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[Black Sheep]

Have just returned from this now-annual event, and although probably nothing new to the informed readership on this forum, it was still educational from a national perspective.

The very senior management were the speakers, and they were open and honest about competition and why we need to continually improve on delivery. There are good things afoot with regard to communication between the CP-OR-Engineer, in order that the EU gets the right skilled engineer for the reported issue.

Quality of the D-side network played a large part from the Chief Engineers representative, as they touched upon the trialling and subsequent roll-out of G.Fast (NGA2) technology.
The concensus thus far is that this technology works ok up to approx. 300mtrs, but testing is being done on extending this to 350-400mtrs if possible. The speaker was bluntly adamant that the trial (Starting approx. in September) WILL be successful, and roll-out WILL begin hopefully in 2017.
It is the trial that will determine distances and subsequent location of the unit housing the G.Fast technology. IE: At the Cab, a UG node, the DP ??

Other stuff mentioned were new Cab terminating strips that are waterproof (for 1 week when fully submersed in water), plus a new-style NTE5 that doesn't have screws to remove the faceplate. It will be a pull off plate that acts like a 'switch' to disconnect the extension wires.
Because of previous issues with the EU's accidentally pulling off the extension wiring when removing the plates, there wont be any connected to the plate, they will be connected to a push-fit IDC connection within the main body of the NTE5.
As yet, the SSFP is not compatible, but they are working on a solution as we speak.

There was lots of other stuff covered including the new-style all in one Cabs, incredible new 'Apps' for the engineers I-Phone, the complete lack of other bidders in the BDUK programme, the 'Fault Volume Reduction' plan and associated stats ........ plus of course our 'bottom line'.

I would love some of our members on here to have been able to witness the commitment BT Group and OR are making to bring 'Ultra-Fast' broadband to the UK. One other thing that was mentioned was that by 2023 the prediction was for the average family to require a couple of hundred Megs  for use-age.

[Black Sheep]

PS ...... nothing about G.INP, Vectoring or ECI was brought up.

[kitz]

Thank you so much BS for sharing that info with us

[Black Sheep]

No worries, leader. 

[burakkucat]

Thank you. I hope you will be able share the following day's proceedings with us.

(Were pies or bacon sandwiches on offer?   )

[Black Sheep]

Sorry, that may have been misleading.

By 2-day event, I mean that a whole new swathe of engineers will be in attendance tomorrow for the same lectures etc.
Yes, they do like to feed you at these events .......... as many bacon sarnies as you could eat at breakfast, then sandwiches, crisps, chocolate bars for lunch ..... you could go back and get more if you wanted ?? 

[burakkucat]

Sorry, that may have been misleading.

By 2-day event, I mean that a whole new swathe of engineers will be in attendance tomorrow for the same lectures etc.

Ah, I see. Than you for the clarification.

Yes, they do like to feed you at these events .......... as many bacon sarnies as you could eat at breakfast, then sandwiches, crisps, chocolate bars for lunch ..... you could go back and get more if you wanted ?? 

That is good to know. And now I feel the urge for a little snack of something . . .   

[WWWombat]

Thanks BS. These kind of posts give a great flavour beyond reading tech specs - they are much better view of intent, and the emotions behind the intent.

The concensus thus far is that this technology works ok up to approx. 300mtrs, but testing is being done on extending this to 350-400mtrs if possible. The speaker was bluntly adamant that the trial (Starting approx. in September) WILL be successful, and roll-out WILL begin hopefully in 2017.
It is the trial that will determine distances and subsequent location of the unit housing the G.Fast technology. IE: At the Cab, a UG node, the DP ??

That doesn't surprise me at all.

The presentations I found last year, with someone having studied the deployment of G.fast nodes in central Amsterdam was a great example of the trade-offs that can be made during this process. If the distance is too short, you get to do a lot of nodes in total, but a lot that don't share many users. If you aim at a certain number of lines per node, how many lines become too long to benefit?

With what we've seen through FTTC, FTTRN and the earliest G.fast trial, Power remains a big issue. I'm not sure how much BT will favour forward-fed power (from FTTC node site) vs reverse-power from the EU, but the relative distances involved will also be a part of the trade-off. It will be fascinating to see what happens ... but I know we'll only see tiny fragments of the data!

plus a new-style NTE5 that doesn't have screws to remove the faceplate. It will be a pull off plate that acts like a 'switch' to disconnect the extension wires.

Having seen the videos on the new-style of PCP, I recall that it used an interesting push-in test jack that looked like it disconnected the line. I can see an NTE-5 plate working in a similar way ... but I guess you don't want the plate to pull out when you pull a wire, or push the vacuum past.

I would love some of our members on here to have been able to witness the commitment BT Group and OR are making to bring 'Ultra-Fast' broadband to the UK. One other thing that was mentioned was that by 2023 the prediction was for the average family to require a couple of hundred Megs  for use-age.

