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BT testing much, much higher fibre (FTTC) speeds.
zx50
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BT is testing a 1Gbit connection at the minute and it says:
I'm assuming this means that the new equipment will be available to other ISPs so that their customers can get this gigantic speed increase. If this trial becomes a success, this means that we'll be very close to Japan's broadband speeds. We'll be way ahead of other countries when it comes to broadband speeds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29360758
BT said commercial equipment could be available from manufacturers by December 2015, but the company has made no decisions about rolling the technology out yet.
I'm assuming this means that the new equipment will be available to other ISPs so that their customers can get this gigantic speed increase. If this trial becomes a success, this means that we'll be very close to Japan's broadband speeds. We'll be way ahead of other countries when it comes to broadband speeds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29360758
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What's missing is that this would be FTTDp not FTTC! So lots and lots of fibre to be laid and lots of time before it becomes a reality. Wake up BBC, read the BT press release AGAIN then update (last update 12:52, that will change... ).
EDIT - Much better article here http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/6644-go-faster-stripes-from-g-fast-delivering-ultra-fast-for-bt.html
My point is that whilst BT seem to have developed something to speed the connections up, ultimately they are going to have to re-cable at some stage. Cost and time are an issue, no doubt, however BT will have to take the hit at some stage. This therefore leads back to the news item... To cable Jersey has taken 2 to 3 years. So to re-cable a city in the UK would take ages, so the way BT are progressing seems fair and a way if dealing with connection issues whilst they go about the long process of recabling all houses!
For completeness, our telephone company are also installing a router and initial cabling for free. We need to pay for any additional wall wifi extenders, which wil be cable connected. All Ethernet will be 5e or 6.
Fibre from BT only came to my area in early 2011 and even then it was only up to 40mb speeds. Now you get a choice of what ISP you can go with for fibre and up to 76mb speeds if you take that package.
I moved to 76mb speeds with Infinity 18 months ago.
Darren
I think fibre connections will gradually start to spread further and further out until most of the country has them. It'll take time, but I do think that most of the country will have a fibre connection eventually. Obviously a very small number of areas won't be profitable enough for BT to install any fibre cables there.
I would really like Fibre enabling in my area to start with.
^_^
Last I heard, Openreach are installing fibre cabs outside the exchange and EO lines go through these to enable them for fibre. However, I'm not sure if they will take this approach for all EO lines as some are very long and wouldn't benefit from this arrangement.
FTTdp is one of the technologies being looked at for longer EO lines (where there's a cluster of them I presume).
If this new standard is added to FTTdp then those on a long EO line may well end up with a better service than FTTC but will have to wait longer for it.
Brian
This idea looks like something for the end of the decade or the 2020s, though they could make a start much sooner if they did a subsidised FTTdp on demand + G-Fast, as some people would be willing to pay a reasonable price (higher than FTTC, much less than FTTP on demand) for that.
Yes, it might be a bit more expensive to install per house (but hardly any more difficult or time consuming than copper) - but then that is offset by not having to buy thousands of expensive FTTdp DSLAMs, arranging a power source and battery backup for them, and maintaining those fragile, expensive electronics in a pretty harsh environment.
Plus it gives you the ability to do stuff like voice over fibre, and eventually you can decommission the copper network which will save a few quid. And you get excellent futureproofing - just upgrade the exchange equipment and the equipment in the home, not replacing the DSLAMs again and again.
I really hope that FTTP eventually prevails as the technology of choice with FTTdp for the difficult areas. But from what I've seen from BT so far, common sense seems to be lacking. Other telcos seem to have managed a lot more FTTP and without the enormous public subsidies BT has received to date to rollout deadend FTTC.
Some distribution points can feed 20 houses. Imagine all 20 houses wanted the service, then surely it is more cost effective to run fibre to the distribution point therefore enabling them all in one swoop, rather than then going to the further hassle of then replacing 20 new cables from the distribution point to the house.
Also you forget that not all houses are feb by poles. A lot of houses are fed with underground cables. Some have ducting, but others the cable is just direct in the ground under driveways and gardens, so replacing that with fibre is going to be costly and disruptive.
Ultimately it would be better for everyone to have fibre to the premises, but it has to be done in a cost effective way. The main problem is that most consumers are sold on price, and want to pay as little as possible for their service. Given the choice between a cheaper FTTDP service or a more expensive FTTP service, I am sure most punters would opt for the cheaper option.
Depends on the cost of installing, powering and maintaining an FTTdp DSLAM plus FTTdp modem (new and unproven technology) compared to the cost of a PON splitter, PON ONT (proven technology) and a few bits of fibre to string to the houses, and the cost of maintaining all of this copper.
Hence "FTTdp for the difficult areas". But BT so far doesn't even seem fussed about putting fibre in the ground when they're digging up for other reasons - such as the new build housing estate near me - not a drop of fibre even though it'd make total sense to do it. All copper, all running off the existing FTTC cab, no one is going to get the full 80Mbit, let alone anything more. Cheap, but oh so shortsighted.
The problem is whether all of these stopgap schemes are truly cost effective in the long run. BT has obtained a ton of taxpayer funding to roll out an FTTC network that is barely adequate now (lots of people can't even get the current top speed, let alone anything better). When FTTdp comes out, all of those FTTC cabinets become redundant. Then when we finally do FTTP, both of the previous efforts become useless. Each time, BT will undoubtedly demand more taxpayer funding - how is this good for us? Why spend more in the long run, and take decades to move toward the inevitable? And there's the question of the digital divide - the urban haves with FTTdp or FTTP, and the have nots on what will become slow, crappy FTTC.
I'm not sure it's safe to assume that FTTdp will be cheaper either. The biggest cost is getting the fibre from the headend to the pole (a large step forward has been made with the existing FTTC network) - and that expense applies for both FTTdp and FTTP.
Talking of power to the DSLAM-Last I heard was the an is to power it from the customer's house. They won't be (or don't want to) run power to the DSLAM. As someone mentioned it would cause all sorts of problems. It would mean poles can't be climbed anymore. Power in the underground network wouldn't be a good idea either, the jointboxes can often get full of water.
I will be in my late 40s to early 50s in the 2020s.
I do think whatever new comes along will be at a dear cost for the customer to start with.
Darren
I think it might take until about the late 2020s for most of Britain to get pure fibre connections. Unless, of course, the government can afford to replace the copper from the cabinet to people's houses with fibre sometime before that.
And way pass the price in any other countries if they did have that speed. This is BT after all, they are not called Bloated toad for no reason.
Well at long last they are starting to put FTTC in where my mate lives, he lives out in the sticks, so it is not BT paying for most of it, but you and I.
how long it will take to be enabled once it is done is another thing, BT is not very fast on that, they seem to put the cabinet in and then leave it for months.
It did not take too long here where I live either, so I was told, as someone down the road had FTTC two weeks after the cabinet went in.
But a mate of mine had to wait for at least 2 months before they accepted orders where he was.
Yes, I realise that you hate BT.
Technology wise BT is pretty good, having seen their satellite Station up here, i know what they can do. but sadly they fail as a consumer company.
So they are failing several million customers then?