FTTC Speed Upgrades On The Way

.Griff. · May 12, 2011, 20:02:05

QuoteThe BT Group has today released its latest financial results to 31st March 2011 (Q1), which reveal that the operator plans to double the speed of its superfast FTTC broadband service to 80Mbps in 2012 and should reach 100Mbps in the future. Meanwhile BT's Retail ISP base has grown by +162,000 net additions (down from +188k in Q4-2010) to reach a total of 5,691,000 broadband subscribers.

As for BT Retail's customer statistics for its newest FTTC (BT Infinity) 'up to' 40Mbps broadband service.. Firstly, to recap, BT Retail had 38,000 Infinity customers 6 months ago and was adding 4,000 new subscribers each week. It now has 144,000 Infinity subscribers and is adding 5,000 per week.

However, BT does reveal that it's so far spent £0.6bn of its £2.5bn fibre rollout budget until 2015. At present its FTTC service is passing 80,000 new premises every week and BT expects to reach 5 Million Homes sometime within the next few weeks, rising to 10 Million by 2012 as originally planned (40% of the country). This is in keeping with BT's timetable of reaching 66% or more of the UK with its FTTC and FTTP broadband services by 2015.

In short -

Speed increases to start in quarter 4 of 2011.

Download speeds to increase to 80Mbps (where applicable)

Upload speeds to increase to either 15Mbps or 20Mbps

Source - http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/05/12/bt-uk-tops-5-7-million-retail-broadband-customers-and-preps-80mbps-fttc-service.html

pctech · May 12, 2011, 20:08:02

Does make you wonder why they didn't launch at 80 doesn't it.

Rik · May 13, 2011, 08:58:58

They've been to a training seminar at Microsoft.

Glenn · May 13, 2011, 09:03:16

Quote from: pctech on May 12, 2011, 20:08:02
Does make you wonder why they didn't launch at 80 doesn't it.

Maybe to prove the concept on a large scale first?

Polchraine · May 13, 2011, 10:19:52

Quote from: pctech on May 12, 2011, 20:08:02
Does make you wonder why they didn't launch at 80 doesn't it.

The VDSL2 performance graphs and speeds are primarily theoretical and there are several different profiles (at least 8 available commercially). They will have been tested out in various locations but it is not until the systems are deployed that any problems or issues may arise. What works in the US may not work to the same level in the UK - it could be better or worse. There are some profiles which will allow 120Mbps Downstream and 120 or 60Mbps upstream ...

BT and other Telcos will have taken a modified profile and deployed that to allow performance data gathering before making decisions on how far they could extend it. That would include cross talk, potential RFI issues &c I also believe there may be spectrum/power issues on using the maximum levels required for the 80Mbps speeds and OFCOM will have been involved.

pctech · May 13, 2011, 12:03:14

I think we should have skipped xDSL and gone straight to fibre, no nonsense such as 'I'm 3 miles from the esxchange so I can only get 1 Meg'

Less maintenance and annoyance for everyone, price on the basis of throughput and transfer which could be turned up or down by ISPs with ease.

Only thing that would need monitoring is the core capacity.

PhilT · May 20, 2011, 15:35:30

Quote from: pctech on May 12, 2011, 20:08:02
Does make you wonder why they didn't launch at 80 doesn't it.

" BT will be able to double FTTC speed by using the increased frequency allocation for VDSL in a recent change to the national access network frequency plan. " http://www.analysysmason.com/About-Us/News/Insight/Insight_extending_copper_May2011/

zappaDPJ · May 20, 2011, 16:35:39

Quote from: .Griff. on May 12, 2011, 20:02:05
In short -

Speed increases to start in quarter 4 of 2011.

Download speeds to increase to 80Mbps (where applicable)

Upload speeds to increase to either 15Mbps or 20Mbps

Source - http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/05/12/bt-uk-tops-5-7-million-retail-broadband-customers-and-preps-80mbps-fttc-service.html

The problem is it's not unlike Mr Average being given a Ferrari. Looks nice in the garage but nobody can afford to run the bu**er

The availability of high definition streamed content and ever increasing file sizes for PC programs makes current bandwidth packages inadequate. I do zero file sharing but I would need to treble or even quadruple my daytime allowance of 30GB to do what I want, when I want and just now, I can't really justify the cost. Increases in speed needs to go hand in hand with price reductions on bandwidth to ISPs in my view. Perhaps that's one reason why the take up of FTTC has been less than expected.

alexwright · Jun 02, 2011, 20:24:44

Of course, the question is: Will it cost any more?

Rik · Jun 03, 2011, 08:23:03

No, the question is how much more will it cost.

alexwright · Jun 03, 2011, 09:48:47

Fair point!

.Griff. · Jun 04, 2011, 15:58:35

Apparently BT have already started rolling out these speed increases via their retail product (Infinity) in some areas.

Anton · Jun 04, 2011, 21:48:34

Quote from: .Griff. on Jun 04, 2011, 15:58:35
Apparently BT have already started rolling out these speed increases via their retail product (Infinity) in some areas.

Hi Griff,

This is very interesting. Where did you read it?

.Griff. · Jun 04, 2011, 23:49:33

I was told it by someone on BT infinity who'd been approached by BT to "trial" the speed increase but I'd stress the "apparently" part of my previous post.

It's documented that the increases are on the way but I'm reserving judgement until something concrete appears.

Rik · Jun 05, 2011, 11:08:47

Have a block.