In reply to a post by pluralist:

The noisy one is more likely to be a VM local master for their passive premises distribution cabinets Adrian. How long has it been there?

Could be any active kit from any non-Openreach network. Not always VM. Majority of AltNets don't have the underground chambers for storing GPON splitters, and they also need somewhere to run the trunk links back to their head-ends.

Don't forget that FTTP is, I believe, an Openreach-originated acronym in this country. Though now often being used by people to refer to all "full-fibre" providers' products. Becoming ubiquitous like Hoover.

Really? I think its a global communications / IT industry term, and nothing to do with British Telecommunications PLC trading/as Openreach.

As I understand it all the minnows swallowed up by VM referred to their products as cable TV or cable internet. Hence the chamber lids with CATV on them.

That would be because the licensing in the late 80s, early 90s was from the government push to compete with BT with fixed line telephony and they knew the only way to get anyone to invest in digging the ground was to allow television.

The acryonym CATV is not UK specific, and goes back a long way... viz:

The abbreviation CATV is used in the US for cable television and originally stood for community antenna television, from cable television's origins in 1948

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television

In some UK towns that had a communal antenna (for BBC/ITV television in the 1970s) you may have seen grids with CATV markings, and services such as Rediffusion TV used this too.

Internet over cable TV came much later when Cable Labs created the DOCSIS technology, and many cable networks had to upgrade street amplifiers only designed for one way to be bidirectional. In the UK this started with the trial that NTL ran from the Guildford office in summer 1999, and by the Sept I was able to apply in the Farnborough area. It was brand new tech then.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

cars taking out cabinets

No cabinets on FTTP

That is not even true for Openreach, as the subtended headends go in green cabinets. A quick Google shows an article from last August saying there are already over 100 of them in the UK, so there will be plenty more by now.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

"ADSL may not be, but FTTC is."

I know you know but with both it is still twin wires to the cabinet from the home and that is the major problem.

We have had 4 issues in the last 3 years and that was with water ingress at the cabinet and loose connections with the wires at the cabinet. Once fixed we have good speeds on FTTC and we had good speeds on ADSL.

FTTP is still better but not available for us. Some alt-nets in neighbouring streets charge £10 less for FTTP than we are paying for FTTC.

ADSL problem here was that the cable go from my house, to the old exchange and then doubles back to the new exchange, so it is twice as long as it needs to be, that is why my ADSL was so naff. FTTC is as it says. Fibre goes to the cabinet and then copper wires form there, more or less bringing the technology from the exchange closer to me, but not that close. If the cabinet was closer, I would have got faster FTTC, but I don't think I would have paid for the faster speed. If i had gone for an Openreach based FTTP, like Plusnet I would have gone for the lowest package, which I think is 74Mb/s, but as I was already on Plusnet FTTC, they did offer me 36Mb/s on FTTP. They certainly were pushing FTTP, they did in the end tried to give me an okay deal on FTTC, even reduced the contract to 18 months, but it was too late .

Altnets are normally cheaper, but even Openreach based providers charge less for FTTP than FTTC, I think Openreach charge them less, and they are pushing FTTP like crazy.

I hope it comes to you soon.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

The noisy one is more likely to be a VM local master for their passive premises distribution cabinets Adrian. How long has it been there?

Before the network become live, it is omn the edge of the cycle path, and they dug the edge of the cycle path up before most people knew who they were and what they were doing here.

Don't forget that FTTP is, I believe, an Openreach-originated acronym in this country. Though now often being used by people to refer to all "full-fibre" providers' products. Becoming ubiquitous like Hoover.

In the U.S it is called FTTH (Fibre to the Home), I don't know if FTTP is an Openreach thing or not.

As I understand it all the minnows swallowed up by VM referred to their products as cable TV or cable internet. Hence the chamber lids with CATV on them.

Don't know, we don't have Virgin here, saying that I did see lid not so long ago with CATV on it, but maybe it was borrowed from somewhere else.
I can't see virgin coming here, i would be shocked if we have a third network, I am shocked we have two as it is.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

That is not even true for Openreach, as the subtended headends go in green cabinets. A quick Google shows an article from last August saying there are already over 100 of them in the UK, so there will be plenty more by now.

Whenever someone says the Openreach network doesn't use cabinets there is always at least one person who wants to correct so brings up SHEs, do you want to have a guess at how many PONs there are in the UK and how many of them hang off a SHE? lets just accept they are the exception rather than the rule and their numbers are so small that they would probably be just a blip on the map small enough to miss.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

i do feel for people who can't get decent broadband, it really needs to be sorted, instead of bothered about stupid speeds, get decent speed to people who can't get it, the same with mobile networks. We are told that 5G is faster and better, and yet there are still places where there is no signal.
There is no money in that, not worth it for a few people in a village.

so openreach upgrading the network so all people can get better broadband is a good thing but you dont like them pushing people onto this better network so they can shut down the old network.

The SOGEA network is breaking at the seams do you think you will still be happy with the degraded network when it collapses completely.

Btw you can no longer get FTTC on the openreach network as a new or moving provider customer.

It is funny how you didnt seem the annoyed when you went from the frog modem to a router. and i very much doubt you used 10base2 to connect up your computers.

