ADSL+ v FTTC

Housey

Housey

Housey

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Joined
21 Feb 2006
Posts
29,596
I have had ADSL Max for years, which was (finally) upgraded to ADSL2 about 2 months ago. My sync is showing 8128Kbps as it was previously and my speeds are around 7Mbps on ADSL2, formally around 6Mbps on ADSL Max. Zen have consistently provided me with exceptional service and I don't suffer from slow down or busy periods, the speeds are the speeds any time of any day of any week.

Now, about 2 weeks ago my exchange also when FTTC (London busses and all that) and I have ordered an upgrade to 76Mbps, which is getting installed on the 12th. My house is around 1.1kms from the exchange which is a REALLY small exchange with circa 300 house and 64 businesses (read farms) on it. Is there any correlation between speeds and what I might see in terms of an % uplift. The estimates are talking about 12Mbps, but they were also estimating 2Mbps for my current service and I much quicker.

Thoughts?
 
With FTTC your speed is based on the distance between your home and your local PCP cabinet. Sample photo below of a BT fibre cabinet.

The distance to your exchange has no bearing with VDSL (FTTC) as it's now fibre to the cabinet (hence FTTC).

How far away are you from your cabinet? If your estimate is 12Mbps you must be quite far away.

Put your tel no. or house no & postcode into the BT Wholesale checker here, what does it say? Just copy/paste the table if unsure, it's usually quite accurate.

https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/


eXepyt5.jpg
 
As I mentioned it's 1.1Kms from the exchange and we live in a rural environment so effectively there are just fields between us....and a massive reservoir.

veYi76q.png


As I said I am getting 7mbps on my ADSL2 presently.
 
What's your current line stats from your router ? Was you on adsl 2+? What service was you getting up to 24 meg? What profiles on the adsl?

Fttc will more stable than your copper all the way to the exchange, however if you were only maxing out at 8mb before. Can you clarify this and the package and profile you were on.
 
As I said it was ADSL Max up to 8meg for which I was getting around 6.2meg to my desktop. On ADSL2 I have no idea on the profile, but again I am syncing at 8 and getting 7meg
 
You haven't clearly read what I put mate. 1.1km is distance to exchange as you said. I explained with FTTC the speeds are relative to the distance between your home and the CABINET, hence the photo and not the exchange.

Anyway as that table shows with FTTC if your line is clean, you could expect speeds of circa 18Mb or more if you're lucky. So you are probably just as far still from the cabinet.

Mine says 55Mb max on a clean line, however I achieve 67Mb as the copper is brand new and thicker. It was the full 80Mb as I was the first customer on the cab, then everyone else joined and crosstalk beat my sync up. :(
 
yeah as sparx as said housey your distance from the exchange doesnt matter when it comes to FTTC but distance from the cab does. Having said that you must be equally as far away from the cab to only recieve speeds like that.
 
To be honest it doesn't really look like you'll get the benefit from FTTC. You'll likely be paying double, maybe even a bit more for potentially only double your speed? I guess it depends on how important that extra speed is. I've seen customers move from 0.8Meg to 6 Meg and paying it on Fibre.
 
I am 1.1k from the cabinet, to be clear. The cost is about a third for fibre surprisingly as Zen have made their ADSL service expensive due to having to support less of it these days. If I get 18mbps I'll be chuffed.

Thanks for your input.
 
Housey said:
I am 1.1k from the cabinet, to be clear. The cost is about a third for fibre surprisingly as Zen have made their ADSL service expensive due to having to support less of it these days. If I get 18mbps I'll be chuffed.

Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

Is there no green cabinet between you and the exchange? You can't get FTTC if you're directly connected to the exchange.
 
Strange result there from the Broadband Checker. When I look up our house it shows
Telephone Number *********** on Exchange ****** is served by Cabinet 2
Click to expand...

IIRC you're in Staffordshire, what does the Connecting Staffs "where and when" checker tell you?

I was sad enough to drive around the village and locate our green FTTC cabinet (which isn't yet Enabled) and then work out the path of the phone line via Google Earth Pro to estimate a speed :o ..550 metres.
 
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Housey said:
I am 1.1k from the cabinet, to be clear. The cost is about a third for fibre surprisingly as Zen have made their ADSL service expensive due to having to support less of it these days. If I get 18mbps I'll be chuffed.

Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

Good, you kept saying exchange. :p Let us know how you get on when installed, I reckon you might achieve 20Mb if you're lucky. :)

EDIT: TaKeN what's strange exactly?
 
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That the broadband checker didn't mention which cabinet supplies Housey, but he may have decided not to post it.
 
Orcvader said:
Is there no green cabinet between you and the exchange? You can't get FTTC if you're directly connected to the exchange.
Click to expand...

It's likely that the cabinet is next to the exchange because it used to be directly connected to the exchange line and they changed that for FTTC, plus the 1.1k is likely to be an as the crow flies distance with the actual length of the line being anything up to 3 to 4 times that length.
 
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