Broadband. How much room is left ?

[frank rabbets]

We always had slow internet speeds but now the speed is so slow that the computer often cannot even connect. I assume more and more people are connecting more and more devices. My son in law has problems in central Stourbridge. I wonder, on a national level, how much excess is left in the system ? Quite worrying as it's almost impossible to opt out.

 

[white90]

Mines fine down the road from you in wombourne, I would do a speed test then contact your internet provider and give them a bollocking.

 

[Shayne]

Its deliberate , copper lines are obsolete and so you me us have to pay for the fibre replacement . I surrendered just the other day .

Still another week to wait for changeover but my internet work's fine now i signed up to be robbed .

 

[Chris]

Well with most providers you don't pay for the fibre to your house; Virgin is one exception. It's called fibre to cabinet. The connection then to your house is still copper which over that distance is capable of very high speeds. It's not just about speed though. You can have high speed but still a rubbish connection. We've just this week swapped from BT Infinity to Vodafone. Uses the same cables (and is still handled by EE and BT) but half the price and a new modem - no fees and £25 per month. The BT connection was getting so bad we had to keep rebooting up to half a dozen times in a day. Line speed reading 29mps. The 'box' though was playing up and despite the speed, there just wasn't anything happening half the time. I guess its a bit like torque and power or volts and amps All the speed just no push. Seems fine again now. I can stream, download and upload all at the same time across all devices in the house.

 

[froggy Steve]

You lot don't know your born! I am very lucky if I see 2m download. Normally it's between .5 and .75.......so slow. I have to use my mobile at the supermarket to watch you tube! (No mobile at home unless through snailnet)
No fibre just wet string. Oh and I pay 150€ a month for 2 mobiles and internet!

 

[MarkW]

lucky with 2mbs , we've been varying between 0.005 and 1.6 for the last month. Engineers came Saturday got upto 2.5 but now its dropped again. Can get 50mbs on my phone though 4G.

I do find this site doesn't load more than others when you've got a bad connection

 

[frank rabbets]

I think in southern Ireland they are putting fibre directly to the house in rural areas. Certainly along the road of my friends house this year they were hanging fibre alongside the copper wires. Still to be connected though.

My question was really about how long will it take for the country as a whole to grind to a halt?

 

[Chris]

Well I don't think it will Frank. Not everyone is experiencing the same problem on which you base the assertion that it might grind to a halt. I get rubbish 4G most of the time, but I know if you live in the middle of a city, you'll most likely have it banging in. But just because I don't, it's not a reason to consider that mobile data doesn't work. Now the government is supposed to be tacking this. Didn't they appoint a broadband Tsar or something. There is a programme (I know because I have an inside source) to cover the whole of the UK with mobile data coverage even Wales! They're supposed to be close to completing it, but I can't say I've noticed any difference so far.

 

[Towpack]

All of the country will be covered by fibre eventually but, as with any service being rolled out nationally, someone has to be first and someone has to be last.

 

[Dave2000]

2 mb! Lucky lucky bastards!

Where I am the speed is 'normally' ok, dongle running 8mb, with 10 being the average but, right now with the village inundated with holiday makers it is seriously slow, the providers 'throttle' your supply and it makes for a frustrating experience, think modem 20+years ago, makes me want to kick a cat!

The holiday kids sitting around exercising their fingers and thumbs instead of running around or swimming keeping fit and healthy, and enjoying the holiday as opposed to doing what they normally do at home but now in a different place!

Apparently it is going to improve via Moviestar/Telefonica here but I gather the UK infrastructure is becoming a little dog eared?

Regards

Dave

 

[Chris]

Dave I wasn't aware that you'd actually got mains electricity down there. When did that happen then?

 

[GeekOKent]

The problem with telecoms these days isthat tech is moving fast enough that the companies dont have the chance to really milk it before they need to upgrade. And then we have this largely useless setup in BT and openreach.

Unless there is a huge improvement in latency the mobile networks wont really replace cable. BT just need to get on with putting it in, and not needing their 400% profit per mile year metric they work on.

 

[MarkW]

Anther downside of the fast progress is these national roll outs never actually get finished before the next system needs rolling out.

We have 3mbs broadband, no digital TV signal at all but get good 4G when they say we shouldn't. At over 4km from the exchange I don't think fibre will ever get here

 

[Dave2000]

Dave I wasn't aware that you'd actually got mains electricity down there. When did that happen then?

Had it for ages mate, they call it mains electricity but the lights still dim if you don't pedal fast enough.

Regards

Dave

 

[LC80tim]

I get 165mps average download and 12mps average upload so can't really complain

 

[frank rabbets]

Yes TP they are rolling out fibre but it won't be completely National in the sense that you will still need copper to your house. As I understand it most exchanges are supplied by fibre but then in rural locations copper cables come from exchange to house. They are improving this by running fibre from exchange to cabinets where you will have the option to be connected and rely on less length of copper but you have to pay more or keep your existing set up. Have I got that right?

It's the old "services" problem isn't it. In rural locations check for roads, elecricity, drainage and gas. Now it's phone coverage and broadband as well.

 

[GeekOKent]

It's not just rural where they have copper pairs from the exchange, plenty of London is like that too. Almost 20% I believe.

 

[Towpack]

If you think that the copper network was originally designed and intended to carry analogue voice and maybe very low speed data and that much of it still exists. Replacing it all will take years. Imagine if the water board were suddenly faced with having to renew every pipe in the country to increase flow. Technology moves rapidy however and high sped data is now deliverable over short to medium length copper cables but, if you live out in the sticks several miles from the exchange or even the nearest cabinet you can't reasonably expect to get the same speeds as someone living in town with comparatively short cable runs.

 

[hamba]

I live in an area where FTTC is available and all my neighbours have FTTC however I can't get it because my cabinet is full so now I sit with a crappy ADSL line and I'm lucky if I can go trough a day without my internet dropping off and has to reconnect. Why Openreach couldn't install a big enough cabinet is beyond me.

When it comes to speeds, when we were back in the south I was with a small ISP that got bought out by Sky and once they moved us over to the Sky network I noticed a massive drop in speeds over the peek periods so I moved to Zen and I had the same speeds off peek as I had in peek times.
I put this down to ISPs being over subscribed and once 6 PM comes when everyone gets home and starts steaming their youtube and netfix they just can't handle the demands.

 

[frank rabbets]

I could write a very long and very boring but unbelievable book on my broadband experience with TalkTalk. My relationship with them is at the official complaint level but their written reply was to call the call center in outer Vindaloo. In fact I was surprised as THEY actually called ME. They promised to send a Broadband Engineer as they could see a problem between the exchange and here. They promised to call back at a certain time to arrange an appointment but nothing happened. Yesterday someone called and asked me me to carry out a few simple tests for the 2nd millionth time so I said no.