At first glance, that seems quite a leap from previous predictions. But ... I also recall from something else that an "average family" (with teenagers) actually ends up being one of the heavier demands placed on BT's lines, so is quite a lot higher than an "average household".

[Black Sheep]

Thanks for the thanks, WWW. I'm not and never have been a 'Holier-than-thou' person, and seeing as I've honed my 'skill' in DSL faulting from this very site, (and subsequently enlightened many, many more broadband engineers who get basic 2-day training), I think it's only fair that 'open' information is shared here. A way of giving back, if you like ? 

I'm not at all clued-up with the G.Fast technologies, as they are (as mooted) just starting to go to trial. But, I'm sure that reverse-power was not mentioned as the way they were going ?? Apologies if I've got this wrong, or the situation changes, but there was talk of powering up down spare copper wires if what I heard was understood correctly ??

The talk of speed-grab came from our Director of National Operations and TV (Sarcastically called NOTV). I've always found him to be clued-up and he was talking about BT Sport, K4 TV (or something), it all kinda got lost on me, but if he predicts that a few hundred Meg is what will be required on average, then a few hundred Meg it will be !!

All in all, I am trying to show some of the naysayers that believe it or not, BT Group/Openreach are moving forward quicker than even they expected.
I said it to someone here in a PM, there are folk who comment or make bold statements about what they think they know to be true, whereas it's all tosh. OR do make mistakes, everyone does. But to make statements like, "I could have done it better" .... or, "They don't know what they're doing" is just plain ludicrous.
I've said it before .... if individuals are certain they are suitable for the job, then get applying and make a difference. I'm sure our Chief Engineer (Ian Lawrence) would welcome you with open arms ?? 

[WWWombat]

Apologies if I've got this wrong, or the situation changes, but there was talk of powering up down spare copper wires if what I heard was understood correctly ??

I think you heard right.

The FTTdp concept is the notion of a node built to be deployed at the DP, all ready to run the G.fast protocol over copper. It takes on board the concerns of telcos who have to deploy these things cheaply, which means it incorporates more technical advances than just G.fast, aimed to become a viable product offering, rather than glorious but useless tech.

Powering an FTTdp is one area where some of those advances have been employed: nodes are meant to be able to be powered in one of 3 ways: "Local power" - like today's FTTC cabinets. "Forward power" arrives in a bunch of copper pairs; this is the kind of feed mentioned to you, and is what I'd expect BT to be leading deployment with, for nodes "close" to existing FTTC cabinets. "Reverse Power" comes back down the copper pair from the end user; their (somewhat improved) PSU powers both their own modem and provides a share of the power to the FTTdp node.

Forward power seems to have been employed in the early trial of G.fast in Norfolk. See around 06:35 in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLpk2dz6nBQ

Reverse power is very new technology, and I'd expect it to be really beneficial for FTTdp nodes in more rural areas, further out from any parent FTTC cabinet (so power losses over long copper might be too high, or perhaps insufficient spare lines). However, I don't think it is mature/trusted enough to plan to deploy en-mass for another few years. But good prospects... once we learn to trust power being fed over rural phone lines.

See this demo video from Aethra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RICL26vLEBk

Aethra also has this older (and slightly long-winded) demo of deploying an FTTdp node as a "self-install" option. This particular node uses VDSL2 30a, and gets 220Mb/90Mb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyFvM5BIMGs

[Black Sheep]

Wow. I haven't clicked the links, but your description of the 3 types of power supply is enlightening. Thank you.

[Weaver]

[apol for drifting off topic. should perhaps transfer the following elsewhere]

A different world. Meanwhile, getting 2 Mbps from a line remains a struggle. Still on ADSL1, 20CN and no evident upgrades to the local exchange since 2006.

The politics of the UK seems to be the realisation that it is vital to give those who already have the best service even more, much more as fast as possible. Those who are struggling with 1Mbps or less are meanwhile invisible. Is their any way to change this?

[kitz]

All in all, I am trying to show some of the naysayers that believe it or not, BT Group/Openreach are moving forward quicker than even they expected.
I said it to someone here in a PM, there are folk who comment or make bold statements about what they think they know to be true, whereas it's all tosh. OR do make mistakes, everyone does. But to make statements like, "I could have done it better" .... or, "They don't know what they're doing" is just plain ludicrous.
I've said it before .... if individuals are certain they are suitable for the job, then get applying and make a difference. I'm sure our Chief Engineer (Ian Lawrence) would welcome you with open arms ?? 

You could not know and would not have any idea why I laughed to myself at that statement.  Particularly the co-incidence and timing of when you posted it 

[Black Sheep]

You starting working for us, Kitz Please ?? 

[kitz]

Naw....  I dont see myself climbing ladders and crawling in lofts