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32mB/sec ... where next ?

I am installed with 'so called' Faster Broadband ... in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire; and I am receiving satisfactory speeds from BT ... at about 30Mb/sec.

But I do not consider that BT has met their end of the bargain! Being left with a 'pseudo fibre connection' is not having a true Faster Broadband connection ... and no one will talk to me in BT !

I have known for a year or so that I had an 'EO' line; and, as I'm about 1km from the exchange ... my copper line is still in place (albeit 'tarted up' a little at my house end) ... and the requisite pair of 'green boxes' are situated side by side outside the exchange wall.

Can anyone, kindly, explain to me what BT are 'developing' that is going to make my 'pseudo fibre line' run at a rumoured 80Mb/sec or better ... please ?

I'm laughingly known locally as a '... the local Broadband Champion' ... and I really would like to update my friends and neighbours !:mad:
 
If it were fibre-optic then it could run at 80Meg or a lot faster ;)

I'm a bit puzzled... normally BT sell two products, one called Infinity and the other called something like "Faster Broadband" which are identical technology. it's just that BT likes to pretend that Infinity = Superfast broadband and so lines that don't even manage 15Meg down are provisioned with a different name so as not to tarnish the brand.

So it sounds like that's what your service is called, as though the line was only estimated to run at very slow speeds.

You say it actually runs at 30Mbps which is about middling for a VDSL service and is roughly right, maybe slightly good, for a distance of 1km, it can be anywhere from a couple of meg to 80 Meg depending on the length of the line and the quality of it.

It's "up to 80Meg", in reality actually, up to about 76 Meg of observable speed, and the inherent restrictions of running the service over phone lines mean it gets slower and slower the longer the line is. If it is wholly or partly aluminium that drops the performance by about another 50%.

The only thing that could be put in place to make that bit of wire run faster is to bring the fibre nearer, e.g. to the pole across the road, or, do away with the copper and replace it with fibre-optic. You can pay for that last part to be done, though it is expensive (think thousands).

Or put in a modern more capable telecommunications network ;)
 
For FTTC on a 1km line that isnt bad, wait till the vectoring is rolled out or FTTN comes out which is to the DP.

DO you have the Openreach modem? If not find out what kit is in the cab and get a matched modem and see what that gives.
 
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Its never been something I have had the deal with a choice between 15/30/80 meg, Can someone tell me what benefit they see with getting 80 meg vs 30 meg that makes it worth chasing ISPs for hours on end, appreciate it may take a few minutes less to download a HD film but really what can't you do with 30meg that you can with 80meg?

Having just moved from a home with 7 meg to one with 1 meg I would pay a premium just to have 7 meg back, now that increase makes a difference as with 1 meg anything that mentions streaming is a dead duck.
 
It's just that we're all used to such slow speeds that unless you have or have had cable, the dizzying high of 30 Meg seems really fast. In a few months it won't seem fast at all.

50 Meg down/upstream makes a huge difference. If you have a video of a few hundred meg to upload, there's no waiting to speak of. Likewise emails with attachments fly. And for example developer/MSDN downloads, normally in the GBs, and Windows Updates all happen very quickly.

In a few years, I'll be tapping my fingers on the keyboard impatiently partly because I'll have got used to the speeds and partly because the file sizes will be larger and we'll be back to where we were again.
 
I started this off ... so here's an update.

Now that FTTrN is rolling out ... I'm badgering everyone for a new installation.

Can anyone who has seen that in the recent past tell us any stories ?
 
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Did they tell you it's FTTrN and if so what area do you live in as we'd love to hear feedback on it?

FTTrN from BT is a currently in trial so there aren't any stories to tell, yours is the first :).
 
Hello Mark J,

Oh I wish ! ... I'm being given the run-around by Openreach.

The latest email I have received 'advises' me that anyone who has had a 'decapitated' EO line - as I call it - WILL NEVER GET ANYTHING BETTER THAN THE 'FIBRE' CONNECTION THAT I HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUPPLIED WITH.

