Will my speeds increase even if I don't take infinity packag

BT are soon to install their fibre optic system to the cabinet down the road from me, but I am considering changing to sky for cost reasons (as I have their TV already).

However, Sky can not run on BT's infinity system directly, however, I was wondering if general line speeds in an area increase when optics are sent to the box, seeing as sky offer speeds of up to 20 meg on normal land lines when everyone else says 8meg.

currently with BT I get a reasonable 7.2 meg, but infinity offers 40meg. If I go with Sky, from experience elsewhere I will get similar spees to current, but I don;t know if that will rise once the fibre is installed, and don't trust the salespeople to know what they are talking about. some will, some won't and I wouldn't be able to know which I was talking to :/

Having fibre installed to the cabinet will make no difference to your current ADSL line speed. Your current broadband connection runs over copper from the exchange to your home. FTTC (BT Infinity) runs over fibre from the exchange to the cabinet and then over the short distance of copper from the cab to your home, that's why much faster speeds can be achieved.

The reason they sky quote speeds of up to 20meg is that they will have LLU equipment in the exchange that will operate on ADSL2+. At the moment you'll be on standard ADSL.

I've just got Infinity yesterday. It's awesome, you will not regret it. Speeds are mind blowing!

Saying that an ADSL line will see *no* difference once fibre is introduced is true.
However, there is one theoretical exception...

If an exchange suffers from congestion because of backhaul limitations, and a fair percentage of high-bandwidth users migrate to fibre, then the remaining subscribers will no longer experience the congestion.

So the raw speed of ADSL won't increase, but the peak hour experience (around 7-9PM) might improve, but only if it was congested.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

However, there is one theoretical exception...

Good theory, but it almost implies a Market 1 exchange, where all ISPs are using WBC type backhaul. Whereas its pretty likely any area getting FTTC will already have LLU presence, even if its only one provider (e.g. TalkTalk) - so the high usage types are likely to be on that provider?

With some users going to VDSL it means that potential cross talk could be reduced and that will decrease the noise floor and increase SNR and thus possibly a small increase in sped. Conversely, if the OP is one of 20 leaving the PCP in a cable to the pole and the other 19 are on VDSL then (even though power levels attempt to minimise it) there will be additional cross talk in the last few hundred metres and that could result in a lowering of speeds.

They might only be minor differences but a small decrease in SNR could result in a new ADSL profile 500k lower.

All theory/supposition, but it could happen either way.

In reply to a post by kenkanobi:

BT are soon to install their fibre optic system to the cabinet down the road from me, but I am considering changing to sky for cost reasons (as I have their TV already).

We also need to know how you use your internet connection, and which Sky Broadband package you are considering.

Are you aware that you are forced to transfer your phone line to Sky LLU as well, and that bringing it back to being a "BT line" in the future can be a bit messy, possibly involving a loss of broadband for a couple of weeks.

However, Sky can not run on BT's infinity system directly

Dont confuse BT Retail Infinity with BT Openreach FTTC. It is Openreach FTTC that is being installed. Infinity is just BT Retail's product based on it. There are many other ISPs that can supply FTTC, just as there are over a hundred that can supply the ADSL that you are on, though Sky do not have an FTTC product.

I was wondering if general line speeds in an area increase when optics are sent to the box

No. The esoteric discussion going on at the moment about marginal possible differences either up or down need not concern you. Have a read of my FTTx page, and the page below it listing suppliers, with a link on that second page to a spreadsheet with summary details of those suppliers' offerings.

seeing as sky offer speeds of up to 20 meg on normal land lines when everyone else says 8meg.

Already explained by others. For more info see my What is LLU? page in the menu of the site I linked to above.

currently with BT I get a reasonable 7.2 meg

That is very important information. If you can find and post your line stats, see here for help, we will be able to give you an answer with considerable accuracy to the implied question in

If I go with Sky, from experience elsewhere I will get similar spees to current

With a current speed of 7.2Mbps you will almost certainly get more than now on Sky, possibly a lot more. The line stats will tell us how much.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 14-Jan-12 00:46:57)

Wow, thanks for all the responses! Already real useful to know. Are the following the sattus details you mean? I couldnt get the Broadband quality meter to work cos I have a dynamic IP.

VPI/VCI 0/38
Type PPPoA
Modulation ITU-T G.992.5
Latency type Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up) 3.1 dB / 5.7 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 41.0 dB / 23.8 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 0.0 dBm / 12.8 dBm

Also, one more thing, jsut did a speedtest.net and pingtest.net check resulting in 7.5 download, 1.04 upload, 0 packet loss, 0 jitter and a ping of 38 with the nearest server they host.

Yes, that's the stuff, excpet you have missed out the connection speeds. They may be labelled Bandwidth.

I'm a little concerned. You are on ADSL2+, the same as Sky LLU, and I would expect considerably more than 7.5Mpps on a speed test.

Please can you post the connection speeds, and copy/paste the full results from a BT Performance test, as far down as the end of the upstream figures?

I suspect a correctable problem.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 14-Jan-12 01:54:02)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

seeing as sky offer speeds of up to 20 meg on normal land lines when everyone else says 8meg.

Already explained by others. For more info see my What is LLU? page in the menu of the site I linked to above.

As RobertoS points out: the router statistics subsequently posted show that the OP is already on an ADSL2+ package. I just wanted to make it clear that this is equivalent to an "up to 20 Mbps" package, not an "up to 8" one.

The router statistics show an attenuation of 41dB, and using the usual source of the Kitz speed calculator, I can see that it predicts a sync of around 8640. The new "88.2%" method suggests an IP speed of about 7600 - and the OP reports downloads that are in this ballpark.

RobertoS has asked for more information to help track down whether the line is faulty, and there certainly might be something to be gained from checking that.

However, don't jump to Sky expecting a massive improvement in speeds. You are already using the same technology as Sky, and are likely to end up on roughly the same speed.