Bell Canada → [Internet] Aecon playing FTTN catchup in south Kitchener

Further to my whining in this thread from earlier this year, I noticed Aecon has a full crew mobilized on King St. E. in Kitchener, today, beginning to install fibre to at least two JWIs where deadlines for scheduled upgrades hadn't been met, so I was once told. They're tackling this one first, likely since it's surrounded by asphalt/concrete and is the most difficult. A few weeks ago, utility locate markings were spray painted leading to this JWI, and the one in front of the tallest apartment @ 3227 King Street East, but there's nothing happening just down the street to JWI "304-2" -- sighhhh, what gives, Bell? As I remarked back in May, this JWI had its outer cabinet replaced over a year ago, and the network conditioning was completed earlier this year, but apparently it's still going to be overlooked?

I know there's a lot of activity in Kitchener, lately, since I see way more large Bell vehicles out and about, and a lot of them likely from out of town since they're often parked overnight at the Holiday Inn or Best Western.
Any Bell techs who lurk on these forums have any idea when JWI 304-2 (connected to the Kingsway CO) in Kitchener is scheduled to get a 7330 installed???

Any idea of one phone # in there? I need it to search when upgrades will be done.

@btech805 -- sure, any of these numbers should work; these, too (this subdivision was all built in the 1980s so everybody's F2 runs back to that particular JWI)

Both those 411 links showed up blank, give me a random address

the internet designed by DAARP.... is falling behind in the 21st century..... lack of ftth/combined with speed and affordability.... data caps are a rip off..... i bet daarp already has Fiber To The Government Secret Bases.... between bases.... not to the public

Was in kitchener today and passed the jwi you are talking about. Avertex is pushing major conduit down king st north and is almost finished that section. Almost all the due dates for all the cross boxes is kitchener/waterloo is december 31st 2013 as that seems to be the tentative deadline. There doing as fast as they can and bringing up more every week. I would assume the jwi will be done after the opi is but its going on assumption.

On that note 2 crossboxes I worked out of have the power node and bracket placed and inside the crossboxes was a coil of fibre. One tech I ran into from expertech told me there waiting on the equipment to b3 shipped.

There's your answer kw_have_not, dec 31, 2013. Now keep in mind we dont do much cabling work in the winter so I'd bet it'll be before then. Bell has a few random deadlines they impose, dec31 and feb 28 and april 30 seem to be the big ones depending on what theyre doing.

Long story short you "should be" good to go before 2014.

Hmm, okay, well since everybody frowns upon posting anything too specific, here's two active real-estate listings, x & y, for homes that are currently for sale on Stonegate Drive. If these links don't work either, just do a reserve address search on Canada411 for the aforementioned street.
You'd think property values would be lower in an area that's only eligible for Fibe 5...

So thats EXACTLY where I live.

I had a HUGE connection nightmare because Bell said they would be able to get me a 25/10 meg service. That was a flop I said fine NP. Then I saw them out there, and called teksavvy/Bell to get me connected. They wanted me to pay 50 dollars for a upgrade blah blah blah. I was like it's 8 days after my initial order! Anywho long story short... 2 modems later... 20 service charge... hours on the phone... I'm still stuck at 15/1 ADSL+. Sent both modems back and bought a 23 dollar tplink and called it a day.

I think Teksavvy should give us more info on the upgrade paths, times, and locations. Like they do with Rogers POI's

I live in the Regency -- Thats not our box? Which one is ours?

I'll be on ROGERS or LTE long before then. -- Outrageous. Like mentioned above 50 year old subdivisions have fibe yet our block of 500 users are un-needed? Or do these building have some VOR (Rogers)

Yup! And the screwy thing is watching new FTTN 7330 boxes get installed in neighbourhoods that were already capable of at least Fibe 15/10, yet other neighbourhoods that are furthest away from CO-hosted bare-minimum Fibe 5/1 continue to wait indefinitely for upgrades. I know the individual business case and unique engineering challenges play a part in which areas are first to get the benchmark Fibe TV 25/10 service, but man, there's a lot of inequity in how improved services are rolled out. I remember chatting with one of the Bell techs dispatched from Toronto, who said he had previously done network 'pruning' work in the Jane & Finch area of Toronto, which even he thought was a little strange to put a deployment priority for services in an area rife with low-income families who are unlikely to subscribe.
FWIW, I don't think any of the high-rises on King St. E. in Kitchener have exclusivity agreements with Rogers.Yeah, yours is right in front of the two driveways. It looks like Aecon's work last week was actually only to replace the previously-mentioned JWI's cabinet with one that has the hanger bracket for a 7330 remote. Pfff... they did that to mine just down the street a year ago and nothing happened since -- it's like installing a shelf and never putting anything on it. There's dedicated "Bell Telephone Company of Canada" manholes in the middle of the street; here's a perfect example, complete with remnants of "BMH10" spray paint markings on the asphalt; c'mon, guys... bring in the damn fibre, install the hardware, and get things rolling along!!

From what I've heard it's about population density and distance from the co. Jane&finch is low income but also very high density. As for distance from the co, they run fttn furthest away from the co and work their ways back as those furthest away may have little to no dsl availability and those closest at least have something

I dont really know what we can do about it to be honest kind of sad. I keep calling Bell and Teksavvy trying to get this to move on with it. I want my Fibe, 10meg upload is huge to me a lets face it 7meg service is the 56k of today.

Apperantly direct support is telling me there are no ports available is that true or it really just a lack of hardware?

