Paying for Fibre Broadband Worth It?

[Veccy208]

Hi All

I'm looking at a good deal on Fibre Broadband but I live in the country and my house is up a quarter mile lane with the phone line coming up on (old) poles. Fibre has just recently been introduced at the exchange so I imagine the rest of the BT infrastructure in the area is pretty old.

My question is, if I pay for Fibre Broadband will I be wasting my money? surely it will be quick up until it reaches the exchange, or even the bottom of my lane then the old cable from the road to the house will slow it down again?

Hopefully you can make sense of what I'm asking here.

Thanks

[hyphen]

The contract should have a 14/30 day cancellation period. I imagine performance will be very location dependent, so not something someone on the internet can tell you.

I would get it installed and cancel if not happy.

[TooMany2cvs]

How rural are you? Does your phone line come off a cabinet (FTTC), or direct from the exchange (FTTP)?

We're in the boonies, and have no cabinet - our line comes straight off the exchange which is about 3km away in a straight line - the wire doesn't follow a straight line...

So, when Openreach put fibre in here, it goes to the premises. Our £75 install fee saw two poles being replaced, and a fibre across a field to our back gate, then the fibre modem installed under the stairs.

ADSL - 3mbit. Fibre - 53mbit. Couple of quid a month extra. So, for us, no-brainer...

[wiggy001]

Try one of the speed estimators such as http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/spe... to get a rough idea of speeds you could expect then, as already mentioned, sign up but be prepared to cancel within the initial period if it's not up to scratch.

[GrumpyTwig]

What speed do you get at the moment? That's usually a good gauge of the existing line quality, say you get 60% of ADSL2 you could expect similar of FTTC.

[KTF]

If you to switch to fibre, make sure it is an unlimited plan. Capped ones are almost useless.

[Veccy208]

TooMany2cvs said:

How rural are you? Does your phone line come off a cabinet (FTTC), or direct from the exchange (FTTP)?

We are only 1 mile from a small town so not terribly out of the way, not sure on the FTTC/FTTP bit. The main concern was the bit of cable running up the lane as I presume this would technically be my problem as is on private land? I'm getting 2/3Mb at the min so its not terribly slow.

Thanks for the other replies. I think I will go ahead and then cancel if the speed isn't satisfactory.

[TooMany2cvs]

Veccy208 said:

We are only 1 mile from a small town so not terribly out of the way, not sure on the FTTC/FTTP bit.

Almost certainly cabinet, then.

Veccy208 said:

The main concern was the bit of cable running up the lane as I presume this would technically be my problem as is on private land?

No, it's Openreach's kit right up to your phone master socket.

Veccy208 said:

I'm getting 2/3Mb at the min so its not terribly slow.

That IS terribly slow...

TBH, if you're that near town, probably getting the phone line looked at would get your speed right up. If you don't know where the exchange is, then try https://availability.samknows.com/broadband/broadb.... It's not 100% correct - it says we can't get FTTP here... But if you combine that with info about the exchange from SamKnows, and whatever your local council's faster broadband initiative website says (and there WILL be one), then you can get a decent idea.

[PositronicRay]

TooMany2cvs said:

Veccy208 said:

We are only 1 mile from a small town so not terribly out of the way, not sure on the FTTC/FTTP bit.

Almost certainly cabinet, then.

Veccy208 said:

The main concern was the bit of cable running up the lane as I presume this would technically be my problem as is on private land?

No, it's Openreach's kit right up to your phone master socket.

Veccy208 said:

I'm getting 2/3Mb at the min so its not terribly slow.

That IS terribly slow...

.

I've been on less than that and stuff has been ok, recently moved and was down to 0.8mb TV wouldn't work. Went to fibre and now on 25mb which is fine.

[CountryBuoy]

TooMany2cvs said:

That IS terribly slow...

Not here it's not That's the contract I'm on though from before the fibre was available. Have been offered 32mb with new package. Good to know that open reach are responsible. That has put my mind at ease.

Thanks for all the contribution all. Very much appreciated