Why is this section called fibre broadband?

It seems to me this section mainly consists of VDSL roadside cabinet based DSL products and in reality there are not actually any fibre services available to the general public. As far as I can tell Ftth is pie in the sky!

It seems odd that a semi technical site thinkbroadband would call them fibre services when they clearly are not?

You have to remember it's just the adverts saying it's fibre. There is no fibre there!!! It would make no difference to the user if fibre went to a cabinet or an exchange if it does not go all the way to their property.

Even cable servcies do not have fibre either. They normally use co-axial cable in a simmilar way to DSL by sending a radio signal over the copper wire. Cable co-ax is much better than BT's twisted pair at running over distance though but it still aint fibre!!

It's not even broadband.

I currently have ADSL Max with a speed around 6 Mbps, once FTTC is enabled I should get the full speed of 76 Mbps.. that is a huge difference.

In reply to a post by lektroluxe:

It would make no difference to the user if fibre went to a cabinet or an exchange if it does not go all the way to their property.

What absolute rot! (As the post from astateoftrance demonstrates.)

In reply to a post by lektroluxe:

You have to remember it's just the adverts saying it's fibre.

And you have to remember that for most people that's all they know. This isn't just a 'technical site'. It's a site that offers support and advice for the general public. For better or for worse the general public think that FTTC is 'fibre broadband'.

If you want the kind of elitist technical site that refuses to follow accepted common nomenclature you'll have to look elsewhere. We accept and (occasionally, if appropriate) advise of the validity

In reply to a post by lektroluxe:

It would make no difference to the user if fibre went to a cabinet or an exchange

Now you're just being silly. I went from 13Mb/s with once a month reconnects to 67Mb/s with no reconnects.

I do agree (as would most of us) that it's a shame that fibre is mentioned. However there is most definitely a difference(*) so some distinction has to be made and if the general public has been taught to call it fibre broadband we have to accept that.

(*)Both in end-user experience and in the behind the scenes politics and economics of the roll-out.

Edited by Andrue (Sat 26-Jul-14 11:53:03)

* Deleted *

Edited by Andrue (Sat 26-Jul-14 11:21:55)

As already mention, its called Fibre Broadband because some don't know as much as some...

I agree its not Fibre Broadband... Its just superfast broadband but that was used in ADSL selling so when FTTP starts being advertised it will probably be called something like diamond broadband or something.

I do think speed is irrelevant here as some FTTC customer haves seen their FTTC give them a meg more than their ADSL...

Simple answer, its quick and convenient and serves its purpose.

I wonder if your other two posts were similarly 'external male genitalia'?

Edited by deleted (Sat 26-Jul-14 11:58:51)

In reply to a post by lektroluxe:

. As far as I can tell Ftth is pie in the sky!

Not necessarily some areas of the country have FTTP/FTTH, I have had FTTP for over twelve months.

I think we are clear enough in the forum description.

If we stuck to ANSI/ITU engineering definitions for everything site would be empty and public would be confused. We do much more correction and promotion of the differences that other outlets.

Of course cannot please everyone.

Totally agreed!

Fibre Broadband

Discuss fibre optic broadband including Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH aka FTTP) and Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) in here. FTTB which is generally used for flats and apartments also has a home here.

I don't see a problem.

One of them eight days ago contains this gem:-

...
with more content now available it's becoming harder and harder for network providers to manage contention and hence the lack of unlimited products these days

Preceded by "I've worked in the industry for a long time ...".

In reply to a post by astateoftrance:

I currently have ADSL Max with a speed around 6 Mbps, once FTTC is enabled I should get the full speed of 76 Mbps.. that is a huge difference.

I must admit, thinking about it a while, the OP does have a point.... to a degree. After all the likes of VM call their service, cable...which it is.

And going along the same lines..........

I currently have ADSL Max with a speed around 1.47 Mbps (on a good day), once FTTC is enabled it will not make one blind bit of difference to me. Being so far from the cabinet it might as well as be on the moon.

And I wonder if we will ever enter the same realms that we have with the banks and PPI.........

miss sold a fibre connection, that wasn't? Claim.............. I can see it now! Welcome to the brave new world

In reply to a post by 69bertie:

I must admit, thinking about it a while, the OP does have a point.... to a degree. After all the likes of VM call their service, cable....