By that they mean there is no hardware in the field yet

This is great in theory, but in practice, it's mostly fantasy. I've paid close attention to some low-rise, low-density neighbourhoods in southeast Kitchener that were already wired close enough to the Kingsway Drive CO to be eligible for at least Fibe 15/10, and yet new remotes were installed a year or more ago. Meanwhile, neighbourhoods that are at the 'edge' of the Fibe 5/1 range, especially the high-density apartment/condo high-rises on King St. E., are left in limbo. There are only a few other pockets within the city that have the residential population density as this area has, and this is why I'm baffled why it's been deemed a lower priority to install new remotes.
Another random, nearby example is this JWI. It services over 100 upscale detached residences, many valued at over $1,000,000, all of which are only eligible for CO-hosted Fibe 5/1 since there's no sign of a remote ever being proposed. A good number of these particular households aren't even in a Rogers zone since those cable clowns can't be bothered extending their trunk line to service them, so you'd think Bell would jump at the opportunity; alas, nope, they're too busy hooking up new remotes in areas that already had decent DSL loop length to begin with, as if they deserve slight improvements instead of vast improvements that others could realize. Sighhh...

Same story here in Ottawa, rockliffe park has about 150 homes to ambassadors and ceo types worth over $1M but again why wire up fttn for 150 homes when you can hit a high riser or housing projects and get 1000 customers for less money. As such rockliffe was one of the last neighborhoods done for fttn. Most of Ottawa is lit up now for fttn and ftth with just the remaining pockets 2km from co's that will be done in the spring.

It is coming everywhere just when and where is above my pay grade

Well its good to know, I guess -- Still I would really love to sign up for Bell especially when the site claim it can get me 10 meg up.

I guess all we can do is play the waiting game -- but I'm starting to get tempted to switch to 150/10. But from the forums teksavvy is having huge issues with them right now as well.

Sigh, I feel like I live in a country town sometimes dont you kw_have_not. Everything from proper malls, to internet, to things closing down at like 6 on a saturday. I used to live in Ottawa and things were open until 9 or 10 on Sat's.

Like Btech says it all comes down to pop-density

I think its now completed the one down the street from 304-2. It's all asphalted up.

Hopefully OURS is NEXT!

They are really picking up the pace. About 2 weeks ago I was at one cross box where gtel was putting down markings and another that had fibre coiled up now both have 7330s and are operational.

Time for me to dash your hopes: AFAIK, there's no fibre run to any of these '304-x' crossboxes, yet; all they've done is literally replace the JWI's metal cabinet with one that has a mounting bracket for the 7330 hardware. Even when everything finally comes together (my guess is that'll take another year at their glacial pace) there's still an average wait time of an additional 3 months after a new 7330 is lit up before it's put into service and accepting new customer orders.

I'm really starting to think I want to ditch bell -- only problem is teksavvy will give me a static IP on Bell not rogers, I have a little blackberry server. Maybe its time to go Office 365 and call it a day. So tired of waiting on Bell. Even my POTS line + Callerid is 48 w/tax like ummm Bell what are you guys thinking?

I need to clarify what I said earlier: I had a peek, this afternoon while driving past, and it appears as though Aecon actually finished the job at that JWI on the north side of King St. E. -- even I'm surprised. A second cabinet with external padlock is now installed behind the crossbox, and it even has new black-on-yellow labels... cripes, by comparison, it took Bell months just to affix the stupid new cabinet ID labels on the crummy "abandoned" JWI that I'm attached to just down the street! So, maybe this other one is progressing quickly towards completion. I thought it's odd to complete the FTTN upgrade on that one first since unless F2 cables run underneith King St. E. to the southside apartments other than The Regency, or under the railroad tracks to the low-rise units off Morgan Ave. (both unlikely scenarios) then it's hardly serving any customers at all.
In any case, what's materialized still doesn't prove that fibre is actually strung to any of the JWIs in this area. Am I the only one who finds it amusing to see a classic Bell manhole right beside a Bell store, where they can't even demonstrate Fibe TV?

Would make it a hard sell wouldn't it? I will keep hoping that they will do ours next. Lets keep our fingers crossed!! But really thinking of switching 1meg upload is just killer :/

i m not sure how they are doing things in your area but bell went nuts for months and months upgrading ottawa, bell trucks contractors etc. i think they might send people door to door or drop off flyers in an area that has been upgraded not exactly sure on it.

but marketing is in overdrive for fibe tv ottawa wide now. they didnt hook up the whole city overnight or over a week it took months but once completed you would not believe the marketing going on in this city at the moment for fibe its insane.

so i think they might just wait till they have the city your in hooked up and then go nuts. to start marketing the service just because the odd box here and there lights up is not the plan. too many calls generated that they cant sign up. you need to hang in for a bit till the job is done. when they are ready you wont be able to turn around, open a paper anything without seeing a reference to fibe

Most of the city was good to go this past spring but they waited until September to start the marketing, and it isn't going to stop for a few weeks, $2M over 6 weeks buys a lot of radio time, and oc transpo buses...that being said, theres a second launch for the west end this winter. We've been doing fibe installs in Ottawa for about a year and a half but it's taken this long to get everyone lit up or have access to it

I will keep everyone posted as I live in the building. I'm really hoping we are the next ones up!! I keep calling Bell and filling out their survey and boasting at the managers. Hopefully someone with a high pay grade hears us out!

Looks like Bell is falling behind again on their Fibe deployments. Giving an arbitrary deadline of December 31, 2013 means that work won't be done in the winter due to the freezing cold that Canadian winters are known for.

Looks like Bell is overstretched and severely behind their deployment schedules and considering that the GTA has spotty FTTN coverage at best (mostly ADSL2+ with some VDSL2 pockets) Bell should focus on introducing VDSL and the accompanying 7330 Remotes to areas with only Legacy DSL as that should be a priority.

Hear, hear!! +1 to that statement.