Study shows fast broadband needed for things that need it

Brilliant BBC news story.

Apparently, things that need fast broadband are not being used by people that don't have fast broadband. These guys must have been well paid to create this study.

"It is clear that high-speed broadband is an important factor in the use of bandwidth-intensive applications such as BBC iPlayer,"

And it list areas that suffer particularly badly and then later states that it is using data from between May 2013 and January 2014 - considering the amount of changes to the network data that is at least 2.5 years old is pretty much useless.

BBC seem to be wasting their time posting news about a report that states the obvious based on very old data.

And article could give some the impression that 25 Mbps is needed for video streaming.

Surprising (though not really given level of tech knowledge in UK) that 10 Mbps should support two HD streams and still allow for some web browsing at the same time.

Indeed - the article is a whole load of misinformation.

In reply to a post by ian72:

"It is clear that high-speed broadband is an important factor in the use of bandwidth-intensive applications such as BBC iPlayer,"

Lol. iPlayer is only bandwidth intensive if you're on dial-up or in a slow-spot. It tops out at, what, 3Mb/s?

Given the age of the data there would have been a higher percentage of people on 2Mb/s or less services so to them it would be "bandwidth intensive" - but I agree, there example is not the best and is supporting a statement that is pointless.

It's a bit like saying plants that need a lot of water need to be watered a lot.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Lol. iPlayer is only bandwidth intensive if you're on dial-up or in a slow-spot. It tops out at, what, 3Mb/s?

5.5 Mb/s nowadays

In reply to a post by vimto_girl:

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Lol. iPlayer is only bandwidth intensive if you're on dial-up or in a slow-spot. It tops out at, what, 3Mb/s?

5.5 Mb/s nowadays

http://blog.e-shot.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/...

The report and the survey seem to indirectly confirm the BT OR published figures for upgrading to xxxx-Fast Broadband, being in the region of 20 to 30% of "the premises passed".

"My" FTTC has between 63 and possibly 70 actual Upgrades out of 288 total available in the Huawei FTTC cabinet, about 22% to 24%, since becoming available in March 2014.

63 was the figure I was given directly from records about 3 months back, as the 64th was being processed.

Judging by the subsequent lack of sightings of BT OR and/or Kelly vehicles since, that suggests that even my guesstimate of 70 by today, may be optimistic.

---------

My impression is that most such surveys and reports are compiled by persons who are "enthusiasts" for "fast broadband" per se.

My FTTC cabinet went live in April 2012. We've just had a second cabinet installed (this month) so it's taken just over four years to fill up the first one.

That's Brackley, cabinet 15.

Thanks.

Interesting contrasts between apparent demands and actual up-grades.

Interesting timing.
Today, I downgraded from Infinity 1 to ADSL2+. My obvious initial concern was what would it be like doing all the stuff I used to do on Fibre.
Last week while still on fibre, I ran a test to fire up as many streaming devices as I could.
2*nowTvs
1*Iplayer
1*remote plex HD Stream
Youtube.
Thats about as much as I could muster at once, and it didn't skip a beat. No buffering or anything. I was quite impressed. It was total overkill for a normal scenario, but a good test.

So, today came, fibre went, then ADSL went live again. Time to re-run the test
2*NowTv,
1 IPlayer,
YoutubeHD
1 * remote plex HD

Guess what, didn't miss a beat! Now I'm super impressed and saving in the region of £25 per month. Not out of the woods yet as obviously upload speeds are where the real impact is by a factor of 10, but as with most users, its download speeds that count the most. Once I get my server back up, I'll run some tests streaming out to test, but I suspect this is where I will notice a difference.

My initial speeds are approx 9Mbps and I'm hoping that will improve once I can tinker with SNR figures.

My reasoning for switching back to ADSL2+ was and still is a temporary stop gap until my new ISP goes live with a new fibre product and I was interested to see if I could cope with ADSL2+ speeds, and initial impressions seem to suggest I can. This could be difficult to justify upgrading again when the time comes!

Interesting - again!

