BT Fibre Optic

[2657]

I am dog sitting at Daughters house at the moment and the Sky internet is c**p.

A flyer from BT arrived the other day and tells me that superfast BT Infinity is available in this area, I have ascertained that fibre optic comes to the nearest distribution box after contacting them via a live web chat.

I could not get a definitive answer to this question:-
the final link to the house is via a copper cable from a telegraph pole will this not 'choke' the speed to normal levels?

I envisage it being like trying to empty a reservoir with a hose pipe.

I am not certain that I would believe the salespersons at BT anyway so hoping someone can answer this for me.

 

[Mack100]

Have a look here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...a-plots-network-expansion-in-East-London.html

Virgin Media’s network offers top download speeds of up to 152 megabits per second, compared with 76megabits per second via BT’s superfast network. The disparity is a result of BT’s reliance on copper wires rather than fibre optics for the final link into homes. Virgin Media runs fibre optics closer to homes and relies on higher capacity coaxial wires for the last hop.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

It won't choke it but the more further away from the fibre cabinet you are i.e. the longer the final copper run the more the speed will degrade. Not by massive amounts, just slightly. An example using random numbers plucked out of the air - if BT say the maximum speed is 80MB/s and you have 75 metres of copper cable connecting you to the cabinet your speed may be 74MB/s say. To get the ultimate speed you would need a fibre optic cable right up to your router, even the copper cable through your house to the external box would have na effect. Still massively faster than normal broadband in any event.
Before anyone corrects the numbers they aren't calculated, just intended as an example.

Another point is that if fibre is in the area it won't just be BT that offer it - if your current supplier is Sky then they will as well and you won't need to worry about ending a contract early or have any switch over hassle. Anyone that supplies broadband in the area and has a fibre option will be able to offer it. I have Sky fibre, same speeds as BT and a far nicer company to deal with.

 

[DJA]

Hi

We have BT Infinity which was finally installed in our area some 2 years behind schedule.

The fibre optic cable was installed to a new box which is next to the old copper cable box that serves our development which is some 250yds from our house. As has been indicated we are still connected via Copper cable to the original box but are now connected from there to the exchange by the new fibre optic cable.

The best we ever got from the old Copper system was 5mb but it was usually between 1 and 3mb. Since we have been connected to the upto 72mb system we have been running at around 58mb and have been very happy with the service.

If your daughter is with Sky can she not stay with them if she wants but switch to using the fibre optic system that is now available in the area. Worth asking and finding the cost.

Certainly worth considering.

 

[2657]

Thanks for the replies and i think i can now see the way forward
DJA your experience is exactly the situation she is in, I checked speeds again this morning and got 2.3Mb/s which is adequate for most things. The biggest problem is that the signal fails altogether fairly regularly, don't know if this is due to the Sky connection or the system,the router is a basic,oldish,sky one.

She is thinking of cancelling sky tv and using either freesat or freeview for TV and would need another internet provider, I think she wants to be able to stream some catch up TV etc so would need a better connection and 58Mb/s should fit the bill.

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[2657]

Another quick question.

If she cancelled sky TV would it be possible to use the sky dish to receive Freesat through a Freesat box without major modifications, alignment etc.

 

[DJA]

Hi Matamoros

To give you an idea of the differnce.

We have Sky TV and so can use that for catchup TV if required. If we decide to download a programme (which can be a 1GB download) we get a message within a minute to say the programme is available and whilst the download may only be about 3% completed we can watch the progamee whilst it is downloading the rest and there is no delay.

If you want freesat just connect the cable from the Sat Dish that went into the Sky box into the Freesat box. The freesat signal is from the same sat as Sky came from. If she had Sky+ then she had 2 cables. Either will do or you can get a Freesat box with a Hardrive that will enable you to record a programme whilst watching another then you need both cables.

You could at a cost get BT Tv if you want which works of the internet and offers lots of TV channels. check what they are. You can also get the Sky Now box for about £30 and pay for Sky Movies or Sky Sport.

Work out which TV programmes you want and decide what is the best way to get them.

 

[DJA]

Hi

Just to add. If you change to Fibre Optic broadband they will change the router as the old one will not work.

 

[peter marshall]

Another quick question.

If she cancelled sky TV would it be possible to use the sky dish to receive Freesat through a Freesat box without major modifications, alignment etc.

