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Thread: BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

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    BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

    OK since BT are rolling out fibre-to-the-cabinet service with a predicted speed of 40Mbps, would this help users such as myself on that's on the end of a relatively long line from the exchange?

    "The VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet service being rolled out by BT gives users up to 40Mbps broadband, and faster speeds should be expected by everyone connected as the technology works by shortening the distance used for the last section of the line that is still deployed using the existing copper cable."

    from http://www.thinkbroadband.com/

    The exchange I'm connected to is already LLU enabled and I'm using a LLU package with O2 but my speeds are about 3.4Mbps on a good day. How does it get any faster for the end user? Surley it still relies on the length of copper to your house or are they going to fix everyone up with fibre?

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    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    Re: BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

    Quote Originally Posted by smelly View Post
    The exchange I'm connected to is already LLU enabled and I'm using a LLU package with O2 but my speeds are about 3.4Mbps on a good day. How does it get any faster for the end user? Surley it still relies on the length of copper to your house or are they going to fix everyone up with fibre?
    As the name implies, they are going to be running fibre to the cabinet at the end of the road (you know that old green or not quite so old grey thing). That way, the only copper section is between the cabinet and your house. For some people this will make a massive difference to their line length as the existing copper could take a very long and round about route to get to that cabinet in the first place. With a fibre back haul to the exchange, that won't matter a jot.

    LLU doesn't matter at all in this case, in fact, I don't know how LLU will be effected. LLU is where another operator installs racks of equipment in the exchange and your line is physically moved over to that equipment (sometime before the voice part is filtered off, sometimes after). Obviously there isn't going to be enough space in the cabinet for multiple providers, so i guess there is going to have to be some encapsulation and the splitting off back at the exchange for LLU operators to feed the data through their own systems.

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    Re: BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

    As Funkstar says.

    Speed is (roughly) inversely proportional to copper line length - longer the cable, lower the speed. Shorten the copper bit - and the speed the line supports goes up.
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    Re: BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

    Excuse my ignorance but I was under the impression that it's already fibre to an exchange and then copper to your house. Is this usually not the case? Since my exchange current serves over 13,000 people.

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    Re: BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

    Quote Originally Posted by smelly View Post
    Excuse my ignorance but I was under the impression that it's already fibre to an exchange and then copper to your house. Is this usually not the case? Since my exchange current serves over 13,000 people.
    The difference here is that the fibre will go to street cabinets servind say 200 people that are no more than a few hundred meters from it. i.e. where 1 exchange will have been, there will be lots of street cabs.
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    Re: BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

    Quote Originally Posted by smelly View Post
    Excuse my ignorance but I was under the impression that it's already fibre to an exchange and then copper to your house. Is this usually not the case? Since my exchange current serves over 13,000 people.
    Adding to what badass said, the telephone network isn't as simple as your house being connected directly to an exchange, there is always at least one street cabinet between the two. And how that cabinet it connected up will also make a difference, the cable could quite easily head from your excahnge, past the end of the road, up the hill, round the corner, along another street, back down the hill and then into the cabinet before being split off to get to your house.

    This would make for a very long line length, even if you are physically close to the exchange. taking fibre all the way to your nearest cabinet is going to slash all that wasteful copper, even if the fibre uses the same route, it's a pure digital connection without any loss over the length of it so all that matters then is how far you are from the cabinet and how good that length of copper is.

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    Re: BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

    Now that makes sense thanks guys

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    Re: BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

    Yes, it is fibre to the exchange, but it gets a little more complicated. Atr its simplest, a telephone in your house can be a passive device in that it needs no external power. It derives its operating power from the line itself, and that power can only be delivered over a conductor - the copper cable.

    The reason for this is partly historical, from when telephones were rented from the then General Post Office (GPO) and ensured that in the event of a power failure, or other emergency, the telephone would still work. (Exchanges have battery and generator power backup) One reason for this was civil defence.

    This is not a condition imposed on cable companies, so Virgin can run fibre to the home. (BT did run an experimental fibre to the home using a protocol called TPON - telephony over passive optical network - IIRC - but it was never widely adopted - and TPON areas had the fibre removed and copper installed to allow provision of ADSL)

    While it could be argued that that is no longer relevant, it is still a requirement. However, but running fibre (and power) to roadside equipment cabinets, the fibre signal can then be 'decoded' and split into individual copper lines which still deliver power but over much shorter length, improving performance at the frequencies used to deliver ADSL.
    Last edited by peterb; 01-04-2010 at 09:46 AM.
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    Re: BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

    Quote Originally Posted by smelly View Post
    ...

    The exchange I'm connected to is already LLU enabled and I'm using a LLU package with O2 but my speeds are about 3.4Mbps on a good day.

    ...
    Have you tried using the test socket to improve speeds? I don't know if that's what it's called, but it's the socket that underneath the panel on the master socket.

    I have a terrible line and using that gave me an extra mbit.

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    Re: BT VDSL2 based fibre-to-the-cabinet

    I've tried the master socket and new filters, unplugging everything from the wall etc but speeds are generally low. It's due to the distance i am away from the exchange. But that's all part of another thread

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