Nervous over upgrading to Fibre - backup ideas?

[#1]

We live in a rural location and get 3 Mbps on ADSL2+.  Our local fibre cabinet has just gone live and I can now order fibre.  Normally, I would just get on and do this, but I have a lot of extremely important life and business stuff going on in the next few months and if I were to lose my internet connection, for pretty much any period at all, I would be up a serious gum tree. At present, if my router goes down, I have a spare, and the knowledge to fix things here and there. I have put quite a lot of work in over the years to getting a reliable system (cabling, splitter at the master socket etc etc). But if I go for fibre, I am forced to go over to the Hub One/VDSL.  Unless I buy another backup router I would be stuck if the hub goes down, also, at present I have a long history of line reliability under my belt, whereas I am seeing various and random problems when people migrate to VDSL.  I am also seeing issues when people look to configure a non-Plusnet router (such as a Billion).

Ultimately, it's my choice, but I wonder if anyone has any comments?  My tendency is to stick on ADSL for about 6 months to get all the "stuff" out the way, then move to fibre.  3 Mbps is doing us OK for now, don't need to stream, wouldn't mind a few more users simultaneously, but no big deal, we've lived with it for 12 years.

Thx in advance

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi there.

While we can't 100% guarantee a fibre order will go through smoothly and you'll have no issues during or after the upgrade, I'd say that the majority go through fine and it's a relatively few that do experience problems. 

Let us know if there's anything we can advise to help you make the decision.

[#3]

If you have a mobile that can receive a network signal where your computer is,  you can easily connect to the internet by tethering your mobile to your computer. So this could be your solution for when you have problems with your VDSL connection.

[#4]

As someone who was one of the first when our village got FTTC, I must say the experience was painless. I had already invested in a VDSL/ADSL capable router (Billion 8800NL). The setup was slightly different, but the data was all available on the internet (researched BEFORE the due date). Once the ADSL went down I waited an hour, connected to the router and changed the settings and up it came. 

If your line is clean but long, then I would guess you will have few problems, and the speed change is well worth it.

As @jclau says you can use a mobile as an emergency backup. My Samsung (old) lets me create a wireless hotspot to which I can connect any wireless laptop. 

You don't have to use the HubOne. One option would be to get a cheap ( £10.00? off that well known auction site) VDSL modem and use your existing router. Keep the Hub One as a backup.The alternative is a BT Smart Hub (5 or 6 both fairly cheap from EBay) which can act as backup.

[#5]

If you happen to be able to get a half-decent 3G or 4G signal where you live, then that can provide a useful backup. I actually use 4G load-balanced along with ADSL2+ to get a faster and more resilient broadband. There are routers that can connect to a mobile phone's hotspot either as a backup or for load balancing (I use a Draytek 2860n+, but there are others that do the same thing). Some will accept the SIM directly, so you don't even need to tie up a phone. If you go that approach I'd recommend getting it working before upgrading to fibre, so that there is no risk of losing a connection altogether.

[#6]

It depends how long the wire is to the cabinet (which can be considerably longer than the apparent distance).

A few hundred metres would be ideal.

[#7]

Nice idea re using tethering, but it would be funny if it weren't so frustrating.  We have no mobile signal here and we rely on a Vodafone Suresignal (i.e. over broadband) to get a mobile signal in the house

[#8]

Thanks all.  I had sort of thought of the Billion anyway, and I think that will be the approach.  Get to a point where our internet connection is not totally vital (which it is at present) then switch over, have the Billion as backup, then switch over to the Billion in due course and have the Plusnet router as the backup.   Our length to the cabinet is about 500 m, maybe less.  Next door neighbour is getting 50 Mbps so far, spot on the VDSL speed for 300-400 m.

[#9]

I'm mystified by the dates - says 4 weeks ago but your date is Oct 2018.   I moved to BT Fibre from slow Plusnet  starting about Oct 3rd last (& finally getting Fibre on Dec 21st);  I have had lots of trouble, inc. inability to access emails for some time.   I'm still having problems and would suggest anyone transferring in critical circumstances retain the original subscription/ ISP as well until you are sure the transfer has gone ahead OK.   It seems to me that a fall back to the Cu should be normal - why can't this be done easily?

It took 3 months to get the fibre from BT but they took over the phone and (slow) broadband immediately (& wrongly I understand from their later responses), continuing the v. slow Cu b/b as well as phone calls, both at vastly greater expense, which I took a long time to sort out, esp. as I did not realise that this had happened!  Although emails continued OK via Plusnet up to the time of fibre installation I then had (& still have) great trouble ensuring reliable send and receipt of mail from my/our Plusnet a/cs

Clwyd.  

[#10]

Then don't use Plusnet email.

I'd suggest a free account on protonmail.com who give a single email address but all your email is properly encrypted and not sold off by the likes of Gmail etc.