| Posted: Friday 9th April 2004 by
Sam |
Following the release of 188 new RFS dates yesterday, many people have been wondering why so many exchanges have such long lead times. Well, I asked BT about the two exchanges that have received the most interest - Fenwick and Colinsborough - both of which have RFS dates will into 2006.
Both of these exchanges require a new CJ cable. A description of CJ cables was provided by BT: "CJ cables are the core cables which connect together Telephone Exchanges, and also Major Customer Sites, within a zone. In addition, new ducting to bring the new cable to the exchange needs to be prepared."
They were keen to stress that these dates are likely to be brought forward in the future. After all, if BT want 100% coverage by 2005, then setting dates in 2006 seems somewhat counter-productive.
In a related issue, the weekly number of exchanges reaching their triggers has been decreasing quite rapidly lately. 3 weeks ago we hit an all time high of 96 exchanges triggering in one week. This week we're down to 40 - a 14-week low. You can follow this trend by clicking here. I will be adding more graphs to those pages in the next day or two. |