Will 1Gigabyte per second (8gbps) connections be a thing in the UK within the next 5-10 years?

[b0rn2sk8]

No because your applying an enthusiast use case to the general population, that’s the logical fallacy.

The vast majority back up their photos to iCloud/Google photos because it happens automatically and put pictures on Facebook and Instagram. They don’t even understand the term backup let alone off site back up. The biggest upload traffic from domestic connections is almost certainly Ring/Nest type cloud cameras which use relatively small amounts of bandwidth.

There not downloading large quantities of ‘Linux ISOs’ and then backing them up off site, running game servers, FTP servers, Mail servers or anything else on their own connections.

 

[Rainmaker]

No because your applying an enthusiast use case to the general population, that’s the logical fallacy.

The vast majority back up their photos to iCloud/Google photos because it happens automatically and put pictures on Facebook and Instagram. They don’t even understand the term backup let alone off site back up. The biggest upload traffic from domestic connections is almost certainly Ring/Nest type cloud cameras which use relatively small amounts of bandwidth.

There not downloading large quantities of ‘Linux ISOs’ and then backing them up off site, running game servers, FTP servers, Mail servers or anything else on their own connections.

Nobody said anything about game servers or mail servers (both of which are low-bandwidth, btw). We'll have to agree to disagree.

 

[g67575]

Well, the tech ain't ready for 8gbps connections yet anyway... At least, not for consumer hardware.

I think the demand would have to be there, I think most would be very happy with 900/1000mbps download and upload speeds, so maybe higher speeds than this aren't really needed for a while yet. I think file server bandwidth would have to be upgraded first for it to be worthwhile, presumably as demand increases.

Looking at some FTTP providers (like Gigaclear), they don't seem to have a problem with 900mbps synchronous speeds, so I'd expect this to become the norm eventually.

What I've realised though, is that most consumer routers struggle enough already with 1gbps, let alone 1GB/s, yeah I called it that, sue me

 

[Caged]

What do you mean, "be a thing"? Will some niche ISP offer a 10Gbit plan as part of a marketing exercise? Most likely yes. Will it become more than a few % of all connections? No.

 

[g67575]

I think Virgin Media O2 will push for multi Gigabit per second connections when their FTTP network upgrades are complete - Even if this is just marketing, they will want to claim to be the fastest. That's many years away though...

 

[sandys]

So, 1GBps downstream and upstream sync rates.

only a matter of time before it is needed, particularly for high density housing where you'd feed optical around the building from one source rather than lots of independent connections, the bandwidth is not always the target the latency is, optical is great for both.

As with the push for every new tech, the market that needs it is small but once the tech exists new markets build around the tech, sat 30yrs ago on my 28.8kbps modem I couldn't even fathom what having the broadband connections we have now would lead to.

 

[Jez]

What do you mean, "be a thing"? Will some niche ISP offer a 10Gbit plan as part of a marketing exercise? Most likely yes. Will it become more than a few % of all connections? No.

The network i am on, Gigaclear, did this for a short time. I would imagine that a lot of the other alternative operators like them can also offer this, but of course there is no actual demand.

 

[Turn]

There's 1 million homes with access to 940/940 speeds with CityFibre now, and you don't really have to pay extortionate amounts for it and their network is quickly expanding.
There's others too such at G.Network, Community Fibre, Gigaclear and the list goes on...
We should be optimistic, especially when things are moving as fast as they are now, although it may be long overdue. The Fibre rollout is definitely on an exponential increase in the UK now.

If CityFibre reach their target of 8mil premises by 2025, and Vodafone and others continue to offer the 940/940, I think there will definitely be some competition for BT to consider.
& being able to match the speeds in terms of upload will become more and more relevant for BT/Openreach

 

[g67575]

Virgin Media is experimenting with 2.2gbps connections via DOCSIS 3.1:

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.p...trial-hits-2-2gbps-broadband-speed-again.html

2.5gbps ports are a 'thing' on routers already, so I'd guess this would be the next stage of development.

Presumably, if they can get the technology to work on DOCSIS, FTTP shouldn't be a problem either.

I could see this catching on in new housing developments, with decent ethernet cable installed to each room.

The cutting edge in the USA seems to be DOCSIS 4.0, offering 4gbps download and upload speeds, in early Comcast testing:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/comcast-tests-4gbps-speeds-that-could-ramp-up-your-internet/

Comcast appears to have a long term goal of 10gbps transfer speeds.

 

[Caged]

The technology isn't the problem, XGS-PON exists and Community Fibre can give you a symmetric 3Gb connection for £89 if you want it. The point is that the vast majority of the market is supplying services for around the £30 price point.

I'd rather get the country to the point where everybody is on a fibre network that 'only' runs at 1Gbps than a situation where some people are stuck on sub-20Mbps but others can get 20Gbps symmetric for £50 or whatever. I know it's hard to predict future use cases but I think once you're getting upload speeds past 50Mbps then there really isn't a limitation any more for the typical home user.

