BT to invest billions in ultrafast broadband over next three years

[peterb]

Good news, any investment in infrastructure is to be welcomed.

[Jonj1611]

I am in the middle of Plymouth and still can't get fibre and its not planned either, even though the exchange is enabled, the box near me won't be upgraded. And without cable down the street either thats Virgin out as well.

As always it comes down to money which they told me direct.

[leexgx]

for the BDUK FTTC was the only option (unless they wanted to throw 5x more money at it to get FTTP)

doing FTTC is fairly easy doing FTTP is not cheap as you got last mile to deal with and every call out would need a call out that would tie up an engineer for 1-3 days

personally they should of set BDUK fiber roll out at 2020 as the target for FTTP roll out (not this band aid Near Fiber VDSL, that only works efficiently in dense housed areas and who happen to be close to the cab)

as Virgin (well mostly Ninex/cable and wireless) has found out diggin up the roads and pavements to get the pipe to the edge of the house is not cheap BT have most of the ducts intact to the poles or the houses themselves (but if they are not they have to go digging up the road for a consumer that only paying £40 a month)

if the Conservative government had not stuck there nose in BT business the UK right now would look like sweden's FTTP network (Sky would still be bitching about it thought)

people just think FTTP to each house is simple its not the costs for doing that last 1mile and last 50 meters (the premise) is not cheap its very labor intensive unless its a new build (there is no excuse for Copper to be used on New builds now it should be FTTP) or all the ducts are clear all the way to the pole to premise /underground pipes to premise (i say you got higher chance to get FTTP if your served by a pole)

[peterb]

BT is also required to provide s universal 999 system which operates even in the evvent of a power failure, which is why exchanges have battery and generator backup systems. So even if they provide FTTC, they still need a copper pair to supply power to the domestic equipment. This does not apply to Sky or VM.

[LSG501]

BT is also required to provide s universal 999 system which operates even in the evvent of a power failure, which is why exchanges have battery and generator backup systems. So even if they provide FTTC, they still need a copper pair to supply power to the domestic equipment. This does not apply to Sky or VM.

BT may need to but how many times have you been able to ring out via your cordless phone (pretty much everyone uses these now) when there's a powercut.... you can't unless you have a ups or similar plugged in. Now there is a solution which is really simple and that's to include a small replacable battery in the phone (the bit plugged into the land line) too like the 'red button' alert systems OAPS can get.

[aniilv]

hehe only in UK people would be happy about fiber thats 100mbps

get some perspective, fiber offers > 10gbps, and 1 gbps is norm.. 100mbps can be offered over cat5 lol

[jag272]

hehe only in UK people would be happy about fiber thats 100mbps

get some perspective, fiber offers > 10gbps, and 1 gbps is norm.. 100mbps can be offered over cat5 lol

It's pretty poor when you consider places like Singapore have gigabit fibre connections available for the equivalent of £20 a month. That said, worry more about coverage first then move on to speed. Despite the numbers being reported, its shocking how many people still complain about not having access to fibre.

[Flibb]

Living in the countryside we do get occasional powercuts. And when the power goes down it takes the mobile phone system with it, so what people around here do is have one of those £5 corded telephones stashed in a cupboard.

[phill8800GT]

I find it hilarious people are calling for the government to step in. The government is why we have this outdated internet infrastructure!!

In 1979, (yes, 37 years ago!!!!) BT realised copper wasn't suitable for the digital communication revolution.
By 1986 BT was one of the world leaders on fibre networks and could deliver fibre cheaper to the home then copper.
In 1990 they were 6 months into mass producing all the fibre equipment for a national rollout when the Conservative government (yes, those idiots again) decided BTs fibre rollout was anti-competitive.
By 1991 BTs fibre factorys were closed and asset stripped to make way for international competition in the local-loop. With all the fibre technology getting shipped to our friends in South Korea and Japan. Who now benefit from Superfast fibre broadband that we helped develop over 25 years ago.

The mind boggles how this was allowed to happen.

I'm not even surprised at this... As a country I do feel we are getting further and further behind everyone else which is absolutely crazy...