Discussion
Casually checking BT's FTTP page and was surprised it's saying we finally have the service. I had to check twice but I'm very excited.
Although a bit strange as my current package is priced about £20pm cheaper for new customers...
Anyway, engineer appointment booked in 2 weeks. Anyone here upgraded from FTTC to FTTP with BT?
I already have their Smart Hub 2 and Total WiFi with the mesh discs. Just wondering if the engineer needs to enter the property, or any new equipment would be sent to me? I am not charged for both so just wondering.
Although a bit strange as my current package is priced about £20pm cheaper for new customers...
Anyway, engineer appointment booked in 2 weeks. Anyone here upgraded from FTTC to FTTP with BT?
I already have their Smart Hub 2 and Total WiFi with the mesh discs. Just wondering if the engineer needs to enter the property, or any new equipment would be sent to me? I am not charged for both so just wondering.
Yes they do. They need to install a fibre modem in the house - its about the size of a fag packet and needs power. Had mine done a month or so back, huge improvement in speed, zero dropouts (my fttc used to reset a few times a week).
The hub doesn’t do WiFi6, so each device never really gets more than 350mb/s /first-world problem. The new hub covers much better than my older Hub 6.
And, as you say, cheaper than my Ultimate 2 or whatever it’s called. Annoyingly, I did lose my free BT Sports, but on the flip side got double data on my phone.
The hub doesn’t do WiFi6, so each device never really gets more than 350mb/s /first-world problem. The new hub covers much better than my older Hub 6.
And, as you say, cheaper than my Ultimate 2 or whatever it’s called. Annoyingly, I did lose my free BT Sports, but on the flip side got double data on my phone.
Spoke to an Openreach Tech who had his head in a chamber last month and am waiting for orders to open on my street.
What I didn't realise is that most Openreach home FTTC uses optical TDM so its not a pure 1G symmetrical link, but even so its got to be better than our VDSL.
Actually, just checked and its now open for order !!!!
Yay hay.
What I didn't realise is that most Openreach home FTTC uses optical TDM so its not a pure 1G symmetrical link, but even so its got to be better than our VDSL.
Actually, just checked and its now open for order !!!!
Yay hay.
MrOrange said:
Yes they do. They need to install a fibre modem in the house - its about the size of a fag packet and needs power. Had mine done a month or so back, huge improvement in speed, zero dropouts (my fttc used to reset a few times a week).
The hub doesn’t do WiFi6, so each device never really gets more than 350mb/s /first-world problem. The new hub covers much better than my older Hub 6.
And, as you say, cheaper than my Ultimate 2 or whatever it’s called. Annoyingly, I did lose my free BT Sports, but on the flip side got double data on my phone.
Thanks for the reply The hub doesn’t do WiFi6, so each device never really gets more than 350mb/s /first-world problem. The new hub covers much better than my older Hub 6.
And, as you say, cheaper than my Ultimate 2 or whatever it’s called. Annoyingly, I did lose my free BT Sports, but on the flip side got double data on my phone.
Do you know if they need to drill holes for cables etc?
I'm currently using Smart Hub 2 with Complete WiFi and it's brilliant, really want to keep that if possible.
Gary C said:
Spoke to an Openreach Tech who had his head in a chamber last month and am waiting for orders to open on my street.
What I didn't realise is that most Openreach home FTTC uses optical TDM so its not a pure 1G symmetrical link, but even so its got to be better than our VDSL.
Actually, just checked and its now open for order !!!!
Yay hay.
Yes, I've been checking every 2 weeks or so, not too sure why I just thought I'd checked today. I think if it's any later the engineer appointment might've been next year.What I didn't realise is that most Openreach home FTTC uses optical TDM so its not a pure 1G symmetrical link, but even so its got to be better than our VDSL.
Actually, just checked and its now open for order !!!!
Yay hay.
I don't think there are that many residential BB providers fully symmetrical, unless you are lucky enough to live in a place like Milton Keynes.
I have a mate in MK he gets City Fibre cheaper that BT's max package price and it's 1G symmetrical fibre.
I've splashed out for the 900MB down/140MB up BT package which will do me just fine
anxious_ant said:
Thanks for the reply
Do you know if they need to drill holes for cables etc?
I'm currently using Smart Hub 2 with Complete WiFi and it's brilliant, really want to keep that if possible.