I also doubt you have a mobile phone or streaming services at home all these days need faster and faster connections.

In reply to a post by pyarwood:

so openreach upgrading the network so all people can get better broadband is a good thing but you dont like them pushing people onto this better network so they can shut down the old network.

Should be up to people, some people may not want to be bothered with getting Fibre installed and some people may not be able to.

The SOGEA network is breaking at the seams do you think you will still be happy with the degraded network when it collapses completely.

Only breaking apart due to lack of maintenance and that have been the problem for years. I was told over 20 years ago the cables needed to be replaced that went from the pole to my home, never happened, all they did was a bodged job, I am surprised they did the job for so long.

Btw you can no longer get FTTC on the openreach network as a new or moving provider customer.

Who told you that? In some places that is true, but not true here yet, Openreach has to have 75% coverage of an exchange area, and then they have to give notice, so another 12 months after that have happened. Still roads in this city that are not covered by Openreach FTTP network. I chat to people in other places, including one that is supposed to be in a stop sell area, and they have managed to stay on FTTC.
it is true that ISPs are making it more difficult to stay on FTTC, that is why Plusnet lost me as a customer

It is funny how you didnt seem the annoyed when you went from the frog modem to a router. and i very much doubt you used 10base2 to connect up your computers.

It was something like that, co-ax cable, with BNC connectors and a terminator on the end of them, a little T connection put onto the cards to join the machines together.
Used cards like this

Still have a couple here,

Routers were pretty basic then and expensive, my first one did not have wi-fi. The router was better for me, saved me having a long phone cable.

I also doubt you have a mobile phone or streaming services at home all these days need faster and faster connections.

Not in the early ADSL days no, I did have a mobile phone , but it certainly was not a smartphone, it was an Alcatel with a little stubby antenna, my first phone that was more than a basic one was a HTC S710, which had a sliding keyboard, I joined BT Internet anywhere package, BT used something called Fon. In theory, we were supposed to be able to use other people's routers, or a bit of their bandwidth anyway, but it did not work out that way as there were very few people that used it, so I did not bother with the features of the phone unless I was home, I think that was around 2008 ish. The phone had windows mobile on it, really slow, the only good thing about it was the sliding keyboard.
That was the time when BT really annoyed me and I had a right argument on the phone with them and told them I was leaving as soon as i can and i will never go back to them and as such I never have. Sure I went to Plusnet and while they are owned by BT, they were not run by BT and that was years after.

no streaming in the early days of ADSL either, I used to rent DVD's from Lovefilm, then they started to offer streaming and at the time my ADSL was around2.5Mb/s as it was later on in the ADSL days, and we had what was it called, ADSL+? Anyway, i was able to stream from Lovefilm just about.

A local company called Allpay which is a payment card company decided to offer Wireless broadband, was able to offer 10Mb/s, so I thought I would give it a try, this was in 2012, it cost more than ADSL, but I thought it would be better, and it was for a while, also could dump Openreach once and for all, so I thought.
Took a 24-month contract out with Allpay, and it worked fine for the first 18 months or so, and then they took on more than they could chew and could not cope with the bandwidth.

The idea was to give people broadband in areas that could not get it, they used churches to put the masts on, the one I connected to was on the cathedral. The expansion not the city itself did not go well as they could not cope as I said above. I did not renew my contract as I was getting less than I did with ADSL towards the end of my contract.
I had to move pretty quickly, FTTC was up and running by then and plusnet was the only provider, apart from Talk Talk, that could get me connected quickly and not charge a small fortune. My plan was to move from them after 18 months, but I got lazy and they offered me decent prices for each new contract. That is why I stayed with them for nearly 10 years and I did not pay much more per month at the end of my time with them, than i did when I started., So not too bad.

As for Allpay, I admire what they tried to do, they found a problem that people living in the sticks could not get ADSL, or was not great and decided to do something about it, sadly they could not cope and FTTC being rolled out killed it off.
I may have still been with them if it was still working, but not sure if 10Mb/s would be enough now. I still have the thing on the roof of the house, they never came to collect it.


It is strange how things have changed, from dial up to super-duper FTTP speed, not against it at all, after all i am on FTTP myself, just hate the pushing, give people the option, sure at some point that is all it will be.

It seems to be push this, push that, not just broadband and FTTP, but other things, you can't go into a supermarket these days without them wanting to push some card at you. My partner went into our local Tescos a few weeks ago, she doesn't normally shop there, and this bloke was trying to push a handset into her hand, she said no thank you, but he was not going to take no for an answer and went on to explain the advantages and all of that stuff. She said in the end she had to get a bit ratty with him. I know they have a job to do, i work in retail myself, but no means no.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

. . . My partner went into our local Tescos a few weeks ago, she doesn't normally shop there, and this bloke was trying to push a handset into her hand, she said no thank you, but he was not going to take no for an answer and went on to explain the advantages and all of that stuff. She said in the end she had to get a bit ratty with him. I know they have a job to do, i work in retail myself, but no means no.

The same happened to me in a M&S Food Hall a few months ago and the woman trying to get me to use the technology was most put out when I refused, telling her that I wasn't interested in putting check-out staff out of their jobs.