When I was on ADSL, I was getting around 17 Mbps, more than enough for my relatively limited use - for example, it is rarely that I watch a video etc.

I delayed about 3 months before upgrading to a 40/10 contract, a combination of it only being £1 per month more; and that at the time, I was unaware of how low upgrade rates were, both locally and nationally, so effectively wanted to ensure that I had VDSL connections available, should I wish or have need for faster.

--------------

Regarding your return to ADSL, it seems to have been very easy and quick, which technically I would expect - aside from exchange and D-slam alterations, it looks as though locally, the links from PCP to FTTC and back would have to be cut and neatly stowed; followed by reconnecting the E & D sides directly within the PCP - and probably a change of modem/router if the existing pair were not designed to handle ADSL.

It is interesting but only if you have a fast ADSL2 line in the first place. I used to be quite happy on even 6mb/s, way back in 2009. Moved to this area, back in 2011 and the speed was 1.4mb/s max. Totally impracticable for the modern age. I quite frequently would get up and go make a coffee. It really was that bad. Worse was having to pay BT a fair wad of cash (£30) each month for a capped service. TV streaming was a BIG no. Even Skype would frequently complain about the line being too slow for voice only call.

Fast forward to today (Fibre arrive back last October) .Yes, Plusnets Fibre is costing me another £14 a month extra (£45 unlimited) but I no longer get emails (as I used to get from BT) saying you've nearly used up your 10gb for the month. We have been up to using over 250gb a month at times. And the wait, what wait? Most pages load so fast sometimes one can fail to notice the change if they are very similar in layout. As for downloads. I no longer care how big a file size it is. 200mb takes seconds. Having been in the slow lane, I know what I'd rather have any day.

Edited by 69bertie (Fri 17-Jun-16 17:16:50)

The main reason I upgraded to FTTC was because I could. The geek in me insisted on getting the best I could. Truth is I could get by on 40/10 easily and even ADSL would probably be okay. The main difference I've noticed is that I now have a 100% reliable connection. ADSL wasn't bad but I'd get two or three drops a month. Now it's more like two or three a year and even then they are probably service outages rather than my line.

Even back in the days of dial-up, over 1,284 Metres from the exchange, I generally got about 48K Bauds, occasionally up to around 54K Bauds.

Much to the chagrin of the computer shop owner in the High Street, about 350 Metres to the exchange, who got apparently about 36K Bauds there; and lucky to see just over 30K Bauds at his home in a different town.

And I remember the days of 110 Baud and 300 Baud - then 1200 Baud being a revelation and revolution.

I wonder how many on the forum have used Acoustic Couplers for general purposes or the 1200/75 modems for the GPO Text System?

In reply to a post by eckiedoo:

I wonder how many on the forum have used Acoustic Couplers for general purposes or the 1200/75 modems for the GPO Text System?

Certainly used acoustic couplers. And I remember using the 100(?)baud Termiprinter.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

In reply to a post by eckiedoo:

I wonder how many on the forum have used Acoustic Couplers for general purposes or the 1200/75 modems for the GPO Text System?

Certainly used acoustic couplers. And I remember using the 100(?)baud Termiprinter.

<Yorkshire> Luxury!
I remember when I were t'lad maintaining 50 baud ERP 7 telex machines.
</Yorkshire>

When we were developing comms software c.1967 the S/W team were in London (Hartree House above Whiteleys in Bayswater), the H/W team in Staffordshire (Kidsgrove for those who know it).

For local testing we used a paper tape reader with a long tape loop as a pseudo comms line. When we wanted to connect to the H/W we had to phone the Kidsgrove switchboard, a manual plug switch, ask for the extension and the operator would put us through. Trouble is she'd listen in to the line after a few minutes and just hear crackles and buzzes so assumed the call had ended and 'pulled the plug'!

If I remember correctly, the ICL Termiprinter, with magnetic reluctance keying.

We had a former "touch typist" who frequently unintentionally broke the cores; and we had to wet the nylon carpet tiles to avoid electro-static problems.