BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

[Gammawolf]

Does anyone know what the current status of FTTP is for existing homes? I was aware of FTTPod a while back but seem to recall they stopped doing that? I've not kept up much.. Just looking at an upgrade options..
The brief background is our estate is about 18 years old, everything is underground all the way to the houses (bt line seems to up out of the ground on the front of the house in a 6 cm diameter pipe). I'm assuming the ducting is in good shape given the age and there would be minimal digging off the back of that? We recently got upgraded to g.fast which i currently have. My distance to the cab is 150m with the closest BT manhole being a few meters up the road (in the direction away from the cab). My download speeds on g.fast reflect that the distance is roughly accurate.

Does anyone have any knowledge if its possible to pay for fibre install and if so under these conditions rough costs?

(totally don't have internet envy after seeing my mates hyperoptic connection )

 

[Steveocee]

Does anyone know what the current status of FTTP is for existing homes? I was aware of FTTPod a while back but seem to recall they stopped doing that? I've not kept up much.. Just looking at an upgrade options..
The brief background is our estate is about 18 years old, everything is underground all the way to the houses (bt line seems to up out of the ground on the front of the house in a 6 cm diameter pipe). I'm assuming the ducting is in good shape given the age and there would be minimal digging off the back of that? We recently got upgraded to g.fast which i currently have. My distance to the cab is 150m with the closest BT manhole being a few meters up the road (in the direction away from the cab). My download speeds on g.fast reflect that the distance is roughly accurate.

Does anyone have any knowledge if its possible to pay for fibre install and if so under these conditions rough costs?

(totally don't have internet envy after seeing my mates hyperoptic connection )

Extremely unlikely. If you're already on G.Fast then you'll be bottom of the pile to get fibre.

 

[V_R]

I tried to move to Plusnet recently, but they couldn't migrate me as they kept claiming there was already an open order on my line. I spoke to Zen and they couldn't see anything that would stop the migration. This happened twice.

In the end I cancelled the move as every time I tried to talk to PN it took 20 minutes of sitting on hold. When I placed the order I paid about £200 upfront for line rental. It took them a month and countless phone calls to get that refunded.

Is there any way I can find out if there is an open order on my line, (which there shouldn't be, I'm not ordered anything, obviously) without placing another order?

 

[MissChief]

Does anyone know what the current status of FTTP is for existing homes? I was aware of FTTPod a while back but seem to recall they stopped doing that? I've not kept up much.. Just looking at an upgrade options..
The brief background is our estate is about 18 years old, everything is underground all the way to the houses (bt line seems to up out of the ground on the front of the house in a 6 cm diameter pipe). I'm assuming the ducting is in good shape given the age and there would be minimal digging off the back of that? We recently got upgraded to g.fast which i currently have. My distance to the cab is 150m with the closest BT manhole being a few meters up the road (in the direction away from the cab). My download speeds on g.fast reflect that the distance is roughly accurate.

Does anyone have any knowledge if its possible to pay for fibre install and if so under these conditions rough costs?

(totally don't have internet envy after seeing my mates hyperoptic connection )

You can still have a survey done about FTTPoD and see what they quote you. Cerberus Networks can do it and there's a long thread on the think broadband forum for those who had surveys done and some who even went ahead with it.

 

[MG42Maniac]

I've had BT Ultrafast 330/50 for just over a year now. I am paying £60, annoyingly no one else is offering anything faster. Hyperoptic has a few offerings near by but they are for high rises flats. I've seen that Openreach has two new plans, 550/75 and 1000/115. Presumably BT will pick these up but what is with the stingy upload speed? If you live in the right area, you can get 1000/1000 for like £30! Frustrating as I want faster upload but I reckon the top package till be around £80+ a month and yet only offer 115mbps up.

 

[RockLobster]

I've been having terrible problems with g-fast over the past few months. BT have been 5 times. The last time all they said is the g-fast team in Belfast will monitor my connection for 7 days. I'm starting to think g-fast is not fit for purpose. My line length is 298m from the cab. Anyone else had issues like this?

 

[Caged]

I've had BT Ultrafast 330/50 for just over a year now. I am paying £60, annoyingly no one else is offering anything faster. Hyperoptic has a few offerings near by but they are for high rises flats. I've seen that Openreach has two new plans, 550/75 and 1000/115. Presumably BT will pick these up but what is with the stingy upload speed? If you live in the right area, you can get 1000/1000 for like £30! Frustrating as I want faster upload but I reckon the top package till be around £80+ a month and yet only offer 115mbps up.

They don't want to cannibalise the leased line ethernet business by offering symmetrical broadband - also for the most part consumers aren't fussed about symmetrical services as their usage is still highly skewed towards downloads, and people tend to compare based on headline download speeds and prices, and not a lot else. The 1Gbps Openreach FTTP product has a 220Mbps upload speed, certain providers are offering it with a pretty hefty install fee and a large monthly cost.

