cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

One Thing I Don't Understand About Fibre

w23
Pro
Posts: 6,347
Thanks: 96
Fixes: 4
Registered: ‎08-01-2008

Re: One Thing I Don't Understand About Fibre

Quote from: purleigh
In this hypothetical case, if in the distant future BT put FTTC into the cabinet (outside my front door), do you think that I will lose my internet connection during a power cut - if I switch to fibre ?

Don't see why they can't have a UPS in the cabinet (maybe they do).  Depends a lot on what the electrical load on the equipment is.  If the power consumption is modest enough they could always run a power cable (with the fibre) from the exchange.
jim:green quote fixed mod:end
Call me 'w23'
At any given moment in the universe many things happen. Coincidence is a matter of how close these events are in space, time and relationship.
Opinions expressed in forum posts are those of the poster, others may have different views.
knowdice
Rising Star
Posts: 381
Thanks: 19
Registered: ‎25-04-2008

Re: One Thing I Don't Understand About Fibre

[quote=purleigh]
In this hypothetical case, if in the distant future BT put FTTC into the cabinet (outside my front door), do you think that I will lose my internet connection during a power cut - if I switch to fibre ?

Seeing as you probably also will not have power in your house, I wouldn't expect to see this as a real problem  Roll_eyes
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: One Thing I Don't Understand About Fibre

Quote from: purleigh
I live out in the countryside, where currently I get the full 8Mbps of ADSL_Max, but we have mains power interruptions several times a week.
I have overcome the local mains power problems by running separate UPS for each of my PCs, router, phones, PVR, TV, and heating boiler !
This setup gives me uninterrupted internet and phone access for about three hours, which is usually enough for most outages.

In this hypothetical case, if in the distant future BT put FTTC into the cabinet (outside my front door), do you think that I will lose my internet connection during a power cut - if I switch to fibre ?
knowdice
Rising Star
Posts: 381
Thanks: 19
Registered: ‎25-04-2008

Re: One Thing I Don't Understand About Fibre

Thanks oldjim  Embarrassed
(Note to self - must read whole post...)
But as a general principle I would have thought that most households will not have such extreme UPS solutions.
billnotben
Community Veteran
Posts: 7,689
Thanks: 2,164
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎23-09-2010

Re: One Thing I Don't Understand About Fibre

So we seem to agree then that there is no real technical reason for the fibre not to carry voice calls.
Other than maybe BT's exchanges being so outdated they have to resort to fitting a CD player to their traction engine.
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: One Thing I Don't Understand About Fibre

From many years back, I seem to recall that one of the original objectives of 21CN was to effectively replace the entire BT phone network with a VoIP like alternative.
The justification being that BT would, in the long term, make huge saving in routing and billing calls because it would all be done in software, and eventually do away with the expensive to maintain analogue copper infrastructure.
I have also seen somewhere a BT customers guide that explained how the changeover would occur, and advice on using the replacement digital handsets that would be provided, and a layman's FAQ to VoIP.
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: One Thing I Don't Understand About Fibre

Did it explain how it met the obligation to provide a phone service during a power cut? Currently BT phone system only require power at the exchange, power lost at the end user is not an issue as corded phones will still work. A switch to VoIP will require power at the house.
BT 21CN system has to support POTS so it is not a complete switch to VoIP and the equipment was still going to be in the exchange.