BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,805
Not really jealous of those getting 900+ but having moved from having a couple of 80/20 lines to a single approx. 30/6 FTTC connection it is painful - even supplementing it with 4G:

https://www.speedtest.net/result/9910747424.png

I'd still be far happier with a 80/20 connection. But as before I'm lucky to even have this here - all the surrounding areas are having a good day if they are getting 3Mbit on their ADSL :(
 
Associate
Joined
7 Jun 2012
Posts
35
It was only about a month on my road.

All the roads surrounding my cul-de-sac have all had the poles upgraded in the last couple of weeks and are already showing on the Fibre First checker as FTTP available. The pole in our cul-de-sac hasn't been touched, so no FTTP here yet :(
 
Caporegime
Joined
28 Oct 2003
Posts
31,840
Location
Chestershire
All the roads surrounding my cul-de-sac have all had the poles upgraded in the last couple of weeks and are already showing on the Fibre First checker as FTTP available. The pole in our cul-de-sac hasn't been touched, so no FTTP here yet :(

Oooh, I had a look on the website you mention. The road behind mine is saying FTTP is available to those addresses. Mine isn't. But time must be drawing near...

Then I remember I've still got 6 months contract with Sky to go yet. :(
 
Associate
Joined
15 Mar 2005
Posts
1,534
Hello everyone,

If I post a pic of the wiring behind my master socket, will someone be able to comment if it looks "right"?

Compared to other online pics I've found it looks different i.e. the wires seem to go up, possibly to an upstairs extension (not used).

Thanks
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
26,052
I've just done a little experiment as a relative asked me for help and then swore blind that I was wrong about the services available to people. I think there's a real need for some sort of multi-network availability checker that actually works - Ofcom tell people to go off and use price comparison sites, so I did that with where I live currently. I went to Google and searched "broadband price comparison", and picked all the non-sponsored results from the first page. I think I've covered most of the UK market with this.

For reference, it's a street with about 20 houses on. Half of them have access to Virgin Media, the other half do not. Ofcom's own address data is accurate, and going to Virgin Media's website direct gives accurate results. The only broadband option at my address is Openreach FTTC and ADSL. There is no FTTP and no G.fast.

Out of all the sites, only one asked for an address rather than simply running a postcode search. GoCompare seem to have by far the worst system as they will always present BT FTTP and EE G.fast as options, as well as Virgin Media if VM exists anywhere in the postcode.

ZdAsb1X.png

So while I think people should check for broadband availability before they move house, obviously there's no point checking any of the price comparison sites. Just for reference I've checked an address that I know is in the middle of nowhere, and GoCompare is just churning out complete crap:

oVUjlUR.png
AAMKHOW.png
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
Posts
7,176
This is the networking sub forum on OCUK, you’d hope the people likely to be reading this are generally going to understand why price is not a meaningful basis of comparison when it comes to network connectivity, you’d also hope they understand that a price comparison site is the last place you go, they’re just stealing your TCB/Quidco commission. It should be stating the obvious to say if you aren’t checking samknows/OR/VM and any altnet/wisp operating in the area and using full address info, you’re wasting your time.
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
26,052
There's a huge issue around discoverability of altnets though which really could do with being addressed. Ofcom see selecting a provider as being an area where price comparison sites can help they even have an accreditation scheme for some(https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-tel...-consumers/costs-and-billing/price-comparison), they are just using crap data. This issue then compounds itself when estate agents partner with the price comparison sites to provide estimated internet speeds available at properties, and present the same garbage data to people.

I recently had a requirement to see what connectivity was available at a location and I consider myself fairly good at finding this sort of stuff out. First step was to get an accurate address sorted, everything looked like the best option was FTTC. The Ofcom checker was showing 900 Mbps symmetrical available but their checker doesn't expose what providers are offering it. It turns out that it was a business-park specific service operated by M12 (Giganet) but the only way I found this out was by seeing a CityFibre deployment close by, seeing Giganet were one of their partners and putting the postcode into their site.

This data obviously exists because Ofcom use it to report on superfast/ultrafast/sub-10Mbps coverage, I guess they feel that it's not their job to tell you which providers to approach.
 
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Associate
Joined
15 Mar 2005
Posts
1,534
Post away - should be easy to tell

d026f6aeca0ed91416ec3c939333613c-full.jpg


3bf81fa6b646ad8fe3a3f6185076dfc8-full.jpg


This does give you any idea? Thanks
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
Posts
7,176
That looks normal - you have an active pair on blue/light blue, any extension feed would come from the points on the left (5,3,2), so the rest of the pairs are likely unused.
 
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