Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuart C
Possibly. Both are London based comms engineers.
Back to the point of the thread.
I have to admit, I do not understand why upload is so low on the 50 meg (assuming both TraxData2 and Ignition are correct, and I have no reason to believe they aren't). I can understand that when the broadband hardware was originally installed, upload wasn't as important as download, so the cable cos considered high download as a higher priority than high upload, and to some extent, this has meant that the uploads are limited (at least on the lower tiers) by old hardware. Upload was not as important (then) as most people hardly (if ever) uploaded anything.
Trouble is, that since then, we have had all manner of services spring up that will happily use a lot of upload. Things like file sharing systems, video sharing sites (such as Youtube) and Photo sharing sites (such as flickr). Combine that with the fact that a lot of people are emailing their own media (such as digital photos) to family and friends, playing/hosting online games or hosting their own websites, all of which take a lot of upload bandwidth.
VM have the excuse that when the hardware for the lower tarrifs (maybe not so much the 20 meg) was installed, people didn't do that stuff. 50 meg, however, is different. They are installing the hardware now, so people would have been doing that stuff when they planned the installation. They should have taken it into account.
The trouble is, I don't think VM actually want people to use their connections. They just want a lot of people to sign up to 50 meg, then just use it to check the odd email.
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The network architecture being put in place for 50Mb/s only allows for a single QAM16 Upstream Port to serve the DoCSIS 3.0 Bonded Group. This is because of a lack of upstream channel availability (this could be improved with access network maintenance/upgrade)
Therefore there will only be around 8.5Mb/s useable bandwidth available to all 50Mb/s & 20Mb/s customers located on the bonded group.
If much higher upstream speeds where provided it would likely lead to upstream congestion..
In my opinion they would be able to support 2-2.5Mb/s upstream with the proposed implementation.
It is my understanding that contrary to what Traxdata2 says VM have not yet entered the 'Product Trial & Pilot' phases yet.
In my view they will look at the trial and pilot data with regards to upstream channel utilisation with a view to tweaking the upstream and going forward they will be looking at ways to improve upstream speeds (QAM32/64, 6.4Mhz Channels, SCDMA on <20Mhz spectrum, channel bonding etc)
It is not beyond the wit of VM to blow the competition out of the water with respect to upstream speed.. It just has not been in their focus over the past few years.
I have it on good authority that this is about to change
