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It's buried in the article, but they were doing a massive modernisation project so hired to deliver it. Now that it's done they'll downsize. Obviously everyone

It's buried in the article, but they were doing a massive modernisation project so hired to deliver it. Now that it's done they'll downsize. Obviously everyone is focussing on the AI part. EDIT: Sorry scratch that. I've confused the URL. I didn't see this is a CNN article. This one https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65631168 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65631168 from bbc is much better (which I had read earlier). It shows the breakdown of where the jobs lost come from.

orra 3y ago
> but they were doing a massive modernisation project so hired to deliver it. Now that it's done they'll downsize. Broadly right, but your tense is wrong. Openreach's[1] FTTP rollout program extends to the end of December 2026. Realistically, it may be delayed, because the scale is rather huge. [1] A subsidiary of BT who own the infrastructure, for competition grounds
- arethuza 3y ago
  I was rather surprised when Openreach came round and fitted our fairly rural area in Scotland with FTTP. We went from 20 down and 1 up to 1000 down and up. Might not be 1000 up but certainly seems like it compared to what we had before!
  - flumpcakes 3y ago
    I'm pretty confident it is not 1000 up. Like usual the UK have already fitted substandard infrastructure. The BT "FTTP" network is in fact shared fibre with up to 63 of your neighbours. It's based on old GPON technology. This is why you may get 1Gb/s down but you will be limited to approximately 110Mb/s up. The reason being that your downstream is broadcasted to all terminals, but AES encrypted (so your traffic is also sent to your neighbours) but the upstream traffic is sent using time division, so you get 1/64th of a unit to upload. Then everyone is over provisioned, and over sold, so they give you a number that is higher than 1/64 because of the assumption that you and your neighbours won't all trying to use your maximum bandwidth at once. Compare this to HyperOptic, or CityFibre who will plumb a slither of glass from your home, directly to the ISP. You get a full fat ethernet connection straight to the internet, 1Gb/s down, 1Gb/s up. BT could have done this too, but instead we get ADSL version of fibre.
    - orra 3y ago
      Yes, GPON is overprovisioned (at 1:32 for Openreach). However, that isn't the full explanation for mediocre upload speeds on Openreach. GPON has a total shared capacity of 2.4 Gbps down and 1.2 Gbps. So you'd think if 1 Gbps down is possible, 500 Mbps up would be. Simply, Openreach probably have mediocre upload speeds on FTTP, so they can protect their leased line profit margins. CityFibre use GPON, the exact same technology as Openreach. Yes, CityFibre offer a nice symmetric service on top of that, because real world contention is usually much lower than the theoretical maximum. It's also worth noting CityFibre are starting to upgrade to XGS-PON.
      - flumpcakes 3y ago
        > GPON has a total shared capacity of 2.4 Gbps down and 1.2 Gbps. So you'd think if 1 Gbps down is possible, 500 Mbps up would be. The "download" direction is sent to you and all your neighbours and only you can access the information as it is AES encrypted to your terminal (CPE, etc.). So you could get 2.4Gbps down, as long as your neighbours are not using it. 1.2Gbps "upload" direction is time shared, so you will never get the full 1.2Gpbs unless you have literally zero neighbours / other terminals on the optical bundle.
        orra 3y ago
        Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) fixes the TDM limited upload that you describe. https://www.lightwaveonline.com/fttx/pon-systems/article/16649607/dynamic-bandwidth-allocation-sets-gpons-apart https://www.lightwaveonline.com/fttx/pon-systems/article/166... Again, CityFibre is not Point to Point fibre. They offer 1Gbps upload on GPON, contended at 1:32. From the horse's mouth: https://cdn.cityfibre.com/Partner-page/Downloads/CF-FTTH-Local.pdf https://cdn.cityfibre.com/Partner-page/Downloads/CF-FTTH-Loc... Even Openreach have a 220Mbit/s upload tier, but it costs more than twice as much so nobody offers it for home users. https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricing/loadProductPriceDetails.do?data=SjLGnN8O1mzybN7g39pZiNKvrleClYZjBLZ4w%2FibaalZ6rNZujnCs99NbIKJZPD9hXYmiijxH6wrCQm97GZMyQ%3D%3D https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricing/loadP...
    - arethuza 3y ago

