Will 'Normal' Broadband speeds increase with fibre?
Discussion
Sorry for the poor title... Ran out of characters!
What I mean is: Do you think it is likely that broadband data speeds for those of us who are non-fibre/cable customers will increase at all with the proliferation of fibre exchanges, lines and cabinets?
I note that the new BT fibre cabinets are simply everywhere now, even in the smaller villages, and I'm wondering what knock on impact this will have on non-fibre customers?
Broadband speeds in my rural County tend to be quite poor. 5-10mbps, possibly up to 15mbps seems to be around the maximum, with some areas hovering around the 3-5mpbs range.
In my naive non-techy mind I tend to think I that if the whole system/network is now operating much faster from a national to a street level, it might follow that this speed increase will spill down to standard broadband customers. But maybe the technology in delivering the connection the last 500 metres to your home prevents this?
Any thoughts?
What I mean is: Do you think it is likely that broadband data speeds for those of us who are non-fibre/cable customers will increase at all with the proliferation of fibre exchanges, lines and cabinets?
I note that the new BT fibre cabinets are simply everywhere now, even in the smaller villages, and I'm wondering what knock on impact this will have on non-fibre customers?
Broadband speeds in my rural County tend to be quite poor. 5-10mbps, possibly up to 15mbps seems to be around the maximum, with some areas hovering around the 3-5mpbs range.
In my naive non-techy mind I tend to think I that if the whole system/network is now operating much faster from a national to a street level, it might follow that this speed increase will spill down to standard broadband customers. But maybe the technology in delivering the connection the last 500 metres to your home prevents this?
Any thoughts?
durbster said:
Nope, afraid not. The cables are connected to a different system, which is the point where the speed becomes limited.
Interesting.Thought it might be something like that, but was unsure due to work colleagues informing me that on fibre installation to their homes, no new cables were required, just the good old 'copper pair'.
NinjaPower said:
Interesting.
Thought it might be something like that, but was unsure due to work colleagues informing me that on fibre installation to their homes, no new cables were required, just the good old 'copper pair'.
That is because they are getting mixed up between fibre-to-the-cabinet and fibre-to-the-home. fttc WILL improve your speed as the signal quality is not being degraded by miles of copper, rather just a few hundred metres of copper. You are still limited by the ADSL speed though Iirc. Virgin is also fttc, but they use coaxial cable from the cabinet to the home which has better transfer speeds than twisted pair. AFAIK there is no true ftth in this country yet.Thought it might be something like that, but was unsure due to work colleagues informing me that on fibre installation to their homes, no new cables were required, just the good old 'copper pair'.
NinjaPower said:
What I mean is: Do you think it is likely that broadband data speeds for those of us who are non-fibre/cable customers will increase at all with the proliferation of fibre exchanges, lines and cabinets?
No, the theoretical maximum throughput you can achieve for a given connection type (ADSL, FTTC) is limited by the line length and quality. BT Wholesale are pretty good at ensuring their backhaul network is not the point of congestion / contention, so any slowdown is usually down to the ISP under-provisioning its own links, either from the backhaul network or to the rest of the internet.Not in my experience, our little estate was build whilst the local area was being made 'Fibre Ready' and, well someone dropped a ball because they didn't bother to run it to us - we're a copper cable island in a sea of fibre and aren't likely to get it until the rest of the country has had it and they come back to fill in the blanks.
5 years ago we could achieve 3.8Mbps and how we can achieve 3.8Mbps - we were told as more people switched to fibre it would lift traffic from the network and make our connection better - but it hasn't really happened.
5 years ago we could achieve 3.8Mbps and how we can achieve 3.8Mbps - we were told as more people switched to fibre it would lift traffic from the network and make our connection better - but it hasn't really happened.
NinjaPower said:
durbster said:
Nope, afraid not. The cables are connected to a different system, which is the point where the speed becomes limited.
Interesting.Thought it might be something like that, but was unsure due to work colleagues informing me that on fibre installation to their homes, no new cables were required, just the good old 'copper pair'.
it;s not until you get to FTTP that the fibre actually reaches the premises
as others have said as people move to FTTC the 'old' ADSL system may have reduced contention leading to an effective speed increase at busy times
P-Jay said:
5 years ago we could achieve 3.8Mbps and how we can achieve 3.8Mbps - we were told as more people switched to fibre it would lift traffic from the network and make our connection better - but it hasn't really happened.
The problem is that if 3.8Mbps is the speed you connect to the exchange with then this is limited by the length and quality of copper and not the back haul network contention. Therefore people moving to fibre is not going to help....My dad was on copper at about 500kb and our adsl is circa 2mb from an exchange with only 498 connections and I'm about 5 miles away.
I can't see us ever having proper landline broadband. I pay for expensive wireless product which gives me 10-12mb and 1mb up. But expensive!
They should ban any increase in speeds until everyone is at a min of 15mb.. if I used ADSL I basically couldn't easily use the web!
I can't see us ever having proper landline broadband. I pay for expensive wireless product which gives me 10-12mb and 1mb up. But expensive!
