Openreach to Test XdB Speed Boost on ECI FTTC “Fibre Broadband” Lines

Some users of Openreach’s (BT) ‘up to’ 80Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) broadband lines, specifically those stuck on troublesome ECI based street cabinets, may soon benefit from a speed boost when OR attempt to adopt a default target downstream noise margin of 3dB.

The SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) of a standard VDSL2 or ADSL based broadband line (most consumers in the UK have one of these two) reflects the balance (measured in decibels) between the useful information coming down a line (good signal) and unwanted interference (bad signal / noise).

The default target downstream (download speed) noise margin on Openreach’s VDSL2 (FTTC) lines was previously set at 6dB, but by dropping this to 3dB you could deliver a free speed boost to stable copper lines (especially very short ones). Speed increases of up to 9Mbps have been spotted on some shorter lines, although not all lines will benefit.

Regular readers may recall that this upgrade has already been rolled out across Openreach’s Huawei based FTTC network (full details) but, as is almost customary, their ECI based estate of street cabinets threw up a few problems and sadly couldn’t benefit.

The good news is that the operator has been developing a solution for ECI kit and they’ve now informed ISPs that a Proof of Concept is ready to be tested on a subset of related FTTC / VDSL2 lines, which will take place from 20th October 2017. PoC’s are typically designed to test new technical solutions and do not usually reflect a large trial (although a larger trial may follow later if the PoC works well enough).