Waiting for fibre

So, I've finally made the decision to switch from O2 (and give up waiting for their FTTC) and go back to PlusNet and jump on to their unlimited fibre offering. I'm getting this on the BT Wholesale site:

http://i.imgur.com/sLtIEy5.png

How good are they at sticking to those dates? And why only 38.7Mbps?

"How good are they at sticking to those dates?"

the date s a placeholder and will likely be changed to 31 June, and then 31 Sept ect every three months.

Unless its changed recently.

If you are one of the first on the cabinet the speed is likely to be quite a bit higher than the estimate. As others join, it may drop towards the estimate, as crosstalk hits it.

With FTTC the distance from the cabinet affects the speed, in the same way as the distance from the exchange does on ADSLx. Just the distance from the cabinet is usually much less.

There is a graph somewhere, but I'd guess you are 600-700 cable metres from yours? Did that report give you the cabinet number? If so, find it and keep an eye open for signs of work near to it. In particular, its fibre partner arriving.

38.7Mb is the IP Profile that can be expected if the connection is able to sync at the full 40Mb (IP Profile should be around 96.79% of sync speed for VDSL2 services).

If your line is actually cabable of higher speed, it looks like you may end up provisioned on the wrong (lower speed) service.

Plusnet have recently confirmed there has been an "issue" with some new users ending up on the 40/10 service when it should have been the 80/20.

They can easily & quickly amend that manually if that is the case.

Edited by deleted (Sun 20-Jan-13 16:07:01)

Hi Roberto,

Yes, it does give the cabinet number. Is there any way of finding out which cabinet is where? (Online rather than walking the streets!).

And what do you mean by a fibre partner, is that Openreach?

On the distance � spot on Although PN told me that may be the first stage of provisioning, and that it may increase to 80/20.

For FTTC a fibre cabinet is installed failry close to the existing phone (PSTN) cabinet, and the two are linked underground. So usually possible to see pavement paint for where things are to happen, and often some trenchwork.

More information on this page.

In reply to a post by Bald_Eagle1:

38.7Mb is the IP Profile that can be expected if the connection is able to sync at the full 40Mb (IP Profile should be around 96.79% of sync speed for VDSL2 services).

If your line is actually cabable of higher speed, it looks like you may end up provisioned on the wrong (lower speed) service.

The link is to a BT Wholesale prediction of the speed on that line - the prediction is that 38.7/6 is the maximum achievable, even on an 80/20 product.

Many people find these estimates are conservative, though they may prove realistic over time as more people move to FTTC and crosstalk bites. I guess it's better to underpromise and overdeliver than the other way round.

Just to add, I don't think we're able to give the most accurate estimate until fibre has actually been implemented in your area. Hope that comes soon for you.