Village broadband and high-speed optic fibre

[Purrfect]

Hi Folks,

Our EE Internet service (which like many other providers, uses the same Openreach ‘last-mile’ infrastructure from the BT exchange) hasn’t been affected by these issues, consistently gives about 30Mbps (20Mbps to 50Mbps) and is also cheaper than BT.

Perhaps the problem with BT lies elsewhere i.e. within BT’s own network and out through to their Internet gateway? Or maybe their newer style Home Hub Routers or default settings need to be updated and checks done to see if you are experiencing intermittent channel interference from nearby routers/other devices?

If BT are not providing the service you are paying for, you should legally be entitled to cancel the contract and go elsewhere.

You could try getting together and lobbying Virgin Media to expand their existing Business-Only full-fibre service network in Brookmans Park to residential premises, but as mentioned previously, they will probably want the substantial full build costs up-front (well beyond the budget of any single household!).

Good luck!

[sgoldswo]

Sasquartch, Thank you for the reply.
It seems you are implicitly agreeing with me; that the poor service is part of a cunning BT plan to get people to upgrade and pay for it.

It may help to know that the FTTP connection I signed up to is cheaper (considerably so) than my previous FTTC broadband. No connection fee was payable.

[BrookyP]

I received the following information today from Openreach regarding fast internet provision (FTTP/G fast) to the parts of Brookmans Park not currently benefiting from the highspeed FTTP installation of early 2017. It looks like G fast is going to be the likley installation option for those not on FTTP, if it comes to BP at all!  That is assuming of course Virgin dont come here first. Again highley unlikley. I personally am holding out for 5G being rolled out nationwide from 2020 which will trump all of the Openreach offerings overnight.

"While the majority of residents are able to benefit from FTTC, I’ve been told that some postcodes have been upgraded to FTTP.   This is because premises in those postcodes (in fact they are served by cabinet 1) are much further away (permitted distance is up to 1.8km) from the fibre cabinet to benefit from FTTC.   Deployment of FTTP overcomes the distance issue but is costly to install, so it’s usually only provided via public funding - in this case with support from Connected Counties.

I understand that Connected Counties have a plan to provide a small part of this area with FTTP or FTTC but BDUK money can only be spent where people do not already get superfast. There are no commercial plans to deploy FTTP to premises served by cabinet 2

As you may be aware, going forward, we’ve announced plans to deploy G-fast.  This is a new technology that builds on our existing FTTC network and allows us to get affordable ultrafast speeds to the largest number of premises in the fastest possible time.  The G-fast product is still currently in a pilot phase and is being tested in twenty locations across the country.  There is no trial site in the Hatfield area.

This product is still in the pilot phase However, we hope to start rolling this out next year and aim to reach 10 million premises with G-fast by the end of 2020, offering a range of speeds going up to 300Mbps"

https://www.homeandwork.openreach.co.uk/fibre-broadband/ultrafast-fibre/gfast.aspx
 

[slimgym]

You are extremely lucky In Essendon they have just committed to some solution (as yet unrevealed) late 2019 or early 2020. They are planning to liven up the cabinet in the next few months (five years late) and only just dropped the bombshell that Essendon is too far to benefit from it (a fact they knew from the start).

Current speed: 1.1 meg.

[sasquartch]

I personally am holding out for 5G being rolled out nationwide from 2020 which will trump all of the Openreach offerings overnight.

It's unlikely there will be cost effective 5G to power a home network for some time.

I looked at using 4G before FTTP came to Peplins and there weren't any unlimited plans that would be workable - with three teenage children I regularly get through 500GB/Month. I don't expect 5G will be any different, its really aimed at single devices, ie mobile phones

[BrookyP]

Interesting to read of the phone company EE cat 9 service being rolled out nationwide. Theoretical speeds of 360mbps over the air when it arrives. Good news for those of us forgotten about in the recent FTTP upgrade of Brookmans Park. With the start by three mobile of all you can eat data contracts maybe over the air provision is the future? Working from home with the need to do large file downloads of 10gb plus, this is great news. BP

[sasquartch]

I doubt all you can eat contracts will be available on 4G for anything like the cost of fixed line DSL

I'd suspect trying to use a 4G connection to share for your home network would be against any fair-use clause as well

[BrookyP]

i guess the market will decide regarding costing and fair usage of unlimited data contracts. Three mobile already offer them-hopefully others will follow.
It would also  seem some of the masts in BP are already LTE A cat 6 and i am getting 130/20 in some locations on EE using the app open signal (other are available). ironically the speeds cover the FTTP area of BP mainly which is annoying. Heres hoping all masts are upgraded soon.Onwards!!

