Kitz ADSL Broadband Information
adsl spacer  
Support this site
Home Broadband ISPs Tech Routers Wiki Forum
 
     
   Compare ISP   Rate your ISP
   Glossary   Glossary
 
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Author Topic: Openreach Put the Brakes on Future UK G.fast Broadband Plans  (Read 2365 times)

Bowdon

  • Content Team
  • Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2395
Openreach Put the Brakes on Future UK G.fast Broadband Plans
« on: September 11, 2019, 06:50:41 PM »

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/09/openreach-put-the-brakes-on-future-uk-g-fast-broadband-plans.html

Quote
Openreach (BT) has today informed ISPs that they are holding off giving any further guidance on future build plans for their hybrid fibre G.fast “ultrafast broadband” (100Mbps+) technology, which means that under the existing rollout they will only cover 2.73 million UK premises by March 2020.

I think we saw this decision coming. I wonder if it was a man power issue, as we know OR have been falling behind a little on FTTP rollouts. This would give them a chance to move more engineers to fibre installation.

It is good that BT/OR have become more competative these days. They are going full steam towards FTTP.
Logged
BT Full Fibre 500 - Smart Hub 2

niemand

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1836
Re: Openreach Put the Brakes on Future UK G.fast Broadband Plans
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2019, 08:56:24 PM »

Imagine it's more the poor take up of the product, the fault rate and the restrictions around availability.

Delivering it exclusively from PCPs was a dumb idea, albeit a very expedient one.
Logged

kitz

  • Administrator
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 33879
  • Trinity: Most guys do.
    • http://www.kitz.co.uk
Re: Openreach Put the Brakes on Future UK G.fast Broadband Plans
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2019, 08:00:59 AM »

Although it clearly says  "G.fast rollout hasn’t yet stopped but any build plans beyond March 2020 are currently under review.",  it's another nail in the coffin.

Few of the mainstream ISP's offered the product due in part to limited availability.   They are hardly likely to advertise a product that a large amount of consumers will be unable to get - nvm the drop off rates.    I should imagine the latest news means that they unlikely ever will.

Perhaps things could have worked out differently if it was delivered from the dP which at one time seemed like they may have done.  It would have been more logical in that it pushed fibre nearer to the home without the more expensive option of taking it to everyone's door.    Whilst I agree FTTP is the better option by far,  I still have some nagging doubts that it could delay faster speeds to the smaller towns and more rural areas.    Obviously they will be pushing certain areas first..  many of which already have VM coverage.    In my own area things seem to have ground to a total halt with zilch on the horizon.   I wonder if this will delay faster speeds to the more modest exchanges.   

Kind of strange in a way, my exchange was the first to have automatic relay switching, we were one of the first to get adsl through Ben Verwaayen's BB4 campaigns,  the first to suffer serious congestion because take-up was much higher than anticipated.  When BE* came here with Annex_M,  I had one of the fastest connections in the UK getting full speeds 24/2.6 Mbps.   Yet after fttc there has been nothing and no sign of VM  taking any interest either.   Since 2013 my speeds have gone backwards from >110 Mbps attainable to ~64 attainable (less if interleaved) due to crosstalk.   The only things I have seen around here is them re-shelling all the PCPs and adding extension pods for more copper lines resulting in more crosstalk on crappy ECI cabs with no g.inp or vectoring.

[Moderator edited to correct a date.]   
« Last Edit: September 12, 2019, 04:14:34 PM by burakkucat »
Logged
Please do not PM me with queries for broadband help as I may not be able to respond.
-----
How to get your router line stats :: ADSL Exchange Checker

adslmax

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1937
Re: Openreach Put the Brakes on Future UK G.fast Broadband Plans
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2019, 05:06:06 AM »

 ;D Probably after I has emailed Openreach to sod that G.fast afterall, will not placed an order, told them I stay with FTTC 80/20 until FTTP come along. G.fast are overpriced and not worth for any line length >250m away.
Logged

kitz

  • Administrator
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 33879
  • Trinity: Most guys do.
    • http://www.kitz.co.uk
Re: Openreach Put the Brakes on Future UK G.fast Broadband Plans
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2019, 10:46:45 AM »

