Fttc: Sittingbourne

[#1]

Hi
I am in the process of migrating my telephone/broadband services to Plusnet from Talktalk and will take 2-3 weeks. Anyway, I chose Plusnet for the good package/price and the fttc rollout. In Sittingbourne the Fttc will go live at end of Sept 2010 and my green cabinet is only 100metres away? I wonder what sort of speeds i could expect, any suggestions please?
Also, I will be using my Billion BiPac 7800n wireless N router. This router has the ability to do both ADSL + EWAN PPPoE so it is future proofed. It is also a gigabit switch with loads off other features, this is a very stable router and highly recommend for all broadband connections. It costs approx £115 from broadbandbuyer so this could be a viable solution for people looking to upgrade.
Anyone else use this type of router, your thoughts on it?
James

[#2]

First, there is no FTTC rollout. It is still a trial service (and will be for some time yet) and you need to request to be added to the trial AFTER your cabinet has been activated and your line states it has an enabled FTTC service available. Not all cabinets that have been installed are activated so there is no guarantee your cabinet will be added to the trial in Sept. Also PN have yet to announce their FTTC/FTTP products.
As for speeds, you will get the (currently) max upload sync of 40Mbs and download sync of 10Mbs which probably equates to 30->35Mbs throughput, but can be affected by contention on the BT network and be affected by the number of people on the same cabinet who also have an FTTC connection.
The only issue might be whether the routers wireless is capable of handling the higher speeds - certainly wireless G speeds vary a lot and seem to max out at around 18Mbs (as seen in the current batch off Thompson routers supplied by PN for the trial). A Wireless N router should be fine but again it can vary from router to router. Several routers are currently being trialled by various people on the FTTC/FTTP trials (I'm one of them) and so far the proper wireless N routers can manage speeds equivalent to wired connections.
Can't comment on your router as I don't know of any that are being used on FTTC/FTTP trials.
See the FTTC thread on where to go find out if your line supports FTTC and on how people are getting on in the trial.

[#3]

Hi
Once I have been setup with plusnet should very soon and when my cabinet is enable slated end of Sept 2010, can you please asign me if possible to the fttc trial in my area please?

[#4]

As soon as y our cabinet is active, this thread tells you how to get onto the trial.

[#5]

hi
thanks for the update, however I have use the coverage checker at BT infinity website, and reports back that i can get a 31.1mbps download and 14.8 mbps upload. with service availabe by Dec 2010. Is this schedule available for Plusnet as well? I look forward to your reply

[#6]

We use exactly the same equipment as BT Infinity so as soon as their service is active, ours is too.

[#7]

hi
I have been notified that my local green cabinet will be activated this Friday!!! I PN have informed me that i could be connect towards the end of the month! BT infinity site indicates i should get 32Mbps Down and 14mbps Up, is this good in comparasion to others?
so looking forward to this any comments please?

[#8]

Hi,
I've just confirmed the appointment on your ticket. Based on the others I've done the speed estimate is a high one. Most tend to be in the 20-30Mbps range. However at the moment I think the estimates tend to be on the conservative side. I should note the maximum upstream is actually 10Mbps as BT haven't yet launched the up to 15Mbps version of FTTC.

[#9]

Hi
I have had my FTTC connection done yesterday, BT engineer on time and proficient. Replaced master socket and connected 1st time. intially i was getting a 26-29mbps connection but using various speed testing sites the results vary dramatically from 10mbps to upto 35mbps!! Has anyone had these differences in speed tests?
Is there a period of time for the line to 'settle down' to a specific speed or does it adjust when demand requires it? I will keep monitoring this, incidently i am using my Billion BiPac 7800n router with EWAN connection with lastest 1.06a firmware seems to work ok. Plusnet have sent a Netgear gnr1000 router that worked also, but my Billion has gigabit ethernet which i need for my NAS drives and wireless N 300mhz also!
I was told, I was one of the very first in my town to be conencted to fibre according to the BT engineer, i would like to know any thoughts on the speed and others who are connected in Sittingbourne?
Cannot fault Plusnet on service to date, very helpful and miles apart from Talktalk customer service my old ISP!! Keep up the good work
regards
james

[#10]

Hi James,
welcome to FTTC
We have seen a lot of people seeing big swings in the speeds, in some cases it will be down to the speedtesters in others there's contention somewhere between you and the site you're testing, could be Openreach, Wholesale, us or the Internet or any combination thereof. I think it's going to be normal to see some fluctuations in speed but I've not yet really got a handle of by how much. BT say that speeds should be above 12Mbps for at least 90% of the busiest times, if not then they consider it a fault.
There is a training period in the first 10 days with FTTC like ADSL although we have seen some dramatic changes in speed in the first couple of days. We've not got a 100% tried and tested method but some people have tried rebooting both the BT modem and the router once a day for the first few days and the speed increases or settles a bit more as each time you resync it resets the speed profile at the exchange which may not have been set correctly if you haven't resync;d since the order closed off.

[#11]

I am getting more of a stable connection after power cycling the router/modem my current connection speeds are as following
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1006845363.png
i will keep updating when i can

[#12]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1006865092.png
marginal speed increase!

[#13]

Cool, looking good. Like I say the speeds will fluctuate but it's good to see very good speeds in an evening like that. Keep 'em coming

[#14]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1009417537.png
latest connection speed also getting better pings!! 8ms fantastic

[#15]

early Sunday morning speed test different test website, still getting consistent up and down speeds
[Moderator's note by Dick (Strat) Image tag fixed.