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Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

johnnyuk
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎18-06-2009

Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

Hi All
I seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place....let me explain.
Like many of us, I eagerly followed BT's roll out of Infinity and when the posters started appearing on the cabinets I was excited (all relative obviously!  🙂 ).  I'm in Ferndown, Dorset (BH22 8xx postcode) by the way - more of a suburb of Bournemouth than the sleepy backwater you might imagine.
But having signed up for it a while ago and hoping it might speed up on its own, it appears that the rollout in my area was done a bit half-heartedly with very few new cabinets, so despite living on a pretty large housing development (i.e. lots of potential customers), I'm stuck on a BT Wholesale product call "Faster Broadband" - I sync at 16Mbps and get real world performance of about 12-13 Mbps.
Having originally spoken to both BT and PlusNet, there appears to be absolutely nothing I can do about it and BT have "no plans" to go back round a complete the roll out properly i.e. reduce the length of the copper / aluminium from the cabinet to my house.
Now, doubtless there will be many people reading this who would give their right arm for 12Mbps, but it's about the same as I had on ADSL2+, so I'm feeling a bit hard done by.
Any ideas apart from moving house?
Thanks!
John

14 REPLIES 14
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

I assume that you have checked here https://www.dorsetforyou.com/broadband/map
johnnyuk
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎18-06-2009

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

I have oldjim, many times.  I'm "purple" which means "Fibre broadband may be available"....
ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
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Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

I didn't think there was any BT Wholesale "Faster Broadband" product (not yet anyway, but there might be a lower speed FTTC option in future). "Unlimited Faster Broadband" is what BT Consumer call the package they sell to their end users with low FTTC speeds.
johnnyuk
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎18-06-2009

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

It is FTTC, but below the speed threshold that they can call it Infinity.
It's a product on the BT website - maybe I didn't mean BT Wholesale, sorry.
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/47740/~/what-is-unlimited-faster-broadband%3F
Mustrum
Community Veteran
Posts: 3,554
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Registered: ‎13-08-2015

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

Stick your phone number in here, and you should get a better idea of what is available and what cabinet you are on. There is a BT equivalent site.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

johnnyuk
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎18-06-2009

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

Thanks - this is what I see:

BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER
Telephone Number xxxxxxxxxxxx on Exchange FERNDOWN is served by Cabinet 24
Featured Products
Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)
Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)
Downstream Range(Mbps)
Availability Date
High Low High Low
FTTC Range A (Clean) 21.1 13.9 1.7 0.8 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 15.7 6.1 1.6 0.6 -- Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 4 -- 3 to 5 Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 4 Up to 0.5 3 to 5 Available
ADSL Max Up to 3 -- 2 to 6 Available
WBC Fixed Rate 1 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 1 -- -- Available
Other Offerings
Fibre Multicast -- -- -- Available
Copper Multicast -- -- -- Available
johnnyuk
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎18-06-2009

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

Apologies, screen shot below
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

You are just a long way from the cab and I doubt that it will be improved in the foreseeable future
At a guess you are over 1.5km to the cab (wire length unless there is some aluminium in there)
Thetwohoughs
Grafter
Posts: 55
Registered: ‎05-12-2015

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

Your telephone number is showing on your screengrab Johnnyuk!
johnnyuk
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎18-06-2009

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

oops, thanks!
ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
Thanks: 631
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

You must have been doing much better than your estimate when you were on ADSL2+.
Alternative options:
Virgin Media - Cable My Street (maybe if you're near an already cabled area)
A 4G connection
A second phone line (of course this would double the cost, plus you'd need something relatively complicated to combine the speed from both lines, which Plusnet don't do)
Andrue
Pro
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Registered: ‎12-01-2015

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

Quote from: johnnyuk
it appears that the rollout in my area was done a bit half-heartedly with very few new cabinets,
...
BT have "no plans" to go back round a complete the roll out properly i.e. reduce the length of the copper / aluminium from the cabinet to my house.
No, that sounds like a normal FTTC roll-out. BT only ever planned to install cabinets alongside existing ones for FTTC. The main premise of FTTC and why it was at all affordable was that it's relatively cheap and easy to site a new cabinet and run cables a few metres between the two cabinets. That's why it's called 'Fibre To the Cabinet' and not 'Shorten Existing Cables' Wink
The good news is that now FTTC roll-out is mostly complete BT are moving onto the Next Thing(TM). This is called G.FAST and involves moving the DSLAM (the gubbins inside the new cabinets) closer to people's houses and also allowing it to use an even wider range of frequencies.
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2015/10/first-customers-live-on-bt-500mbps-g-fast-broadband-tri...
johnnyuk
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎18-06-2009

Re: Faster Broadband versus Fibre Broadband

Interesting, thanks Andrue!