Vodafone Fibre

[peterb]

@peterb: What do you mean about BT not being the largest provider of landline services? I can't find what part of the statistics you linked you're referring to, but AFAIK even if you're talking about BT retail rather than Openreach, they still have the largest landline customer base?

Thank you, you are quite correct. I misread the table - I have struck out the offending line in my post (but left it visible for completeness)

[peterb]

IIRC they were made to sell it by the monopolies/competition comission due to objections as to the dominant market share it gave them. Cellnet thus got sold and became O2. That's my memory anyway - happy to be corrected by people in the know.

I think they sold it to reduce mounting debts in the face of disgruntled shareholders.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...of-BT-for.html

[me-yeah]

*citation needed.

BT are always being told to stop being a monopoly by ofcom every few years

it starts around 2004

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a0e25808-3...n&desktop=true

the latest is last november

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...reach-network/

if people are making less phone calls, then they are loosing money, and the money won't come back, so they have to target another area they can control, and that is wholesale broadband

[jimborae]

I'm planning on just using their router to start. Currently I have 2 boxes from BT, (ONT and Router) and I believe this should come down to 1, which is nice. In theory the spec's on the Vodafone router are very good, Gigabit Ethernet ports, AC, Beam forming, configuration via iphone app, etc. So hopefully it's as good as they make it sound.

Andy the situation at the moment is you have to use the Vodafone box. The PPPoE username & password is unique to your account, unlike BT. Some, me icluded, have managed to get our credentials from customer services but it would appear that Vodafone are cracking down on this and it's getting much more difficult to obtain these. I know there have been some efforts to extract the details from the set up XML file on the router but this is now encrypted on later firmware so efforts have been thwarted. (And password was never in there in plain text in the first place, only username). Methods similar to obtaining Sky credentials don't work either.

There is no modem only mode on the box so if you want to use your own gear then you effectively have to do this manually by turning off wifi, dhcp etc and hooking you router upto the Vodafone one. There are plenty of posts on how to do this on the Vodafone eforum. Having said that I find the Vodafone router's performance perfectly acceptable but as stated previously, I'm not using the Huawei one so your milage may vary.

PS don't ditch you BT modem, prices on eBay are on the rise and you may want/need to use it in the future.

[watercooled]

BT are always being told to stop being a monopoly by ofcom every few years

it starts around 2004

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a0e25808-3...n&desktop=true

the latest is last november

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...reach-network/

if people are making less phone calls, then they are loosing money, and the money won't come back, so they have to target another area they can control, and that is wholesale broadband

Are you confusing landline with mobile? The EE acquisition has absolutely nothing to do with wholesale broadband - as I've already explained, BT gain next to nothing in terms of landline broadband from EE (who quite literally use a wholesale BT product anyway), and already maintain the largest wholesale broadband network in the UK - they *really* don't need any help there, which is exactly why Ofcom are breathing down their neck.

Do you perhaps live outside of the UK? Because you seem to be confusing several aspects of the UK telecom market which are fairly common knowledge.

Andy the situation at the moment is you have to use the Vodafone box. The PPPoE username & password is unique to your account, unlike BT. Some, me icluded, have managed to get our credentials from customer services but it would appear that Vodafone are cracking down on this and it's getting much more difficult to obtain these. I know there have been some efforts to extract the details from the set up XML file on the router but this is now encrypted on later firmware so efforts have been thwarted. (And password was never in there in plain text in the first place, only username). Methods similar to obtaining Sky credentials don't work either.

Yeah it's really quite a shame and I don't understand why companies go to such lengths to prevent free choice of hardware. It would probably be a deal-breaker for me TBH. I understand the logic of wanting troubleshooting to be easier, but all they'd have to do (and indeed some already do) is get the customer to try the default hardware before the ISP books a visit from Openreach (which could end up costing them if there's no fault).

[Andy14]

Andy the situation at the moment is you have to use the Vodafone box. The PPPoE username & password is unique to your account, unlike BT. Some, me icluded, have managed to get our credentials from customer services but it would appear that Vodafone are cracking down on this and it's getting much more difficult to obtain these. I know there have been some efforts to extract the details from the set up XML file on the router but this is now encrypted on later firmware so efforts have been thwarted. (And password was never in there in plain text in the first place, only username). Methods similar to obtaining Sky credentials don't work either.

