5 ms·

> In metropolitan areas you can get FTTH (at least to the block of flats) anyway, so you can switch provider and be using different fibre if that's important to

> In metropolitan areas you can get FTTH (at least to the block of flats) anyway, so you can switch provider and be using different fibre if that's important to you. Whichever company you choose it's the same physical fibre from the home to the telephone exchange. It's very likely the same physical fibre from the telephone exchange to the internet exchange (though maybe the individual providers have their own routers.) Edit to add: > Prices differ, service differs, tiers can be quite different; they're not all the same company. The different companies can offer the same service in different ways but ultimately there's little difference between them because they're all reselling what is substantially the same thing. Most fibre internet is just rebranded Openreach (British Telecom) infrastructure. A substantial minority is Virgin (Cable TV only built out to maybe 30-40% of homes.) And then a handful of small local fibre broadband providers.

OJFord 4y ago
To be clear by service there I meant like 'customer service', the support, experience of being a customer etc. Anyway we're basically in agreement on the state of differences or lack of them - I just don't understand what more you want to be different that can be?
aembleton 4y ago
Depends. In Bolton I had the choice of OpenReach, Virgin and CityFibre. Three physical lines to the house.
- laurencerowe 4y ago
  If only there had been some central planning so that three houses could have been provided with physical fibre instead of one house getting physical fibre three times...
jfindley 4y ago
Not accurate. You've taken a valid data point and over-extrapolated from it. Openreach provides the physical cable for the majority of customers (excluding cable and FTTP, the latter of which is steadily expanding). However the physical cable connecting the customer to the IX is only a part of the picture of providing internet access - and you over-fixate on this. From there, you're routed through to infrastructure owned and operated by the individual ISP you've chosen - and these infrastructures are not identical. Some do more filtering and inspection than others. Some are pure ipv4, and some support ipv4/ipv6 dual stacks. Different routing designs within these networks mean that latency and jitter can be very different (one major ISP is particularly notable for poor internal latency due to a legacy network design). There's a lot of complexity here that you're ignoring.
OJFord 4y ago
That's not always true - Hyperoptic for example runs it's own at least between cabinet and building, I don't know about after the cabinet. I also don't care, it doesn't matter to me? Price and performance do. > The different companies can offer the same service in different ways but ultimately there's little difference between them because they're all reselling what is substantially the same thing. Yes that was exactly my point. They're about as different as they can be, what's the problem.

OJFord 4y ago

To be clear by service there I meant like 'customer service', the support, experience of being a customer etc. Anyway we're basically in agreement on the state of differences or lack of them - I just don't understand what more you want to be different that can be?

aembleton 4y ago

Depends. In Bolton I had the choice of OpenReach, Virgin and CityFibre. Three physical lines to the house.

laurencerowe 4y ago
If only there had been some central planning so that three houses could have been provided with physical fibre instead of one house getting physical fibre three times...

jfindley 4y ago

Not accurate. You've taken a valid data point and over-extrapolated from it. Openreach provides the physical cable for the majority of customers (excluding cable and FTTP, the latter of which is steadily expanding). However the physical cable connecting the customer to the IX is only a part of the picture of providing internet access - and you over-fixate on this. From there, you're routed through to infrastructure owned and operated by the individual ISP you've chosen - and these infrastructures are not identical. Some do more filtering and inspection than others. Some are pure ipv4, and some support ipv4/ipv6 dual stacks. Different routing designs within these networks mean that latency and jitter can be very different (one major ISP is particularly notable for poor internal latency due to a legacy network design). There's a lot of complexity here that you're ignoring.

OJFord 4y ago

That's not always true - Hyperoptic for example runs it's own at least between cabinet and building, I don't know about after the cabinet. I also don't care, it doesn't matter to me? Price and performance do. > The different companies can offer the same service in different ways but ultimately there's little difference between them because they're all reselling what is substantially the same thing. Yes that was exactly my point. They're about as different as they can be, what's the problem.