 

[g67575]

I agree 1gbps FTTP connections should be rolled out to almost all UK premises first.

Still, I can see companies like Virgin Media O2 pushing for multigigabit speeds before this is achieved. They might even decide to enable 2gbps on their DOCSIS 3.1 network, before rolling out their FTTP network.

 

[WJA96]

So, I had a look around for routers that could actually do this. I think this would work:

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/41347-draytek-v3910-k-cloud/

DrayTek Vigor 3910 Multi-WAN Broadband Router - £693.94

Can handle 9Gb/s throughput apparently!

It has 2 SFP slots that allow 10gbps modules to be installed for WAN and LAN networking, somewhat limited in this regard. It would need a 10gbps switch for additional connections.

Hardly a cheap option.

10gbps RJ-45 ports on routers aren't really a thing yet, so you'd have to pay through the nose for special 10gbps SFP modules.

A 10GbE capable SFP+ converter is £35 from Mikrotik. £50 from Ubiquiti. Hardly expensive, surely? The Mikrotik RB5009 can pass 1GB (10Gbps) traffic through its WAN port and that’s under £250. No need to waste your money on Draytek’s marketing department. And I think it should be obvious if you have an 8Gbps WAN connection you’re going to need ALL capable devices running 10GBaseT adapters.

 

[WJA96]

The technology isn't the problem, XGS-PON exists and Community Fibre can give you a symmetric 3Gb connection for £89 if you want it. The point is that the vast majority of the market is supplying services for around the £30 price point.

I'd rather get the country to the point where everybody is on a fibre network that 'only' runs at 1Gbps than a situation where some people are stuck on sub-20Mbps but others can get 20Gbps symmetric for £50 or whatever. I know it's hard to predict future use cases but I think once you're getting upload speeds past 50Mbps then there really isn't a limitation any more for the typical home user.

This is exactly what we should be telling people who make the decisions about deploying equipment. Even £30 is too much for most people. Many, many, people on minimum wage don’t have any fixed line Comms at home at all and rely on their mobile phone or tablet for all internet purposes.

 

[g67575]

A 10GbE capable SFP+ converter is £35 from Mikrotik. £50 from Ubiquiti. Hardly expensive, surely? The Mikrotik RB5009 can pass 1GB (10Gbps) traffic through its WAN port and that’s under £250. No need to waste your money on Draytek’s marketing department. And I think it should be obvious if you have an 8Gbps WAN connection you’re going to need ALL capable devices running 10GBaseT adapters.

Yes, this seems like something the average consumer would be likely to do

 

[MrRockliffe]

Possible applications for this type of connection would be very fast game downloads. E.g, 60GB game in 1 minute, 120GB game in 2 minutes. Waiting for downloads would be virtually a thing of the past, unless games got substantially larger.

Considering Microsoft cap downloads on Xbox at about 600 Mbps, I don’t see the point quite yet (though Steam is of course quicker). However, with fibre to the premises, it is technically possible.


Though for those that have a Cat5e cable delivering the service, it may be trickier to upgrade.


One potential downside is that as the U.K. transitions to FTTP, server bandwidth will be saturated. If they’re upgraded, as they should be, it’ll result in higher costs for us.

 

[Turn]

Considering Microsoft cap downloads at about 600 Mbps, I don’t see the point quite yet. However, with fibre to the premises, it is technically possible.

Where did you hear this?

 

[g67575]

You're right, I've no idea when services like Microsoft's Game Pass (or Microsoft Store) or Steam would be able to offer anything like 8/10gbps download rates.

This ISP is apparently working on a 10gbps network in Scotland, for the end of 2023:
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.p...-gigabit-broadband-rollout-into-scotland.html

P.S. To the guy who reckoned people living in the US don't write network speed in MB/s, I'm afraid that's not correct based on this Steam thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1458455461472345301/

This is why Steam shows network speed in MB/s by default, but there is an option to display this in bits per second in the settings menu.

They've been doing this for years. People express it in both ways, neither is incorrect.

 

[MrRockliffe]

Where did you hear this?

On Xbox I should have added

 

[WJA96]

Yes, this seems like something the average consumer would be likely to do

You’re the one who raised the topic. If 8Gbps connections are ‘a thing’ then the consumer kit will follow. I was simply pointing out that if you want to have it today, you can, and while that 10Gbps leased line is £2500 a month, you can still have the router for under £300.

 

[g67575]

On a side note, the Microsoft UK servers don't seem particularly good, at least in my case, my latency is 159 milliseconds:
https://i.ibb.co/wQmVzJf/MS.jpg

I think they've got a lot of work to do when it comes to offering fast and reliable servers in the UK.