Can fibre broadband be slower than copper?

Miles86

I've just been offered an upgrade to BT Fibre 1 broadband at marginally less (and with no activation or upgrade fees) than I'm currently paying for broadband (presumably over copper to at least the local cabinet).

I'm a bit bemused though, as they've stated I'll get 50Mbps download and 10Mbps upload, with a minimum guarantee of 25Mbps.

However my current contract has a minimum guaranteed download speed of 54.1Mbps and I generally get 65Mbps to 75Mbps depending on when and which speed tests I use.

Is it even possible for full fibre to be slower or are they just being overly pessimistic with the offered speeds?

DullGreyGuy

Isnt fibre 1 capped at 50mbs? 

Yes, for a start "fibre"covers many different things from FTTC to FTTP and others but any service can be intentionally capped. Our service is effectively FTTB (I guess) and Ethernet from the server room to each flat. You can choose 1Gb down to 100Mb speed and its just artificial limits being applied to the system as you can upgrade within seconds (have to serve a months notice to downgrade). 

Outside of that even fibre has a finite capacity and so it can be oversold and be slow for that reason

The_Fat_Controller

REAL FIBRE can be set at any speed that the ISP wishes to sell, subject to the system capacity and infrastructure.

As you have a MGALS you are on FTTC which is limited by the length of the copper line to the cabinet.

Where I am right now my ISP offers packages from 100 Mbps to 2 Gbps over the same line and on some you can toggle the upload/download balance on the app.

https://www.ais.th/fibre/en/index.html

iniltous

Fibre 1 is upto 55Mb , regardless of it being FTTC or FTTP , if it’s FTTP then there is no reduction due to line length to consider so you get 55Mb , FTTC is rate adaptive, the further from the FTTC ‘cabinet’ the slower it will perform, but most on Fibre 1 with FTTC will probably have no distance related ‘reduction’ anyway, but that’s why FTTC give a predicted speed range , not to be confused with the minimum speed guarantee.
If you currently are getting 65-75Mb you are not on Fibre 1 but Fibre 2 ,( upto 80Mb ) so it’s a pointless comparison, obviously if you change from Fibre 2 FTTC to Fibre 1 FTTP then speed will be ‘slower’ , if you were getting between 55 and 80Mb with FTTC on F2 , because Fibre 1 is 55Mb max, the reduction is down to the speed profile being purchased, nothing to do with the method of delivery 

[Deleted User]

This is why I think ISP's should be banned from using the Fibre phrase for hybrid connections, sounds like you are still on copper, just a bit less.

If I had my way:

ASDL = All copper
FTTC / VDSL = Bit less copper
FTTP = All fibre
VM = All coax

And don't get me started on 24 Mbps being called "Superfast", should be:

0-20 - Very slow
20-50 - Slow
50-100 - Ok
100-500 - Fast
500-1000 Superfast
1000+ Ultrafast.

So OP has bought "Bit less copper - Slow" and therefore wouldn't be disappointed.

Miles86

iniltous said:

Fibre 1 is upto 55Mb , regardless of it being FTTC or FTTP , if it’s FTTP then there is no reduction due to line length to consider so you get 55Mb , FTTC is rate adaptive, the further from the FTTC ‘cabinet’ the slower it will perform, but most on Fibre 1 with FTTC will probably have no distance related ‘reduction’ anyway, but that’s why FTTC give a predicted speed range , not to be confused with the minimum speed guarantee.
If you currently are getting 65-75Mb you are not on Fibre 1 but Fibre 2 ,( upto 80Mb ) so it’s a pointless comparison, obviously if you change from Fibre 2 FTTC to Fibre 1 FTTP then speed will be ‘slower’ , if you were getting between 55 and 80Mb with FTTC on F2 , because Fibre 1 is 55Mb max, the reduction is down to the speed profile being purchased, nothing to do with the method of delivery 

Probably should have clarified that I am not currently with BT.

The situation actually is that my current FTTC is non speed capped and delivers 65-75Mbps. BT tried to tell me that I could save around 50p a month by "upgrading" to FTTP, with a speed cap they did not disclose - they just stated that was the speed of the service.

Well I think not BT. You're going to have to up your misselling game...

Thanks all for your responses!

littleboo

Not sure where the mis selling is - you have been offered a product and told the speeds you can expect. FTTP is a better technology, it's not line length dependant, is not affect by water and can support much higher speeds should you need them. Do you need ~65Mbps? 

johnbhoy70

I'm on Fibre FTTC with BT. Contract ending in a few weeks. It was the fastest speeds we could get at the time as we have the double hit of being miles from the exchange and a good distance from local cabinet too. Speeds usually high teens with a min guarantee of 15. Cable laid for FTTP a few months ago so we'll be getting that with one of them. We're not heavy users I would say but it's amazing where bandwidth goes with just 2/3 on it in the house most of the time. No gamers. One of the 100 FTTP packages should do us and hopefully Black Friday offers up something. If we do stay BT we'll be getting rid of Halo for starters. From experience it's a gimmick, although we got it for next to nothing because of historical issues with the service.