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[lloydforth]

Having been a freelance support technician for 7 years now, there is huge demand from the SME market for increased upstream connectivity building up. Many of my clients need increased upstream capacity in order to provide services such as VPN and FTP, Intranet etc.  Others just don't understand that email is not a file transfer utility and continue to abuse it and wonder what the problem is sending 30MB files over their ADSL connection.

I should point out that most of my clients are in the design or creative business so therefore have very large data file sizes making VPN useless over ADSL

My question is as far as i can tell it's going to be at least 2-3 years before any widespread fibre roll out is accomplished  ( i could be wrong this is my first posting here ) what are the options going to be in the future for the end users of current ADSL and what shape are they likely to be in regard to bandwidth and speed?

[waltergmw]

Hi LloydForth and welcome,

I agree that faster broadband is going to concentrate on an asymmetric model as that's where the perceived demand (and revenue) is seen to be.

Larger organisations already do hire their own very expensive fibre-based networks but the SME market is likely to be left high and dry for the foreseeable future unless FTTH is deployed.
This seems an impossible dream except for the few local communities who are doing the job properly. That said there are a few providers who do offer faster upload speeds but again they are still very sparse.

http://www.vtessebroadband.co.uk/index.cfm/service/professional

Sadly until the twisted pair network collapses I don't expect to see much change without very strong political pressure or large subsidies which, in the current circumstances, seems quite impossible.

Kind regards,
Walter

[lloydforth]

Thanks for the reply Walter.

Are you saying that the current FTTC roll out won't change things much?

[waltergmw]

Hi again LloydForth,

You'll see in the link I provided that the maximum offered on that VDSL2 service is 16 to 40 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up which is still asymmetric.
SDSL up to (I think) 2 Mbps is available at a limited number of exchanges but, unless somebody else knows of other solutions, you would have to purchase a leased line which is probably out of the question for a SME.

You might be a little better off if you are in a Virgin Media area and your particular road is covered. However some have experienced contention problems.

Depending upon the location, I suppose it's just possible that a large business park might have high speed symmetric services available.
Otherwise I suspect it will only be new build sites that might eventually have fibre provided and those still seem very sparse at present.

Comments from others please.

Kind regards,
Walter

[kitz]

With DSL, it depends on the channel frequencies which are allocated specifically for upstream and downstream.

These channels are all predefined as Standards to ensure that upstream and downstream channels are kept separate, otherwise it would cause horrendous problems with cross-talk...  which would result in practically non existent adsl for short lines.

SDSL (2Mb) used separate DSLAMs to ensure that their upstream frequencies didnt cause problems with 'normal' adsl users...  but became defunct really with the advent of adsl2+ with Annex_M, which provides 'up to' 2.2 Mbps upstream.

Spectrum Masks ensure that Annex_A + Annex_M can work from the same MSAN..  but this does mean that some of the higher upstream frequencies for Annex_M...  and some of the lower downstream frequencies on Annex_A  will never, ever see their full bit loading capabilities...  and its why on some lines you often see the familiar inverted 'U' on bit-loading graphs.

You need a good + short line to be able to get the best out of Annex_M  (I sync at around 2,600 kbps upstream)

See also
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adsl_technology.htm#dmt_modulation

For SME's....  I'd recommend looking at Be Pro (Annex_M)...  BUT it needs to be a good and short line + capable of being able to cope with the reduction in downstream tones.  Forget it if the line cant sync at anymore than 8-10Mbps on normal adsl. :/

[orainsear]

Line bonding may be an option to consider (if the service is available), although there is obviously additional line rental costs to factor in.