21CN Capacity - Impact on 20CN?

http://usertools.plus.net/status/archive/1331035095.htm

We will shortly be increasing the capacity of our 21CN host links by 1450Mbps.

Does the capacity of the 20CN links change as the 21CN links are increased? I.E. - Are there less 20CN links, or with people shifting to 21CN, is the 20CN capacity improving?

21CN uses a different connection to the internet to 20CN so there is no impact on 20CN if 21CN bandwidth is increased.

In theory as people are moved from 20CN to 21CN those left on 20CN will have more capacity between them, however Plusnet will be reducing the 20CN capacity as they see fit in order to reduce the high cost of those links. They generally don't make announcements when reducing capacity so you won't know when this occurs.

The last service status posting I saw about 20CN was to increase capacity by 1600Mbps

http://usertools.plus.net/status/archive/1318350071.htm

They have been increasing user numbers very significantly and a high proportion of those will be on 20cn only exchanges so even though some users will be being moved to 21CN I'd be surprised if they have reached the point where 20cn capacity could be reduced. In any case I bet average usage is going up and reduced pricing is available on Market 2 exchanges which probably encourages more users to upgrade to Extra to get the higher allowance.

Edited by jelv (Wed 07-Mar-12 12:57:35)

On this occasion we reduced IPSC i.e. 20CN capacity by 540Mbps. Wholesale are discontinuing IPSC at some point in 2014 if I recall correctly.

Rgds,

Does that mean ALL exchanges will be 21CN by then or will some exchanges only be served by ISPs using the old gateways?

Wholesale are retiring IPSC within the WBC footprint which I interpret to mean that there will still be the odd 20CN-only exchange knocking about.

Here's an excerpt from a Wholesale brief received late last year:

Earlier this year, BT Wholesale published its intention to withdraw its IPStream, IPStream Connect and Datastream services from exchanges where Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) exists or will exist in the near future.

During the past six months, BT Wholesale has worked closely with many of its customers to ensure a clear understanding of what needs to be done to move to the newer 21C WBC products. To ensure customers are able to easily move forward, BT Wholesale is continuing to carry out further detailed planning. It is therefore BT Wholesale's intention to move the start date of the retirement program slightly into the new year. Customers are advised not to change any plans that are already underway and to continue to move to WBC wherever possible.

The move of the start date does not change the notified final retirement date of 31st March 2014 and further announcements are expected early in January 2012 outlining the revised timescales.

If the stats shown on SamKnows are accurate surely it's going to be more than "the odd 20CN-only exchange knocking about". There are 5508 ADSL Max exchanges and only 1786 ADSL2+ / WBC enabled exchanges (which are included in the first figure). I can't see them getting anywhere near upgrading all of those in the next two years.

My interpretation of the BTw brief is that where WBC is available ISPs will not be able to use 20CN connectivity after 31st March 2014 but there will still be a very substantial number of small exchanges where they won't make the investment to provide anything better than ADSL Max (until one of the operators such as Kijoma looks like moving in when magically they will find the money).

Where an exchange is still on 20CN, the BTw notice does not say that IPSC will not be available.

Edited by jelv (Wed 07-Mar-12 16:02:20)

Bob?
Unless there is some other relevant communication, that quote says IPStream is being withdrawn as well as IPSC where WBC is enabled.

Your "within the WBC footprint" doesn't appear in the quote, but is consistent with it. I take the meaning to be that where WBC is enabled that 20CN DSLAMs will be decommissioned.

Where WBC hasn't reached I would expect IPSC still to be available. IPStream may not be though, but that's a different issue.

Sorry jelv, I didn't read your post before making mine. I think we are basically saying the same thing .

Yep, I'm happy that we had independently reached the same conclusion.

In reply to a post by jelv:

If the stats shown on SamKnows are accurate surely it's going to be more than "the odd 20CN-only exchange knocking about". There are 5508 ADSL Max exchanges and only 1786 ADSL2+ / WBC enabled exchanges (which are included in the first figure). I can't see them getting anywhere near upgrading all of those in the next two years.

Indeed. My original 21CN target was Q3 2011, which back in 2007/08 I thought was far too far off. Fast forward to Q1 2012 and it's scheduled for the end of June. Three quarters late in other words. IF they can't get the original targets in on time, and are now focussing more on fibre to prevent the Sky and Virgin cornering the market, then there's little chance of there being very few 20CN exchanges by 2014.

It will probably end up being a local and national government subsidy which moves things, allowing BT to get the upgrades without putting up the cash (which by the way it gets from the customers screaming for faster broadband).