BT Infinity?

Hi guys,

I have seen adverts for BT Infinity lately and like the looks of it.

Now I live in the north of Scotland, where there is no fibre optic broadband, infact my exchange:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/NSLOS

Only has ADSL Max, no 21CN or ADSL+2, with the my max speed around 7mb's

I was wondering if BT will be laying fibre optic cables further up Scotland in the future? I e-mailed BT and was told that they do not have dates for my area, but were hoping to get 94% of homes around Britain ready for fibre optic broadband by 2012. Would this be possible, getting that amount of homes fibre optic by 2012?

Steve

I e-mailed BT and was told that they do not have dates for my area, but were hoping to get 94% of homes around Britain ready for fibre optic broadband by 2012. Would this be possible, getting that amount of homes fibre optic by 2012?

First of all, when BT uses the term 'fibre-optic line' it does not mean a fibre-optic line in a sense a normal user or business would use this term. For BT, it usually refers to a FTTC (fibre to the cabinet), with the final stretch from the cabinet (which can be quite far away) to the premise still being the old copper line (we all know copper is BTs Holy Grail).

Also, there is no way that BT will get even close to their announced coverage of the FTTC. And there will be hardly any genuine FTTP around for many years to come. BTs Infinity product is based upon yesterday's technology, it has severe limitations, and IMHO is hopelessly overpriced, just do a search on the Think Broadband forums on 'BT Infinity' to see why.

Edited by deleted (Thu 29-Apr-10 16:58:08)

I see what you are saying, but I live in an area where 8mb broadband is the only option right now and no LLU services, so the best I can hope for is BT Infinity... i presume anyway?

Steve

In reply to a post by JNeuhoff:

I e-mailed BT and was told that they do not have dates for my area, but were hoping to get 94% of homes around Britain ready for fibre optic broadband by 2012. Would this be possible, getting that amount of homes fibre optic by 2012?

First of all, when BT uses the term 'fibre-optic line' it does not mean a fibre-optic line in a sense a normal user or business would use this term. For BT, it usually refers to a FTTC (fibre to the cabinet), with the final stretch from the cabinet (which can be quite far away) to the premise still being the old copper line (we all know copper is BTs Holy Grail).

Also, there is no way that BT will get even close to their announced coverage of the FTTC. And there will be hardly any genuine FTTP around for many years to come. BTs Infinity product is based upon yesterday's technology, it has severe limitations, and IMHO is hopelessly overpriced, just do a search on the Think Broadband forums on 'BT Infinity' to see why.

When BT say fibre they also mean their fibre linking exchanges and businesses all over the UK and the rest of the world.

I would expect fttc to follow the same sort of path that the initial adsl rollout followed.

From memory Openreach were looking to have 50% of population covered by the Olympics. I have a feeling that demand is stronger than expected and wouldn't be surprised to see that figure passed well before the Olympics.

In reply to a post by Spikester84:

.... 94% of homes around Britain ready for fibre optic broadband by 2012.....

How many homes are there in say London, Birmingham and Manchester compared to the whole of Scotland? A percentage figure of UK homes is pretty meaningless.

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

In reply to a post by Spikester84:

.... 94% of homes around Britain ready for fibre optic broadband by 2012.....

How many homes are there in say London, Birmingham and Manchester compared to the whole of Scotland? A percentage figure of UK homes is pretty meaningless.

Yeah I undertand that. But really I was wondering if they would be able to fit fibre optic cables all the way up Scotland??? Right now I think they only go as far as the Glasgow/Edinburgh, whereas I'm closer to Inverness further north. Not sure if it is even possible to get fibre optic cables up that far?

Steve

Apart frrom considerations such as conservation etc areas, it's possible to push fibre almost anywhere. Even then, there are ways and means.
The limiting factor is purely return on investment over a reasonable time. Don't forget that BT, like Virgin and others, is a private company.

I thought the main reason Virgin don't have fibre optics further up Britain is because of money, whereas I would think that BT has more money and probably more Government funding to introduce fibre optic broadband around Britain?

Steve

I understand BT aim to have FTTC/FTTP based services available to 10 million homes by 2012.
I suppect the 94% figure relates to the availability of WBC (BT Wholesale service sold to ISP's) by 2012. WBC in itself does not provide FTTC/FTTP