Fibre Upgrade Questions....

When upgrading to Fibre, does the telephone/talk service still use the copper path from exchange to property?

I'm also a little confused

I'm currently on SKY BB Unlimited and my line performs extremely well via copper, giving me the maximum advertised speeds/sync rate. What confuses me is that my Fibre expected speed is only 30MB... If Fibre eliminates the copper path from exchange to my cabinet then why can't I achieve better than 30MB even on Pro packages which should be 'up to' 72MB if I recall. Seems odd when I get the max speed available via a full copper path but limited when the majority is switched to Fibre...

Many thanks in advance...

On fttc voice still comes via copper from the exchange.

VDSL signals degrade quicker over distance than ADSL, if only estimated as 30mbps, then you probably around 750 meter's from the cabinet,.

Thanks @Ronski

I'm just trying to justify the extra £12.50 per month for a speed increase of just 12MB.

My Ping is approximately 29ms, is this likely to improve? I may cancel my upgrade as I'm not seeing many benefits for an extra £12.50 pm :/

When upgrading to Fibre, does the telephone/talk service still use the copper path from exchange to property?

Basically yes.

I'm currently on SKY BB Unlimited and my line performs extremely well via copper, giving me the maximum advertised speeds/sync rate. What confuses me is that my Fibre expected speed is only 30MB... If Fibre eliminates the copper path from exchange to my cabinet then why can't I achieve better than 30MB even on Pro packages which should be 'up to' 72MB if I recall. Seems odd when I get the max speed available via a full copper path but limited when the majority is switched to Fibre...

FTTC uses VDSL technology. This deteriorates much much faster over distance than ADSL 2+.
Imagine a 3 mile long ADSL line. You might get 1 or 2 Mbps out of this line.
VDSL via FTTC wouldn't work at all on a 3 mile long line.

If your estimate is only 30Mbps the green cabinet must be a fair distance away.
Please be aware that fibre estimates include cross-talk. So you may initially sync at 50Mbps and then as crosstalk occurs that will eventually cause the line to be around 30Mbps.

If crosstalk's already present you'll always see around 30 Mbps from day one.

I personally wouldn't bother if you're getting 20Mbps already.

Pings might improve but that all depends on how stable your line is.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sun 28-Jul-13 14:53:24)

Thanks Sir.... I think I'll cancel my upgrade, I'm not going to benefit... Was offered free activation and 6 months at £10 pm but tbh it's still not worth it. Well, for me anyway...

The checker may be conservative, so your speed increase could be quite a bit more. It's saying 60% faster down than now ? the upstream will be a lot faster too.

What's your downstream attenuation & sync speed on ADSL ?

Edited by yarwell (Sun 28-Jul-13 15:43:52)

For many people the upstream benefit is much greater than the downstream improvement. Anything like online backup, ...

Is it just you using it? If so not much point.

The faster upload does make pages "feel" much faster loading but that's me comparing against a 8mbps connection vs 70mbps & im always uploading so my 8 Mbps connection was always jammed up.

Fibres a god send for those seeing 2 or 3 Mbps who can suddenly get 70
Mbps

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sun 28-Jul-13 16:09:27)

Myself (PC), 2x Laptops, Sky VOD and 3x Mobile Phones :/

Obviously not all of these at once but always at least two of the above items at once...

Broadband Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 18012 kbps 1212 kbps
Line Attenuation 23.5 dB 14.0 dB
Noise Margin 6.5 dB 9.9 dB

In reply to a post by shaneosborne:

Line Attenuation 23.5 dB 14.0 dB

So the line is about 1.5 km, if the cabinet was a lot closer to the exchange than to you it may not give much extra download speed but if the cab is 1km from the exchange and 500m from you the estimate would be pessimistic. Do you know where it is ? Your cab number (from the BT Wholesale availability checker) and most of your postcode may help someone point it out.

In reply to a post by StephenTodd:

For many people the upstream benefit is much greater than the downstream improvement. Anything like online backup, ...

Seconded, when I do upgrade to FTTC it'll be solely because of that. As I'm not a gamer, the ping isn't that important to me (as long as it's not problematic of course...). I realise that fibre has definite advantages over ADSL2+, even at a very similar synch speed, but when weighing the cost up, for me it's the upstream which is the clincher.

Edited by deleted (Mon 29-Jul-13 11:44:34)

The Cab is approx 400 yds (straight line). That's if indeed running off that cab..

If the line length is anything like 400 yd you should get a lot better than 30Mbps. The BT wholesale checker tells you what cabinet you are connected to if you enter your telephone number.

Try a few postcodes from where the cabinet is located in the address checker, if they are getting 80mbps estimates then you know that address is very near to the cabinet, then see if the cabinet number matches yours.

I'm only 450 meters from my cabinet, yet the checker estimates 36, it used to be 57, and I'm currently getting 47 on fast path.

Well a property where the cab is directly outside gives a result of 52.4Mbps (same cab6).

Hmm, they do seem to have got a tad over-cautious with these estimates now. I'm about 450m from the cabinet, my estimate is now "up to" 54.5/15.7, I get (real-world speeds, not sync speeds) about 67/17.5.

In reply to a post by kasg:

Hmm, they do seem to have got a tad over-cautious with these estimates now. I'm about 450m from the cabinet, my estimate is now "up to" 54.5/15.7, I get (real-world speeds, not sync speeds) about 67/17.5.

Not necessarily because the line may not go straight to from the PCP to the property.

The line to the property closest to my cab is tied in to the FTTC cab on the opposite side of the road, the line from the PCP then goes to a pole on the opposite side of the road next to the fibre cab then back across the road again to the property.

In reply to a post by simon194:

The line to the property closest to my cab is tied in to the FTTC cab on the opposite side of the road, the line from the PCP then goes to a pole on the opposite side of the road next to the fibre cab then back across the road again to the property.

Unless it's an extraordinarily wide road, that should not have much effect on the speed.