orra 3y ago

> but they were doing a massive modernisation project so hired to deliver it. Now that it's done they'll downsize. Broadly right, but your tense is wrong. Openreach's[1] FTTP rollout program extends to the end of December 2026. Realistically, it may be delayed, because the scale is rather huge. [1] A subsidiary of BT who own the infrastructure, for competition grounds

arethuza 3y ago
I was rather surprised when Openreach came round and fitted our fairly rural area in Scotland with FTTP. We went from 20 down and 1 up to 1000 down and up. Might not be 1000 up but certainly seems like it compared to what we had before!
- flumpcakes 3y ago
  I'm pretty confident it is not 1000 up. Like usual the UK have already fitted substandard infrastructure. The BT "FTTP" network is in fact shared fibre with up to 63 of your neighbours. It's based on old GPON technology. This is why you may get 1Gb/s down but you will be limited to approximately 110Mb/s up. The reason being that your downstream is broadcasted to all terminals, but AES encrypted (so your traffic is also sent to your neighbours) but the upstream traffic is sent using time division, so you get 1/64th of a unit to upload. Then everyone is over provisioned, and over sold, so they give you a number that is higher than 1/64 because of the assumption that you and your neighbours won't all trying to use your maximum bandwidth at once. Compare this to HyperOptic, or CityFibre who will plumb a slither of glass from your home, directly to the ISP. You get a full fat ethernet connection straight to the internet, 1Gb/s down, 1Gb/s up. BT could have done this too, but instead we get ADSL version of fibre.
  - orra 3y ago
    Yes, GPON is overprovisioned (at 1:32 for Openreach). However, that isn't the full explanation for mediocre upload speeds on Openreach. GPON has a total shared capacity of 2.4 Gbps down and 1.2 Gbps. So you'd think if 1 Gbps down is possible, 500 Mbps up would be. Simply, Openreach probably have mediocre upload speeds on FTTP, so they can protect their leased line profit margins. CityFibre use GPON, the exact same technology as Openreach. Yes, CityFibre offer a nice symmetric service on top of that, because real world contention is usually much lower than the theoretical maximum. It's also worth noting CityFibre are starting to upgrade to XGS-PON.
    - flumpcakes 3y ago
      > GPON has a total shared capacity of 2.4 Gbps down and 1.2 Gbps. So you'd think if 1 Gbps down is possible, 500 Mbps up would be. The "download" direction is sent to you and all your neighbours and only you can access the information as it is AES encrypted to your terminal (CPE, etc.). So you could get 2.4Gbps down, as long as your neighbours are not using it. 1.2Gbps "upload" direction is time shared, so you will never get the full 1.2Gpbs unless you have literally zero neighbours / other terminals on the optical bundle.
      - orra 3y ago
        Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) fixes the TDM limited upload that you describe. https://www.lightwaveonline.com/fttx/pon-systems/article/16649607/dynamic-bandwidth-allocation-sets-gpons-apart https://www.lightwaveonline.com/fttx/pon-systems/article/166... Again, CityFibre is not Point to Point fibre. They offer 1Gbps upload on GPON, contended at 1:32. From the horse's mouth: https://cdn.cityfibre.com/Partner-page/Downloads/CF-FTTH-Local.pdf https://cdn.cityfibre.com/Partner-page/Downloads/CF-FTTH-Loc... Even Openreach have a 220Mbit/s upload tier, but it costs more than twice as much so nobody offers it for home users. https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricing/loadProductPriceDetails.do?data=SjLGnN8O1mzybN7g39pZiNKvrleClYZjBLZ4w%2FibaalZ6rNZujnCs99NbIKJZPD9hXYmiijxH6wrCQm97GZMyQ%3D%3D https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricing/loadP...
  - arethuza 3y ago