Coaxial/FTTP?
 

Hi,

Will coaxial customers ever get upgraded to FTTP?

Thanks for looking at my post and I’ll look forward to the responses.

:dunce:

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

"Ever" is a long time, but at the moment coax has more than enough capacity. It's better to extend the network to new premises than rebuild to existing ones IMO.

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

Coax has got plenty of life in it yet. VM have started rolling out docsis 3.1 so next year you'll be able to have a 1gbit connection which many users will associate with fibre speed.
I would also direct you to this thread.

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

DOCSIS3.1 is capable of 10Gbit in the future. There's not likely to be overbuild on top of Coax for many years to come but at some point in future Virgin will probably stop deploying it and go straight for Fibre.

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

When the cost of replacing/maintaining coax kit gets high enough to make replacing it all with fibre viable. Probably a long way off, but the build costs should be fairly reasonable considering the time consuming and expensive civils are mostly done already, just need a lot of men with strong arms to pull cables!

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

Except Fibre installs work complete differently to coax ones as far I know.

Fibre installs have the fibre cable blown down the duct, not manually pulled using some rope or existing coax, so to convert a coax install to Fibre you'd first have to add an appropriate conduit for each house to allow that to happen.

Considering how full some coax ducts already are with the existing cabling, that means digging up the roads and pavements again

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

that is why most fibre rollouts are primarily being done on new build estates.

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

... and fix trenches and ducting.

---------- Post added at 09:50 ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 ----------

A possible threat to VM, and a reason for them to convert from coax to FTTP, is the fibre roll out by Vodafone-City Fibre, already underway in cities like Coventry. (37 cities by the end of 2024) They will be offering a symmetrical 900Mb in the £40-£50 range. Can Docsis 3.1 offer a symmetrical service, or at least something much better than 10:1?

I know Vodaphone aren't offering a TV service, but customers could do a combination of Vodaphone broadband / Sky TV, or sky might itself be interested in using the Vodaphone network, much as it is now interested in VM's network.

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

Probably a stupid question, but isn't the "conduit" for the fibre what you'd actually replace the coax with? I watched a fibre install into an office a couple of years ago - they installed what looked like vaguely bendy plastic tubing from the entrance all the way to the termination area. Then they just blew the fibre through that tube. What's stopping them from pulling said tube through the trench, then blowing fibre down it?

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

That is a good point, and you're right that it would be possible if there is a clear route.

Would still mean some work though to prepare each end of the fibre to do it, in order to minimise the loss of service for those homes connected via that bit of the network. Also some of the cable routes would need to changed as coax and fibre deal with corners differently!

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

Yeah, if the channels are full to bursting, I can't see how you'd upgrade an area without loss of service. You're absolutely right about corners as well, fibre doesn't like them very much and coax is super forgiving.

In spite of there being a possible upgrade path, I don't really see Virgin doing it any time soon. As Skie said, it'll only be if the cost of maintaining coax goes above installing fibre and I just don't see that happening in the next decade. Ye ol' coax has plenty of life in her, yet!

Re: Coaxial/FTTP?
 

VM will be upgrading all its HFC network to DOCSIS 3.1, giving 1Gbps down (but only about 50Mbps up) with much faster speeds possible with additional investment, so why should VM be concerned about BT's FTTP? There is no case for overbuilding HFC with FTTP.