Gigaclear and other providers

Hello

Our road has a Gigaclear notice stating that they intend to install equipment soon. I’ve read a few reviews of Gigaclesr that don’t look too favourable. If they install their hardware, would this prevent Openreach from also providing a future service here? Or could they make use of the Gigaclear fibre? If not, should we refuse permission for Gigaclear to proceed with the install?

Thanks

Despite the reviews overall Gigaclear does seem to be a pretty good provider and also they won't prevent other providers from installing their own FTTP Broadband but of course they cannot use Gigaclear's fibre unless if they are apart of the Gigaclear 'Open Network' thing which allows that the ISPs that sign up to use it to use Gigaclear's network to give users FTTP broadband.

In reply to a post by drn:

If they install their hardware, would this prevent Openreach from also providing a future service here?

No, they are two different network infrastructures so having one in your street doesn't prevent the other being installed in your street.

As others have said, it doesn’t prevent Openreach installing in future. I am not sure how you were intending to go about refusing permission.

Thanks for the replies. I’ll discuss with the neighbours, as it’s a private road that the Gigaclear notice has been posted in.

I have had a Gigaclear connection for the past 5 years. It has been fine and very much better than the alternative ADSL 1.5Mbs.

Gigaclear installed a pot on a corner of my property exactly where I requested. I ran a cable from there to the router. The cable has plugs on both ends. Gigaclear provided the cable and the router. Mine was an unusual DIY install.

As it happens Openreach told me at the end of last year, that they would also provide an FTTP service but so far there is no sign of any local activity in the area covered by Gigaclear.

There is no obvious benefit in not having the pot and it would likely improve the ease with which a property could be sold.

People only usually moan when things go wrong.
Why would you think about trying to block a company trying to bring you into the 21st century and lay a gigabit capable network?

Edited by Rolandrat (Sat 05-Sep-20 15:32:19)

In reply to a post by Rolandrat:

People only usually moan when things go wrong.
Why would you think about trying to block a company trying to bring you into the 21st century and lay a gigabit capable network?

+1

i think most most unlikley that openreach would deploy in a private road with another Altnet operator present - there would be no point

In reply to a post by Fastman3:

i think most most unlikley that openreach would deploy in a private road with another Altnet operator present - there would be no point

I don't think whether or not it is a private road would be an issue for Openreach. There are already plenty of overhead and underground telephone lines. I was surprised when they told me that they would connect my house, as the post code is in an area covered by Gigaclear. A connection via Openreach would likely cost more than I pay Gigaclear or would be much slower.

In reply to a post by Fastman3:

i think most most unlikley that openreach would deploy in a private road with another Altnet operator present - there would be no point

It's often the opposite. There would definitely be a point to it.

When Virgin or an Alt-Net roll out gigabit to an area then lots of customers leave the OpenReach network.
OpenReach need to roll out FTTP to compete.

If OpenReach are the only network in an area they have every customer already.
Upgrading the area to FTTP only gives a small increase in revenue from each customer who moves to full fibre.

An area with Virgin or an ALT-Net (or both) might have 30-40% of customers not using OpenReach's network at all.
Rolling out FTTP to that area and winning customers back would provide a higher increase in revenue than the areas they have a monopoly in already.

Within a couple months of Virgin going live in my development OpenReach had every house in their plans for FTTP.
Going by all the Virgin boxes appearing on the front of properties here they have had good penetration in the 9 months they have been live.

The majority of OpenReach FTTP going on in my area (it's not part of fibre first or the fibre towns/villages rollouts) is overbuild where Virgin have recently deployed.

Urban areas should be able to support 3 or 4 network operators comfortably.

So in my opinion an ALT-Net deploying to an area can increase the likelihood of OpenReach picking that area to deploy.
It can increase the commercial case for doing so.

Also if the OP is on a street built in the last 20-30 years then OpenReach installing FTTP can be a very simple task. The amount of retro new build work they are doing keeps going up and up.

I wouldn't recommend trying to block a gigabit provider extending their network to my street just on the assumption it means my preferred operator won't build to me because of it.
It might actually increase the chances of OpenReach bringing FTTP.

Edited by j0hn83 (Sun 06-Sep-20 04:14:45)

Gigaclear do not believe the areas they target are capable of economically supporting multiple competitors.

So if Openreach do build in their areas it blows a big hole in their business plan.

Picking BT and Vodafone out of the hat, looks like some providers on Openreach FTTP are cheaper than Gigaclear.

Gigaclear do not believe the areas they target are capable of economically supporting multiple competitors.

Judging by the take up in Gigaclear areas - which usually have no other superfast options - some of the areas they target may not be capable of supporting even one provider.

Most of the altcos avoid private roads because of the hassle and extra costs of getting wayleaves. As Gigaclear specialise in rural areas with much private land, they probably will be the exception.

Of course they may well rent BT ducts to avoid digging and wayleaves.

I don't see any reason to object but then I don't pay for the roads upkeep.

Are Gigaclear doing this infrastructure rollout via a BDUK programme?

In reply to a post by partial:

Picking BT and Vodafone out of the hat, looks like some providers on Openreach FTTP are cheaper than Gigaclear.

Yes there are cheaper products available from other suppliers but would the allow you to run speed tests like this.

So why is the x6 download slower than the x1, and why is the upload half the download when it is a symmetric service?
And the latency looks very high?

In reply to a post by sheephouse:

So why is the x6 download slower than the x1, and why is the upload half the download when it is a symmetric service?
And the latency looks very high?

Speeds are limited by contention. The latency is strange, this site's quality monitor just shows a single thin green line maybe less than 5milliseconds wide. If I ping bbc.co.uk the time is 2ms.

Latency shoots up with most speed tests that use all a lines bandwidth.

Edited by j0hn83 (Mon 07-Sep-20 12:17:59)

Ignore the last posters comments.

The latency displayed in the result is the idle latency for a small https TCP packet. We also measure latency during download and upload phases, users can see this on the final frame of the test, but these do not feed into the average.

So why is the latency always reported so high in your speed tests?

It's always around 40ms for me on your speed test where my BQM sits around 14ms.

Speettest.net who test latency before the test starts reports my line as 15ms every single time.

I just ran 3 X tests on this site again all reporting 40ms+.

Edit: confusing myself. Was that reply meant to be to me, or were you telling the user before me to ignore my comment?

Edited by j0hn83 (Mon 07-Sep-20 12:20:10)

ICMP versus TCP for one, then add HTTPS, then add browser and PC and local LAN

Speedtest.net algorithms pick the lowest latency server.

There is an analysis button in the tester results you can see the individual samples.

28ms average for me just now, analysis button shows the samples and agrees. When downloading it rose to between 68 and 489ms, when uploading rose to 50 to 224.

The average shown in the image is recorded before the download test starts.

It is a private road, have they contacted you and the neighbours to arrange permission to dig up the road or is there a grass verge (which they prefer to dig if they can)?

They will provide a connection POT to the boundary of your property, it looks but like the top of a water stop cock. After that, it is up to you if you want them to bring the fibre across your property and into the house.

Having Gigaclear available does not stop Openreach providing you FTTP in the future.

So far I have been on Gigaclear for about 3 weeks and so far so good.