Symmetrical gigabit for £30 is by far the exception rather than the norm, I don't think it's reasonable to expect that to be the going rate for services right now.

 

[Armadillo]

Do Sky intentionally not renew your lease to force a new ip on you every so often?

I've had sky for about 3 months and 3 or so times it's stopped working for 30min or an hour in the middle of the night because the lease isn't being renewed.

Sync is fine that doesn't drop, it just stops renewing the ip lease for a little bit according to the log, then grabs a new ip when it expires and it's fine. Little extract from the end of the log segment.

Jul 24 04:12:56 syslog: No lease renewal received
Jul 24 04:14:10 syslog: No lease renewal received
Jul 24 04:14:10 syslog: DHCP lease expired. -> DISCOVERY 3600
Jul 24 04:14:18 syslog: ptm0.1 - WAN link UP.
Jul 24 04:14:18 syslog: Received valid DHCP lease from server. Connection UP.

Every time it's done it, it's around that sort of time.

So are Sky doing it on purpose? It's not a problem, it's just odd and seems a strange thing to do.

 

[MG42Maniac]

They don't want to cannibalise the leased line ethernet business by offering symmetrical broadband - also for the most part consumers aren't fussed about symmetrical services as their usage is still highly skewed towards downloads, and people tend to compare based on headline download speeds and prices, and not a lot else. The 1Gbps Openreach FTTP product has a 220Mbps upload speed, certain providers are offering it with a pretty hefty install fee and a large monthly cost.

Symmetrical gigabit for £30 is by far the exception rather than the norm, I don't think it's reasonable to expect that to be the going rate for services right now.

Yeah, I don't mind paying a decent amount per month but I'd want symmetrical, I don't think BT will never offer this. I think my best bet would be an independent ISP, toob perhaps?

 

[Caged]

Openreach have hinted at business-grade FTTP to fit in between a leased line and a broadband connection in terms of pricing, but that's not going to be £30.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Yeah, I don't mind paying a decent amount per month but I'd want symmetrical, I don't think BT will never offer this. I think my best bet would be an independent ISP, toob perhaps?

Why do you need symmetrical on a home connection? Seems redundant for a 'home' user.

 

[thewanted]

I've been having terrible problems with g-fast over the past few months. BT have been 5 times. The last time all they said is the g-fast team in Belfast will monitor my connection for 7 days. I'm starting to think g-fast is not fit for purpose. My line length is 298m from the cab. Anyone else had issues like this?

I can't help, but I'm curious to know what your sync speed is with that line length.

 

[Rroff]

Symmetrical gigabit for £30 is by far the exception rather than the norm, I don't think it's reasonable to expect that to be the going rate for services right now.

I've rarely found residential symmetrical gigabit at every day prices that sustains those speeds, even with hardware and an endpoint that can handle it once they have a bit of subscriber uptake anyhow. A couple of the providers in the UK seem to put new customers on some kind of prioritisation for the first month or so then after that they get the same contention as everyone else :s

 

[MG42Maniac]

Why do you need symmetrical on a home connection? Seems redundant for a 'home' user.

If I work from home I always seem to need to move large databases around so faster upload would help there. Also, my Plex server is shared with friends and family so a faster upload means I can just uncap the quality. Finally, I back up my whole media library of 50TB to the cloud every night. I'm not bothered about 1000/1000, I'd be happy with 500/500 or 500/165 at around £50 a month.

 

[Caged]

For home working you might want to look at using an Amazon WorkSpaces VM or Azure equivalent - puts you on a massive pipe as well as keeping any data away from your local PC.

 

[RockLobster]

I can't help, but I'm curious to know what your sync speed is with that line length.

160. Didn't opt for the 300.

 

[thewanted]

160. Didn't opt for the 300.

Cool, thanks Kinda surprised that it works at that line length. I'd kill for G.Fast right about now.

 

[RockLobster]

Cool, thanks Kinda surprised that it works at that line length. I'd kill for G.Fast right about now.

Not if you had the issues I've had.

 

[Besty]

Does anyone have any knowledge if its possible to pay for fibre install and if so under these conditions rough costs?

(totally don't have internet envy after seeing my mates hyperoptic connection )

1GB/1GB is approx. £750pm and install costs depend on location, could be a few k. thats why FTTP 300mbit is so popular.

 

[aminegriffy]

Update with BT ping issues:

I'm seeing a lot of complains about it in their forums and BT are refusing to admit there are issue within their network, many people got told to turn off the devices or upgrade their package LOL ! some people are taking this further and complaining to directly to OFCOM/ emailing BT CEO about it as the broadband is unfit for streaming and gaming which is clearly what their BT superfast are advertised for.

As for me I'm terminating my contract and switching to Sky, if you are a gamer or live in a busy household do not use BT.