They should ban any increase in speeds until everyone is at a min of 15mb.. if I used ADSL I basically couldn't easily use the web!
ReallyReallyGood said:
In theory there might be less contention at the exchange as customers migrate from broadband to fibre, but I wouldn't expect much gain, and I may be talking out of my arse.
It's a fair point. But as you note, the gains will be minimal if any - it would essentially mean you'd be able to get max speed more often rather than an improved max.I wonder when home or business internet connections will become truly wireless?
Most people seem to absolutely loathe paying for a landline just to have an Internet connection, and quite a few people I know have gone for those 3G/4G home router things and ditched the land line and home phone altogether.
I was at a friends house who had an EE wifi device and it was rapid compared to my own broadband at home across the other side of town. He was getting about 18-19mbps from it.
I guess it's easier to move them as well since more and more people rent houses or apartments.
Most people seem to absolutely loathe paying for a landline just to have an Internet connection, and quite a few people I know have gone for those 3G/4G home router things and ditched the land line and home phone altogether.
I was at a friends house who had an EE wifi device and it was rapid compared to my own broadband at home across the other side of town. He was getting about 18-19mbps from it.
I guess it's easier to move them as well since more and more people rent houses or apartments.
NinjaPower said:
I wonder when home or business internet connections will become truly wireless?
Most people seem to absolutely loathe paying for a landline just to have an Internet connection, and quite a few people I know have gone for those 3G/4G home router things and ditched the land line and home phone altogether.
I was at a friends house who had an EE wifi device and it was rapid compared to my own broadband at home across the other side of town. He was getting about 18-19mbps from it.
I guess it's easier to move them as well since more and more people rent houses or apartments.
The latency will be much higher as is the chance of interference from difference souces, pro's and con's to everything unfortunately.Most people seem to absolutely loathe paying for a landline just to have an Internet connection, and quite a few people I know have gone for those 3G/4G home router things and ditched the land line and home phone altogether.
I was at a friends house who had an EE wifi device and it was rapid compared to my own broadband at home across the other side of town. He was getting about 18-19mbps from it.
I guess it's easier to move them as well since more and more people rent houses or apartments.
NinjaPower said:
I wonder when home or business internet connections will become truly wireless?
Most people seem to absolutely loathe paying for a landline just to have an Internet connection, and quite a few people I know have gone for those 3G/4G home router things and ditched the land line and home phone altogether.
I was at a friends house who had an EE wifi device and it was rapid compared to my own broadband at home across the other side of town. He was getting about 18-19mbps from it.
I guess it's easier to move them as well since more and more people rent houses or apartments.
There's no technical reason a landline is required to be active in the traditional sense - other countries offer naked ADSL.Most people seem to absolutely loathe paying for a landline just to have an Internet connection, and quite a few people I know have gone for those 3G/4G home router things and ditched the land line and home phone altogether.
I was at a friends house who had an EE wifi device and it was rapid compared to my own broadband at home across the other side of town. He was getting about 18-19mbps from it.
I guess it's easier to move them as well since more and more people rent houses or apartments.
As stated above, yes FTTP (fibre to the premises) is available - https://www.seethelight.co.uk/ is one of such ISP's offering it in Bristol and I'm guessing other areas? Basically you end up with fibre to your house, from a cabinet, which is then terminated in such properties.
To also repeat what others have said, an ISP (BT, Virgin, etc) has an exchange (big building, massive backbone, interwebs) in an area. From there it runs its cable to a cabinet on a street, then from that cabinet is juicy copper to your house.
All BT have done is replaced the copper from their exchange to their cabinet to your home WITH fibre to their cabinets to their existing copper to your home. (Virgins way)
It's hard to explain but, digging up existing roads and getting planning permission for everything is a pain. What would be a solution is to run fibre cables down existing services... hahahaha yes minefield ahead with all the gas/elecy/water operators at loggerheads.
End result, end user gets shafted. However go into most new-builds where road networks, general infrastructure, life is thought about and you're eligible for 300meg broadband at silly cheap prices compared to those who live in a 1600's village lucky to get 3meg.
Guess I'll make do with 152Mb/12Mb in a s
t part of Bristol. Meh.
To also repeat what others have said, an ISP (BT, Virgin, etc) has an exchange (big building, massive backbone, interwebs) in an area. From there it runs its cable to a cabinet on a street, then from that cabinet is juicy copper to your house.
All BT have done is replaced the copper from their exchange to their cabinet to your home WITH fibre to their cabinets to their existing copper to your home. (Virgins way)
It's hard to explain but, digging up existing roads and getting planning permission for everything is a pain. What would be a solution is to run fibre cables down existing services... hahahaha yes minefield ahead with all the gas/elecy/water operators at loggerheads.
End result, end user gets shafted. However go into most new-builds where road networks, general infrastructure, life is thought about and you're eligible for 300meg broadband at silly cheap prices compared to those who live in a 1600's village lucky to get 3meg.
Guess I'll make do with 152Mb/12Mb in a s
t part of Bristol. Meh.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff