In reply to a post by Sparx92:

Not sure why anyone buys from the UK distributors, they're all crazy overpriced compared to just buying from Ubiquiti's EU store directly..?

https://eu.store.ui.com/

Several reasons.

1. UK Distributer prices are, to me, lower than the EU store.
2. Shipping delays and possibly cost
3. Any RMA has to go back to there not UK at cost and potential extra charges
4. Delays through customs
5. Need to purchase an additional power lead

In reply to a post by ft247:

For me 10GBase-T has the ease of deployment advantage when you're dealing with temporary facilities and short-term visiting users... think press centre, photographers uploading - full 10G is rare but you see a lot of 2.5G and some 5G in laptops or dongles these days.

Anything permanent-infrastructure or where I can specify both ends is fibre or DAC based due to cost and power consumption.

Yeah indeed, it’s not all about the DC market. That market doesn’t really drive 10 GbE copper. DC connectivity is all about SFP+, SFP25, QSFP+ etc. it all about a flexible mix of short/medium multi-mode fibre on the cross/connect and/or DACs at the rack level, both of which are ably satisfied by cages.

Back to copper. GbE on copper has been mainstream for nigh on 15 / 20 years. It’s ubiquitous. There is however now very much a growing market and a need to move beyond GbE on copper (outside the DC) and there’s several factors driving this in my view…

1. In the domestic broadband market, mass deployment of GPON is now approaching 10 million premises passed in the UK. The next logical step is to shift a gear and go beyond Gbit connections on the WAN. LAN speeds have to at least match and should comfortably exceed WAN. So for example if VM have > Gbe on their latest Hub 5 CPE then at least a 2.5 GbE network is needed. Community Fibre can provide 3 GbE for around £80/90. That’s actually crazy in the context of price/bandwidth and there’s other countries and providers offering yet higher than that. So next step you need at least 5 GbE. This trend will continue and accelerate.

2. As we get more penetration of WiFi-6 and WiFi-6e and beyond those APs need at least 2.5 GbE if not 5 GbE for the enterprise AP’s on their copper backhaul connections.

3. You mentioned press and media centres, but there are also content creative industries that are needing and wanting more than 1 GbE. Apple already offers a 10 GbE LAN port option on their Mac Mini M1 boxes for £100. Not their top of the line Pro box, but their entry level bare bones box. Anything that sports a USB-C or FireWire 3 or 4 connector has a de facto 10 GbE network capability through that connection (simultaneously with multiple 5K and/or 8K video out and power in)

4. Fibre to the desk - had been a thing since I was designing structured cabling installs in the nineties. But like said on another thread, it’s like fusion…always just around the corner, but never quite happens. Greater than GbE on the desktop / workstation / docked high end laptop will be via copper.