In short OPENREACH WILL NOT CONSIDER INSTALLING FTTrN WHERE THEY'VE ALREADY INSTALLED a 'half speed EO line to a cabinet

Needless to say ... I have asked fro a retraction of that comment ! ... and complained that my Human Rights are being assaulted !

Watch this space !
 
Needless to say ... I have asked fro a retraction of that comment ! ... and complained that my Human Rights are being assaulted !

Watch this space !

Slightly confused as to how "my Human Rights are being assaulted !"

That is one of the most bazzare comments I have ever heard about broadband. Care to expand on what you mean?
 
Hello Mark J,

Oh I wish ! ... I'm being given the run-around by Openreach.

The latest email I have received 'advises' me that anyone who has had a 'decapitated' EO line - as I call it - WILL NEVER GET ANYTHING BETTER THAN THE 'FIBRE' CONNECTION THAT I HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUPPLIED WITH.

In short OPENREACH WILL NOT CONSIDER INSTALLING FTTrN WHERE THEY'VE ALREADY INSTALLED a 'half speed EO line to a cabinet

Needless to say ... I have asked fro a retraction of that comment ! ... and complained that my Human Rights are being assaulted !

Watch this space !

This doesn't have much if anything to do with the line previously being a direct-to-exchange line.

ADSL was a product which would run at, if memory serves, anywhere between about 144kbps and 24Mbps. The average speed was about 6Meg.

So the package is "up to 24 Meg" (or up to 20 Meg) and the price is always the same, but different people got different speeds, and almost nobody got more than 20Meg - just the people living within near-touching distance to the exchange.

VDSL, which is what you have, is not fibre-optic broadband. That term is nearly meaningless in the UK. It is a copper based service to your home.

And so it's exactly the same as ADSL but more so (speed falls away with distance) - speeds with VDSL can be anything from about 2 Meg to 76 Meg and what you have is about average.

There is no "right" to get 76Meg (the headline speed) because that's not what you bought. You bought an "up to" service, and you do indeed have "up to 76Meg" available to you.

That this is an unsatisfactory way to buy/sell a product is true in my opinion, because it is largely meaningless ("it won't run faster than"). It's simply a restriction of using copper and is precisely because it is not fibre-optic broadband. Blame the regulator for allowing that advertising.

The current projects are around getting people "superfast" speeds which at the moment are said to be 24 Meg, and you have that.

You might not think it enough, and nor do I, but there is no current plan to do anything better.

I am assuming you cannot get cable.

You could get yourself a 4G modem and try that out if you want more speed - see signature below, you might be lucky.
 
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Hello again,

Firstly please forget my 'spoiler' about Human Rights ! ... My sarcasm got the better of me ... it will not happen again ... and I was not referring to this forum anyway.

More to the point ... is anyone aware of a situation where BT have activated 'Infinity Broadband' on a former EO Line; and then come back to the installation and upgraded it to FTTrN?
 
Many of my friends on EO lines still cannot get FTTx anything with still no date for any changes to what they have adsl2+
 
Hello again,

Firstly please forget my 'spoiler' about Human Rights ! ... My sarcasm got the better of me ... it will not happen again ... and I was not referring to this forum anyway.

More to the point ... is anyone aware of a situation where BT have activated 'Infinity Broadband' on a former EO Line; and then come back to the installation and upgraded it to FTTrN?

I think that there are a few FTTrN deployments in existence however the emphasis is always going to be on using those where VDSL 'will not do'

As far as the government and BT are concerned, your 30 Meg 'will do'. Obviously, since you're paying for it. Leaving aside of course that you have no choice and it doesn't matter which ISP you go with it won't be any faster. Except perhaps EE 4G.

I'd say the chances of seeing remote node tech in the next decade on your line are probably slim to nil. But things can change and that's only my opinion.
 
WOW !! ... That soon ? ... and here we are ... in the Forest of Dean ... in little 'ol Gloucestershire ... and still in the throes of a multi-million £££ BT Openreach Faster Broadband ... public-funded ... rollout !

I may be retired; but I ain't giving up yet.

Stay happy .........
 
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