[BrookyP]

I have installed a LTE (4G) Xpol 0001 Antennae connected to a dlink dwr 953 router in my loft using a 30gb data sim from EE for an over the air internet connection. I got the router and antennae from broadband buyer (other people also sell it) and the sim from EE who are a 4g provider in this area.
I am getting between 60 down and 20 up now from inside the loft on a hard wired cat 6 connection-this is far better than my internet provider who i will be looking to close my contract with.  i have run my business internet off this EE sim with no problems for 10 days. Line of sight tests (using the open signal app on my phone) to the brookmans park antennae on the great north road (which i am assuming is the mast i connect to) are getting me over 100 down and 30 up! I will be putting the antennae somewhere outside the loft on the second floor of the house (with line of sight) to try to get this increased benefit. Hope this info is of use to any businesses locally that are struggling with poor land broadband and may wish to explore 4g provision. If you can see that mast from the top floor of your house you may be able to get a similar signal.

Cheers BP

[sasquartch]

Line of sight tests (using the open signal app on my phone) to the brookmans park antennae on the great north road (which i am assuming is the mast i connect to) are getting me over 100 down and 30 up!

I don't know where you are in BP but the EE tower for me is next to the scout hut. Possibly there are other towers elsewhere in BP that EE use

Unfortunately the Ofcom interactive map that showed every tower along with operator and signal strength information is no longer available

[BrookyP]

I think the mast data sites are all out of date now as the providers deemed it commercially sensitive information. The one marked near me is not there and is an orange mast!! Vintage!

[BrookyP]

aerial now out side and getting 80\40 which is more than enough for my needs. happy days

[slimgym]

Did anyone moving from another provider back to BT for FTTP experience any issues in keeping their existing telephone number? A few years back there used to be issues keeping numbers when moving between providers (some would promise it, fail to provide it, and people would lose the number they've had for many years, and never get it back).

I wonder if these are sorted, specially since there only appear to be four who can do this form of FTTP (AAisp, BT, Spectrum and Zen).

[Adrian]

I have switched between various providers including BT over the years. I have never had an issue with retaining my number. Currently I'm with EE, BT before that, Plusnet before that...........

[sasquartch]

I was with PlusNet and as they could not offer the change to FTTP I changed to BT

No problems at all. Possibly due to the phone line staying on the existing copper and the broadband using the new fibre

Also PlusNet are part of BT so not sure if that makes any difference

[slimgym]

Thanks that's good news from both. I am wary because a few years back I signed up with a provider who promised they could do it but when the contract arrived there was a new number. Whilst sales were confident they were wrong so customer services cancelled the change and I stayed with the existing provider. I then signed up with BT and keeping the number was not an issue. After that I discovered you could only keep it if you ported to and from BT. A friend has moved BT > Sky > Virgin (other companies are available) and had no problems doing so hopefully these are historic issues that no longer occur.

[Trent]

Long and frustrating call with BT today, who were insisting that BP does NOT have FTTP. My property is not shown as having the FTTP option on their records (I am in one of the FTTP addresses) Can anyone tell me, is the quality of the FTTP worth taking BT to task, getting them to update their records and if they are capable of doing that, getting it installed? Is there a dedicated line we can call to actually speak to a member of staff that knows what they are talking about?? My fibre broadband is dropping out constantly!

[Editor]

Can anyone tell me, is the quality of the FTTP worth taking BT to task, getting them to update their records and if they are capable of doing that, getting it installed?

Hi Trent, our FTTP works really well; fast and no dropout at all, so worth pushing for in my opinion. At first we were told that our house - lower end of Moffats - was not able to receive the service, but I spoke to an engineer working outside and he told me to ring BT and ask to be put through to the FTTP team and it all went smoothly from there, with an installation faster than expected and ahead of schedule. I can't remember the number we rang.

[Red-Point]

Hi Trent, BT also told me that FTTP wasn't available when I placed my Infinity 4 upgrade last February.  During the phone call, I asked to speak to their manager and it got sorted.  BT's records are a shambles (according to a friend that works for OpenReach) and there seems to be some issue with the service cabinets providing both FTTC and FTTP causing confusion for their booking service.  Anyway, persist. 

As for it being worth it?  Well it depends on your usage.  300mbs down is currently much more than adequate for streaming video to the home but if you work from home and need to haul fat files down then it's obviously excellent. 30mbps up is a bit pedestrian for me as I upload video content and use video proxy servers.  I'd welcome a much faster upload speed.

Reliability has been good for me.  Congestion at peak times often means the downlink speed is around 170mbps but uplink is usually at max.  When walking around the serviced roads, I note that there are relatively few takers of the service (you can see the FTTP distribution points on the poles).

