The haves and have nots mapped out for the first time by postcode
The launch today of the trefor.net FTTC and FTTP interactive mapping service for the first time lets people check on a map whether they are winners or losers in the NGA broadband postcode lottery.
It is still relatively early days in a very long rollout plan that due to lack of a business case has no completion date. This mapping service shows clearly whether you are going to be able to get Next Generation Access broadband – also known as Fibre broadband.
The map allows users to drill down to their own street/postcode to see whether they are in the planned rollout and tells them in which phase their cabinet will be enabled.
This does bring home the stark nature of the “Digital Divide”. There are great swathes of the country that are not covered. It also shows how you don’t actually have to live in the country to be on the wrong side of the Digital Divide. Areas can be seen where one street is enabled and the next not.
There are many reasons why this might be the case including problems with planning applications and difficulties on the ground. It is BTs stated objective to use FTTP as an infill in these areas where perhaps a home is serviced directly from the exchange rather than the cabinet or where there have been practical difficulties in delivering FTTC.
Regardless of these localised issues it may be seen that living in a big city is no guarantee that you will get fast broadband.
4 replies on “FTTC Availability Mapped Out by Postcode Shows True Nature of Digital Divide in UK”
Bad timing for you, it seems Thinkbroadband did something similar a few hours earlier hehe.
This map is more informative, because thinkbroadband’s map doesn’t show actual street cabinets, which are quite important when trying to estimate your likely download/upload speed before signing up for an FTTC connection.
I would expect you to get better performance from FTTC than ADSL2+. BT guarantees 15Megs – they won’t enable the line if they think it will do less. The average speeds in the trials were around 25Megs though I don’t know what the number is now that they are in production as I don’t get to see everyone elese numbers.
Note that each icon represents a postcode and refers to a specific cabinet number – might not necessarily be the same location as the cab but you can usually switch to street view and see where it is.
Thanks for doing this 🙂