Fibre broadband speeds with different suppliers

dezza

We get around 3.5Mbps speed on our standard ADSL connection, and a few months ago decided to get Sky Fibre installed. Despite a speed range of 23 - 33Mbps being estimated, our line could only support a maximum of 7Mbps (Openreach said this was because of the length of the line to the cabinet), and so we downgraded to ADSL again.

I was wondering if changing supplier would have any effect on the fibre speed. All the suppliers I've tried (including BT Wholesale's checker) state the same estimate Sky gave, and I do find it a little odd that this estimate is so far off the mark.

I assume all suppliers utilise the same cabinet - Openreach did say that the cabinet we were (are?) connected to wasn't the closest one.

Thanks.

AJXX

As far as I'm aware all providers piggy back of the FTTC Open Reach cabinet in your street - so whoever the provider you'll always see a similar speed. Although space in the cabinet is limited by provider - it's possible if you went with someone else (or even BT directly) you may be placed on a different cab.

That said it's possible there maybe a fault on the line, I can't vouch for Sky but BT have stated that Infinity should have a minimum speed of 15 Mbps;

BT is pre-qualifying FTTC lines to ensure end users' FTTC lines support at least a 15Mbps downstream rate. However it should be remembered that FTTC lines are rate adaptive and line speeds can fluctuate. If an end user lines drops below 15Mbps for a significant period a fault can be raised on that line.

I've also seen this on their own forums;

Previous to our conversation, The minimum speed for BT Infinity is 15Mbps, if the service falls below this minimum threshold, the service will no longer function. In this case, we have failed to provide a satisfactory service to yourself and have therefore broken the conditions of the signed agreement, you would be therefore eligible to terminate your service without incurring a cancellation fee.

I've had Infinity personally for around 2 years, and average around 55 Mbps on Infinity 2 Unlimited - much better than the standard crappy 3-4 Mbps on ADSL. I've never once had a single drop out either.

Perhaps consider getting Infinity installed (although cost wise it's more than Sky Fibre) as I'm sure anything less than 15 Mbps is considered a line fault and/or failing to meet service therefore you may either get a resolution (if it's a line fault) or get out of the contract without charge if they can't provide the 15 Mbps - ALTHOUGH I WOULD CLARIFY THIS WITH BT FIRST!

forgotmyname

I was getting 3.5mb on ADSL, but get 73MB on fibre. IM with PlusNet but it should be the same with any provider. Same distances involved.

Not testing your wireless speed are you?

dezza

Thanks for the replies.

It definitely wasn't the wireless speed, this was the speed the router was reporting.

After doing a bit of digging it would appear that our local cabinet (about 0.6km away) is FTTC enabled, but according to Openreach, when we had Sky Fibre we were connected to a cabinet 5km away. Not too sure why this would be. Another thing is that when we did have fibre the speed never changed from the moment it was installed, and we didn't have any dropouts either - so to me it seemed that a higher speed wasn't even tried.

It's interesting about the 15Mbps minimum line speed - below that the service won't function? In any case I'll have a look at Infinity anyway, and also the possibility of getting out of it should the speed match Sky's 8!

littleboo

Normally, the cab you're connected to is the only one you can have. The green cabs are cross connect points between local cabling to properties an the main cables from the exchange. The cable from your property will go to one cab which may not be the closest. That's not to say that you can't be re-routed, but you can see that normally the cable you're on dictates the cab.

lee111s

You won't be able to get changed to a closer cabinet for broadband purposes I'm afraid.


That said, BT do offer a "faster broadband" package for those who can achieve speeds less than 15meg on FTTC. Surely if your broadband is only 3.5meg then it's worth having the FTTC service and doubling your speed? I guess it depends whether or not having only 3.5meg impacts on your usage.


In answer to your original post though, the ISP you use will make no difference as it's all the same physical network that supplies the service. There is on caveat though. Some modem work better on long lines, even more so if your cabinet is G.INP enabled and you use a G.INP modem. Do some research online

dezza

At the time Sky offered us a deal for £12 per month for fibre broadband, versus free ADSL for a year. Paying the difference for 7meg didn't seem worth it, especially as at the time I had the option of tethering with my 3 sim.
Would we be connected to the same cabinet for both ADSL and FTTC? I know the location of the cabinet we're currently connected to for ADSL and that certainly isn't the distance quoted by Openreach when they came to look at the FTTC.
The main reason I asked the original question regarding different suppliers is that when we were with Orange Broadband previously, our line speed was about 10% higher than with Sky currently. It just still seems odd to me that the broadband estimates BT Wholesale provide are so far off the mark. Meanwhile I'll have a look into this G.INP thing - can't say I'd heard of that before!
Thanks

lee111s

Yeah the cabinet would remain the same.

Before FTTC, your broadband would be supplied from the exchange, down copper wire to the cabinet known as thr E-side (exchange) and copper from the cabinet to your home, D-side (distribution.

With FTTC, the E-side is replaced with fibre so your broadband is now provided from a new cabinet located closely to the existing cabinet. You still retain a full copper connection back to the exchange for your telephone though.

The problem with this is that the technology used to provide the faster speeds, doesn't reach as far as ADSL, so if you're more than 2Km from the cabinet, you're unlikely to get much, if any service at all.

The distance to the cabinet is not always as the crow flies or as the roads go. I've known someone have a cabinet outside their house but their line from it was 800m long due to the way the cable was routed in the local area.

That said, personally, the upgrade of doubling the speed would be worth it. As I said, look online to see what VDSL modems do better on longer lines. G.INP isn't on every cabinet as Openreach have used a couple of different manufaturers for the kit inside the cabinet and I believe only one of them uses G.INP technology.


Put your telephone number into this checker https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/adsl.htm?s_cid=ws_furls_adslchecker and post the results back here (remove your phone number before posting)

[Deleted User]

Everyone replying here is assuming that only suppliers who piggy-back off BT (Openreach) lines are available and is ignoring the possibility that the OP may be able to get Virgin Broadband which doesn't rely on the same physical connections and can certainly provide much faster speeds than those quoted in the OP.
Apologies if dezza has already checked for Cable availability...

dezza

Thanks for the explanations/suggestions so far.
Cable was the first thing I thought of - unfortunately not available round here!
The BT Wholesale checker didn't recognise my number, presumably because we're with Sky? I could have sworn it recognised the number before but I could be wrong.
Now you come to mention it, I do remember the Openreach engineer saying that the line could be routed along quite a sequitous route.

lee111s

Your number should be recognised (although I'm not sure if it does recognise it if you're line is LLU). Try the address checkee on the same site