In reply to a post by zyborg47:

i only 3.5-4 megabits and most of the time it does what i want, sure i would not mind a little bit more speed now and again, but I don't need or want 40 megabits.

I get 14meg throughput, but I really want about 20megabit throughput _consistent_. This would allow me to stream Netflix at high quality. At the moment I get high quality randomly through a programme, often its youtube quality then it gets better again. Maybe its netflix overload or ISP routing, but its annoying.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

I get 14meg throughput, but I really want about 20megabit throughput _consistent_. This would allow me to stream Netflix at high quality.

What? NetFlix offers a 20Mb/s video stream? That's nearly double broadcast quality HD. I'm very impressed if any internet based video delivery service can stream at that speed.

According to the article I saw Netflix doesn't stream any higher than 5Mb/s.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

do we really need all that speed? it is like someone going out and buying a sports car that can do 150MPh and yet only doing 40MPH. Many people that have fibre will find little difference as they don't use it to it's full.

The analogy doesn't stand up to parallelism: Put 5 people in the house doing 40MPH, and you suddenly need a car capable of 200MPH???

The availability of such speeds helps make a market that just couldn't exist with slow speeds available. Internet-based backups, for example. Or the recent launch of Netflix.

I'm still not convinced. Such services are not going to be free and anyone willing to pay just to watch TV will already have a subscription to Sky or Virgin. Also based on my limited research and other much larger sample sizes there just isn't much demand for VoD. Even if there was VoD with a decent streaming bandwidth (10Mb/s minimum for HD) would be a hugely expensive service. It would be cheaper with multicasting but even assuming someone eventually figures out how to get multicasting to work on the Internet you're then left with the question of why anyone would build a broadcast network using the internet when there's already two (three in some places) that have been around for decades.

I think FTTC speeds (20Mb/s or greater) will be fine for most families for at least the next decade. I think BT have (perhaps more by luck than good judgement) pretty much kept pace with mainstream demand and may even be ahead for the game by the end of the year if their new FTTC profiles live up to their promise.

Edited by Andrue (Wed 11-Jan-12 08:07:50)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

In a five year time frame maybe, but in ten years things may change to make full fibre more attractive, with the extra work involved in pushing it out to all.

The scale is FTTC for 85,000 (whole of UK) versus some 25 million properties for FTTP

Yeah. I'd imagine an FTTP roll-out kicking off in the 2020s. Well under way by the 2030s at the latest. I base that on the progression in speed for my home connection:

1999 - 38kb/s modem.
2000 - 49kb/s modem.
2001 - 64kb/s/128kb/s Home Highway
2002 - 512kb/s ADSL
2006 - 8Mb/s ADSL Max
2008 - 13Mb/s ADSL2+, Be
2012 - 33Mb/s FTTC. BT checker estimate for March.

That implies another step change around 2014/2016 but FTTP would presumably be a big leap. If we're talking a leap to 100Mb/s then 2020 seems to fit in

Edited by Andrue (Wed 11-Jan-12 08:16:00)

Cough, Netflix streams fine at high quality on a 6 Meg line, and thats a TalkTalk one, even decent buffering so it does not glitch when using another computer

They don't, its 5Meg, even their quality options alude to a maximum of 1GB per hour for highest quality

Puts hand up, cancelled Sky Movies to use NetFlix. Yes not latest catalogue but at £5.99 versus the £16 + £10 of Sky and I don't have to put up with their scheduling, boxsets of series are available etc it is pretty good.

The original DSLAMs will have worked now beyond their planned lifespan, a ROI of around 3 years was the key to old ADSL roll-out.

The MSAN's for 21CN should once the voice 21CN gets going again, have a reasonable life span.

The FTTC network is expandable to become full FTTP.

If Fujitsu win a contract for a county, this will show what is possible on a wider FTTP scale, and may tip BT's hand to invest in more FTTP. Am sure BT at high level know FTTP is the current end-game, but investment situation is such that committing now would be dangerous. The £2.5bn was a fairly large commitment, and regulatory uncertainty is an issue.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

In a five year time frame maybe, but in ten years things may change to make full fibre more attractive, with the extra work involved in pushing it out to all.

The scale is FTTC for 85,000 (whole of UK) versus some 25 million properties for FTTP

This is the problem.

FTTC is a huge upgrade from adsl, no doubt about it. However BT are doing it 5-8 years too late. They rolling out something that will be close to been obselete when its finished. Its current gen not next gen.

Will BT ever shake off the distance from exchange issue? as it would seem unless you in cornwall FTTP will be primarily for those near an exchange.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

In a five year time frame maybe, but in ten years things may change to make full fibre more attractive, with the extra work involved in pushing it out to all.

The scale is FTTC for 85,000 (whole of UK) versus some 25 million properties for FTTP

This is the problem.

FTTC is a huge upgrade from adsl, no doubt about it. However BT are doing it 5-8 years too late. They rolling out something that will be close to been obselete when its finished. Its current gen not next gen.

Will BT ever shake off the distance from exchange issue? as it would seem unless you in cornwall FTTP will be primarily for those near an exchange.

Don't forget that the current 40meg offered on FTTC is not the be all and end all of FTTC. Up to 80 will be rolled out soon and VDSL 2 has the potential of 200meg on the 30a profile.