Home fibre in the UK sucks so much it doesn't even rank in Euro study

Re: *Shrug*

I think you underestimate people.

A 10Mbps connection is no good for an average household... look at the numbers of phones, consoles, computers, laptops, tablets, etc. and it's quickly apparent you can kill someone's Netflix just by clicking a big web page.

And along those lines, you have to think - those smartphones are probably on 4G, almost certainly get 25-30Mbps themselves, just as part of a data allowance. When the phone in your pocket can service wifi to the whole house quicker and cheaper than the actual broadband connection, you have a problem.

And the phones have 25-30Mbps because they can utilise it easily. Multiply by, what, 8-10 devices in the average family household and you need 250-300Mbps to match the performance of a smartphone.

As time goes by those numbers aren't going to get any better and what's going to happen is consoles, tablets, laptops and smartTV's coming with 5G SIMs in them by default. At that point, broadband is useless unless it can deliver Gbps to the house in order to compete.

Fixed line broadband needs to buck its ideas up or people are just going to move to mobile telephony, and maybe in the most rural of regions too (two articles in the last week about 4G-to-the-sticks projects).

I run my whole house from a 4G Wifi router including Chromecast, TV streaming (no TV, just TVPlayer.com, Netflix and Amazon Prime), console, tablet, laptop with Steam games, etc. I'm not the only one in my area as the Wifi network names show that everyone is doing it. Mainly because BT can only promise 3-5Mbps to the center of a large town inside the M25, and Virgin have no infrastructure nearby.

They need to wake up and start competing (in the serviced areas, as well as the "why the hell is it not serviced" areas, not just the rural difficult places) or they are going to lose all their custom to people just using their smartphones. The younger generation are already wise to this - they YouTube and Netflix on their phones by choice (because then they can each watch something different in the same room, and individual 4G doesn't buffer anywhere near as bad as a home wifi with a load of people on it), they have "unlimited" data allowances, and they can take that wherever they go (even to a mate's house).

Asking your mates for their Wifi password is a thing of the past now. People just whip out their own smartphone and Google away. Wifi is actually generally WORSE than whatever you'll get on 4G in London.

For me to part with £50+ a month just for a broadband connection, you'd have to be offering me 200-300Mbps or more at minimum, with a generous data allowance and no bundled shite (I don't even have a TV, or a landline phone... why would I need one when I have a projector and a smartphone?)

Re: *Shrug*

"Meanwhile, in real life, most households are perfectly happy with 10Mbps, or maybe 40Mbps for a family home."

Netflix recommend 25Mb/s for 4K streaming. Imagine you're watching TV and your film stutters because your tablet or PC decides to update itself.

Also don't forget that on a 10Mb connection you'd only get about 1Mb up, which in these days of every device dumping all your data into the cloud will get contended quickly.I'm considering upgrading my 250/25Mb connection to 500/50Mb as it takes ages to back my photos up.

Re: *Shrug*

The thing about FTTP is that once the fibre is in it should be cheaper than copper to maintain and unless we have seriously gone backwards in the last 28 years that fibre should easily be capable of multiple gigabit service if the infrastructure can take it. When I worked at BTRL we could have fitted 2.4Gbit connection for a hardware cost of less than £100 back in 1990. We didnt know quite what to do with it then - and the government wouldnt let us - but what the fuck is going on now?

Re: *Shrug*

>I doubt you've had FTTC for 16 years as it has not even been around for that long.

In a sense he is right as that's what Virgin more or less run.

Re: *Shrug*

It's a VM (formerly Telewest) installation.

I've seen inside the cabinet. It's fibre.

You trust your reports, I'll trust the evidence in the ground.

(Videotron were running FTTC in the 90s)

Re: Investment in fibre

There is a difference between total cost and when that cost is incurred.

BT are aware that, given the size of their network, a nationwide rollout of FTTP is going to be a very big project, so do you ramp up your capability to deliver the project in say 5 years (then make people redundant) or do you manage expectations and do it in 20 years (and manage manpower largely through normal joiners/leaver process) ?

Ofcom will point to their desire to create a "competitive market" to justify why some areas will get multiple local loop providers and others none and why they didn't manage things to minimise duplication...

Re: It doesn't help

Nowhere do Virgin claim they do FTTP, and I fail to see where the problem lies here.

Mostly because it's confusing and misleading. Although apparently it's not according to ASA.

Nonetheless, a work colleague who is of a less technical inclination swears blind that he has fibre optic in his house. His "wifi box" plugs into the phone socket and BT never came and dug up his garden or drilled holes in his walls, but behind that socket fibre has somehow magically crystallised from naught and he will not be convinced otherwise.

Were I trying to sell a legitimate full-fat FTTP product, I would find BT and VM's misleading advertising to be deeply problematic.

Re: It doesn't help

>Cat6 will do 10Gbs

But only reliably over 50 metres, by the time you've allowed for drop cables, that is really only 30~40 metres wall-port-to-wall-port.

Been having this problem with installers, who being used to the 100 metre/1Gbps constraint, haven't appreciated the difference between 1 and 10 - it's all Gigabit Ethernet to them...

Re: It doesn't help

> Nowhere do Virgin claim they do FTTP, and I fail to see where the problem lies here.

I think the point is that if FTTC is sold as "fibre", how do you differentiate FTTP (for the lay person)?

See also "HD ready".

Re: False advertising!

@ Phil O'Sophical, You can get fibre LAN card in the computer. But those are expensive (up to $599) and that would require a different modems than are in use today. Normal Ethernet works today at the speed of 1Gbps or more (depending on hardware and cables in use) even if it is a copper connection.

Most of my LAN is at 1Gbps and I have 100Mbps fibre connection in Denmark (until I move to Iceland, then I'll be switching to VDSL connection).