Openreach now putting in zero effort (or investment) to improve suboptimal FTTC lines

g67575

g67575

g67575

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So, in my opinion, this includes:

1. Aluminium lines - Rarely discussed it seems
2. FTTC lines connected to ECI cabinets (no G.INP support was implemented)
3. Lines affected by poor DLM management (poor application of interleaving for example. No user or ISP control over important line parameters)
4. Disconnecting lines, poor line reliability. Could be due to poor quality of cable / other infrastructure issues.

Anyone agree with this, or do you think that's being a bit harsh?

To be fair to Openreach, they did try several times to enable G.INP on lines connected to ECI cabinets, but unfortunately, the tests were unsuccessful. Also, line repairs are still being carried out where required.

I've also had some help from an Openreach engineer to enable interleaving on my line (still in progress really. It's not a straight forward process).

From my point of view, it's difficult to point to any improvements since I got an FTTC line (I think around 2013-2014). It seemed like a large improvement at the time compared to ADSL (particularly when multiple users are browsing or watching Youtube etc), but generally, many lines seem to have got a bit worse over time.
 
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This is true. If I'm lucky, I will likely be getting FTTP from Full Fibre Ltd (they provide FTTP lines wholesale to a few ISPs), most likely at some point in 2023, or maybe 2024.

But, Openreach is clearly going to lose out there, as many areas won't receive an Openreach FTTP line until 2026 (quite likely this figure is a bit optimistic). At their current build rate, 2028 seems like a more realistic date.

Bit of a flaw in Openreach's plan if many areas receive upgrades before they can roll out their own network (the term for this is overbuild).

Several areas are already being upgraded near where I live by companies such as Full Fibre Ltd, at least according to an Openreach engineer I recently spoke to. The impression I got was that it didn't make his life any easier.
 
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Dsl technology is really good to be fair, but who would have thought retro fitting it to a telephone system that was never designed to transmit data would be less than optimal.
 
Yes, especially if you invest in poor equipment and don't bother to replace old lines (aluminium) from more than 30 years ago.
 
What gets me is I have a dodgy cable outside my house that now has its own manhole but every time a fault occurs its that same joint and when they fix it they cap my speed lower than the time before, I started on about 75mbs then it went down to 67. then last time they capped it again to 56 I know they have capped it because an engineer tested the line and said I can get max speed almost but the batteries in the street cab needed replacing and when all that was done they reset my line and the speed never went over 56 and even after 10 day training time remained the same, there putting full fiber up in the village here but my road is newer and has few telegraph poles so I guess they will leave us till last. I was thinking of moving to Zen I have been out of contract for over a year.
 
To be fair I have FTTC with Plusnet for 7 years and it rock solid at full 80/20 as DLM only did banding my line 74/20 twice in 7 years which it isn't that bad!
 
I think the issue is party that FTTC has been sold as basically one product in the UK, even though people seem to have had wildly different experiences with it based on where they live and the quality of their line. So, the main factors are:

1. Distance to the street cabinet. This (amongst other things) affects the resulting SNR margin, which determines the line sync speed. If the SNR margin is over 6DB, generally the line attempts over time to sync at a higher downstream and upstream rate
2. Type of line. Copper or aluminium
3. Type of cabinet

Whatever your circumstances, they are all sold as FTTC at a similar price, with many providers now not even bothering to offer a cheaper, lower speed package (such as 40 or 50mbps).
 
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FTTC: 2014-2021

Downstream Upstream
Line attenuation (dB): 11.9 0.0
Signal attenuation (dB): 11.9 0.0
Connection speed (kbps): 79999 19999
SNR margin (dB): 6.1 9.1

G.fast: 2021-2022

Downstream Upstream
Line attenuation (dB): 37.1 0.0
Signal attenuation (dB): 37.1 0.0
Connection speed (kbps): 244819 41644
SNR margin (dB): 3.1 3.1
 
G.Fast has had a lot of criticism due to rollout problems, with Openreach basically stopping the rollout completely.

Looks like a straight forward improvement to me though. Especially since vectoring is a mandatory requirement, which should help a lot with line stability.

Is your line completely stable? Do you get any packet loss?
 
G.fast use SRA and FRA and change sync rate every 30 minutes. Varies from 210-244 on the downstream. Colder weather are higher sync rate than the hotter summer.
 
Downgraded to FTTC because G.fast are expensive now. But, it pretty good with both G.INP and Vectoring with it. Such ashame that Openreach put up price for G.fast rather than FTTP.
 
How much is 100mbps G.Fast? And faster packages?

Putting up the price on G.Fast seems like a move purely to please shareholders.
 
G.fast 160/30 with silent line £49.99 PCM
G.fast 330/50 with silent line £56.99 PCM

Both are with 12 months contract with free installation, free setup and free Engineer Openreach G.fast Modem with including 1 x static IP Address. Provided by TalkTalk Business backhaul. (UnchainedISP)
 
Sky were cheap for lower tier g.fast.

As far as FTTC goes it's dead. Why would anyone want OR to waste time and resources on further developing it or replacing aluminium lines when they're going to replace them with fibre in a few years? That's just silly.
 
Because they'd only need to spent a bit more time adding user/isp adjustable line parameters (interleaving, maybe g.inp for many areas also).

People are still paying to use these services, but they spend their profit improving other areas.

Many will be stuck with FTTC for many more years.
 
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