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getting a fibre cabinet - 2 questions come to mind...
skycatcher
Posts: 180 Forum Member
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Hi,
I am currently supplied from a cabinet 6.5km away. As part of the rual upgrade work has begun to provide a fibre cabinet 1 mile from my home.
Q1. Would this improve my broadband speed even if I dont move to a fibre product?
Q2. If I was to take up a fibre product what speeds could I get having a mile of overhead copper between me and the cabinet ?
Thanks,
Sky.
I am currently supplied from a cabinet 6.5km away. As part of the rual upgrade work has begun to provide a fibre cabinet 1 mile from my home.
Q1. Would this improve my broadband speed even if I dont move to a fibre product?
Q2. If I was to take up a fibre product what speeds could I get having a mile of overhead copper between me and the cabinet ?
Thanks,
Sky.
0
Comments
ADSL is about distance to exchange, not to cabinet. and as the cabinet is for fibre it's sole use is for fibre connections.
there is a graph going about that shows speeds compared to cabinet distance, can't find it at the moment but i suspect that with 1 mile of copper between you and cabinet you would probably end up with around 15-20Mbps on fibre at best.
just found this http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-bt-fttc-vdsl2-speed-against-distance
which confirms your thoughts!
Essentially the fibre cabinet and copper cabinet are interlinked. The phone line to your home is re-routed between the two cabinets to pick up the fibre broadband signals which arrive in your home over your existing phone line the same way ADSL does.
It is possible that it doesn't need a roadside cabinet for the phone lines but would certainly require some sort of distribution point for the phone lines for the fibre cabinet to link up with. It still needs the connection back to the exchange for the phone service and obviously the copper pair into your home to deliver both phone and broadband.
So if your phone line does not go anywhere near this fibre cabinet and there is no fibre cabinet being installed near the one your line is connected to you are unlikely to get fibre broadband.
Knowing Openreach anything is possible! They might just have plonked the cabinet down at some random point because they couldn't be ar5ed to drive any further
Hopefully though it is put in the right place.
BT are trialling ADSL2+ from the FTTC cabinets for longer lines, so never say never.
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2014/10/bt-openreach-extends-uk-reach-adsl2-broadband-services.html
very interesting moox.....12mb would suit me fine! It will be interesting to see what develops.
No word of any actual test cabinets in the ISPReview item !!!
OpenReach are trialling various ways of providing a fast service to hard to reach areas (in network terms I might hasten to say).
I presume you're in a rural location. It might be a local project funded by the government. Have you confirmed on the BT Wholesale checker that your phone line is connected to a cabinet and is not an Exchange Only (EO) line - which is connected directly to the exchange and can't receive a FTTC service.
https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html
Brian
No, but it is in the SIN, which means BT is serious about it.
Although stuff like 4G is for the areas FTTC or FTTP isn't going near.
That isn't always true. Apart from it potentially being a long line on an FTTC-ready cabinet, BT has also "trialled" installing cabinets on exchange-only lines thus allowing FTTC to be installed too, and there is of course full fibre to the premises. Both of those are more expensive and time consuming but they are options that BT could use on EO lines.
If you're 6.5km from the cabinet (how did you find that out) then you may not get a huge improvement even if BT does ADSL from the FTTC cabinets - that's a long line for ADSL too.
Perhaps a poor choice of words on my part but we are both right.
FTTC cannot be provided on an EO line as there is no standard cabinet to "pair" with the FTTC one.
However, BT are trialling various alternatives. For lines close to the exchange the are trying a new cabinet beside exchanges to pair with an FTTC one. Indeed I believe they are actually trying out a "combined" cabinet.
For longer lines they are trialling things like using FTTdp - a small distribution point closer to the premises.
Brian
You should try the website to see if you can get more information on your location. They appear to have a social media presence - I've seen evidence in the past this can work best for specific locations. The website in general (if like others) will only have high level information.
Brian
Thanks for everyones input on this - I've learned a few knew things!
Are you sure the distance quoted is not the distance to the exchange itself rather than your local cabinet. Took me a few minutes to figure out the SamKnows website but the only figure I can come up with I'm 3838m away from my exchange.
Now I happen to know I'm only about 100 meters away (in a direct line) from my cabinet (maybe around 200 - 300m following the street).
The BT Wholesale checker will give you your cabinet number. You could then check the newly installed cabinet to see if it has a number stencilled on it (I believe they do sometimes).
Anyway, one mile is a whole lot closer than 6.5 km.
Brian
All of the premises in our town that are connected to cabinets were upgraded a few months ago and I've been told that they need to install more cabinets to allow upgrades to us on the EO lines.
No idea where these will be positioned but they have just installed one outside of the exchange for those close to it, time will tell how they plan to sort the rest of us.
So in your case the distance to the cabinet is the same as the distance to the exchange (give or take a few meters).
As such, the new cabinet about a mile from your home is unconnected to your service. An FTTC cabinet needs to be within about 100m of it's "pair" - the original BT cab.
OpenReach tend not to re-route phone lines though I guess it's always possible if government money is being used.
Brian
It is unlikely they'll install new cabinets close to you. It'll probably be something like FTTdp or FTTrn (Google the expressions to see what they mean and how they work).
Brian
My assumption (!) was that due to the government funding the rural improvement plan that they would provide a cabinet in place of the underground distribution point they currently have and also provide a fttc to serve our locality which is a disperse rural area midway between 3 different exchange areas - otherwise I see no pint in the work they are doing...
Cheers,
Sky.
Sorry, I had forgotten you had already mentioned an underground distribution point.
Assuming there are no other standard cabinets anywhere near the new cabinet then it is logical to assume it is in connection with the distribution point. It could be a standard FTTC cabinet (does it have air vents for cooling ?) that will work in conjunction with the DP.
Your phone line remains the same - from the exchange to the cabinet and then to your house (via the DP).
The internet connection goes to the FTTC cabinet and is then "jumped" to your phone line (via the DP). FTTC is just a DSL connection (VDSL rather then ADSL) so the usual line length and quality parameters apply.
If the above is correct then the good news for you is the DSL distance changes from 6.5km to one mile so you should receive a better service than you currently get.
Brian
Yeah, that's what the new cab outside the exchange is for, EO lines.
Great if you live within a mile of the exchange on an EO line. No good if you are further away really.
My grandparents are on the end of what is probably a 4 or 5 mile EO line. I think when they had DSL (they don't use the internet now) they were able to get 3 or 4 Mbit on a good day with no dropouts, so not as bad as some people have it.
They're in the back of beyond though - there might be 20 houses on a 2 or 3 mile road, a couple of miles from the nearest village. No sign of a new cabinet for their line yet - and this was on the exchange that trialled it.
No fibre pulled in yet but bigger issue was no power supply - likely to cause delay !
Just thought I would let you guys know.
Sky.
Good news for you even if there's a further delay.
I mentioned in an earlier post that SamKnows reckons I'm 3838m away from my exchange. I obviously didn't have my thinking cap on as this is the direct line distance and not the BT cable route. But for a 2007 test of equipment (we got 4 cabinets deployed) I would not be receiving an ADSL service due to distance.
Is your DP point a mile away by road or direct line. Either way, it may not be the way BT phones lines travel which could add to the overall distance from cabinet to home.
Brian