Bt FTTC
 

Am on Vm 100Mb. would i be better on bt fttc as it is available Now :)

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Re: Bt FTTC
 

Depends on many factors. What do you use your connection for? Do you often have problems with your VM broadband? Could you live with possibly getting a few Mbs less than the checker says you can get?

Re: Bt FTTC
 

Agree, my checker was 72/20, but in reality it's more like 67/15 despite the spanking new FTTC Cab sitting not more than 25 mtrs from my house. When I queried the Openreach installer, he was able to tell me where my actual phoneline was terminated and it's way up the street and around the corner, so be careful :)

Re: Bt FTTC
 

If you want better ping, faster upload speed, zero traffic management and don't mind a decrease in download speed then go for it. If all you do with it is download then don't bother.

Re: Bt FTTC
 

with that estimate you looking good for a max 80/20 sync.

in terms of real world performance FTTC will be faster in everything exzcept bulk downloading. At bulk downloading tho imo 70mbit is easily fast enough.

You can expect consistent performance on/off peak, good peering, good latency/jitter and no packet loss (unless line problems).

BT's routing however isnt the best tho so whilst latency is consistent its not the lowest depending on where you are located.

To me BT and VM are miles apart (as long as got a good line, and on FTTC its much easier to have a good line).

Re: Bt FTTC
 

If you could have a Mercedes that was speed limited to 70Mph or a turbo charged 15 year old Robin Reliant that went 120Mph, which would you choose?

FTTC options are generally better in all areas except top speed. The higher top speed of the Virgin options simply are not needed by the majority of streaming and downloading households.

In all other areas FTTC usually trumps the Virgin broadband for the reasons given by the posters above. The quality of the connection is just so much more better in every technical area.

Not every FTTC provider is equal though and as Chrys mentioned, BT can sometimes route in weird ways depending on where you are in the country. TalkTalk had congestion problems although I am not sure if that is still the case. Bottom line is check out recent reviews of other isp's in your area before choosing one.

The topology of FTTC networks means it is not susceptible to broadband congestion at the node level in the same way as Virgin is.

Re: Bt FTTC
 

I'd disagree with that one line... The VM HFC network provides a technically better connection as it's not reliant on increasingly complicated methods of piggy-backing high frequency carriers on a twisted pair originally installed for carrying audio.

There's also the issue of the network being maintained by a different entity (BT Openreach) than your chosen ISP which leads to lack of accountability for fault repair to the affected customer.

However, if you have a well connected line and are close to the cabinet, then my experience agrees with others that FTTC offers a superior experience.

Of course, if VM continue to invest in network upgrades and address contention (especially upstream) then the balance may tip in their favour again...

Re: Bt FTTC
 

Even with the 'last mile' being twisted pair (compared to VMb's copper coax) the FTTC options still give a superior broadband experience at the customer level. Going by the tech specs you would expect the opposite. Even my old Bulldog 2Mbit adsl had better latency than vm fibre with no jitter. Surprising that all these outperform vm in this way considering the twisted pair part.

Re: Bt FTTC
 

Virgin Media is the worst possible connection anyone can get. From my personal experience and 2 of my friends house which I recommended them switch to BT, we're all better off now.

Connection always switching off, slow speeds, too much traffic management, streaming sites barely able to buffer on 100Mb connection. Just shocking.

Re: Bt FTTC
 

the cable network round here wasnt designed for broadband, it was designed for tv. Indeed ignition has generously explained in the past in various posts the type of work that had to be done to enable areas such as mine to work for broadband. Even with the workdone to allow broadband to work on it, its not a great infrastructure for two way traffic, VM struggling to provide 10:1 on anything apart from top tier. So II find your point moot in tregards to original purpose of cables as both BT and ntl cables were not originally designed for broadband.

I could only dream of this jitter on VM.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...02-09-2013.png

Everything is snappy on my FTTC connections now, streamings never/rarely buffer, peering is great so downloads are good from everywhere not just selected good VM peering points, command line ssh is good to use due to lack of jitter, uploading is 10x faster than my old VM so now I can remote mount iso's over the internet when installing servers, the upload on FTTC is effectively uncontended as well. No tricks needed by openreach to avoid congestion as it naturally has the capacity for 1:1 contention.

In the future things will get interesting eg. with vectoring and bonding something like 200/60 is a reasonable expectation.

Re: Bt FTTC
 

Indeed, a picture speaks a thousand words

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...03-09-2013.png

Re: Bt FTTC
 

Can i ask what your ping is? I'm guessing you're on fttc

Re: Bt FTTC
 

Well here is my graph on the superhub 2 in modem mode using a Netgear WNDR3700V4 Dualband router.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...11-09-2013.png

Re: Bt FTTC
 

My exchange is now saying Future Exchange by the end of 2014 , Sam Knows is stating end of May 14. The BT box up the road around 75-100 metres away has had work going on near it today , theres an area near it thats been left concreted with a couple of plastic pipes sticking out the ground just around the corner from the BT cab.

Am I right in thinking this is for the fibre cabinet ?

Will my address defo receive a service as I believe some areas still can't even though they have fibre at there exchange ? The BT infinity page does say it will be coming and on entering my postcode and house number estimates 58.1mb , how accurate are these ?

Whos the best value unlimited ISP to choose , I have Sky TV and Sky BB currently ?

Re: Bt FTTC
 

Sounds plausible.

If the Infinity checker says you will receive service (given an accurate phone number and postcode) it's almost certain that you will.

If you want to stick with Sky they have one of the best FTTC services, as do BT IMO if you were to ditch Sky.

Re: Bt FTTC
 

I have no complaints about my Sky Fibre service :tu:

Re: Bt FTTC
 

Nor me.

Re: Bt FTTC
 

Same here. Rock solid, consistent and low latency.

Seen a few have weird routing issues with BT but if you are only using it for surfing and downloading then that wouldn't be an issue.

The question of which isp for value for money probably depends on what your expectations of the connection are. Plusnet used to be a good choice for price with a good service but it's hard to keep up with all the prices these days.