Thinking of leaving VM for FTTC

Jarrod

Jarrod

Jarrod

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28 Oct 2011
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So the node my Virgin connection is connected to is very over subscribed and has been since the day I signed up, over a year ago. However, it was still a lot better than the 3Mbps ADSL I had access to before that. However, the fix date keeps getting pushed back further and further and as my contract with VM is now up and conveniently BT Infinity and Sky Fibre has just become available at my address, I'm considering switching over. However the downside is the estimate for my address is 40Mbps down and only 6.5Mbps up :*(. I've heard of BT trialing vectoring but not sure how far down the pipeline that is for the consumer, and also not sure if Sky will have access to the same technology. My question really is, or rather my questions are as follows:

Because I'm quite far from the cabinet, will my base latency be similar to what my ADSL latency was back in the day?

Are the estimates that conservative? Can I expect more than what they're estimating?

Which to go for out of BT/Sky?

Am I silly for even considering?

Cheers
 
Latency should be better, as the connection between the cabinet and exchange is fibre, so that's a big chunk of the distance moving at the speed of light, with the rest at the speed of erm... whatever speed electricity moves through copper (or aluminium if your phoneline is still made from that).

There are many factors that can affect the actual speed, such as the cable quality between you and the cabinet, and the actual line distance. For me it underestimated my line by about 8mb, but it will be different for yours.

Plusnet, better for the price :p.

Nope, BT's FTTC copes much better with congestion compared to Virgin, you should find the service a lot more reliable and consistent during peak times.
 
I know that some of the lines around here, possibly my entire street is aluminium cable, I hope that isn't too drastic of a performance drop compared to copper. Thing is, there's addresses in my street (which is a street of about 20 houses), who are getting estimates of 60, there cant be more than 60meters seperating our houses, and we're all connected to the same cabinet.

I'm itching to move, but the speed drop from an inconsistent 120Mb to a consistent 40Mb seems very severe, 50Mb would suit me much better but I know there isn't much i can do about it. I don't think BT will replace a line just because I want more speed.
 
Pretty much agree with Orcvader's comments. Had my FTTC line nearly a year and the download speed has dropped in that time. When it was first installed i was getting about 76 down and 15 up. Now though it is a consistant (any time of the day or night) 67 down and 17 up. I put this down to more and more households around me now having an FTTC connection. So if you do go the FTTC route, be prepared for a bit of contention to rear it's head as more peeps in your area get connected as well. To be honest, it's more than fast enough even with the slight loss since installation.
 
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I moved from Virgin to FTTC (first BT, then Plusnet who I rate highly and above BT) and you couldn't pay me to go back to Virgin.
 
I'm in the same boat, been with Virgin since it was Telewest. Do you have to use the BT HomeHub? I have a Cisco/LinkSys EA4500 router which I'd like to keep using.

I don't currently have a BT phone line (there's a wall plate in the hall for one but don't think it's connected), can they re-use a Virgin one? (I doubt it but thought I'd ask!) or do they have to run a new one?
 
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mparter said:
I'm in the same boat, been with Virgin since it was Telewest. Do you have to use the BT HomeHub? I have a Cisco/LinkSys EA4500 router which I'd like to keep using.

I don't currently have a BT phone line (there's a wall plate in the hall for one but don't think it's connected), can they re-use a Virgin one? (I doubt it but thought I'd ask!) or do they have to run a new one?
Click to expand...

You need to use the modem but you can use any router with it. I replaced the HH3 with an Asus one back at my parents.

No, they can't reuse the Virgin one as that's owned by Virgin and is connected to Virgin's network. BT will install a new line for you or reactivate the one in the hall if it's already wired up, and depending on what package you take out, you may need to pay for an installation fee.
 
Orcvader said:
You need to use the modem but you can use any router with it. I replaced the HH3 with an Asus one back at my parents.

No, they can't reuse the Virgin one as that's owned by Virgin and is connected to Virgin's network. BT will install a new line for you or reactivate the one in the hall if it's already wired up, and depending on what package you take out, you may need to pay for an installation fee.
Click to expand...

Cheers.
 
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