Samknows exchange search

Rodney Pont

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Nov 3, 2014, 5:34:20 AM11/3/14

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It looks like the Samknows exchange search has gone and they are only
doing their line monitoring nowadays. Does anyone know of an
alternative site with the information that Samknows used to have?

--
Faster, cheaper, quieter than HS2
and built in 5 years;
UKUltraspeed <http://www.500kmh.com/>

Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd

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Nov 3, 2014, 5:56:32 AM11/3/14

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> It looks like the Samknows exchange search has gone and they are
> only
> doing their line monitoring nowadays. Does anyone know of an
> alternative site with the information that Samknows used to have?

It is still there, but very badly indexed so hard to find:

https://www.samknows.com/broadband/

You can use our CodeLook tool as well, although we only include BT
Openreach broadband, no LLU information:

http://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm

Angus

David

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Nov 3, 2014, 6:08:32 AM11/3/14

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On 03/11/2014 10:56, an...@magsys.co.uk (Angus Robertson - Magenta

Systems Ltd) wrote:
>> It looks like the Samknows exchange search has gone and they are
>> only
>> doing their line monitoring nowadays. Does anyone know of an
>> alternative site with the information that Samknows used to have?
>
> It is still there, but very badly indexed so hard to find:
>
> https://www.samknows.com/broadband/
>

For me gives out of date ISP info. some even not in business anymore.
Regards
David

Andy Burns

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Nov 3, 2014, 6:18:44 AM11/3/14

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Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd wrote:

> You can use our CodeLook tool as well, although we only include BT
> Openreach broadband, no LLU information:
>
> http://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm

Thanks, never knew you had that, unfortunately the data (from BT?)
behind it is wildly inaccurate for my location

LE8 5PW FTTC Planned by 1st January 2011 P5 100%

BT planted half a dozen FTTC cabinets in the village nearly one year
ago, none of them are live yet, even when they are it will leave several
cabinets not served by FTTC, the county council only won a single extra
cabinet in the 1st round of BDUK funding in August 2013 and that pas
planted last week, they have just won BDUK 2nd round funding for the
remaining blackspots (why don't I believe they'll cover all of them?) I
expect they'll take another 12-15 months to plant, so I doubt we'll see
service before January 2016 :-(

Rodney Pont

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Nov 3, 2014, 9:04:20 AM11/3/14

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Thanks for that Angus. I usually walk back along the URL to see how far
I can get but obviously didn't with this. I've got the Codelook page
bookmarked but it's the WBC status that I was interested in. We have
some FTTC here but do not have WBC.

Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd

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Nov 3, 2014, 9:26:24 AM11/3/14

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> Thanks, never knew you had that, unfortunately the data (from BT?)
> behind it is wildly inaccurate for my location

We simply publish the same BT Wholesale FTTC/P information all other ISPs
have access to, generally updated monthly.

The raw data varies dramatically in accuracy, and sometimes our
reformatting does add errors. In the raw data, your postcode says BDUK
Leicester 13a due 16/07/2014.

If you lookup the cabinet list (from the locality page) you'll see the
correct phase but the date has got lost, possibly due a recent database
change when all the BDUK and other regional stuff got added, I'll check out
my SQL.

Angus

Andy Burns

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Nov 3, 2014, 3:34:54 PM11/3/14

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Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd wrote:

> We simply publish the same BT Wholesale FTTC/P information all other ISPs
> have access to, generally updated monthly.

That's odd, I've never seen the reference to FTTC by 2011 for my
location on any of the other checker sites, not even sure we had ADSL2+
by then.

> The raw data varies dramatically in accuracy, and sometimes our
> reformatting does add errors. In the raw data, your postcode says BDUK
> Leicester 13a due 16/07/2014.

My cabinet (unfortunately) is number 5 from West Wigston exchange, and
is not one of those that have been FTTC enabled, I take it that e.g.
cabinet P5 will be the "companion" fibre cabinet to existing POTS cabinet 5?

> If you lookup the cabinet list (from the locality page) you'll see the
> correct phase but the date has got lost, possibly due a recent database
> change when all the BDUK and other regional stuff got added, I'll check out
> my SQL.

Thanks, going in via locality seems to be more accurate, the green
circles I presume are centres of postcode areas, rather than actual grid
locations?

Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd

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Nov 4, 2014, 3:09:33 AM11/4/14

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> That's odd, I've never seen the reference to FTTC by 2011 for my
> location on any of the other checker sites, not even sure we had
> ADSL2+ by then.

If there is no specific cabinet information, the database takes the
original phase that BT published for each exchange and puts a rough date on
it.

BT often misses cabinets, sometimes for logistically reasons, planning
permission, other works in the vicinity (mine was six months late due
massive gas pipe works) or commercial reasons, which seems to be the case
on your exchange, where some cabinets were paid for BT, others by BDUK.

Angus

Andy Burns

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Nov 4, 2014, 3:59:19 AM11/4/14

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Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd wrote:

> BT often misses cabinets, sometimes for [...] commercial reasons,

> which seems to be the case on your exchange, where some cabinets were
> paid for BT, others by BDUK.

Yes it's fairly clear the cabinets that BT skipped locally were the ones
that serve relatively few premises. If I were a BT planner I'd
*concentrate* on areas where Virgin hadn't provided multi-megabit cable
for decades!

Thanks to your data, I can see that cabinet #20, which I thought
belonged to a previous round of BDUK funding, actually belongs to the
same round as cabinet #5 which serves me, given that #20 was installed
in the last week or so, it gives me a bit more hope than I've had for
years ...

Andy Burns

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Nov 5, 2014, 3:14:27 PM11/5/14

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Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd wrote:

> If you lookup the cabinet list (from the locality page) you'll see the
> correct phase but the date has got lost, possibly due a recent database
> change when all the BDUK and other regional stuff got added, I'll check out
> my SQL.

Looks like you've been tinkering today?

Co-incidentally BT were pulling black/yellow blown fibre tubing between
the manholes in the area today.

Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd

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Nov 6, 2014, 3:03:37 AM11/6/14

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> Looks like you've been tinkering today?

Yes, I changed the application slightly, although the dataset remains the
same. BT has added a column showing the date an exchange is L2S ready,
which is a Layer 2 ethernet switch for the fibre from the cabinets, so
CodeLook now shows that date as exchange ready if the cabinet itself has no
date.

It's really a red herring in your area, since the Layer 2 Switch would have
been there years ago when other cabinets got enabled, but it's better than
estimating from the phase date.

Angus

Andy Burns

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Jan 12, 2015, 5:22:02 PM1/12/15

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Andy Burns wrote:

> Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd wrote:
>
>> If you lookup the cabinet list (from the locality page) you'll see the
>> correct phase but the date has got lost, possibly due a recent database
>> change when all the BDUK and other regional stuff got added
>

> Co-incidentally BT were pulling black/yellow blown fibre tubing between
> the manholes in the area today.

WooT! ... just seen from roadworks.org that BT have set a date for the
NGA cabinet to be installed within a month.