I can get FTTC, what is it? and is it worth it?

lego · 5 Sep 2011 at 01:16

As title I currently get my broadband through sky (6meg) was interested to see if I could get Infinity, but that's a no go. However samknows did throw up that FTTC is available on my exchange.

So what is FTTC? And if it's worth getting what are the best deals?

Thanks

bremen1874 · 5 Sep 2011 at 01:18

FTTC effectively is BT Infinity.

FTTC just stands for Fibre To The cabinet. It’s provided by BT Openreach and is available from quite a few resellers. One reseller is another part of BT and they call it Infinity.

Even if your exchange is FTTC enabled you can't necessarily get it as it relies on additional equipment local to you (in a cabinet as it happens).

scousegit · 5 Sep 2011 at 01:20

Im interested in going infinity but the 18mth contract sucks, and what's the score on the 80mb next year, will you be able to upgrade half way through the contract?

bremen1874 · 5 Sep 2011 at 01:50

scousegit said:
Im interested in going infinity but the 18mth contract sucks,

There are other resellers with shorter contract terms.

and what's the score on the 80mb next year, will you be able to upgrade half way through the contract?

Who knows. It'll probably require higher fees so it's unlikely anyone will be preventing people from upgrading.

Efour · 5 Sep 2011 at 09:50

My exchange says its FTTC enabled but check that you can actually get it at your property 100%

its frustrating that its 1.5km away yet the time it will take to dig the roads up down to here will probably be ages,

Donkeyfumbler · 5 Sep 2011 at 12:52

bremen1874 said:
There are other resellers with shorter contract terms.
.

But they are more expensive unfortunately.

Had infinity for three months now and very happy with the performance and reliability so far.

bremen1874 · 5 Sep 2011 at 14:42

Efour2 said:
My exchange says its FTTC enabled but check that you can actually get it at your property 100%

its frustrating that its 1.5km away yet the time it will take to dig the roads up down to here will probably be ages,

They've upgraded to FTTC where I am and they didn't dig anything up. Additional cabinets appeared, but everything else must have gone through existing ducts.

Duke · 5 Sep 2011 at 15:20

bremen1874 said:
They've upgraded to FTTC where I am and they didn't dig anything up. Additional cabinets appeared, but everything else must have gone through existing ducts.

Same here, they just seem to have put up a new cab next to the old ones around here.

Efour · 5 Sep 2011 at 15:41

what do these new boxes look like? all i have is a telephone pole.. i cant seem to visually trace back much further.

shine · 5 Sep 2011 at 15:46

Efour2 said:
what do these new boxes look like? all i have is a telephone pole.. i cant seem to visually trace back much further.

The Green cabs are usually twice the height of the old BT cabs. Will normally be located quite close to existing cabs/telephone poles.

rah^ · 5 Sep 2011 at 16:56

Strange here all our old cabs are gone and replaced with the new larger ones.

KIA · 5 Sep 2011 at 17:37

rah^ said:
Strange here all our old cabs are gone and replaced with the new larger ones.

Sometimes they replace the shell.

bremen1874 · 5 Sep 2011 at 18:06

rah^ said:
Strange here all our old cabs are gone and replaced with the new larger ones.

I'd guess it depends on how much room they have, and whether they can get the necessary planning permissions. Round here the cabinets tend to be set back from the road on grass verges with plenty of space around them.

Locky · 5 Sep 2011 at 18:22

I went from a 17mbs o2 connection to FTTC/infinity and have never looked back, fantastic connection to be honest.

bremen1874 · 5 Sep 2011 at 21:06

I went from Be* to FTTC and my download went from 8Mb to 37Mb. My upload speed is now better than my download used to be.

The only downside is the cost of getting a FTTC connection with a static IP.