[Trent]

That’s all useful. Thank you. Might I ask what sort of price the FTTP is? BT refused to tell me. ‘As you don’t have it, I don’t have to tell you’. Surely if BT are piloting the FTTP in BP there should be a designated  contact point? Maybe the low take up is due to the fact that it seems frustratingly impossible to purchase!

[sasquartch]

I have FTTP but just opted for Infinity-2 which gives me a measured 76M down and 20M up. This has proved more than adequate, iplayer works fine whilst the kids are streaming stuff on their phones etc.

Remember most devices that are wireless will be unable to get speeds of even 50M down in practice and wired devices, unless gigabit Ethernet, will connect at a maximum of 100M anyway so unless you have lots of concurrent devices doing large downloads 300M is probably overkill (and the upload speed is still only 30M as mentioned previously)

I think I pay around £45/month all in which includes phone and free evening / weekend calls

[Trent]

Thank you Sasquatch. That’s less than o pay for BT infinity 2 which drops out constantly! Do you know if drop outs are a thing of the past with FTTP?

[sasquartch]

I've had FTTP since March I think and have had virtually no issues with it dropping out. I think maybe once internet access was a problem and the fault resolved itself so I doubt very much it had anything to do with the line

With fibre there is no line adaptation (where to speed is varied to match the transmission characteristics of the line) as there is no degradation in practice of signal with distance so the line itself should be much more resilient

If you can get FTTP there's really no reason not to get it, other than possibly an installation fee the costs are the same - ie it's still Infinity-2 just over a different circuit

[Trent]

Again. Thanks so much for the useful advice. BT just rang me back and accepted that they were wrong (!) and I can have FTTP. Just a shame they didn’t know the prices. I await their return call. Thanks again for the help.

[Trent]

BT FTTP Prices infinity 2 80mbps £39.99
Infinity 3 200mbps £47.99.
I’ll let you know how it goes....

[jonS]

I have FTTP but just opted for Infinity-2 which gives me a measured 76M down and 20M up. This has proved more than adequate, iplayer works fine whilst the kids are streaming stuff on their phones etc.

Remember most devices that are wireless will be unable to get speeds of even 50M down in practice and wired devices, unless gigabit Ethernet, will connect at a maximum of 100M anyway so unless you have lots of concurrent devices doing large downloads 300M is probably overkill (and the upload speed is still only 30M as mentioned previously)

I think I pay around £45/month all in which includes phone and free evening / weekend calls

There are a lot of devices that can easily support 5g wifi, most smartphones will at least.

On my iphone 7 and wife's 6 i can easily get ~350-500mps and on my mac book pro it tops out at just over 900mbps which is the line speed for the gig Ethernet back to the switch from the wifi access point. These are iPerf results, which just measures speed over wifi to local host, so a true idea of just how fast the wifi is rather than using some internet speed test.

As you might of guessed, i do not use the homehub that bt supplied. That lives in a draw gathering dust.

[Editor]

As you might of guessed, i do not use the homehub that bt supplied. That lives in a draw gathering dust.

What do you use instead, jonS?

[jonS]

As you might of guessed, i do not use the homehub that bt supplied. That lives in a draw gathering dust.

What do you use instead, jonS?

I use a bunch of ubquiti gear, from firewall router to poe/normal switches and then multiple access points of different natures depending on the area covered. The firewall stuff is pretty nice, with smart queues that support fq_codel, which helps keep latency low while everyone is using the internet at once. Also wifi management is very easy to setup so the wifi channels around the house do not interfere with each other. This lets me roam about pretty seamless without ever losing strength.

I used to use a bunch of cisco gear, 3 WAP371 and an sg300 poe switch, but I wanted something more centrally and easily managed so changed over. I still have this kit lying around, been trying to get rid of it for months on craigslist without any luck.


J.

[BrookyP]

i use ubiquiti wifi access points here (UAP AC). Its good reliable gear with a good even spread on 5g ac. It works well here on the fixed bt fttc line and the 4g feed we use OTA from EE too. So much better than high street alternatives. Ta BP

[jonS]

i use ubiquiti wifi access points here (UAP AC). Its good reliable gear with a good even spread on 5g ac. It works well here on the fixed bt fttc line and the 4g feed we use OTA from EE too. So much better than high street alternatives. Ta BP

Do you have separate wifi SSID's for each connection? When i had EE 4g and an adsl i was load balancing them based on type of service and speed, and also when i needed to not use CGNAT on the EE connection for VPN and other services. The EE connection was pretty fast, but you have to deal with being double nat'd and not having a proper ip address.