EE 1.6Gbps - ONT and provisioning

I got my FTTP up and running on the BT 900 Mbps service a few months back. Now with BT planning to move their retail business to EE, I just checked and I could get the EE 1.6 Gbps service (provisioned on the underlying OR 1.8 Gbps) for pretty much the same price, albeit with a re-contract (based on other customers' reported experiences).

However, I have a few questions that I would appreciate some input on before I go for this change.

1. Would this require a new OR ONT to be installed? I *think* the existing one is a 1 Gbps Ethernet port - but the BT Wholesale Checker just says this:

"ONT exists with active service. No spare ports are available. A new ONT may be ordered."

So, if there's no record, how do OR know if the ONT is 1 Gbps or 2.5 Gbps Ethernet?

2. The BTW checker and OR checker both state that my best option is 1000 Mbps; the EE checker says I can get 1.6 Gbps. Which one do I believe?

3. Based on the info in this thread it would appear that the EE 1.6 Gbps product is just another profile (OR 1.8 Gbps) on the existing GPON. This is 2.5 Gbps shared between ~30 users. Does anyone know how/if the ISPs and OR manage contention in these situations? e.g. if 2 customers on my PON order the 1.6G product, are others limited to lower speed orders to manage "guaranteed" speeds, or is it just a free-for-all?

advTHANKSance

1. Unless you were part of the pilot in Wales, then your ONT will be like every other Openreach ONT in the land and have a regular 1 Gbps Ethernet copper port.

2. If you truly want a 1.6 Gbps and EE are offering it for your address, then go for it.

3. It's a statistical spread. Ultimately if the PON becomes saturated then there are mechanisms in place to discard certain traffic so the whole things does not grind to a halt. In practice its rarely a problem unless you have extremely heavy and constant talkers on the PON.

Three won't happen for quite awhile, by that time OR should have started rolling out xgs-pon. Plus as you know, net traffic by its nature is very bursty and excluding cdns most servers are on 1gb connections themselves, its only the bbcs, and above that have massive connectivity.

The 1.6 product is not a live product on openreach only EE are offering it as a pilot.
OR are due to make it mainstream in April.

changing the ONT is easy.
and all ONTs are accessed by serial number looking deeper into the account shows the physical ONT and serial number.

It’s an old thread but EE have been offering 1.6gbit for some time now despite openreach calling it a pilot.

I got EE broadband in December at 1gbit but was provided with the newer 2.5gbit ONT.


You can check the model number to see if it is a new one. These two models support these faster speeds:


Nokia G-010G-T
ADTRAN SDX 611Q