VDSL Plus and other variants gained most of their long distance improvements from ADSL/ADSL2+ not being present.

So in a market where two large MPF providers want to continue turning of ADSL2+ services is some years away still.

Also a lot hinges on how mature the chipsets are, what prices are offered etc

G.fast in the dense cities gives a nice quick competitor to cable and even competitors full fibre services, the popularity will hinge on peak time performance i.e. full fibre is great buy if sell lots price low has lots of congestion it may feel no faster and gaming could even be worse than VDSL2.

That's not the fastest they can go while still being intact though.

I'm sure a few have traveled on planes so could get a good lick of speed on a 747.

Elon Musk could improve on that, for a fee. He already has a car up there to help as well.

That is true, didn't think of that. Could slingshot one around the moon (or a planet or other heavenly body) - that could get a good speed going. But, I think the costs may be astronomical and it is more likely that a cabinet has already been on a plane than into space...

AIUI a cabinet can also go quite quickly after a general election. It can disappear from sight in a moment.

Not really.

The biggest issue with BT's network is OFCOM's insistence that they never discontinue old kit.

This is why FTTP isn't being pursued that aggressively - OFCOM insist they still maintain the copper so that Sky/Talktalk et al can sell [censored] ADSL2 over it.

It's also why VDSL2+ 17a could never even achieve the theoretical max - OFCOM won't let them reuse the ADSL frequencies from the cabinet because it might cause crosstalk for ADSL customers so VDSL has to be "notched".

G.Fast is notched to 17mhz so as not to interfere with VDSL2, and if they deployed VDSL2+ it would end up reducing the maximum speed of G.Fast.

If they just replaced one product with the next, VDSL syncs would be about 10mbit higher (from the use of the ADSL frequencies) and G.Fast where available would get ~60-70m higher syncs than it does. All they need to do is turn off the old product and move everyone on that node onto the new one.

If it could use all the frequencies, VDSL would never perform worse than ADSL, and G.Fast would always be at least as fast as VDSL, etc.

The early ones came on a cargo plane from China, so they have done 500-600MPH with a following wind.

Within the UK around 60 on a motorway would be more normal!

I don't feel too proud about what I've started.

Ahh, I see! Thanks for the explanation. It makes total sense, cutting corners as usual!