview broadcast signal for BT TV to be useful, then I would be better off buying a Freesat box instead.

101 - BBC One HD England
102 - BBC Two HD
103 - ITV HD
104 - Channel 4 HD
407 - Watch
408 - GOLD
409 - Alibi
417 - Comedy Central
413 - TLC
414 - Discovery
415 - Animal Planet
419 - Sy Fy
420 - Universal
421 - E!
422 - FOX
423 - Nat Geo
424 - NatGeo WILD
425 - MTV
432 - History
433 - Crime & Investigation
513 - Eurosport 1
514 - Eurosport 2
That's with a BTVision Box knock off BBC ITV and C4 with a YouView box.
Other channels are also available at extra cost above the basic £7.
What you need is a Freesat recorder which will give you access to normal broadcast channels and a YouView box, however since tbe EPG is delivered by aerial I doubt it will be of much use
Have you looked at Freetime from Freesat
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Aluminium cables in Milton Keynes

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