FTTC Speed Estimate Query

Hi, I�m on cab 3 connected to the Newcastle Emlyn exchange in Ceredigion, West Wales.
The Openreach Superfast Broadband website indicates �Status Under Review: We�re in your area but still assessing whether or not we can upgrade your cabinet�.

The Superfast Cymru website, and ongoing reference to their enquiry team, reveals no additional information about cab 3 whereas the Magenta Systems/CodeLook website (https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm) indicates that FTTP is planned (Phase BDUK Wales 14a). However, CodeLook�s current information is based on BT Wholesale broadband datasets dated February 2015. When I asked them to anticipate when they would receive and load the datasets for March 2015, they said �No idea, for various reasons (not specified) the datasets are sporadic, BT Wholesale stopped regular monthly updates a year ago�.

Some contractors carried out excavation work in the vicinity of cab 3 just before Xmas 2014. It looks like a new chamber has been added and is connected to the old existing one � see:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ibwrtm69ix5vlc/P1010425.J... � this is about 10 feet away from the cab which is just to the right of the small post-box. Does this indicate an FTTC upgrade or a potential FTTP service connection?

A neighbour spoke to an Openreach engineer in my locality last week who seemed pretty certain that cab 3 would be upgraded for FTTC by the end of June 2015 so an FTTP service is therefore unlikely. If this is the case, then those on longish lines connected to this cab (some are up to 2.5 miles away) will derive no benefit. I�m 1.2 miles (approx. 1900 metres) from cab 3 so my FTTC speed estimate may be 17Mbps (at best) according to this website: http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-b...

Further discussions with the Openreach engineer revealed that much of the cabling to my location has been upgraded from the standard 0.5mm copper gauge to 0.9mm to enable a better broadband signal. Presumably, this copper upgrade accounts for the reason why some ADSL speeds in my locality have suddenly increased from sub 2Mbps to a fraction under 4Mbps?

My final question, therefore, is as follows:

If cab 3 is eventually FTTC enabled, will the 0.9mm copper upgrade result in a higher FTTC speed estimate than that indicated by the chart above and, if so, any indications as to what it might be assuming a good quality line?

Hi, anyone able to offer a response to the issues raised therein, in particular, that raised by my final question.

Thanks in anticipation

It will depend on what cables were upgraded from 05. to 0.9.

If it was the exchange to cabinet then no, it will not improve FTTC speeds. If it was from cabinet to a junction box en-route to your house then yes it might. Was the drop wire to your house renewed? Did you see any pole to pole wiring being changed? What duration of outage did you suffer whilst the cable upgrades happened?

You also need to remember that the signal tend to flow on the outside of the wire - more so at the higher frequencies. That mean voice and basic ADSL will benefit a lot more than VDSL.

As for the estimate of 17Mbps at 1.2 miles - unlikely. Friends have a 1.25 line and they are on around 5Mbps.

1300m line here and one is 19 Mbps and the other 21 Mbps on speed tests

17 Mbps at 1.2 miles does sound optimistic

The raw resistance of 0.5mm copper is 85 ohms per km, while for 0.9mm copper it is 26 ohms per km.

At absolute best, therefore, you can expect a thick 1900m line to act like a thin 620m line.

Of course, attenuation at higher frequencies won't scale in the same way; perhaps the improvement would only make it act like a 950m line.