Symmetric support on Openreach FTTP?

Is there any reason why Openreach/Wholesale FTTP is Asymmetric (other than protection of a profitable leased line business)?

Because its a contended service which itself asymmetric, 2.5g down and 1.25g up, shared between 16 to 32 users.

That said OR are trialing a symmetric service but it will be a costly install and monthly charge

I was led to believe that Openreach were going to introduce some symmetric FTTP plans this year, but the plan was shelved after COVID-19 hit.

No idea what price they were going to pitch it.

It probably would have been on the 10Gb gpon product = expensive.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I was led to believe that Openreach were going to introduce some symmetric FTTP plans this year, but the plan was shelved after COVID-19 hit.

No idea what price they were going to pitch it.

This was rumoured to be a "free upgrade" for people on the 500/165 and 1000/220 products:

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/02/openre...
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/06/openre...

If they're doing it with XGS-PON then it will be a better service than the GPON-based service of some of the altnets. Having said that, I suspect there are few households who regularly cane a 1G uplink, except when running speed tests.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

This was rumoured to be a "free upgrade" for people on the 500/165 and 1000/220 products

Interesting. From my own recent experience I can see some downward price pressure on "proper" leased lines, and certainly competitive offers are out there (especially where ECCs are underwritten) as the lines get a bit more blurred between the 'gold standard' that is leased line and high-end FTTP and (soon to be?) symmetric FTTP.

In reply to a post by Taras:

Because its a contended service which itself asymmetric, 2.5g down and 1.25g up, shared between 16 to 32 users.

That said OR are trialing a symmetric service but it will be a costly install and monthly charge

Interesting. So that’s the DP in the pavement chamber / poles.... these are capped by design to handle 2.5g as you said?

I thought there would be a bit more headroom than that.

Edited by oldskool (Sun 19-Jul-20 16:10:16)

It's good to dream. The tech is there, but I just can't see this happening.

Just before the chamber/poles, at the splitter node.
A splitter serves a maximum of 32 homes, usually a few DP's each.

It's those 32 homes that share 2.5Gb down and 1.25Gb up.

That can be upgraded in future to 10Gb down and 10Gb up by upgrading either end of the fibre to XGS-PON.
Just a new ONT for the customer.

The current GPON (2.5Gb/1.25Gb) can run alongside XGS-PON at the same time.

So if someone ordered 1000/1000 then technically OpenReach can upgrade that single line to XGS-PON and leave the other 31 to share the GPON bandwidth.

Some networks split GPON over 128 homes instead of the 32 OpenReach have picked.

A 32 split is unlikely to see much contention. Most homes takes 40/10 or 80/20 services.
Even those on 1000/115 are unlikely to see much contention with just GPON in use.

In reply to a post by oldskool:

Interesting. So that’s the DP in the pavement chamber / poles.... these are capped by design to handle 2.5g as you said?

I thought there would be a bit more headroom than that.

They are all passive so no limiting / capped nothing, the splitter just splits the 1 fibre into 32 fibres, so what goes in comes out all 32 fibres.

Its all down to what is at each end, (i.e. the Exchange and and ONT) so if you change the hardware at the exchange to do 10Gbit the ONT will need to be upgraded to handle that speeds.
However I think the XGS-PON can and does support both 1Gbit / 2.5Gbit and the 10Gbit so the Exchanges could already of been upgraded but just running at the lower speeds.

Well that's my understanding of it.

Paul