When is Fiber Optic Cable Broadband coming to the UK?

teddyco

Dear Friends:

A good friend of mine lives in Boston, USA and just connected to broadband with a company called "Verizon". The product that he is using is called FiOS which is basically "Fiber Optic Cable Broadband". The company came out to his home and connected the cable directly to his home. It allows both TV reception and Computer broadband, which according to my friend "kicks butt".

See link:

http://www22.verizon.com/content/ConsumerFios?LOBCode=C&PromoTCode=DNI01&PromoSrcCode=B&POEId=TL1HP

He was telling me that most of the USA is way behind the UK in terms of broadband speeds, but is quickly catching up with all the fiber optic cable that is currently being laid into the ground.

Verizon says FiOS is the latest in fiber-optic technology. It delivers laser-generated pulses of light, riding on hair-thin strands of glass fiber, all the way to your front door. When FiOS meets your computer, you can get broadband Internet at blazing-fast speeds.

Here are prices:

Speed/installation cost/package cost:

Up to 5 Mbps/2 Mbps FREE $34.95 (£18.89)
Up to 15 Mbps/2 Mbps FREE $44.95 (£24.29)
Up to 30 Mbps/5 Mbps FREE $179.95 (£97.27)

Does anyone reading this have any information on when the UK will get or start using fiber optic cable for broadband connections? Wouldn't it be a much better idea to spend our TV License money on the installation of millions of miles of fiber optic cable rather than silly digital TV?

In the next 10 years America will be watching television and downloading high quality movies on their fiber optic broadband and we will be stuck in low gear with Digital Telly? Give me a break!

bbb_uk

I can't see it happening over here to be honest.

ADSL broadband runs on the same lines as your telephone line which was never really designed to carry good-quality fast broadband. Not really anyhow. A lot of things can affect ADSL broadband the most notably being the distance from the exchange and the quality of the old copper wiring from the exchange to inside your house.

I'm not sure what the likes of NTL/Telewest use internally but NTL/Telewest use good quality coaxial (ariel cable) from outside your house to their omni box (generally a brown connection box on outside of your wall).

Quality-wise then cable is generally accepted to be better than that of ADSL broadband. Cable broadband is also generally accepted to provide a more constant download speed than that of ADSL broadband.

espresso

bbb_uk wrote:

I can't see it happening over here to be honest.

Download the pdf from here about BT's 21st Century Network. Page 15 show fibre to the home.

bbb_uk

Interesting that and a surprise especially for BT.

The cost of fibre cable is the main reason why I didn't think it would really happen over here as it involves significant (I mean significant) amount of money to have it going to all the houses as well.

This would obviously have to be paid for by an increase of linerental.

I also noticed the .pdf still showed copper lines to the house via what I assume is a server or something. This gives me the impression that fibre cable is likely to be limited to businesses that are possibly prepared to pay for the advantages.

I can still only see it being a good few years away before it becomes a bit more popular and few years after that (if not longer) before all households have it.

The problem is that BT are obviously in no immediate rush not just because of the cost to themselves but mainly the fact that things are ok (ish) now via POTS.

Thanks though, it does show that BT are looking into it which was my main surprise.

teddyco

Espresso:
Thanks for that PDF link!