Hi We have a Sky dish from when we used Sky, just use it for free sat now no realignment etc. Pete

 

[DBK]

We have BT Infinity but the box where the fibre optic cable ends is about a mile and a half away - but we still get 16Mb/s download which is plenty fast enough for watching things like iPlayer. We also don't have Sky, partly because of trees blocking any dish we might mount but also because for us there isn't much on Sky we would want to watch. If you are a big sports fan or are addicted to seeing the latest films and are happy to pay for them then Sky would be worth getting. Otherwise we don't miss it. I did however, sign up to Now TV which gets you Sky channels over the internet. I only got a basic package at about £5.00 month but it gives me a couple of channels where there is occasionally something I want to watch.

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[Chris]

When we cancelled Sky movies a few years back we recorded stacks of films onto the sky plus box.

Time consuming it was too.

Post cancellation we tried to view them and they were all encrypted

 

[2657]

When we cancelled Sky movies a few years back we recorded stacks of films onto the sky plus box.

Time consuming it was too.

Post cancellation we tried to view them and they were all encrypted

Doh !!!

 

[bungy]

3 main types of fibre service - FTTN (fibre to the Node), FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) and FTTP (fibre to the premise)

FTTN - this is going to be the main one for rural areas in the short to medium term, this essentially provides connectivity to multile properties which are more than 300m from the cabinet - such as hamlets or small villages, or farms etc. Some areas will get better but it depends on what investment is being put in through Rural Broadband initiatives

FTTC is the one most will get in the less rural and urban areas as it essentially removes the copper section from the street cabinet or Pole that serves premises within a 300m radius right back to the the exchange, this removes the copper bottlneck on two levels - these being the physical limitation of copper over distance and the bandwidth limitations. Fibre has very low signal loss and optical technology can handle many more simultaneous connections. The cabinet to the house wire will still reduce the available bandwidth but there will be significant increase on what was available previously

(NOTE = FTTN and FTTC are generally not differentiated at a 'sales' point...)


FTTP is really only going to be deployed in urban areas and will take significantly longer - to get to the masses (if you live in York you will have this coming to just about every premise be it residential or business soonish...lots of roads being dug up!!)

SO...the upshot is that the fibre broadband suppliers may claim it can provide upto 160mb...what this means in reality is depending on where you are and whether you have FTTN or FTTC speeds will vary from anything as low as 20mb(ish) upwards to the maximum - however this will still be a significant improvment on the copper all the way through service

However...one other point - you may well be able to get 160mb in the urban areas...but so can everyone else connected to the same exchange...contention ratios(maximum demand to the actual bandwidth available - more people = less bandwidth to share around) will be better in rural areas...

 

[2657]

Thanks to all.
I think I have enough info to pass on when she gets back from hols, at the moment I think she is wasting the money for Sky as I do not think she watches anything that she could not get through other methods

 

[SomeoneElse]

When we cancelled Sky movies a few years back we recorded stacks of films onto the sky plus box.
Time consuming it was too.
Post cancellation we tried to view them and they were all encrypted

Sky boxes record the raw data stream from the satellite, the de-encrpytion occurs during the display function and needs a valid card. The other thing to note about Sky boxes is that they don't have an upscale facility so when watching standard definition (SD) channels that what you get. Whereas my "Panacronic" FreeView box does a pretty good upscaling job, such that its difficult to tell the difference between SH and HD channels. Clearly Sky have an interest in getting peeps to pay for HD channels.

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[peter marshall]

When we cancelled Sky movies a few years back we recorded stacks of films onto the sky plus box.

Time consuming it was too.

Post cancellation we tried to view them and they were all encrypted

Yep got the T/Shirt lol

 

[Chris]

Sky boxes record the raw data stream from the satellite, the de-encrpytion occurs during the display function and needs a valid card. The other thing to note about Sky boxes is that they don't have an upscale facility so when watching standard definition (SD) channels that what you get. Whereas my "Panacronic" FreeView box does a pretty good upscaling job, such that its difficult to tell the difference between SH and HD channels. Clearly Sky have an interest in getting peeps to pay for HD channels.

Thanks for explaining it

I will never get back those 3-5 hours of wasted time recording all that crap that I had already paid for...