There is no modem only mode on the box so if you want to use your own gear then you effectively have to do this manually by turning off wifi, dhcp etc and hooking you router upto the Vodafone one. There are plenty of posts on how to do this on the Vodafone eforum. Having said that I find the Vodafone router's performance perfectly acceptable but as stated previously, I'm not using the Huawei one so your milage may vary.

PS don't ditch you BT modem, prices on eBay are on the rise and you may want/need to use it in the future.

Thanks Jim, I went in fully aware of the situation and just plan to use the Vodafone router (which I hope should arrive in the next few days).

When you refer to the "BT Modem". Are you referring to the ONC, the piece of **** BT gave me and called a router, or my Netgear R7000 ? The ONC I may keep for history, the home hub I was looking forward to smashing with a mallet and the R7000 will be stored safely / sold.

[jimborae]

Thanks Jim, I went in fully aware of the situation and just plan to use the Vodafone router (which I hope should arrive in the next few days).

When you refer to the "BT Modem". Are you referring to the ONC, the piece of **** BT gave me and called a router, or my Netgear R7000 ? The ONC I may keep for history, the home hub I was looking forward to smashing with a mallet and the R7000 will be stored safely / sold.

I think I am refering to the ONC (depends what ONC, stands for) basically it's the modem part, usually a Huawei Echolife HG612. I think later HomeHubs may have had the modem built into the router so this device (the Huawei Echolife) wasn't needed, so you may not have one.

It looks like this:

[Andy14]

Cheers. That's indeed what I was referring to as the ONT. Optical Network Terminator. I see I changed to ONC at some point. That's another acronym altogether. Oops.

How much are they selling for now ?

Indeed I'm hoping that this is now built in to the router. 1 less device, less network cables and less power adaptors are all big plus points.

[jimborae]

Anywhere between £20-40 approx. So it you you ever want/need to use your own kit and need to use a seperate modem then it's handy to have one of these to hand.

Yes the Vodafone solution is an all-in-one box so no worries there.

[scaryjim]

... Indeed I'm hoping that this is now built in to the router. 1 less device, less network cables and less power adaptors are all big plus points.

Not only are vdsl modems generally built into the routers now, but about a year ago Openreach switched to non-engineer installs for vdsl. My last switch was to EE, and they just sent a couple of filters in the box with the modem, just like old-fashioned adsl Got me really confused given I'd had several fibre installs previously and was used to having to wait for an engineer to come out and replace the faceplates etc...

[watercooled]

In the vast majority of cases you would have used an Openreach 'active NTE' (network terminating equipment) i.e. the VDSL modem.

An ONT is something different which most premises won't have unless you're in an FTTP area. As the name implies, the ONT terminates an optical connection which VDSL isn't.

Those Openreach modems are decent bits of kit and well worth hanging on to as they're no longer supplied, and allow you to use a router without a built-in VDSL modem which vastly expands your choice.

[Andy14]

In the vast majority of cases you would have used an Openreach 'active NTE' (network terminating equipment) i.e. the VDSL modem.

An ONT is something different which most premises won't have unless you're in an FTTP area. As the name implies, the ONT terminates an optical connection which VDSL isn't.

Those Openreach modems are decent bits of kit and well worth hanging on to as they're no longer supplied, and allow you to use a router without a built-in VDSL modem which vastly expands your choice.

Cheers. I will hang onto it, just in case. Although logically after 18 months+ of Vodafone it's fairly likely a G-Fast based subscription will be available and I've no idea if it's still relevant then.?

[flearider]

and this is whats stopping me .. as I wont use theres .. just my draytek it's never let me down .. shame really .. looks like i'm staying with ee

[Andy14]

and this is whats stopping me .. as I wont use theres .. just my draytek it's never let me down .. shame really .. looks like i'm staying with ee

I considered not moving due to having to use their router, but to be fair it looks quite good, it's a £25 / month saving & lets me wave goodbye to a company using their market share to take the ****.

[Andy14]

The router has arrived now. Looks very smart, connections are as expected, will just plug straight into my wall socket and ready to go.

Installation date is 1 week from now, so will provide an update afterwards, potentially on a new thread.

[eltel]

Thanks Andy can you let us know about the performance and quality as I'm looking to move from Sky as they are not value for money these days