[DevonBloke]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, why don't we just spend the £20 billion needed to FTTH everyone? It's estimated the money would be recouped within 4 years!
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5...broadband.html

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by DevonBloke

I've said it before and I'll say it again, why don't we just spend the £20 billion needed to FTTH everyone? It's estimated the money would be recouped within 4 years!
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5...broadband.html

I'm guessing it's because Openreach is doing a cracking job in laying FTTC with over 50% of households able to get Infinity and rising.
The UK's heavily endebted, the recent sale of 4G licences was £1.2bn less than budgeted and state borrowings continue to rise.
Where are the figures saying FTTH for all will pay its way in four years? Even getting people to move to fibre from ADSL is not a given,

[cheesy_pasty]

I wouldn't mind getting fibre again (used to live in a city) now I'm out in the country. Many small businesses in the local village rely on the internet for certain things, and the painfully slow net is hurting them.
I've contacted BT/Virgin to see when we may get it, and the response is always "it's not economically viable for us to serve your area".

There are a few thousand people in this area, so it's not like I'm remote.

[moox]

What's the betting Alcatel-Lucent will get a large contract for some FTT* equipment now...

We should have spent the £32 billion we are spending on a new train set for some northerners to get to London 10 minutes quicker, on this instead. Something that would benefit the whole of the country (that is, not just London and the North)

[MeanMint]

All your shouting and moaning should be directed to Ofcom who stopped BT from doing this over 20 years ago.

[*MikeB*]

Whilst I absoultely agree that BT should have done FTTH instead of FTTC (which in my opinion is a relatively short term solution), they didn't have enough money to do FTTH by themselves despite being one of the UK's largest companies. It is very expensive to do, and in our country would have needed government money also and the government weren't able (or willing) to commit enough money to it. That's the simple reason why we have FTTC instead of FTTH.

BT will go on about how great FTTC is and how it is bringing superfast speeds to everyone. But the problem is, the speed offered isn't THAT fast, compared to what is being rolled out in some countries. We will have a fast average speed compared to the rest of Europe for 2 or 3 years, due to the sheer speed Openreach are building this network. However after those 2 or 3 years we will be overtaken by the rest of Europe, in a big way. They will have speeds of 1Gbit, while we will be stuck on 155Mbit (maximum) FTTC.

The only glimmer of hope is Openreach's FTTP on Demand which will be available to all FTTC areas. You'll place an order and a quote will be given to run fibre from your nearest FTTC cabinet to your house. The expensive bit will be the install after that the monthly amount will be very affordable (currently BT Infinity FTTP is £35pm)

If they can hammer the price down on the FTTP on Demand installs then it may be a viable option for people, especially small businesses. I know Openreach are actively trying to get the price down on this at the moment.

[John146]

Originally Posted by moox

What's the betting Alcatel-Lucent will get a large contract for some FTT* equipment now...

We should have spent the £32 billion we are spending on a new train set for some northerners to get to London 10 minutes quicker, on this instead. Something that would benefit the whole of the country (that is, not just London and the North)

Alcatel/Lucent are working with BT to roll out 21CN Network in France.

http://www3.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/p...cle_002056.xml

[The Lord Lucan]

I don't care what they say 17 billion.. will only just scratch the surface in France. FTTH to 50% pfft.

[DevonBloke]

Agreed! Although the quoted figure for the UK was £20 Billion, it's actually more like £30-£35 Billion. This is a big number, but not if BT, the various other providers and the government chipped in. Why the hell don't we just do it already (to quote an Americanism)!
Farting about with FTTC is wasting money.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by John146

Alcatel/Lucent are working with BT to roll out 21CN Network in France.

http://www3.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/p...cle_002056.xml

No they're not, the network is in the UK. I think you've seen the press release marked London and Paris, the latter because Alcatel is French.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by moox

What's the betting Alcatel-Lucent will get a large contract for some FTT* equipment now...

We should have spent the £32 billion we are spending on a new train set for some northerners to get to London 10 minutes quicker, on this instead. Something that would benefit the whole of the country (that is, not just London and the North)

I think you could be onto something with the Alcatel order, I think it could be there more to prop up ailing Alcatel-Lucent. The merger between the two parts was not done well and Huawei has cleaned up in the meantime. New ex-Vodafone CEO has a full in-tray!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...372313346.html

[HS2 is a very long-term project - will only get to the north in 20 years' time so not really about spending money now. And it's not really about speed it's about capacity ie existing tracks will be totally full by then despite train lengthenings etc. Like most big infratructure projects, damned if they do, damned if they don't.]

[moox]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I think you could be onto something with the Alcatel order, I think it could be there more to prop up ailing Alcatel-Lucent. The merger between the two parts was not done well and Huawei has cleaned up in the meantime. New ex-Vodafone CEO has a full in-tray!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...372313346.html

Quite possibly. At least the UK actually tries to play a straight game when it comes to tendering stuff, even if it disadvantages us (e.g. buying trains from one German company that doesn't have a UK factory, over buying them from a different German-Canadian company that does)

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

[HS2 is a very long-term project - will only get to the north in 20 years' time so not really about spending money now. And it's not really about speed it's about capacity ie existing tracks will be totally full by then despite train lengthenings etc. Like most big infratructure projects, damned if they do, damned if they don't.]

Doesn't change the fact that there are many parts of the country whose railway has not seen significant investment since they were built, and are perenially ignored - yet the North gets yet more investment.

Maybe if other parts of the country were made accessible through a better transport system (road and rail) there'd be less of a need to improve capacity for points North, as companies and people may be tempted to move elsewhere. Same argument for a national high speed fibre network, really.

It's okay, though, my rail fares will continue to go up and my taxes will help pay for a rail line I'll probably rarely, if never, use, while the rail line I do use is slower than treacle and will probably fall in to the sea soon.

[dannyboy31]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I'm guessing it's because Openreach is doing a cracking job in laying FTTC

That depends on your perspective. From where I'm sat, they're doing a pretty cr@p job, as they connected my entire village except for 2 cabinets (one of which was mine).

I understand all the arguments about economics blah blah, but it's not much consolation when you're stuck on 4mb DSL for the foreseeable future while most of the country upgrades to at least 10x this speed.