Fiber to the home in the UK

[rthompson80819]

Good news for everyone in the UK.  Fiber to the home may be coming soon for most of you.

http://www.lightwaveonline.com/business/news/FTTH-expansion-part-of-BT-three-year-plan-93683904.html?cmpid=EnlDirectMay132010

[Salmon Trout]

I live in the UK and I have had fibre (note spelling) since November 2000. The old NTL/Telewest network, now called VirginMedia covers most of the urban areas. The BT plan is to cover a large part of the remainder, but they have not really released detailed plans of how they plan to do this.

[rthompson80819]

What kind of speeds do you get?

[Salmon Trout]

What kind of speeds do you get?

20 mbit/sec down, 768 kbit/sec up, 37 UK pounds per month (about 54 US dollars)

but there are other packages

10 mbit/sec down 512 kbit/sec up 20 UK pounds/month
50 mbit/sec down 1.5 mbit/sec up 48 UK pounds/month

[rthompson80819]

That's excellent!

I get 1 Mb down and 360 Kb up for about $40 US.  3 Mb is available for an additional $10.

Frankly, I'm happy to get that.  I live on a dirt road in a very rural area in the Colorado mountains.  Although I don't get very high speed internet, I see deer everyday, and a fox and bear once or twice a week.  It's a good trade off.

[overthehill]

20 mbit/sec down, 768 kbit/sec up, 37 UK pounds per month (about 54 US dollars)

but there are other packages

10 mbit/sec down 512 kbit/sec up 20 UK pounds/month
50 mbit/sec down 1.5 mbit/sec up 48 UK pounds/month

Wow, I can't imagine having speeds like that. All I can get is approx.0.9Mb down and 0.25Mb up. Cost $36 CDN/mo. No other packages available, that's as good as it gets here in rural Manitoba,Canada. And,some wildlife is great, but during the warmer weather I can't even have my bird feeders out because of those blankety,blank bears. Right about now, I'd gladly trade them and add a few bucks for more Mb's.

[rthompson80819]

One of the things most of us with "broadband" at home don't really appreciate is that it was not that many years ago that T-1 speeds of 1.544 Mbs were limited to commercial business because the cost was in the $400 to $1000 a month range.  And believe it or not there are still a number of business that still pay that much for T-1 lines.  At least most of them get the same speeds up and down.

In Europe, the comparable connection was an E-1 line, which was slightly faster at 2.048 Mbs, and I'm not sure of the pricing on it.

[Salmon Trout]

In Europe, the comparable connection was an E-1 line, which was slightly faster at 2.048 Mbs, and I'm not sure of the pricing on it.

1 UK pound=1.42 US dollars today. Customers can expect an internet E1, including local loop, to cost between UKP 300 and 1,300 a month (excluding setup costs), depending on location and speed. Set up costs will depend on whether a customer has fibre already installed. British Telecom sometimes specifies that fibre needs to be registered under a customer’s name. Install prices can vary from £500, if a building has been already popped or lit, to £40,000 depending on circuit size and distance. ISP terms are always subject to a carrier survey and additional costs are applied if the road has to be dug to get into a new premises. Delays can be substantial due to landlord way leaves or if a local council has to close a road.
The annual rental cost of a standard leased line will include the following: -

- Pre-configured router (optional)
- Static ip addresses – quantity subject to RIPE justification
- POP3 accounts (additional charges apply for extra)
- Domain name hosting (additional charges apply for extra)
- 24 hour network monitoring and fault detection
- Access to experienced technical staff

[overthehill]

This is quite interesting and something that you mentioned rthompson is; " the same speeds up or down" ,which leads me to the question. What ever happened to that concept, or is this still the objective?. I've read ( rightfully or wrongfully) that the ideal connection would have comparable up and down speeds. Lately this does not seem to be the norm. Is this practical/possible? or is this just the ideal situation? Even Salmon Trouts exceptional speeds(of which I'm very envious) indicate a much higher down than up.

[Salmon Trout]

This is quite interesting and something that you mentioned rthompson is; " the same speeds up or down" ,which leads me to the question. What ever happened to that concept, or is this still the objective?. I've read ( rightfully or wrongfully) that the ideal connection would have comparable up and down speeds. Lately this does not seem to be the norm. Is this practical/possible? or is this just the ideal situation? Even Salmon Trouts exceptional speeds(of which I'm very envious) indicate a much higher down than up.

With cable internet, the problem is usually that the cable system was designed in the 1970s for distribution of TV signals and is severely optimized for data transfer in the download direction. The upload facility uses the cable TV system's backlink, somewhat tweaked, which was designed for control signals etc and has much less bandwidth than the down link. Since most (not all) domestic web use is heavily download biased, this is not a severe problem for most users. A symmetrical connection is always going to be more expensive because of the engineering required. Similarly with DSL (over the phone line) broadband. Most is ADSL (The A is for Assymetric).

My cable speeds are by no means the fastest that it is possible to get. In some countries they are normal, and in South Korea 90% of homes have a broadband connection of between 50 and 100Mbps. They also pay the lowest rates in the world. There are pilot services offering connections starting at 1,000Mbps.

My own cable company is rolling out a 200 Mbps trial service, but there is no indication yet of when it will go nationwide or pricing. My 20 mbit/768 kbit service has just dropped in price to £30 a month (44 US dollars)

[camerongray]

Looks really good!

I'm really interested in FibreCity (http://www.fibrecity.eu/) as they are planning on bringing 100mbps to the UK by running fibre through the sewers!  So far they are only in Bourmouth and Dundee - PLEASE come to Edinburgh!

[Quantos]

Looks really good!

I'm really interested in FibreCity (http://www.fibrecity.eu/) as they are planning on bringing 100mbps to the UK by running fibre through the sewers!  So far they are only in Bourmouth and Dundee - PLEASE come to Edinburgh!

I run fibre through the sewers every morning, I don't see what the big whoop is about.

[rthompson80819]

Whether it's cable or DSL, bandwidth is limited, and the general feeling among most cable and phone companies is that for the majority of users, most upstream traffic is mainly just keystrokes, or mouse clicks, which require very little bandwidth.

[Salmon Trout]

most upstream traffic is mainly just keystrokes, or mouse clicks, which require very little bandwidth.

And ack packets of course, without which no download of anything would be possible.

[overthehill]

Thanks,ST and rt. I've found this quite interesting.