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Capabilities of hybrid fibre networks

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niemand:
This comes from a post I wrote on the Virgin Media community forums.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/Higher-upload-speeds/td-p/3839697

While FTTP is the best option as you can see from those links there's a lot of life left in hybrid networks, even if Virgin Media are a long way from exploiting it: their usual routine being to do the bare minimum to offer the fastest 'widely available' downloads.

From the 500/50 services available through a number of VM's siblings in Liberty Global to the 1.2Gb download speed provided by Comhem in Sweden to the bleeding edge 1Gb down, 500Mb up, faster than anything Openreach offer over FTTP, being delivered by TDC Denmark there's life in that copper coated steel yet.

https://www.comhem.se/bredband/bredband-1200
https://tdc.dk/produkter/internet

TL;DR don't write off hybrid networks just because neither Openreach with their FTTC version of G.fast or Virgin Media with their shallow fibre, low upload, lowest common denominator HFC don't make the most of them.

VM could certainly compete against FTTP if they got off their laurel cushioned backsides and pushed on, Openreach could deliver some very nice speeds with fibre deep G.fast where circumstances prevent FTTP.

dee.jay:
My only disappointment with G.fast is that BT have now gone half cock with it. There was talk of FTTdp-type implementations where they would be installing the pods not just as the PCP's, but at DP's further down the line. I'm 600m from my PCP, but <30-40M from my DP. I'd have snapped their hands off for G.fast - I'd surely be looking at a 300Mb connection.

Ronski:
Virgins upload speeds are certainly very poor in comparison to their download speeds, such a shame that Virgin treats their customers like this whilst other Liberty Global customers have much better upload speeds.

How do residential uploads in other countries fair?

niemand:
The Comhem link I gave is a residential product, Ronski.

Here's the Danish residential product set - https://yousee.dk/bredbaand/overblik.aspx

The Dutch get 400/40: https://www.ziggo.nl/pakketten#internet-online-tv#zonder-bellen
The Irish get 360/36: https://www.virginmedia.ie/broadband/buy-a-broadband-package/360-mb-mobile-world/
The Polish get 500/30: https://www.upc.pl/internet/promocje/oferta-specjalna/500-9mc/

You may notice the theme that in other territories the business customers get higher tiers than the residential ones. In the UK Business gets nothing residential doesn't, and the business as a whole is reluctant to release anything that can't be released soon to the entire country, so FTTP and brand new HFC areas get held back due to the need to rebuild 20+ year old networks.

Virgin Media UK aren't the jewel in the Liberty crown because they're good. They make more money as they can get away with offering relatively poor services :)

Ronski:
Thanks, was looking through those links comparing the cost to what we pay, the Polish one jumped out at £16.57 (new customers only contracted to June 2019) a month for 500/30  :o or am I missing something?

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