Which of the dozen owning companies would fix the issues when they arise?

I agree, and I worked on it for 3 years !

If they had gone straight to FTTP that would have got peoples attention, they were too late to the FTTC party and BT were just overbuilding where we deployed.

In reply to a post by dect:

Its an interesting one, a lot of non Openreach (aka BT) money from the likes of BDUK, individuals, communities and local authorises have been ploughed into funding (no stake so it isn't being invested with a financial return) the Openreach owned infrastructure but the only financial beneficiaries of that is BT shareholders. I don't know what else can be done but this has never sat well with me.

Yep, this is the problem I had when OR used to get the contract to put new networks in from BDUK, another private company getting money from the public purse.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

Which of the dozen owning companies would fix the issues when they arise?

They would put money in to set up a company to do just that, fix problems.

In reply to a post by Woolwich:

Yes, comrade. Even before I read the replies I know you were in for a hard time. I half joked about voting Labour and got a grief.

I remember cable TV companies digging up the streets - and the fuss that caused. But, as I remember, cable TV was built on a franchise basis: there was only one company digging up your road and if you wanted to subscribe there was only one option. (Younger viewers may not be aware there was a time before Sky.) I had Videotron. It was known at the time that the real money wasn't in TV, but in the phone services which came with the telly. As the years past the cable companies merged into a single operator, Virgin Media.

So now what's happening. Capitalism is allowing anyone with deep enough pockets to come along and dig up your road for FTTP. Near me there are three sets of cables, Openreach, Virgin and CityFIbre. Those are the three 'big' players. But in other areas small operators are doing the same. Clearly there's a lot of money to be made. But are these smaller companies in the communications business or are they planning on becoming just big enough and valuable enough to be bought out by the bigger firms? I predict there will only be three or four big FTTP providers in a few years, they will all either merge or be bought out.

When that happened with TV there was only one set of cables down your street. But when it happens to FTTP there could be three cables all belonging to the same company. What a waste. Not only of money but the environmental cost must be huge.

I am not bothered with them giving me a hard time and in some ways I understand what they are saying, but it just seems such a waste. We have never had Cable TV here and I doubt it will happen now, we have got a company digging around to put fibre in if you read my other thread in this part of the forums. It is just a shame that it will only be used by one provider so no real competition, like people are finding out that use virgin, prices go up and what can most of them do, but leave Virgin and go back to some FTTC service. This is one reason why I am thinking very carefully if I want to leave the network I am on. don't get me wrong I am no fan of the company called BT and yes I know plusnet is part of them, but they operate separately and so far have been good and I don't end up chatting with someone in another country if I have a problem. I went to Plusnet after I left my wireless broadband, because they offered me a service at a good price.

To be honest, this country is so far behind other countries.

we have got a company digging around to put fibre

Which one? Several of them have wholesale arms (e.g. Gigaclear), or are wholesale only (e.g. Cityfibre). That means you get a choice of ISPs on the network - perhaps not as big a choice as on Openreach, but a choice nonetheless.

If you are happy with Plusnet and FTTC, then good for you. If you want something better, try fibre. If you are unhappy, you can always move back to Plusnet.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Which one? Several of them have wholesale arms (e.g. Gigaclear), or are wholesale only (e.g. Cityfibre). That means you get a choice of ISPs on the network - perhaps not as big a choice as on Openreach, but a choice nonetheless.

If you are happy with Plusnet and FTTC, then good for you. If you want something better, try fibre. If you are unhappy, you can always move back to Plusnet.

A company called Zzoomm and the spelling is not a mistake. They are only in one place and that is Henley on Thames, we are their second place, I have no idea why they choose here, i think they have been paid a large amount of money to come here.
The CEO of Zzoomm, Matthew Hare used to own Gigaclear.

I have said in the thread on here that I put about Zzoom, that I am undecided, I do not need the speed, so if Plusnet does me a good deal that is cheaper than Zzoomm I may stay as I am, but if the price is close to Zzoomm, then it will certainly give me more of an incentive to change. i have 11 months to make up my mid at least as my contract don't run out until next year and then that depends on if the network is up and running around here by then.


I just think it would have been a good idea for companies to get together. i doubt we will have another one anyway apart from BT and they will no doubt use their own ducts.

In reply to a post by heathrow:

That's good. I worked in a telecoms related role - the cost of a dig in London was £90/metre. Avoiding truck rolls is key to keeping upgrade costs down.

Definitely. It’s the raison d'etre of a PON architecture network. The “glass” really has terabits of potential bandwidth. Bandwidth upgrades should be a matter of replacing the active components at either end.

There already is news of Nokia and Vodafone lab testing 100G PON...
https://www.lightwaveonline.com/fttx/pon-systems/art...

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

To be honest, this country is so far behind other countries.

Depends on your lens. Be be careful what you wish for.

Here is a summary of the Australian experience of their own National Broadband Network effort. It’s been a decade+ long debacle.

https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/case-study/nat...

I loathe the expression 'future proof' but deploying redundant FTTP should mean that no digs would be required for a very long time.