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British Telecom to upgrade broadband

3 Sep 2015
Written by Nick Jones

After months of campaigning by the Barnet Society, British Telecom have finally given an assurance that it will improve the broadband service in High Barnet by upgrading at least half the cabinets that need to be fibre enabled.

If the undertaking given to the Chipping Barnet MP Mrs Theresa Villiers is honoured by BT, she hopes superfast broadband will be provided to 98 per cent of the homes and businesses in her constituency within the next two years.

Currently only 90 per cent of Mrs Villiers’ constituents have a fast broadband connection, but there are “some significant gaps” in the service provided in High Barnet.

BT has told Mrs Villiers that the next phase of its delivery of fast broadband will include upgrades to another five cabinets in High Barnet, at the following locations:

  • Wood Street, near the Black Horse public house (cabinet 39)
  • Bells Hill, near the junction with Wood Street (cabinet 40)
  • Manor Road, near the junction with Cedar Lawn Avenue (cabinet 38)
  • Wood Street, near the entrance to the Old Court House recreation ground (cabinet 33)
  • Salisbury Road, near the junction with Stapylton Road (cabinet 64)

But another three cabinets have NOT been included in the upgrade programme:

  • Bruce Road, near the junction with St Albans Road (cabinets 36 and 65)
  • Salisbury Road, near the junction with High Street (cabinet 34)

Earlier this year BT confirmed an upgrade for the cabinet at Hadley Parade in High Street (cabinet 52) after funding provided by local residents.

Mrs Villiers (www.theresavilliers.co.uk) said the upgrading of six of the nine cabinets identified by Barnet Society was an important step towards addressing some of the “most serious” gaps in High Barnet’s broadband service.

“This announcement is good news, but the upgrade of the five cabinets is not yet a certainty as it will be subject to further physical surveys and work, and the whole process could take up to two years.”

Mrs Villiers promised to keep fighting for faster broadband for the cabinets not included in the upgrade.

Ken Rowland, co-ordinator of the fibre4barnet campaign (fibre4barnet@btinternet.com), welcomed BT’s announcement, but said the battle had not yet been won.

The priority should be to compile a map of the roads served by the cabinets that have missed out on the upgrade so that local residents can continue to put pressure on BT to be included.

Categories: Broadband

Tags: #British Telecom #Chipping Barnet #High Barnet #Theresa Villiers

15 thoughts on “British Telecom to upgrade broadband”

  1. rob

    As of this week – Cabinet 40 is now accepting orders for fibre broadband. This will be around bells hill road and wood st.

  2. SC

    Update on Cabinet 38

    Hello Mr C,

    We are currently working on providing FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) for your area, please be aware that there is a large amount of civils work required to complete the upgrade – currently the completion date for the whole project is 20/04/2017. Pcp upgrade has been delayed due to other unlisted utilities within the vicinity, aditional surveys are being carried out to find an alternative location that is agreable with the local highways authority.

    please note that this is an estimated completion date and could change

    Regards
    Paul
    Fibre Enquiries Team Openreach

  3. Mr P

    There is not much that can be done here. County Broadband could supply a viable alternative at a cost of c. £17/18k for the infrastructure build.

  4. Mr C

    Cabinet 38 update (Corner of Manor Road/Cedar Lawn)…

    Good Afternoon Mr C,

    Thank you for your patience regarding fibre availability in Barnet.

    There is currently an ongoing programme however I am unable to provide a realistic completion date at this time.

    Please review website in October for further update.

    Regards

    Ann

    Fibre Enquiries team, Openreach

  5. Craig McCartney

    hello

    We live on bells hill in Barnet and struggle with terrible broadband. I am now working from home a lot but struggle to get things done due to this.

    re there any updates for this?

    is there an active petition we can sign?

  6. Mr C

    Cabinet 38 update (Corner of Manor Road/Cedar Lawn)…

    Good afternoon, Mr C

    Thank you for your email.

    Currently, there is no further update with reference to the survey, I’m sorry, however, I have asked the team who will be conducting the survey to advise if there have been any developments. Once we have their response we will advice accordingly

    Regards

    Lynn
    Fibre Enquiries Team
    Openreach

  7. Mr C

    Dear Mr C,

    Thank you for your email. Unfortunately shortly after the last email reply was sent in December our contractors identified unlisted utility services in the vicinity presenting issues with the provision of the new fibre .

    They are not looking at alternative means of feeding this cabinet but this has caused a delay and we are currently unable to advise further until a new survey has been completed. Please check back with ourselves back in March when any new work required for the upgrade of this cabinet should have been re planned.

    I am sorry for the delay this has caused with the upgrade of your cabinet.

    Kind regards

    James
    Fibre Enquiries team, Openreach

  8. Paul

    An update for number 64:

    Dear Mr X,

    Thank you for taking the time to contact us.
    You are connected to Barnet exchange cabinet 64….

    ….Rest assured we are doing everything we can to deliver service as soon as we can. We appreciate that this is frustrating, however, we are bringing fibre into your area so please keep an eye on our website from the end of March for an update. It’s where we publish the very latest fibre coverage information and we update it weekly. This project is in the very early stages of planning at the moment. I am sorry but we are unable to give you an estimated date for completion just yet….

    Thanks and regards
    Annmarie Cork

  9. Mr C

    Update

    Dear Mr C,

    Thanks for your email.

    Barnet 38 is still work in progress at the moment and we are looking at the beginning of January as an estimated completion date.

    I am sorry the date has moved out but the work is going to take this time to complete.

    Please check back nearer the date for a further update.

    Thanks and regards

    Annmarie Cork

    Fibre Enquiries, Openreach

  10. Paul

    This is hugely disappointing not seeing any progress as promised. I’m still getting the same response from OpenReach about cabinet 64 – Not commercially viable!

    Barnet council and BT please get your act together – it’s almost 2016!

  11. Duncan Macdonald

    There is no evidence of any works to Cabinet 38 that would be needed for it to be upgraded to Fibre. There was briefly a works notice on roadworks.org which showed works happening at the end of last month to create a base for a new cabinet but nothing has happened. When I contacted openreach via email they were quoting July 2016 so who know what if anything will happen. Very disappointing.

  12. s

    Apologies for the delay in responding Paul,

    I simply emailed enquire@openreach.co.uk and received a response 21 minutes later. You can fill in an online form on their website also.

    I’ll write to them again on 1st December if there is no update on the DSL checker website (https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/)

  13. Paul

    Dear Mr S.
    Could you please let me know how you got this information? I contacted OpenReach yesterday and I was told that cabinet 64 is not available to supply fibre and got the usual – “we’re working on expanding our network…£3bn…etc…”

    Given that no.64 is a short walk from no.38 hopefully it is scheduled on the same timeframe.
    Thanks,
    Paul

  14. S (Hillside Gardens)

    Message from BT regarding Cabinet 38

    Dear Mr S

    Thanks for your email.

    I have checked the latest progress on Barnet 38 and I am happy to tell you this is now in the program and we are looking at an estimated completion date of the end of November.

    Please check the availability on our website nearer the date.

    You can then choose your service provider and place your order with them once available.

    Thanks and regards

    Annmarie Cork

    Fibre Enquiries, Openreach

  15. Paul

    This is great news for those who are served by the 5x cabinets listed. Fortunately for me my cabinet (64) will be included in the upgrade, however with estimated completion dates of up to 2 years I do hope that things can move faster than this. I’m having to rely more and more on my mobile 4G connection to get anything done when the wired internet grinds to a halt! Please keep the pressure on BT/Barnet Council to get things moving.

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