Yes I'm sure that will be it. :)
Logged
Please do not PM me with queries for broadband help as I may not be able to respond.
-----
How to get your router line stats :: ADSL Exchange Checker

Bowdon

  • Content Team
  • Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2395
Re: Openreach Put the Brakes on Future UK G.fast Broadband Plans
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2019, 10:19:27 PM »

I was on BE too kitz, you must have been part of the 24Mbps club they had going on there  :)

I remember last time we looked in to BE Annex M I think they were doing it 8 years before BT adopted it. So BT have always been slower off the mark. But I guess there isn't the same incentive for the number 1 company do improve if there is no direct competition around.

I agree that G.fast would have been better to be rolled out to the pole. I know the argument from BT was if they roll it out to the pole then we may as well do FTTP. But I don't really agree with that. Yes FTTP would be the next step, but taking G.fast via a fibre line to the pole wouldn't involve installations of houses. It would have still worked along side the copper system. Later on they could have said said "ok, anyone with G.fast available to them can now have the FTTP upgrade with special installation. Ironically BT/OR have now put pressure on themselves to retire copper because they have to now make a big leap forward when they could have taken half a step and copper would have been still in the network probably for 10+ more years imho.
Logged
BT Full Fibre 500 - Smart Hub 2

kitz

  • Administrator
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 33879
  • Trinity: Most guys do.
    • http://www.kitz.co.uk
Re: Openreach Put the Brakes on Future UK G.fast Broadband Plans
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2019, 01:14:06 AM »

Yup I was a member of the "24Mbps club" for a year or so until they added O2 to the MSANs and I gradually started to lose some speed due to cross-talk.   I can't recall now but I think by the time I left after the Sky takeover I was more like somewhere around 21Mbps.   I could still get 24Mbps but I'd have to tweak my SNRM down to something like 1.5dB..   but I cba because I still had the 2.6Mbps upload and the line was rock steady.

----

I'm not certain why it took BT so long to roll out Annex_M, but I would think that their existing network would have had a heck of a lot to do with it.   
Nationwide ADSL only really started to take off in about 2002 and it was 2003 that the first BB4 campaigners started to see their exchanges go live.   BT used their MSiP network to backhaul to the exchanges which were mostly limited to 155Mbps pipes. 

Whilst we can laugh now at being limited by STM-1 / OC3 fibre cable, but that was the norm 20 yrs ago and most of the world was using SDH/SONET.   STM-4 brought out an increase to 622Mbps and I can recall Plusnet being very proud to be one of the first UK ISPs to purchase a Juniper STM-4 edge router with 622Mbps capability.    BT also upgraded some of the larger exchanges to STM-4 622Mbps.

So basically there wasn't at that time any viable way that the BT backhauls could ever support the bandwidth requirements for Annex_M ADSL2+.
WDM was _the_ big game changer when it came to increasing capacity for fibre bandwidth and BTw set about building the 21CN network to replace MSiP which we all know how long that took to fully complete.

BE* was able to go straight in building a new network based on the most up to date technology and only target the viable exchanges.   In fact they didn't have to worry about WDM either, because of the number of customers they were able to get away with just using STM-4 and satellite exchanges.     If you think about it.. say they had 50 customers at an exchange, then multiple 155's or a 622 would be sufficient.     I'm having a memory block, but I'm sure that our exchange backhaul for BE was 155 because I remember joking on this forum with another member who had load balanced 2 BE lines that the 2 of us plus one other would be able to practically max out BE's backhaul to our exchange.   I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Things weren't quite so simple for BTw (pre Openreach) whose client base at each exchange would be multiple times over those of BE's...  not to mention business connections and leased lines.  Prior to WDM adding more backhaul capacity fibre was no mean feat and why BTw was always so cautious in what they gave the consumers.  Only the 21CN exchanges got adsl2+ whilst those exchanges still using 20CN MSiP were stuck with 8Mbps. :/

 
Logged
Please do not PM me with queries for broadband help as I may not be able to respond.
-----
How to get your router line stats :: ADSL Exchange Checker