Landline conversion to digital

[Andy Burns]

Yes, no slower service is offered, odd step sizes though if the correspond to multiple timeslots?

[Mark Carver]

Umm, yes, and I suppose they also insist on the box being outside, rather than inside  ?

[The Natural Philosopher]

you can dial 999 from a mobile, but you have to tell them where you are

Alternatively 3rd party UPSes can be used to power up whatever kit is needed - fibre needs no power in between you and the regional exchange - its all passive. So at a minimum you just need power on the fibre modem , if you use that socket, or on the router and fibre modem if you are using router based or LAN based voip...

[Mark Carver]

I've dialled 999 twice from my mobile. In both cases they knew roughly where I was (Presumably from the cell Tx coverage zone)

[The Natural Philosopher]

The real speed is somewhere between 34 and 40Mpbs according to speed checkers.

Right now with other stuff on the network the speed checker says

34/10.4 Mbps

I get more than my rated 10Mbps upstream tho - anyway its enough for me to be sitting in a hospital watching TV on my home server via it - and the hospital wifi.

Remember that there is no contention on the local loop. I have my own private backhaul channel back to the regional exchange - and what happens between there and my ISP is down to my ISP. That's the beauty of FTTP - there is no contention really until you get to your ISPs backhail from the regional exchange

Pay a bit more, get a bit more.

I've seen over 4M BYTES/S on downloads of e.g. updates

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes. They installed a bolt for ladder securing in the house wall to access where the overhead comes in to the house - the copper then splits to the old circuit, and the fibre comes down to ground level. I told them to leave it there. Handy.

[charles]

True, but many vulnerable people don't have mobiles.

[Tim Lamb]

A recent install for our neighbours comes down the pole and terminates at shoulder height! Have they not met rural teenagers?

[Tim Lamb]

Snip

Hmm. I think the nearest cabinet to us is around 800m.

Cordless phone. The signal barely makes it to my office.

>

[Sn!pe]

Fax is comparatively secure as it doesn't use the Internet, only POTS. That's important for patient confidentiality.

[Vir Campestris]

That's what we had initially. They moved the voice onto IP much (a year?) later.

Andy

[Vir Campestris]

Except when BT moved us to VOIP the 'phone sockets on the modem weren't used - it's all over WiFi to the router.

Andy

[Theo]

I doubt it. Ever tried Facetiming your bank?

Maybe you can do loads of stuff on live chat, but a way to get a direct voice connection is still pretty important to businesses. Maybe they will push customer service to live messaging, but I very much doubt the sales department will want to go entirely that way.

Theo

[John Walliker]

Fax is far less secure than an encrypted message sent over the internet.

John

[Sn!pe]

But it ~is~ point-to-point and would take a wiretap to intercept.

[John Rumm]

I was getting pretty much bang on the advertised speed with IDNet on their "ultrafast" 330/50 package... then they gave me a free upgrade to

550/75, and now I can't get full speed because my router has run out of puff!

(it's maximum throughput the ethernet WAN connection is around 400Mbps).

Indeed.

[John Rumm]

They didn't on mine - they brought the overhead onto the facia (different place to the POTS), routed the cable through the trunking I already had, and drilled a hole[1] through the wall, brought the fibre in, and stuck the ONT next to my comms cabinet.

[1] Although I did have to lend em a drill as all their batteries were flat for their SDS!

[John Rumm]

I get the impression that the openreach chaps who did mine were pretty used to supplying a BT router with the setup.

I ordered just the ONT with no router, and they were not quite sure what to do to handover the service once the ONT had powered up and connected since there was nothing further they could test or demo.

[The Natural Philosopher]

IDnet offer 40 and 80 Mbps,then 160Mbps, 550Mbps and 1Gbps

I don't see why these would not reflect the underlying openreach wholesale product

BT Retail Sky Talk Talk Virgin Vodafone

40/10 Fibre Essential Faster Fibre Superfast 1 55/10 Fibre 1 M50 80/20 Fibre 2 Superfast Superfast Fibre Superfast 2 110/15 Full Fibre 100 M100 Gigafast 100 160/30 Fibre 100 Ultrafast 1 Faster 150 Fibre 220/20 M200 Gigafast 200 330/50 Fibre 250 / Full Fibre 300 Ultrafast 2 550/75 Future Fibre M500 Gigafast 500 1000/115 Full Fibre 900 Ultra Fibre Optic Gig 1 Gigafast 900

Mmm.

That makes it look as if 55Mbps is the timeslot. and 40 is a crippled 55...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes. And with the shortest possible fibre run to the internal modem.

The point being (I was informed), that they can check the optical circuit right up to the premises without need for house access.