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Not sure if that's going to change something. The main problem was never peak-time congestion (I've never experienced it personally), it's just the fact that 1)
by Rjevski 8y ago
Not sure if that's going to change something. The main problem was never peak-time congestion (I've never experienced it personally), it's just the fact that 1) the infrastructure is shit and 2) everyone sells DSL as "fibre".
The infrastructure is a mess. Unless you've got actual fibre to the home, you're stuck with DSL, aka rust. The problem is that it's impossible to tell just how rusty it is without subscribing to service and running a speed test (at which point you've either entered into a year-long contract or paid install fees). Even the ISP can't know. What Openreach (company mandated by the government to manage the actual phone lines) should do is leave a DSLAM connected to all lines, to allow people to connect a modem and see the sync speeds (and possibly run a speedtest from a server provided by Openreach) before they sign up to anything.
The second issue is that everyone is falsely advertising DSL (and other garbage like coax cable, also called HFC) as "fibre" and consumers are confused as to which "fibre" is the better one. This also makes it much harder for companies that sell real fibre.
As it stands, this change will just make telco scammers sell "fibre" "up to 11mbps" instead of "up to 30mbps" or whatever they were selling before. As far as the consumer is concerned it's still a lottery whether you'll actually get the advertised speeds, with no way to know beforehand.
- fluffysandwich 8y agoFor Virgin Broadband, peak-time congestion is definitely a major issue. I have indeed had better experiences with DSL in that regard, but lower overall speeds.
- gaius 8y agoThe rationale is that the path end-to-end, measured in miles, is mostly fibre. But of course that is neither here nor there; if you do dialup with a 14.4 modem then actually that will be mostly fibre too because that’s what the trunks are! What physically goes into your house is what the vendors should be required to describe it as.
- PaulKeeble 8y agoWe have had terms for the difference between VDSL, coaxial and actual fibre into the home for a long time, but Ofcom has allowed BT and Virgin to sell their products as "Fibre". Ofcom and the Advertising standards agency are partly to blame, they are have allowed the advertising to suggest these products are something they are not for several decades at this point.
- antihero 8y agoDoes DOCSIS3 count as DSL?
- Rjevski 8y agoNope, that’s HFC, and while it’s radio-frequencies just like DSL, it’s a shared medium across the entire neighbourhood while DSL is dedicated.
- antihero 8y agoAh then in that case you might want to add that some people have FTTC DOCSIS which is actually pretty good, 300Mbit down etc
- Rjevski 8y agoFTTC DOCSIS is what most DOCSIS users get I believe. It’s still got most of the issues of DOCSIS, mainly being a shared medium within the entire building, leading to potential congestion issues.
- signal11 8y ago> everyone sells DSL as "fibre" ... This also makes it much harder for companies that sell real fibre. Great point. FTTC is sold as a "fibre" product when it's not, really. But customers are wising up. Those that don't live right next to the cabinet know there's a difference. Also, fiber is cheaper to deliver -- e.g. in a pure-fiber setup one can get 1Gbps up and down for around £30 a month, which is a massive win compared to pricing for FTTC which has to factor in the cost of maintaining the legacy copper network. Funnily, BT's sales team assured me multiple times that G.Fast was a fibre product and that I should "upgrade" to it (I have FTTH).