This is very true. About 5 years ago I was renting a place in Clitheroe and the local council there were hurling resources at getting everyone on FTTC because that was the fastest thing available at the time. Mind you, it’s also a very affluent area.
Broadband in the UK
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One of the biggest problems with the UK, is how we bog ourselves down with horrendous levels of bureaucracy and associated costs, which end up making large scale projects cost prohibitive, for the most part. Mostly down to archaic planning rules, and the insanely wasteful and overly expensive contractors who'd be required to deliver it.
Essentially, if the UK decided to roll out FTTP everywhere - it would just be a great big rip off, the cost would be incredible, because the UK simply can't deliver large scale projects, without making a total embarrassing mess. (HS2, Brexit contracts, test and trace, channel tunnel, etc etc)
I've done work for most of the UK based ISPs, (core networks, broadband, edge and mobile) <I used to be a consulting engineer for Juniper> and I did do a job for one of the most popular rural broadband providers once. Essentially - the cost of digging fibre consumed all of the government funding and their own money, to the point where they almost went under and could barely even afford to buy routers. Laying fibre was simply so expensive, to me it seemed silly, and I could never understand why it couldn't be made cheaper.
Essentially, if the UK decided to roll out FTTP everywhere - it would just be a great big rip off, the cost would be incredible, because the UK simply can't deliver large scale projects, without making a total embarrassing mess. (HS2, Brexit contracts, test and trace, channel tunnel, etc etc)
I've done work for most of the UK based ISPs, (core networks, broadband, edge and mobile) <I used to be a consulting engineer for Juniper> and I did do a job for one of the most popular rural broadband providers once. Essentially - the cost of digging fibre consumed all of the government funding and their own money, to the point where they almost went under and could barely even afford to buy routers. Laying fibre was simply so expensive, to me it seemed silly, and I could never understand why it couldn't be made cheaper.
We have aluminium in our area. Best I can get is about 15Mbps on FTTC, doesn't help the cabinet must be 700m away. Apparently we're in phase 3 for FTTP and Virgin are also moving in. I'm hoping for some competition and some progress before the end of 2021.
Soldato
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Alu is an absolute nightmare for any kind of data service. Have you considered 4G before FTTP or Virgin arrives?
I've said it before but it doesn't help that the authorities/providers don't all get their ducks in a row.
We're rural but are lucky enough to get FTTC 80/20, however we've just had all of our degraded concrete pavements ripped out and nicely tarmacked. With a little bit of thought they could have run in ducting from our cab for FTTP while they had the pavements dug up, but I guess nobody talks to each other.
We're rural but are lucky enough to get FTTC 80/20, however we've just had all of our degraded concrete pavements ripped out and nicely tarmacked. With a little bit of thought they could have run in ducting from our cab for FTTP while they had the pavements dug up, but I guess nobody talks to each other.
Yes a couple of engineers told me no-one wants to touch it as it can just break up when handled. The 4G is also pretty poor despite being in a reasonable sized town. Partly due to the lie of the land and partly due to objections to new masts. I'm resigned to waiting it out unfortunately.
Soldato
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@Troezar how did you find out what phase your area is in for FTTP?
Must be lucky here, I've got the option of full fibre in my little village. Though I haven't had need to upgrade beyond my ~60/15 or whatever it is.
I think it's just the order they rollout FTTP.
Ah ok! Assiming phase 1 = the first part of the rollout.
As posted earlier, BT were going to roll out full fibre, I think in the 90s, and remove all the copper lines too. They found it would work out cheaper over all. There is a former top BT guy on youtube making a presentation about this. But also stated earlier Maggies government stopped it.
Since then BT have only really up'ed speed connections when competition as appeared. Until then every time FTTP was mentioned it was "you don't need so much speed". It's only since CityFibre came on the scene laying their own full fibre network that the battle within BT/OR over speed as now tipped to deploying FTTP. So they are now laying fibre all over the place. I think they are passing around 44,000 properties a week. Other companies are also passing properites as well.
Virgin media are upgrading their existing network from DOCSIS 3.0 TO DOCSIS 3.1 which will allow gigabit speeds across most of their network by the end of 2021.
Since then BT have only really up'ed speed connections when competition as appeared. Until then every time FTTP was mentioned it was "you don't need so much speed". It's only since CityFibre came on the scene laying their own full fibre network that the battle within BT/OR over speed as now tipped to deploying FTTP. So they are now laying fibre all over the place. I think they are passing around 44,000 properties a week. Other companies are also passing properites as well.
Virgin media are upgrading their existing network from DOCSIS 3.0 TO DOCSIS 3.1 which will allow gigabit speeds across most of their network by the end of 2021.
We are lucky to get 30/6 FTTC here in a rural area
90% of the surrounding properties have ADSL2+ at barely megabit speeds - we also scrape by with ~30/10 4G (seen it go as high as 40/20 at night but sometimes is slower even than that during the day) which we are pretty lucky to get as well as in theory it should be worse with the distances and terrain involved.No signs of any FTTP, etc.
Honestly I'm surprised we got that, our "exchange" is a pretty run down building only a couple miles away but it's all country lanes, fields and wood in between. Apparently it's VM enabled too but no way will we ever see that cable..We are lucky to get 30/6 FTTC here in a rural area
No signs of any FTTP, etc.
Shouldn't complain really.
Apparently our village church is having a mobile mast installed at some point, if that's 5g we'll be laughing as it's only 750m away.
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Thanks! Unfortunately my area is not on the list
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We are lucky to get 30/6 FTTC here in a rural area
No signs of any FTTP, etc.
Try and find out your county councils BDUK plan, as your neighbours will be on it as they are below the new thresholds. Some of the councils publish some of it online, some even publish everything e.g. here is North Yorkshires down to the individual property level http://superfastnorthyorkshire.com/#where-when. Problem is a few councils are really really ****, either due to their own bad management or due to not choosing Openreach/BT to be their partner; usually the bad councils have little information available unsurprisingly.
Thanks! Unfortunately my area is not on the list
Nor is mine.
Ugh BT drive me nuts, they are so incredibly slow.
Very little information and apparently private companies have until the end of 2022 to provision the area before the council will step in of which there seems to be no activity so until then residents suffer.