Fibre to Cabinet

borich_planner · 19 Jul 2010 at 23:22

So Bt (Openreach) are finally doing Gravesend Exchange with fibre to cabinet this year. Now will the speeds be 40 meg or up to 40 meg depending how far from the cabinet I am?

Borich

muon · 19 Jul 2010 at 23:35

The latter.

Sparx · 19 Jul 2010 at 23:38

Depending on how far away you are from the cabinet.

borich_planner · 19 Jul 2010 at 23:52

I'm 50 metres or so...

mast3r · 20 Jul 2010 at 11:06

if it is fiber then it will not matter how far you are from the exchange / routing cab, it is only fiber to the exchange and not from the exchange to your house, it is cable between you and there, AFAIK, If i am correct, you will get the speeds they quote.

rexehuk · 20 Jul 2010 at 11:13

I think you're confused with FTTH mast3r, this is currently not done in the UK, at least not for consumer clients paying £20/30 a month

. FTTC is generally a LOT closer to the client (within a few hundred meters) and involves laying fibre from the exchange to the cabinet box and continuing from there with standard copper. I'd estimate you would get quite a decent speed though, depending how far you are from the box on/near your street that services you. For reference I'm a bout 250m from the exchange and (50-100m from my servicing cab), my rated speed is 20Mbit and I get 19.86Mbit.

Duke · 20 Jul 2010 at 12:34

It will still depend on the distance, but will be much better as you should be close to the cab.

HangTime · 20 Jul 2010 at 13:00

Does FTTC use your phoneline to connect to the cabinet at all or is it completely seperate? i.e. is it possible to have both an ADSL connection and FTTC with only one phoneline?

Sp00n · 20 Jul 2010 at 13:02

Fibre would be a separate line wouldn't it?

blueboy2001 · 20 Jul 2010 at 13:37

You are still connected to the cabinet using your copper phone line - the data is transmitted over the copper using VDSL (similar technology to ADSL). The backhaul from the cabinet to the exchange is carried over fibre.

One thing I'm not sure of is when BT install FTTC, do they remove the copper back to the exchange and carry the voice and data over the fibre in its place?

benftl · 20 Jul 2010 at 14:03

blueboy2001 said:
One thing I'm not sure of is when BT install FTTC, do they remove the copper back to the exchange and carry the voice and data over the fibre in its place?

Nah, they install an extra cab (housing the VDSL equipment) next to the existing cabinet and use existing trunking to blow fibre back to the exchange. Existing copper is left in place for customer phones, and Infinity customers simply have their line paired across to the VDSL cab. It would seem more efficient to carry the whole lot via fibre but it's not how they're installing it atm.

tehgazza · 20 Jul 2010 at 22:55

they would be doing that in order to keep the exchange backup battery power in the exchange else they would have to fit backup facilities to the cabinets instead. helluva lot better than the FIOS implementation where they stick everything down the fiber and then you have to have the battery backup yourself. (yes i know thats FTTH but its a good enough comparison).

benftl · 20 Jul 2010 at 23:02

Good point about the battery backup.

borich_planner · 21 Jul 2010 at 10:11

Next to each cabinet in the borough they install a new one (still green) and link the fibre cabinet to the old cabinet. I got around 3 meg line here, so anything which is at least double that will be great!

Nymins · 21 Jul 2010 at 12:03

borich_planner said:
Next to each cabinet in the borough they install a new one (still green) and link the fibre cabinet to the old cabinet. I got around 3 meg line here, so anything which is at least double that will be great!

If you can order BT Infinity, then I think you will get at least 15Mb. If its lower, then they won't let you order it. But if you are 50metres from the cabinet, then you should get almost the max 40Mb.

The BT Infinity checker tends to under-estimate your speed. Some people are getting 30Mb+ and are 200 metres from the exchange.

I just checked mine and was suprised to find that my cabinet is getting done by 31st October 2010. Didn't think it would be this soon! Says ill get 21Mb down and 9.5Mb up. But i'm only about 150-180 metres from the cabinet, so I think it would be more.

Nick1881 · 21 Jul 2010 at 13:23

Does anyone know any other companies that are offering FTTC?

So far I know of

BT
IDNET
AAISP
Aquiss
Oasis Internet

I'm trying to find the best deal, IDNET is cheap but they don't have very big daytime usage and this is from 9am to midnight. Whats the point in having all that speed if you can't use it very much.

.Griff. · 21 Jul 2010 at 13:35

AAISP seem to be adopting the most sensible approach so far when it comes to pricing.

.Griff. · 21 Jul 2010 at 13:35

Nymins said:
If you can order BT Infinity, then I think you will get at least 15Mb. If its lower, then they won't let you order it.

That's not the case anymore.

OPENREACH ACCESS CHARGE CHANGE NOTICE
ACCN NUMBER:OR 186
DESCRIPTION:Addition of "up to 15Mbit/s / 2Mbit/s" FTTC Product
EFFECTIVE DATE(S):13/05/2010
SUBMITTED TO OFCOM ON:12/05/2010

Openreach is pleased to announce the price for the GEA-FTTC 15/2 Mbit/s product. The connection price will be £75 (special offers also apply) and the monthly rental will be £6.90. The product will provide customers with a downstream speed in the range of 5-15Mbit/s and an upstream speed of up to 2Mbit/s and will be available to customers who cannot get the standard GEA-FTTC 40/2 Mbit/s or 40/10 Mbit/s products.

Nymins · 21 Jul 2010 at 13:37

.Griff. said:
That's not the case anymore.

Oh. Got a link to confirm? Everywhere I've read (providers) say that a minimum of 12-15Mb will be achieved or else you don't get it basically.

EDIT: Actually I think I found what you mean. Do you mean that if at least 15Mb isn't available, that a package "Up to 15mb" will be issued?

EDIT2: Just seen your edit. Cheers!

.Griff. · 21 Jul 2010 at 13:40

Sorry for the edits.. I misplaced my bookmarks so had to search for the source info.