In reference to store.virginmedia.com/discover.html:

Superfast fibre optic broadband with speeds up to 152Mb.

Fixed that for you

If VM is cable then so is ADSL. So is dialup.

The original post in this thread is clearly ridiculous as pointed out by others but I do wonder whether this forum should be split into two - a "Superfast 'Fibre'" forum and a "Fibre to the Premises" forum. This would help separate these two distinct topics and would hopefully not be confusing for new users. When you're interested in FTTP, the majority of posts in the current fibre section are not relevant

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

If VM is cable then so is ADSL. So is dialup.

Don't they all have fibre backhaul?

They also all have copper cable, including FTTP .

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

They also all have copper cable, including FTTP .

U must be joking? FTTP should be Fibre all the way to the premise from the exchange?

But at the exchange it hits copper, in the GEA link cable.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

But at the exchange it hits copper, in the GEA link cable.

We have lots of copper network in our data centres, most of it 1000 megabit - much faster than most home broadband products. Some of my network colleagues manage 10GigE over copper too

Rather confused here, why is FTTC is Fibre from the exchange to the cabinet but now u are saying FTTP is copper from the exchange to the house?

Edited by adslmax (Sat 26-Jul-14 18:42:43)

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Rather confused here, why is FTTC is Fibre from the exchange to the cabinet but now u are saying FTTP is copper from the exchange to the house?

No, FTTC is as you say. However once the fibre gets to the exchange the connection has to go from the Openreach fibre to the transit company services - this is done with copper connections known as GEA links.

The the transit company will have bulk fibre connections (probably multiples of 1000 mbps fibre) back to their network PoP or to a neutral transit location such as linx or man-ix etc.

No.

I meant between the Openreach Optical Line Termination in the exchange and the CP kit there. But further research suggests I'm wrong and the GEA Cablelink is also fibre.

I've just found this OR document whch surprised me by saying "GEA Cablelink uses direct fibre within the BT exchange". Like you, I thought it was copper/ethernet.

You sure on that the gea links I have seen are fibre based

See my following two posts.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I've just found this OR document whch surprised me by saying "GEA Cablelink uses direct fibre within the BT exchange". Like you, I thought it was copper/ethernet.

I guess its probably because fibre is now getting cheaper than copper per metre and the transceivers are noticeably cheaper, even as SFP modules. It probably helps for future proofing too. (does it say if its single or multi mode?)

I have FTTC. From the exchange, the signal comes along fibre optic cables to a street cabinet. Hence "fibre".

Then for the rest of the way (sadly over a kilometre) it comes up the copper pair as broadband.

So it is fibre broadband. I can't see a problem with that as a label, particularly as that's what most people call it.

Strictly speaking FTTP isn't broadband, but that's vanishingly rare in any case.

In reference to store.virginmedia.com/discover.html:

Superfast fibre optic broadband with speeds up to 152Mb.

This seriously aggravates me. And I'm not the only one: http://www.revk.uk/2014/05/virgin-lies.html

Even Zen call their broadband "Fibre Optic"*, but FTTC is partially that, with FTTP being fully that. Yes, the techies amongst us know the difference, but the masses do not. And that's why companies get away with this relaxed, misinformed, incorrect product naming.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2njgg4vXZ14

Edited by deleted (Sun 27-Jul-14 17:14:06)

In reply to a post by mixt:

And that's why companies get away with this relaxed, misinformed, incorrect product naming

I think the ASA was consulted and allowed it, and so after that every ISP calls it 'fibre' :-/

You should try complaining to the ASA about some of BT's adverts. I would like to see you win.

Because it is a 'product' and to sell it in our consumer society you need to create a sense of it all being subject to a magical sense of technical superiority that makes others feel jealous or makes you think others should be jealous even if they couldn't care less. That way people will buy it, even if they don't know what they are really buying or even need it.

Almost all the people I know who have what is called fibre broadband would be better off (quite literally) paying lots less for plain old ADSL (as I do). Of course, the only person I know who could benefit from it can't get it because, like huge tracts of London, they are on an EO line. They were getting all of 2 Meg with BT. The have recently skipped over to Reish's 4G service and now get about 50 Meg for £25 a month and don't need to pay the landline tax.