ADSL2+

[NathanE]

A sneak peak into "21st century broadband" right here...

Not bad...

I can still vividly remember being told by a BT engineer back in the mid-nineties my line was already maxxed out and would never go faster than 56k. And then again in 2001, being told by a BT engineer that I was lucky to be able to get 512Kbit ADSL on my line.

But also pretty scary that I am now probably not going to see any improvements over this for another decade or two.

ADSL technology improvements seem to have ground to a halt. Has twisted copper now, finally, reached its ultimate limits?

Sobering thought.

Ever since I got the Internet in like 1995 more or less every year or two there was some improvement that came along to make the experience better in some way. Whether it be speed, latency, both, or just "how much you could use it" (thinking of FRIACO here).

Next improvement, realistically, is when BT deploy fibre to the green cabinets and install mini-weatherproofed-(and presumably "chav"-proofed)-DSLAMs inside of them.

 

[sparkey196]

I don't think they can keep up the same rate of change without ditching utp cable. Look at it this way, going from 56kbps to 14Mbps is around a 300 fold increase!

If they kept that up, in another 10 years you should be on 4Gbps which I can't see happening, at least not with the FTTCab tech they will most likely roll out. More to the point, i can't see any market factors which could give cause for provisioning this kind of service in the next ten years. Even 14mbps is enough to stream HD content so what would be the point of offering much more?

 

[Deleted member 54091]

korea are already on 1gbps

 

[tolien]

Twisted copper hasn't reached a limit, physics has. There's only so much you can throw down a conductor that's ~3000m long, with joints and $deity knows what else. VDSL2 and friends go faster than 24Mbps (by a long way), but either don't work or don't offer any benefit as the loop gets longer.

You've only got to look at what VM are doing down coax.

korea are already on 1gbps

South Korea are, using non-standards and lots of Government money. Try and buy a VDSL2+ modem for, say, £100.

 

[Deleted member 54091]

fiber to cabinet for backhaul and exchange and VDSL2 to provide service to homes through the existing copper wire infrastructure seem the only viable cheapest option.

 

[Nick1881]

But we already have ADSL2+ through different providers, its only BT that are being slow with it. Its up and running in a few exchanges in Wales doing trials. BT suppliers have been making the 21CN kit for over a year now.

 

[NathanE]

But we already have ADSL2+ through different providers, its only BT that are being slow with it. Its up and running in a few exchanges in Wales doing trials. BT suppliers have been making the 21CN kit for over a year now.

Yeah I know. ISPs that use LLU have had ADSL2+ for ages now.

That's what I'm on. Nildram... they moved me to LLU last year. It was crap at first. So bad that I was going to migrate away. But since January it has been a lot better. So I thought I'd upgrade to their ADSL2+ package and see what that gave me. I had to buy a new modem for it but figured I had to do it sooner or later!