BT to offer 100Mbit broadband

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

This trial is not using ADSL, so any comparison with ADSL is irrelevant.

Its relevant in that BT will not want to provide ftth to all their customers as it will reduce their profits not only in the investment required but a hit on the leased line business and they will no longer be able to save on bandwidth from customers who have low synch speeds. BTs model works on them providing a high headline speed to few customers so adsl is perfect for this.

This trial does wonders for PR tho and may keep people of their back for the short term.

One thing I have learnt since using BT again the company has the worst treatment of customers in any company I have recently dealt with they simply dont care about the quality of their service and customer support all they care about is their shareholders.

---------- Post added at 07:58 ---------- Previous post was at 07:58 ----------

Originally Posted by Pierre

Unlike BT, Virgin doesn't need FTTH to obtain high speeds.

Unlike BT, Virgins fibre network runs up to very close to the property already within a few hundred metres as opposed to a couple of km in the case of BT.

Theoretically you can speeds of 250mbs over copper.

This is just a headline winning exercise by BT after Virgin announced their "achievable to most customers" 50mbs, BT have decided to announce their "achievable to 2 cats and a dog in ebbsfleet" 100mbs.

indeed

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Its relevant in that BT will not want to provide ftth to all their customers as it will reduce their profits not only in the investment required

Unless they have suddenly cabled the 48% (not sure of the exact figure) of the country that isn't cabled, and enabled the cabled areas that don't have broadband all without anyone noticing, the same arguement applies to Virgin.

Edit: And they still haven't officially announced it (unlike Virgin, with the 50 meg trials, who went on BBC Breakfast and announced it nationally). So, how, exactly are they headline seeking?

[themelon]

This is hilarious............this bunch of incompetants cant even supply my house with 512k on a regular basis, I find it most amusing that they even think they could offer this speed.

It will most likely only be available to a spotty geek who lives in a cupboard at the exchange!!

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by themelon

It will most likely only be available to a spotty geek who lives in a cupboard at the exchange!!

And the old joke comes out again. This trial is using Fibre to the premises. Fibre offers the same speed whether you are 2 metres or 200 miles away from the source..

[altis]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Fibre offers the same speed whether you are 2 metres or 200 miles away from the source..

Not true I'm afraid Stuart!

Optical fibres still suffer from attenuation and, more critically, dispersion like copper cable - it's just that it tends to be at higher data rates.

Multi-mode fibre - the sort most common - is good for 1Gbps for up to only about 500m or 2km at 100Mbps. More details here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-mode_fiber

For longer distances we use single-mode fibre which has less dispersion. The fibre and the interfaces are much more expensive but are good for some 10s of kilometers - but not 200 miles!

A bit more overview:
http://www.fiber-optics.info/articles/fiber-types.htm

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by altis

Not true I'm afraid Stuart!

Optical fibres still suffer from attenuation and, more critically, dispersion like copper cable - it's just that it tends to be at higher data rates.

Multi-mode fibre - the sort most common - is good for 1Gbps for up to only about 500m or 2km at 100Mbps. More details here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-mode_fiber

For longer distances we use single-mode fibre which has less dispersion. The fibre and the interfaces are much more expensive but are good for some 10s of kilometers - but not 200 miles!

A bit more overview:
http://www.fiber-optics.info/articles/fiber-types.htm

I have worked on fibre's that are running well over 100 miles But you would not want to look at the end of the fibre with the laser on

I have just today been involved in 2 links running 10 gig each at 50 miles.

but as for BT running 100mbit. It will be along time before they offer it to the masses. A small trial in one area will be all they will offer just to be able to say WE CAN.

[altis]

Thanks for that Sirius.

You're a star!

[dragon]

Originally Posted by altis

Not true I'm afraid Stuart!

Optical fibres still suffer from attenuation and, more critically, dispersion like copper cable - it's just that it tends to be at higher data rates.

Multi-mode fibre - the sort most common - is good for 1Gbps for up to only about 500m or 2km at 100Mbps. More details here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-mode_fiber

For longer distances we use single-mode fibre which has less dispersion. The fibre and the interfaces are much more expensive but are good for some 10s of kilometers - but not 200 miles!

A bit more overview:
http://www.fiber-optics.info/articles/fiber-types.htm

Telecoms network uses Single mode Fibre.
Apart from some of the early stuff afaik

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by altis

Not true I'm afraid Stuart!

Fair enough, but it's still not as sensitive to distance as ADSL.

[altis]

I don't know for certain but imagine that any FTTH (or FTTP or whatever it's called these days) will use multi-mode fibre because it is much cheaper. Single-mode stuff is probably used between head ends where more speed and distance is required and the expense can be justified.

And yes, I would still prefer fibre. Even a mere 100Mbps at 2km will beat the pants of ADSL.

[dragon]

Originally Posted by altis

I don't know for certain but imagine that any FTTH (or FTTP or whatever it's called these days) will use multi-mode fibre because it is much cheaper. Single-mode stuff is probably used between head ends where more speed and distance is required and the expense can be justified.

And yes, I would still prefer fibre. Even a mere 100Mbps at 2km will beat the pants of ADSL.

Multi mode Fibre only tends to get used these days for Short runs for private networks.
Anything going in in the way of telecoms from BT at least will be single mode.

[themelon]

The day BT install a decent wire made in the last 50 years let alone Fibre to every home in the UK, is the next time I will ever sign up to a contract with that pathetic telecoms company.........!!!

Looks like I will never have to worry about another BT contract in the next 25 years then!!

---------- Post added at 02:41 ---------- Previous post was at 02:37 ----------

Originally Posted by Stuart C

And the old joke comes out again. This trial is using Fibre to the premises. Fibre offers the same speed whether you are 2 metres or 200 miles away from the source..

This was more referring to the fact that BT will only ever have Fibre at the exchanges, except in perhaps a few lucky circumstances (maybe new builds and business areas).......ie not the paying masses. It would cost far too much for them to replace all the cable in the UK. I cant even get them to replace my outdated perishing bell cable with something more 21st century as its not deemed necessary (my services work, phone line has crackle and ADSL peaks at 512k and drops off every hour, this is deemed acceptable by BT), so id tend not to believe that they will replace it with anything else unless I fork out £175 or more.

[Ben B]

Is this switched on thing gonna improve broadband or anything? http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/switched-on.php

On the page it says:

Over the next few years, BT are working to upgrade and improve the phoneline we use to deliver your services. The whole project is called ‘Switched-on’

What exactly are they doing to 'improve the phonelines'?

[Toto]

Originally Posted by ben_b

Is this switched on thing gonna improve broadband or anything? http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/switched-on.php

On the page it says:


What exactly are they doing to 'improve the phonelines'?

On that page is a linked FAQ explaining more details.

[Pierre]

Multi mode Fibre only tends to get used these days for Short runs for private networks.
Anything going in in the way of telecoms from BT at least will be single mode

Multimode fibre is used over shorter distances and you can also get more data down it because of the larger core. Most Urban CCTV systems will probably utilise Multimode or internal office networks.

Standard Single Mode G.652 fibre is the one used most and with standard equipment you can usually run around 100km before repeating.

If you use raman amps you can easily get 230km before repeating.

If you use special fibre such as non-zero dispersion shifted single mode, you don't get any further but you can use more of the light spectrum within the fibre for WDM & DWDM systems.

If they were to utilise fibre to the home, for BT, I would expect they would have to use Single mode. Unless they built a new network topology specifically for it.