Are BT mis-selling their products?

denlac

I have just switched to BT from Virgin, and got an unlimited Fibre 1 package. I really wanted a Fibre 2 package, but that wasn't available in my post code.
Obviously, when I set up my equipment, some issues came along with the new service, the phone line was dead, didn't get a tone. So I booked an engineer to come a sort it out, which he did. He then explained to me that the issue was at the cabinet, which is the green box that are used to divert and test lines to locate faults. And surprisingly, he suggested that to avoid further issues, I needed to request to get the optic fibre run all the way to my house, because apparently at the moment it only runs up to the cabinet box. I was utterly shocked by this revelation, as I always thought that my BT "Ultimate Fibre 1" broadband service was fully delivered by optical cable.
My broadband speed is way below the speed advertised for this package, so there is another engineer booked to have a look at this issue.
Has anybody experience this? Is this BT misselling their products?

Neil_Jones

BT Fibre 1 is an FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) product and is (crucially) an "up to " product, all internet providers say "up to" speeds, as not all lines can support the maximum speed, so they say up to 38Mbps and provide a minimum guaranteed speed for your line.  The main line part from the green cabinet to the house is copper, it always has been, so the fibre is only to the cabinet, not your property.

What the engineer has probably suggested is the alternative FTTP product, Fibre To The Premise.  This is much faster but its also much more expensive.  This will provide all the fibre at a faster speed but as I say will cost you more money per month and you may have less choice of provider should you decide to move away.

JJ_Egan

Nope you are wrong , for years its been FTTC on the BT Open Reach network . VM different system to the house .

Open Reach are slowly rolling out Fibre to the premises FTTP .

Speed advertised is as always UP TO  with many reasons for slower speed .

I have gone at current address from dial up to what was termed broadband at up to 12meg  , that then moved to Fibre  as in FTTC ,at up to 72 meg  .

Two years ago Open Reach upgraded the local area with optical fibre cabling FTTP  .

littleboo

Its quite possible that your Virgin connection wasn't FTTP either

iniltous

It’s almost certain that the VM service was also a hybrid service, fibre to the cabinet and coaxial ( copper ) to the house.
As far as misrepresentation, Virgin started calling their system ‘fibre broadband’ when it wasn’t fibre all the way, so it’s no surprise that others with a similar system also call it ‘fibre’.
The OP will have been told an individual estimate speed to expect, any other speed is irrelevant, if the speed they are getting doesn’t reach or exceed the individual estimate , they try to get that speed for you if it cannot be achieved, you can leave penalty free....so frankly I don’t see the problem

Takmon

denlac said:

I have just switched to BT from Virgin, and got an unlimited Fibre 1 package. I really wanted a Fibre 2 package, but that wasn't available in my post code.
Obviously, when I set up my equipment, some issues came along with the new service, the phone line was dead, didn't get a tone. So I booked an engineer to come a sort it out, which he did. He then explained to me that the issue was at the cabinet, which is the green box that are used to divert and test lines to locate faults. And surprisingly, he suggested that to avoid further issues, I needed to request to get the optic fibre run all the way to my house, because apparently at the moment it only runs up to the cabinet box. I was utterly shocked by this revelation, as I always thought that my BT "Ultimate Fibre 1" broadband service was fully delivered by optical cable.
My broadband speed is way below the speed advertised for this package, so there is another engineer booked to have a look at this issue.
Has anybody experience this? Is this BT misselling their products?

Well the line going into the exchange is Fibre Optic and the line going to the Cabinet is Fibre Optic so out of miles and miles of connections 99% is Fibre and the last few hundred meters to your house only is copper. So that's like saying when you go to a restaurant and order steak and chips they have miss sold it to you because a small percentage will be salt, pepper, cooking oil etc and it's not pure steak and chips 

denlac

Thank you all for your comments.
This BT deal also states a "Your Stay Fast Guarantee 37Mb", but I don't get anywhere near it, so may cancel it if the next engineer cannot fix it. By the way, I used the speed test tools on this site and got very mixed results:
Fast.com      25Mbps   7.2Mbps
Broadband Choices  19Mbps    5.5Mbps
MSM  15.2Mbps   4.9Mbps
Speedtest.net   32.68Mbps  5.22Mbps
Which one should I trust?
Thanks

Chino

Takmon said:

Well the line going into the exchange is Fibre Optic and the line going to the Cabinet is Fibre Optic so out of miles and miles of connections 99% is Fibre and the last few hundred meters to your house only is copper.

By your logic, ADSL has always been "fibre" because it's only the (mile or so at most) run from the exchange to the exchange that is copper/aluminium; the connections network-facing connections from the exchange are fibre optic.

JJ_Egan

Speedtest.net   32.68Mbps  5.22Mbps
Which one should I trust?
Thanks

What speed is showing in at your router ??

Speedtest is generally reliable  but your varied figures suggest measured over wifi ??

Use the BT wholesale test /Over Ethernet not wifi .

https://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/

iniltous

Switching provider ( unless VM are available) won’t in itself improve anything, it would be the same pair of wires from the FTTC cab to your home irrespective of the ISP, so although there may be a small difference ( one company’s router may be slightly better than another ) it’s not like one company delivers 35Mb and another using effectively the same kit is going to be able to give significantly more.
Speed tests should be using a wired not wireless device , better to post your router connection statistics 

Takmon

Chino said:

Takmon said:

Well the line going into the exchange is Fibre Optic and the line going to the Cabinet is Fibre Optic so out of miles and miles of connections 99% is Fibre and the last few hundred meters to your house only is copper.

By your logic, ADSL has always been "fibre" because it's only the (mile or so at most) run from the exchange to the exchange that is copper/aluminium; the connections network-facing connections from the exchange are fibre optic.

Yea they may have been able to market ADSL as "Fibre" using the same logic but there may have been a sticking point if they decided that the broadband supply started at the exchange so from there it is purely copper for ADSL. But as now fibre goes all the way to the cabinet I can't see any issue with the way they currently market it.