They don�t connect you to your cabinet, they connect you to your nearest aggregation node.

That'll be where the fibre aggregation node is, they usually link multiple fibre cabinets. The costs are based on the distance to the node, not the cabinet.

Of course that makes a lot of sense. I assumed the aggregation node was always close to the cabinet but clearly it can be hundreds of meters away.

Thanks for clarifying guys.

Having the same IP because the DHCP lease hasn't expired and having a dedicated static IP are two different things. Virgin has a special mechanism to provide static IP addresses via GRE tunnel. This has caused all sorts of problems for people relying on a static address.

Sure can I go with a non static IP and just keep updating the DNS records via Dynamic DNS, but thats not all there is to it. You get a business service for the SLA and service.

Never really heard anyone say anything good about Virgin, but i am guessing it depends on the area etc....

Hi Mumba,

With FTTP you don't connect to a cabinet you connect via the nearest Aggregation node which by the sounds of it is by cabinet 13.

Hi Guys,

I have another question I'm hoping you guys know the answer to.

Why do OR restrict the upstream bandwidth so much on their fibre lines? Why don't they have symmetrical speeds for downloading and uploading?

Is it a technology limitation or is it simply a commercial decision?

Does upload bandwidth cost more somehow?

It seems the rest of the world offer symmetrical speeds with their fibre to the home products.

Not a technical thing I believe.

As for why, it was always explained to me that the majority of internet use, for residential customers at least, was a small �request� for data and what was requested being a larger download ....

Look at the speeds Virgin offer, small uploads again.

I guess if you want symmetrical you are still looking at �niche� stuff, private wires, etc = more cost.

Then again, the likes of Gigaclear offer symmetrical services, I wonder what their take up is like ?

Both technical and commercial. Opebreach use GPON to provide FTTP which has 2.5Gbps downstream 1.2Gbps upstream shared by every connection on that PON.
They also want to differentiate it from their symmetrical leased line products

Mumba have Openreach made any progress wrt clearing the 18 or so blocked ducts? I think its around 5-6 months since you placed the order, I would have thought your FoD service wouldn't be too far away from going live, if not already up and running.

Hi All,

Sorry I haven't been posting updates. The reason is that I haven't had much to report. OR have been working on all my blocked ducts. They seem to have made some good progress but there are still some blocked ducts and issues. One of the hold ups is that they are having to erect a new pole to transport the fibre along the route to my house because the duct is going to be too difficult to unblock. I did see them working outside my house during the crazy Beast from the East weather.

I haven't been given a completion date yet because of the complexity of all the work.

If I had to guess I would guess that they maybe finished will all the ducts and poles in a months time but that is pure speculation by me.

OR must be cursing the day they accepted my order as it must be costing them a crazy amount of money for all this work but it is a result of their shoddy infrastructure. If I had ordered under this new pricing structure I wonder if they would have taken into account the extreme work they would have to do.

Anyway, I'll update you guys once I get some more concrete updates.