Yes, they drilled a single new hole in the wall for the new fibre optic cable. Engineer said they couldn’t use the existing hole where the previous copper/alu line came in. I have a very short-run duct (basically a plastic pipe set in the ground) between the nearest road duct and the front wall of my house. Its the same duct/run that my FTTC service came down.Do you know if they need to drill holes for cables etc?
I'm currently using Smart Hub 2 with Complete WiFi and it's brilliant, really want to keep that if possible.
Did have the option of changing where in the house the cable came through, but it would have been externally routed and pinned to the wall. Nor did we need it, once you have that kinda throughput then everything in the house can go wireless.
MrOrange said:
anxious_ant said:
Thanks for the reply
Do you know if they need to drill holes for cables etc?
I'm currently using Smart Hub 2 with Complete WiFi and it's brilliant, really want to keep that if possible.
Yes, they drilled a single new hole in the wall for the new fibre optic cable. Engineer said they couldn’t use the existing hole where the previous copper/alu line came in. I have a very short-run duct (basically a plastic pipe set in the ground) between the nearest road duct and the front wall of my house. Its the same duct/run that my FTTC service came down.Do you know if they need to drill holes for cables etc?
I'm currently using Smart Hub 2 with Complete WiFi and it's brilliant, really want to keep that if possible.
Did have the option of changing where in the house the cable came through, but it would have been externally routed and pinned to the wall. Nor did we need it, once you have that kinda throughput then everything in the house can go wireless.
BT guy was perfectly ok with adding a 5m run.
Thanks for the replies all
We have a hole at the side of the house where the Sky cable enters the house, but the other side is now hidden behind massive cabinet.
Our existing phone line comes in from the front of the house so wouldn’t mind another hole nearby.
If the broadband is full fibre I wonder why I still need a phone line with my package. We don’t use the landline at all.
Due to how the devices are spread in my house, I would have to use WiFi for most of them, which is a shame as I don’t think WiFi would get the full 900Mbps. We shall see, might invest in some home plugs too.
We have a hole at the side of the house where the Sky cable enters the house, but the other side is now hidden behind massive cabinet.
Our existing phone line comes in from the front of the house so wouldn’t mind another hole nearby.
If the broadband is full fibre I wonder why I still need a phone line with my package. We don’t use the landline at all.
Due to how the devices are spread in my house, I would have to use WiFi for most of them, which is a shame as I don’t think WiFi would get the full 900Mbps. We shall see, might invest in some home plugs too.
Edited by anxious_ant on Sunday 13th December 11:54
Also, for those who upgraded from BT, did you reuse your router? Or do your know what router you get? In my invoice it says Smart Hub 2 which is the same router I have currently.
I have upgraded to it (plus mesh WiFi discs) few months ago and I’m currently on the fastest FTTC package.
I would really like to keep using it as it’s brilliant.
I have upgraded to it (plus mesh WiFi discs) few months ago and I’m currently on the fastest FTTC package.
I would really like to keep using it as it’s brilliant.
anxious_ant said:
Also, for those who upgraded from BT, did you reuse your router? Or do your know what router you get? In my invoice it says Smart Hub 2 which is the same router I have currently.
I have upgraded to it (plus mesh WiFi discs) few months ago and I’m currently on the fastest FTTC package.
I would really like to keep using it as it’s brilliant.
As long as the router has the red WAN input it can be re-used, apparently.I have upgraded to it (plus mesh WiFi discs) few months ago and I’m currently on the fastest FTTC package.
I would really like to keep using it as it’s brilliant.
We had the HH6, without the red ethernet input, so got a new SH2 as part of upgrade.
Apart from inputting new password / SSID into everything, it's been perfectly reliable.
Just ordered the full fibre 900 but the first install date available is Feb 1st ! ah well.
Think we were very lucky. They redeveloped a huge victorian hospital at the top of our road and Openreach installed new fibre from the exchange to handle it into the same chambers that our VDSL uses. I think they then took the opportunity to use the excess capacity to run down our road.
Think we were very lucky. They redeveloped a huge victorian hospital at the top of our road and Openreach installed new fibre from the exchange to handle it into the same chambers that our VDSL uses. I think they then took the opportunity to use the excess capacity to run down our road.
