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Old 30-04-2012, 21:31   #1761
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Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed

Not really. VM make a number of technically incorrect claims, and others are simply misleading. OK - BT does call Infinity "fibre optic" once on the product page, but does not go on to make a dozen further claims that the service itself delivered to your home is fibre optic - only that it is "fibre-based". However, since BT does in fact have at least one pure fibre optic option - and VM has none - the claim that Infinity is fibre optic isn't quite as untrue.

Firstly, VM claim: "It's all down to our network of fibre optic cables, the fastest and most reliable way for us to bring broadband into your home." - incorrect. The service is not brought into your home using fibre optic cables.

"Fibre optic is the fastest" - technically correct, though VM don't provide fibre-optic consumer service, only their competitors do.

"The mega speeds of up to 100Mb that you can get with Virgin Broadband are thanks to fibre optic cable." - debateable. You could equally say the mega speeds of up to 24Mbps ADSL2+ are thanks to fibre optic cable.

"It’s made from strands of glass as thin as hair, which carry information by light." - correct.

"This is much, much faster than the copper telephone wire used by other providers." - misleading and an invalid comparison. Other providers do not use copper telephone wire for their backhaul. VM do not use fibre optic for connection to your house. The parts of their competitors network that use copper telephone wire are also made of copper on VM's network. The parts that use fibre on VM also use fibre on their competitors network.

"And, unlike broadband down your phone line, fibre optic broadband doesn't get slower the further away your house is from the telephone exchange." - technically incorrect. FTTC broadband down your phone line does not get slower the further away your house is from the exchange, because you are not connected to any exchange.

"Our broadband comes to you via fibre optic cable rather than regular copper telephone wires" - again a misleading and incorrect comparison. No section of VM's network is made of fibre optic "rather than regular copper telephone wires". The part of the service delivered over a regular copper telephone wire on BT is delivered over regular copper coaxial wire on VM. The part of the network run over fibre on VM is also run over fibre on BT. The fibre optic part does not replace the copper part on a telephone system, it's comparing apples to oranges. "Rather than" implies there is actually fibre optic somewhere where there would be copper on a competitors network. In fact, there is just even more copper.

"Fibre optic broadband gives you low lag times and consistent speeds." isn't correct either, as recent reports show clearly that lower lag times and more consistent speed are delivered over a copper phone cable. VM's service by its very nature delivers higher lag times and less consistent speeds, regardless of whether it's fibre optic or not.

Finally, "However speedy the web gets in the future, fibre optic cable is going to be able to handle it." is also misleading, as fibre optic cable does not enter your home, therefore is of no relevance of how fast your actual connection will be able to handle.

While every provider's service comes via fibre optic cable at some point, VM's marketing clearly wants you to think it's all fibre optic. At no point does BT claim it's "much better because we use fibre optic instead of copper" VM does it a dozen times, and makes several incorrect claims about it.

BT on the other hand make very light use of the term in its description, it is only mentioned twice:

"BT Infinity has upgraded its network of fibre optic broadband technology to deliver the internet at groundbreaking speed"
and
"At present, fibre-based broadband such as BT Infinity is installed by an engineer"

Neither of which is factually incorrect, and neither of which are misleading. The product itself is described as fibre optic once and while I don't think it's entirely accurate, at least one of their services is in fact pure fibre so it's not entirely misleading either.

Finally, the term "fibre optic" is never used once on BT's main broadband page, nor do BT ever specifically claim fibre is delivered to your home (even though it sometimes is).
So, on their main broadband home page, VM claim they bring broadband into your home via fibre optic. BT does not use the term "fibre optic" at all, anywhere, in relation to any product.

On their specific product details page, VM makes 9 claims about fibre optic, 3 misleadingly and 3 downright incorrect. BT makes 3 statements, one of which is debatable and zero incorrect.
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