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BT/OpenReach - switch to symmetric speeds?

oli-j

Member
Will this ever happen? As consumers produce more data and store more in the cloud, and more and more alt nets provide symmetric broadband package speeds, it would be nice to know if OpenReach plan to finally move away from their asymmetric line speeds.
 
It will definitely happen one day, since Openreach were/are running trials on FTTP symmetric speeds:


In the meantime, if businesses are desperate for symmetric speeds then a leased line is the only solution, if no altnets available.
 
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You can get symmetrical now if you just look at it from a different perspective, with the fastest symmetrical offering on FTTP Openreach being 200/200, with the added perk that download speeds are allowed to burst up to 1Gig. So not too bad and cheaper than a similar leased line.
 
You can get 1G/1G (or more) symmetric today, if you order a leased line. Expect to pay £350+ per month on a 3 year contract.

Openreach are highly unlikely to make home FTTP symmetric, for several reasons (not related to the underlying technology):

1. They don't want to eat into their high-revenue leased line services.
2. The proportion of customers who care about upload speeds is tiny (albeit vocal). The competition with altnets is primarily on price.
3. It encourages people who do need more upload bandwidth to take a product higher up the range.

Also, it's hard to use download bandwidth excessively - you have to sit there watching all those streams or playing those 100GB games you've been downloading. Users on 1G services don't actually use much more traffic in total, they just complete their downloads faster. However, uploads are easy to saturate 24x7, e.g. if you're running a torrent server and the rest of the world is downloading from you. In essence, limiting the upload speed is a way of providing fair usage limits on an "unlimited" service, and therefore keeping the overall cost down.
 
Like it or not, Openreach will eventually have to adapt, but they know this isn't strictly necessary just yet as their main rival is still Virgin Media and.. well... their uploads are going to be hobbled for years until the FTTP upgrade completes. Smaller AltNets will catch up, but those are multi-year builds. Openreach will ensure they can push faster when needed, but as candlerb suggests, they also want to protect those lucrative leased lines for as long as they can.

In short, don't expect consumers to see symmetric gigabit speeds on Openreach for a good few years. Businesses, if any, will be the first to benefit when they do it.
 
Agree with what Mark and candlerb say, they will only do it when they absolutely have to.

Beyond VMO2 the next largest FTTP competitor (that incidentally enables symmetric service) would be CityFibre but they are still a long way behind OR in their rollout.
 
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You can get symmetrical now if you just look at it from a different perspective, with the fastest symmetrical offering on FTTP Openreach being 200/200, with the added perk that download speeds are allowed to burst up to 1Gig. So not too bad and cheaper than a similar leased line.
Ever thought of a job with no 10 🤣
 
Ever thought of a job with no 10 🤣
Yeah the cheapest consumer/SME Openreach service with a 200 Mbps upload (1000/220) costs around £200 a month with £500+ install costs, that’s with Cerberus. For that sort of money you might as well get a leased line which will be truly symmetric and of course you get a better SLA on leased lines as well.
 
Yeah the cheapest consumer/SME Openreach service with a 200 Mbps upload (1000/220) costs around £200 a month with £500+ install costs, that’s with Cerberus. For that sort of money you might as well get a leased line which will be truly symmetric and of course you get a better SLA on leased lines as well.

I'd pay that instantly right now if I could :LOL:
For leased line, the best that linebroker says for me is about £250 a month for 100mbit on a 1g bearer.
 
I'd pay that instantly right now if I could :LOL:
For leased line, the best that linebroker says for me is about £250 a month for 100mbit on a 1g bearer.

linebroker.co.uk is actually a brand name for X.COMM. You can also try leasedline.co.uk (which is part of Daisy) although that doesn't appear to give instant quotations any more.

If you can get 100M/1G for £250 then I expect 1G/1G won't be much more expensive.
 
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linebroker.co.uk is actually a brand name for X.COMM. You can also try leasedline.co.uk (which is part of Daisy) although that doesn't appear to give instant quotations any more.

If you can get 100M/1G for £250 then I expect 1G/1G won't be much more expensive.
In my experience, they are good for a wet finger in the air, but despite the (slightly misleading names) as you say aren't actually 'broker' or price comparison websites in the sense folk may presume - merely handy portals for said providers to display deals that they can re-sell.

Anyone serious about buying leased line, would be best advised to do their homework and go direct to various resellers are enquire as the prices shown on the web/google aren't always the most optimal shall we say...
 
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