Is Openreach FTTP futureproofed for symmetrical speeds.

[xm3lite]

Hi, I just wanted to ask, are the fibre cables laid by Openreach to my home capable of delivering symmetrical speeds in the future, will they have to replace the fibre cables to achieve that?

 

[ManOfMeans]

what upload speeds you after?

 

[xm3lite]

what upload speeds you after?

Just a general enquiry about Openreach FTTP infrastructure. just need to know if my broadband is futureproofed.

 

[Mark.J]

The cables themselves can probably do Terabit speeds in the future, although Openreach may need to change the kit they use at either end. Essentially in an FTTP deployment the cable itself is no longer a constraint like it has been with copper.

I should caveat though that a small number of areas are being built using ECI FTTP because it would be very difficult / expensive to adopt their favoured approach. You can read more about what this means here:

Tackling the 330Mbps Speed Limit in Some Openreach FTTP Areas UPDATE

One of the little known gripes against Openreach's on-going UK rollout of "gigabit capable" Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology is that some n

www.ispreview.co.uk

 

[xm3lite]

The cables themselves can probably do Terabit speeds in the future, although Openreach may need to change the kit they use at either end. Essentially in an FTTP deployment the cable itself is no longer a constraint like it has been with copper.

I should caveat though that a small number of areas are being built using ECI FTTP because it would be very difficult / expensive to adopt their favoured approach. You can read more about what this means here:

Tackling the 330Mbps Speed Limit in Some Openreach FTTP Areas UPDATE

One of the little known gripes against Openreach's on-going UK rollout of "gigabit capable" Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology is that some n

www.ispreview.co.uk

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Jim Weir]

Hi, I just wanted to ask, are the fibre cables laid by Openreach to my home capable of delivering symmetrical speeds in the future, will they have to replace the fibre cables to achieve that?

The Openreach design is a PON architecture, but while today this is only deployed as GPON it is completely compatible with future XGS-PON architecture supporting shared 10G symmetrical speeds with 25G and 100G version of the standard coming.

Even it the current OLT Headend is ECI, this doesn't prevent future upgrades.

 

[baby_frogmella]

@Mark.J
Isn't Openreach currently doing a very limited & very secretive trial of FTTP symmetrical speeds? If so, then I would be very surprised if we did NOT see symmetrical speeds on the Openreach FTTP network one day. Though "one day" is perhaps years away...

 

[Mark.J]

I'll have to check in with my sources to see if that has entered the practical trial phase, although yes we did leak their proposals to trial a symmetrical 1Gbps service (aimed at SMEs, not consumers). You can expect that to be quite expensive though.