G.Fast + Distance = Speed !

Hi, i'm running two FTTC Lines into a load balancer and get good speeds at the moment (132/37), however I see G.fast has been activated, so my question is how accurate are the speeds on the wholesale checker ? i ask cause it looks like i can get get good speeds but read so much about FTTC being better than G.fast over 300m's away from the node and i'm about 600m from my Cab. See the below screenshot. Thanks

https://ibb.co/99qhSKF

My g.fast estimates on the checker were similar to those in your screenshot, and I was getting 67/19 on VDSL. In reality, the line wouldn't even sync with g.fast. My line is about 330m to the cabinet according to the Openreach engineer that spent several hours here trying to make it work.

So I wouldn't get too excited by the prospect of g.fast. Even if you can get 120 down, you'll probably only get 10 up - i.e. it will be slower not faster.

In general, I wouldn't read too much into the g.fast estimates on there. VDSL estimates seem to be pretty reasonable, so maybe over the next couple of years the g.fast estimates will become more realistic too.

I'd say those figures are inconsistent with being 600m from the cabinet.

Either the checker is seriously wrong or your cabinet is a LOT closer than 600m and looking at layout of premises on cabinet I'd go with the later

Hi,

I live on a main road and the cabinet is straight line at the bottom of my road which isn't 600m walking but I only said about that distance cause I got a quote for FTTPoD in January and they said "Openreach estimate that the distance to the fibre aggregation node serving your premises is 600 - 799m" But wasn't paying £10,500 + VAT for it lol.

So that's why I was asking cause G.Fast Cab was installed last month and went live on the checker this last week and the FTTC readings are pretty close to my sync speed so wondered if the G.Fast ones would be the same as well even tho according to the above i'm over 600m ish away from it. Still got 12 months contract on both my lines still but always looking for more speed if I can get it lol. My FTTC Lines stats are attached as well.

https://ibb.co/5kFvBVJ

Thanks Andy.

The distance to the fibre aggregation node is not necessarily the distance to your cabinet. A fibre aggregation node commonly serves several FTTC cabinets and may or may not be near to one of them.

Hi, mines in the pathway about 3-5 metres from the cab , i know cause i was on ADSL for 10 years and followed the FTTC Process week by week lol. Thanks

600m from the aggregation node but a lot closer to your cabinet.

So looks like you will get the speeds suggested rather than this being a checker error

Oooo Ok, maybe worth a punt then lol. Thanks Mr Saffron. Also started following the "Any G.fast / Ultrafast users here? " post as well !. Thanks

In reply to a post by Panda666uk:

Hi, mines in the pathway about 3-5 metres from the cab , i know cause i was on ADSL for 10 years and followed the FTTC Process week by week lol. Thanks

If your fibre aggregation node really is <5m away from your FTTC cabinet (uncommon but not impossible) then your FTTPoD desktop quote is/was incorrect and you would probably have been charged considerably less than £10k if you went ahead & got a survey done to get actual build costs.

Edited by deleted (Sat 20-Jul-19 21:25:49)

I say about 20 metres or so if the aggregation node looks like this.

https://ibb.co/3vp0g3m (Photo I took 7 years ago lol)

Edited by deleted (Sat 20-Jul-19 21:36:13)

In reply to a post by Panda666uk:

I say about 20 metres or so if the aggregation node looks like this.

https://ibb.co/3vp0g3m (Photo I took 7 years ago lol)

That could be a fibre aggregation node or a fibre splitter node, both look similar. Have a look at this Openreach video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_gUBw8gh90&feature=p...

In reply to a post by Panda666uk:

Hi, mines in the pathway about 3-5 metres from the cab , i know cause i was on ADSL for 10 years and followed the FTTC Process week by week lol. Thanks

There's nothing in the FTTC install process that would giveaway the location of the Fibre Aggregation Node.

The Fibre Aggregation Node your FTTC cabinet is fed its fibre from could have already been in place years before your FTTC was even installed. It depends when during the local rollout that your FTTC cab was installed.

Most cabinets don't have an Agg Node nearby.
Each Agg Node serves on average 3 or 4 cabinets (can be more) and can be located at/near 1 of the cabinets it serves but not always located near a cabinet at all
My Agg Node is roughly half way between 2 of the cabinets it serves so it's about 300-400m from the nearest cabinet.

From your FTTC stats, attenuation, being an ECI cabinet (can tell from the power levels) and the G.Fast estimates I would guess your distance to the cabinet to be nearer 250m, possibly a little shorter.

The G.Fast estimate can be more favourable on cabinets where the FTTC cabinet is further from the PCP as the copper tie cables between the 2 adds to the line length.
As the G.Fast pod is on the PCP the tie cables are very short.
So if your cabinet has an FTTC cabinet 50m away then your FTTC line can be 300m but it would only be 250m on G.Fast.

The quoted distance to the Agg Node on your FTTPoD quote is usually correct.
There are dozens of examples on this forum of users who were under the impression the Agg Node was feet from their cabinet when the reality was it was considerably further away.


G.Fast looks like it will be a great product for the downstream.
Even the lower impacted speed would beat your 2 FTTC lines combined.
The upstream could top both FTTC lines at 45Mb but it could also be as low as 16Mb which would be a considerable hit on current combined upstream.

Only way to tell would be to place an order and by activation time it's too late with many ISP's to back out if you aren't happy with the speeds achieved.

Are you more interested in higher downstream, or would a hit to the upstream be enough to put you off.

Does look like one to me, and maybe 50m when looking where it is to the cab lol. Fibre Cab is on the other side of the road directly opposite the normal cab.

https://ibb.co/3kWYxbY

Edited by deleted (Sat 20-Jul-19 22:28:06)