Cable or Fibre? What is the difference???
Options
Glasgow333
Posts: 1 Newbie
HI, I am no techie by any stretch of the imagination but am trying to see the wood through the trees on broadband provision. My issue is I am in a bit of a blackspot for telephone broadband provision so switched to Virgin about 6 years ago when it was one of the few providing proper what i call cable provision. I had phone line provision from BT, SKY, Talk Talk and all were extremely patchy and as i have 2 teenage sons needed a reliable supply.
i have just been on to the Plusnet site where is states unlimited FIBRE broadband which i assumed was cable but on the chat support she stated it was still via the phone line.
Q1 - What is the alternative for Virgin in blackspots such as mine
Q2 - Has phone line provision improved in the last 6 years and worth trying again (I doubt this but have no clue really)
Q3 - can someone explain in very lay man's terms what the jargon around this means - Fibre/cable/superfast
Many thanks in advance for reading my first ever post on a forum!
i have just been on to the Plusnet site where is states unlimited FIBRE broadband which i assumed was cable but on the chat support she stated it was still via the phone line.
Q1 - What is the alternative for Virgin in blackspots such as mine
Q2 - Has phone line provision improved in the last 6 years and worth trying again (I doubt this but have no clue really)
Q3 - can someone explain in very lay man's terms what the jargon around this means - Fibre/cable/superfast
Many thanks in advance for reading my first ever post on a forum!
0
Comments
-
1 - Either another provider with independent network similar to Virgin (Hyperoptic is one example) that is available in your area or mobile BB. The latter usually comes with data caps, which might be problematic with two teenagers, but if they do mostly streaming, some providers exclude it from the data, so might be viable.
2 - The technology hasn't changed, the only improvement might have come if the local infrastructure (cables, exchanges etc.) has improved and I doubt anyone here would know if it did or didn't.
3 - Fibre means fibre optical cable, which uses light, instead of electrical impulses to transmit data. The main benefits are it's immune to EM interference and signal degradation due to distance, poor connections etc. The main types of connectivity to your home are Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC - this is the common) and the optical cable only goes from the exchange to your local cabinet, from the cabinet to your home it's till the old copper wire used for land line phones. The other main type is Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) where the optical cable terminates in your home.
Cable usually refers to copper (or aluminium in rare cases) cable, traditionally used for the landline telephones. The most common broadband on it uses ADSL
Superfast is an artificial term to describe broadband faster than 24Mbps0 -
yes things have imroved over the last 5 years.
Maybe you have had a green fibre cabinnet installed in your street (or close by) in that time.
These can give download speeds of upto either 40 mbps, or 75mbps (depending on what price you pay) and more importantly how far your house is from the green cabineet.
Upload speeds will be faster than virgin0 -
Glasgow333 wrote: »HI, I am no techie by any stretch of the imagination but am trying to see the wood through the trees on broadband provision. My issue is I am in a bit of a blackspot for telephone broadband provision so switched to Virgin about 6 years ago when it was one of the few providing proper what i call cable provision. I had phone line provision from BT, SKY, Talk Talk and all were extremely patchy and as i have 2 teenage sons needed a reliable supply.
i have just been on to the Plusnet site where is states unlimited FIBRE broadband which i assumed was cable but on the chat support she stated it was still via the phone line.
Q1 - What is the alternative for Virgin in blackspots such as mine
Q2 - Has phone line provision improved in the last 6 years and worth trying again (I doubt this but have no clue really)
Q3 - can someone explain in very lay man's terms what the jargon around this means - Fibre/cable/superfast
Many thanks in advance for reading my first ever post on a forum!
Not sure what you have atm?
Virgin via coax? or virgin via copper telephone cables?0 -
Fibre and cable, in the UK at least, refer to the same thing - fibre optic cable, rather than copper wire. Transmitting data via light rather than metal wire is faster and more reliable and can go further.
On the openreach network you'll have different grades of ADSL - these are over metal cable.
Then you have FTTC - Fibre To The Cabinet - optical cable as far as a cabinet near(ish) to you, then metal cable into your home. This is branded Infinity (up to 40MB)/Infinity 2 (faster) by BT.
Then FTTP - Fibre to the property. This is newer and faster obviously, but more expensive and very few ISPs do it. Either you're stuck with it, or you're stuck without it.
That covers basically all providers except Virgin Media, with their own netwok. Theirs is optical fibre roughly as far as 'your street' then metal cable.0 -
You can use the DSL checker to see which services are available to you on the Openreach network:
http://dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.address
It will also given you an estimate of the maximum speed you can expect.0 -
Although VM have a few areas that are full fibre ( FTTP ) but if you have had VM for 6 years you will not be in one of these area, but have VM hybrid fibre /copper system , basically a fibre connection to the cabinet and then a coax cable from the cabinet to your home ( hence the term ‘cable TV’ as initially TV was their USP.
When it came to broadband , they managed to get the term ‘fibre broadband’ past the advertising authorities, so marketed their broadband as ‘fibre broadband’, makes it sound a more advanced system than OR’s copper pair system.
Only VM on ‘cable’, it’s their network and they don’t have to allow other company’s on it , so they don’t.
Later on, Openreach starting introducing their own hybrid fibre /copper pair system ( FTTC , fibre to the cabinet ) and ISP’s that started offering this OR product , unsurprising called it ‘fibre broadband’ after all the advertising authorities can hardly say it’s OK for VM but not OK for OR’s hybrid to be marketed in this way.
Lots of others people complain bitterly as they say fibre should only be used on full fibre systems ( FTTP/FTTH fibre to the premises, fibre to the home)but that ship has already sailed.
There is no difference in reliability ( IMHO , I have used both ) , VM are more likely to provide the headline speed, but did ( and may still do ) have over optimisation problems ( congestion in the network ), the further away you are from OR ‘fibre’ cabinets the slower the speed gets, but the provider chosen will give an estimate of what a particular line should achieve ( speed wise )
As far as speed comparisons and my own experience, I had 70Mb VM and currently have 80Mb FTTC ( with the full 80Mb sync) and there is no perceptible difference, so personally wouldn’t get hung up if VM 100Mb or 80Mb FTTC were the choices, in real world situations, there is no difference, providing it was 80Mb , and not much less because of the distance the property is from the OR cabinet
So , if FTTC or Gfast ( which is another potentially faster OR hybrid service ) is available you should get an idea of the potential speeds on your line, if you don’t currently have a OR line then it’s the post code you use to get the speed estimate, if it’s comparable with VM or in excess of what you need, then it’s the usual factors to take into account, price and customer service etc.
Superfast is taken to be a product that can achieve 24 or 30Mb/s depending on who’s definition (Uk or EU) is used, Ultrafast is 100Mb or better0 -
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 608.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173.1K Life & Family
- 247.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards