BT Wholesale to delay 21CN WBMC broadband rollout

[kinmel]

The front page of Thinkbroadband says BT Wholesale is delaying 21cn broadband rollout until next summer.

Does this affect the new connection that IDNet were expecting to provision in November ?

[vitriol]

Thats a great question, hope someone at IDNet Towers see's it.

[Sebby]

I don't know the answer, but I'm sure IDNet will be able to clarify.

[Rik]

Yes and no, Alan. The delay in supplying IDNet with the WBC Hostlink is responsible for the capacity issues. AFAIK, that is still on track for November. When that's in place, IDNet will be able to migrate customers whose exchanges have been upgraded onto WBC (though it will be a voluntary thing. no-one will be forced to make the move). Non WBC-enabled customers will be able to be moved to the new capacity when BT release the IPStream Connect product, and it's this which seems to be slipping.

[kinmel]

Today's Idnet Service Announcement clears up my original question.

It is certainly good news that IDNet are ordering the new 20CN Central Pipe to maintain their superb service until the 21CN changeover happens. 

Most ISPs would have just made do and deny there was a capacity problem.

[Rik]

I agree, Alan. I think IDNet are looking at the delays which have already occurred and looking at the impact that yet more delays would have. Unfortunately, the only sensible option is to invest in more old, and soon to be obsolete, technology.

[Steve]

Although at the current rate of progress it could be a while before it becomes obsolete.So it could turn out to be a good investment.

[Sebby]

Indeed, Steve. I wouldn't be surprised if things hadn't change much by this time next year as far as 21CN goes.

[Rik]

Although at the current rate of progress it could be a while before it becomes obsolete.So it could turn out to be a good investment.

I think it will, Steve, to judge be the speed at which BT seem to be moving backwards.

[Steve]

BT have another 90 odd years to complete 21CN before it would become 22CN. Their naming of the product leaves plenty of scope for completion.Its a two tier network fast LLU i.e BE*/O2 and the rest will have to wait. Those of us who live in rural areas will presumably never have the oppurunity to choose who their ADSL2+ supplier will be.Bt has the monopoly. On a similar theme I have been looking at mobile broadband which also seems to have similar issues if you live in London,Birmingham or Manchester its fine elsewhere its a bit of a lottery.

I did read read somewhere that Mobile broadband is a growth industry at present and indeed may be more popular than wifi hotspots, there are some tempting offers around at present but presumably unless your confident of a getting hsdpa were you want it,its potentially a white elephant, but once you've signed up I presume they've got you. I am not even sure whether you get old fashioned 2G if no 3g is available.

[Rik]

Afaik, Steve, 3G falls back to 2G if there's no/poor coverage.

[Simon]

Indeed it does, Rik, in fact, in my area, I find it better to leave my phone set on 2G. as I get a more stable signal that way.

[Steve]

I am unsure for instance if 3 mobile broadband have any 2g roaming agreements,this product is being pushed heavily at the likes of PC world

[Rik]

I thought they had an agreement with T-Mobile, Steve.

[Glenn]

3 & T-Mobile work very closely together, with staff working at both companies, MBNL http://www.mbnl.co.uk/ is a joint venture between them too.

[Steve]

I found this looking up 20CN http://noc.enta.net/?page_id=166 I notice that they have also ordered some more centrals due to come on lie anytime now. I wonder whether this sort of information could be produced by idnet? it may well look good but how meaningful it is I have no idea. Looking at the graph they excede their capacity shortly after midnight presumably when the mega downloaders are most active

[Rik]

Interesting link, Steve. 

[Sebby]

That was one of things I liked about Entanet when I was with them.

[Rik]

IDNet never seems to have gone in for portal tools, eg exchange checkers. I'd quite like to see more information made available.

[Steve]

With regard to portal tools can you see both sides of the coin in real time? If central pipe information shows no congestion is it safe to assume exchange congestion as a reason for slow throughput? I have not seen any infromation for exchange status that is current and presumably therefore not always relevant. I wonder whether its possible to change central by repeated reconnection although I presumed with idnet the suffix determined which central you were on.

[Sebby]

I think that's one of the things that makes an ISP more attractive, especially for us technical users.

[Rik]

The realm suffix doesn't affect the central directly, Steve.




Edit: typo

[Steve]

So if your idnet address was changed following the recent capacity issues you could still be using the same route to idnet?

[Rik]

No, that was a specific move between centrals, afaik.