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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Cabinet At Capacity?

My NOW Broadband was due to go live on Friday 6th May. On Saturday morning it still wasn't working, so I called NOW - only to be told there was an issue (they hadn't actually told me there was... the engineer called Friday morning and said it'd be good to go in a few hours).

 

Today I've had a text to say the street cabinet is at capacity. A bit of Googling and I've found out what this means, but I can't find a rough ETA of how long it takes to get extra capacity added. How long typically does this take?

 

I also find it a little strange as I had Fibre broadband in my property with another provider until midnight on Thursday and was purely switching provider.

 

I'm now on my 3rd day off work because I don't have internet access.

 

Thanks in advance!

19 REPLIES 19
Jayach
Elite 3

Unfortunately they are unlikely to add capacity to any copper based services as all effort is going into full fibre (FTTP) services. Have you tried to see if you could return to your previous provider, or another ISP?

 

Is FTTP available at your location as there should be no problem going on to that?

Fibre First: Your future with broadband | Openreach

 

Alternatively the only option is to wait until a port becomes available.

 

Really the Openreach engineer shouldn't have disconnected you if there was no ability to move you to the new ISP.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi Jayach

 

Thanks for your response!

 

FTTP is available at my location and I have actually signed up for Full Fibre - so it sounds like NOW may have made an error here?

chilli2
Elite

Did you tell your former isp you were cancelling? This will affect how you switch with regards to downtime, and issues with cabinet capacity.

 

Also is your exchange on/in a copper stop sell area? This may mean you can not transfer from one isp to another, especilly if one provider is LLU'd ( ie sky/easynet, talk talk etc ) and the other is fully openreach

Jayach
Elite 3

@Anonymous User wrote:

Hi Jayach

 

Thanks for your response!

 

FTTP is available at my location and I have actually signed up for Full Fibre - so it sounds like NOW may have made an error here?


Now do not supply over FTTP (don't ask me why, it makes no sense to me) so you cannot get FTTP through them. If you think that is what you have signed up for, there has indeed been a mistake.

Jayach
Elite 3

Also, if you are moving from FTTC to FTTP the switch will not necessarily be handled by the gaining ISP, you may have to contact the old ISP yourself. (unless you are upgrading and staying with the same ISP)

RoyB
Legend

@Jayach @Anonymous User 

 

This sounds like the reverse - @Anonymous User had FTTP, and has been switched to FTTC by Now, who despite not offering FTTP, have an offering that has the now misleading name of Full Fibre.

 

Which it might have been, as a description rather than a product name once, but perhaps no longer is, as a description.

 

While FTTP is individual, and fibre all the way to your router (as Property implies), FTTC still requires capacity in the Cabinet for that last distance still spanned by copper.

 

@Anonymous User did you have FTTP before? I think you must have had it , or your previous connection in the cabinet would still be available to you (unless somebody swiped it)?

If so, did you understand you were giving it up, or have this explained to you by Now?

 

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi @RoyB 

 

Thanks for your response!

 

I did indeed think I was getting FTTP - when I initially spoke to NOW this is what the rep told me, which is why I was happy to make the leap over from BT for the saving.

 

NOW didn't tell me what I'd be giving up and had I known, I'd have renewed my contract with BT.

 

There was a lag of around 18 hours from my old contract ending to a NOW engineer contacting me so I suspect someone has swiped the connection in the cabinet. Having spoken to a handful of people in my building there seems to be a few people in a similar situation of waiting for capacity, and considering the number of new builds which have popped up nearby I imagine the number of people waiting is quite high.

Jayach
Elite 3

@Anonymous User 

So you were previously on FTTP? How did you try to sign up to Now? On-line or over the phone?

@RoyB 

I not entirely sure how it works, but the FTTC cabinet seems to be able to reach capacity for one ISP, when other ISP's sill have connections available.

Jayach
Elite 3

Actually, thinking about it, the FTTC cabinet is probably not at capacity, but Openreach are refusing to add connections as FTTP is available.