News BT hits copper high in G.FAST broadband trials

Personally, as someone who doesn't live in a major urban area, I'd be happier to see BT do more to improve its rural offerings like they've been promising for years (and are getting money from the government to deliver).

I don't have a choice of fibre at all - for me, it's less copper-last-mile and more copper-every-mile.

 

^this

Even though they have been given government money the connecting devon and Somerset team claim that we are not in the program to be done before 2016.

Whilst it is possible that we may be done before 2020 I have a 3 - 4mb connection. If the new technology they are trialling will work over longer distances it may be a viable alternative to fiber for people out in the sticks perhaps?

 

How many routers have a WAN port that's faster than 100Mb/s? For those lucky enough to have FTTC, G.FAST will only serve as an upgrade of download speeds from around 50Mb/s to 100Mb/s, though upload speeds of 100Mb/s would be most welcome.

 

I'll keep twiddling my fingers whilst waiting for downloads then. Never mind.
Still it is good to see that they are pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved.

 

There are lots of Router offering Gigabit WAN. So it is not new and they are not expensive either. And by the time G.Fast arrives I am sure there will be plenty, or most ISP will likely deploy their own Modem / Router All in one to you.

The thing i dont understand is why they dont roll out FTTdp now? VDSL 1/2 or G.Fast will all require FTTdp. And the work can start now rather then later. And when G.Fast arrives they can do the last mile config / construction. Wouldn't that be much quicker?

 

Ironically it is often people in rural communities who need an adequate broadband speed especially when they are cut off from civilisation, or home working. I get 120KB/s downloads on my BT Infinity Super Fast Bleedin Broadband.

Whereas EE provides me 3500KB/s downloads using an optimally located 4G modem.

 

Forum_user, I can't believe you are on Bt Infinity, that download speed suggests you are on 1.2Mbps Broadband. Either, you aren't on Infinity, someone in your household is using all the bandwidth or limiting you, or you have a fault.

 

I like the sound of this but honestly, I think BT & Openreach need to sort out their network first. For example, recently my exchange was suffering from major issues that were affecting many FTTC users in my area on various ISPs. It took all of us to group together, along with the mayor, before our ISPs and BT Wholesale took notice and began investigating. It took major work, several failed attempts and a further 2 months before it was bodged, sorry, I mean "fixed".

Also, many people have inferior ALU cabling linking their premesis to their cab which cripples vDSL/FTTC speeds, let alone anything even higher frequency (for example, I'm on FTTC with ALU cabling and get 33mbps down. The people on the next street get ~70).

 

Sadly it's true. But it's not FTTP. It's fiber somewhere far far away to some really old copper that BT can't be fecked to replace because there are only 20 odd houses in this rural area. If I pick up my phone I can clearly hear the sort of inference that renders online FPS gaming impossible.

Thankfully I sit between 3 mobile masts that has EE serving me quite nicely. It's clear why BT leaves it's rural customers wanting, I don't expect a big business like them to care any about me. It's still kinda shameful that they present great news about speed increases while ignoring those in need of 'adequate' speeds!

 

1 gigabit per second, fair usage policy allows 4gig a day. Lululul.

 

This topic is a classic situation of our country continually paying catch up rather than investing in the long term future. Everyone wants things to improve immediately rather than wait for a few years while a proper infrastructure is put in place. So this situation is not going to change any time soon.

There are benefits and draw backs to all the providers depending on what it is you want. I live in East London (E3) and can't get Virgin Media cable, it just isn't here. I'm with Sky which not only gives me unlimited usage but I also have free international calls bundled in which also saves me a lot as I speak to Germany for about an hour every day. The draw back here is that even their new routers (which you are locked in to use) are limited to 100MB/s instead of the standard 1GB/s (please excuse me if I have mixed up GB and Gb) and they also don't seem to want to support AC WiFi either. BT would cost me a fortune due to the calls I make while I also hate their 'fair usage policies' which I think suck big time. Then there are the many other smaller providers but none of them tick all the boxes either...

I try not to think about it too much as it annoys the hell out of me but there is little I can do about it.

 

BT keep changing their FUP's if you pay top wack, you do get unlimited usage, if you go for option 1 you get limited useage, and pay additional overuse fees

 

i'm on a terrace on one side of a main road, i could throw a stone and hit the BT infinity-stickered junction box on the other side but apparently the best speed i can get is 500kb/s and there is a huge waiting list for BT infinity which i can't join unless i subscribe to overpriced standard broadband with them. i suspect it's the companies and their multi-tiered approaches to speeds and data limits that are holding things back more than quality of lines, in towns/cities at least.

 

They offer 10GB a month or unlimited for old fashioned broadband and 20GB a month or unlimited for Infinity.

Not sure where you found 4GB a day.

 

Anyone else getting a 502 Bad Gateway error when trying to read the article, or is it just me?

ETA: All seems fine now