MrOrange said:
Yes, they drilled a single new hole in the wall for the new fibre optic cable. Engineer said they couldn’t use the existing hole where the previous copper/alu line came in.
Does voice come over the fibre too? I understood they were sticking with copper for voice at the moment, but there is a plan to get rid of copper from the network.Our village was torn apart by Openreach during the first lockdown as they installed the infrastructure. Maybe the work is different in other places, but we couldn't have failed to notice it being done. Very few people so far seemed to have signed up - we've got decent enough 80/20Mb FTTC.
Sheepshanks said:
Does voice come over the fibre too? I understood they were sticking with copper for voice at the moment, but there is a plan to get rid of copper from the network.
Our village was torn apart by Openreach during the first lockdown as they installed the infrastructure. Maybe the work is different in other places, but we couldn't have failed to notice it being done. Very few people so far seemed to have signed up - we've got decent enough 80/20Mb FTTC.
I will get voice over the fibre.Our village was torn apart by Openreach during the first lockdown as they installed the infrastructure. Maybe the work is different in other places, but we couldn't have failed to notice it being done. Very few people so far seemed to have signed up - we've got decent enough 80/20Mb FTTC.
As to the speed, is guaranteed to be at least 450Mbps download and as our son is a professional musician and does lots of high quality live streaming for his company from home, we do notice a slowdown in none prioritised services (using QoS to ensure his output is not stuttering) so the extra bandwidth will be welcome.
Might even make the house more saleable
Edited by Gary C on Sunday 13th December 12:29
JonChalk said:
As long as the router has the red WAN input it can be re-used, apparently.
We had the HH6, without the red ethernet input, so got a new SH2 as part of upgrade.
Apart from inputting new password / SSID into everything, it's been perfectly reliable.
Awesome, thanks again for the reply. I’m hoping I can reuse my SH2 so I don’t need to run through the setup again. We had the HH6, without the red ethernet input, so got a new SH2 as part of upgrade.
Apart from inputting new password / SSID into everything, it's been perfectly reliable.
Some of my smart devices are a bit painful to reconnect, plus I have setup some restrictions too.
Gary C said:
Just ordered the full fibre 900 but the first install date available is Feb 1st ! ah well.
Think we were very lucky. They redeveloped a huge victorian hospital at the top of our road and Openreach installed new fibre from the exchange to handle it into the same chambers that our VDSL uses. I think they then took the opportunity to use the excess capacity to run down our road.
Looks like we are on the same package, which has a guarantee of at least 450mbps. I think BT is a bit careful with their guarantees as I’m currently in 70, guaranteed 30 but I never get less than 60 whole day.Think we were very lucky. They redeveloped a huge victorian hospital at the top of our road and Openreach installed new fibre from the exchange to handle it into the same chambers that our VDSL uses. I think they then took the opportunity to use the excess capacity to run down our road.
We’ve got fibre in our street almost 2 years ago so I guess it would make sense for BT to finally provide FTTP.
I’ve got the FTTP. It has the little modem on the wall, connected into a new BT Hub.
I take a link from the hub, into my Orbi mesh to distribute through the house. WiFi clients only get 350Mbit but that’s the limitations of WiFi.
As the fibre is terminated in my office, I can hard wire my kit and get the full 900Mbit.
FWIW - My phone is still on copper.
M
I take a link from the hub, into my Orbi mesh to distribute through the house. WiFi clients only get 350Mbit but that’s the limitations of WiFi.
As the fibre is terminated in my office, I can hard wire my kit and get the full 900Mbit.
FWIW - My phone is still on copper.
M
I am disappointed to find I still can only get FTTC and even then maximum speed is around 70GB.
I mean, it's OK but in this day and age I really would like to get a higher speed.
Virgin Cable is still not available here either so really I don't think we'll get any more investment in our infrastructure here.
I mean, it's OK but in this day and age I really would like to get a higher speed.
Virgin Cable is still not available here either so really I don't think we'll get any more investment in our infrastructure here.
Sheepshanks said:
Very few people so far seemed to have signed up - .
Also, since Openreach started the build in June (and have just finished) they have not actually told anyone. I only know because I talked to the tech in the street and I imagine less tech aware people will have thought they were just doing maintenance.Surprised they didn't put flyers through everyone's door.
Interestingly, a survey reckoned it puts about 5K on your house price at the moment while its still comparatively rare.
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