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My fibre-optic broadband upgrade! — Parallax Forums

My fibre-optic broadband upgrade!

LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
edited 2012-12-11 18:14 in General Discussion
I've just been upgraded to BT's Infinity fibre-optic broadband service. It took about 20 minutes, and I'm now getting over 24 Mbps download speeds. It should increase to 40 Mbps over the next few days. It was quite painless, and took about 20 minutes. The BT man even setup my laptop for me!

The BT (British Telecom, it used to be the Post Office) system uses fibre-optic links to street cabinets, and the actual connections to the premises use the original copper system via underground ducts and poles. It'll be some years before we get fibre-optic connections direct into the home.

It would be interesting to hear what technology other peoples' service providers are using, and what speeds they are getting.

Comments

  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2012-12-10 03:37
    I live in San Diego, California region and my ATT service gets me about 12Mbps. That's the fastest that they offer to my neighborhood, and it was just upgraded a few weeks ago.

    Last year, when I lived in the dorms on my university campus, I got 91.2Mbps (as measured from my computer). That was really fast.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2012-12-10 04:44
    I was getting about 10 Mbps before the upgrade, which was quite good for where I live.

    When I first got on-line I was getting 300 cps with an ex Post Office modem. I set up a BBS with software running on my TRS-80 Model I.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2012-12-10 05:12
    It's possible to get fiber to homes where I live, speeds start at 5/5 Mbit/s and goes to 60/60 Mbit/s at progressively higher prices (the fastest seems to be around $122 / month). But it's not available everywhere, it's easier to get fiber if you're in an apartment complex. And some villa areas, but if your area isn't covered already there could be years to wait.

    We've got fiber at work of course - it's easier for corporations: Just order it, and the fiber will be in place relatively quickly. Gigabit speeds are available for corporations if you pay enough.

    There's no fiber to my home so I'm on a measly ADSL connection. Download is OK (3.5Mbit/s), but upload is only 512Kbit/s which is really bad for trying to sync local files to the cloud backup. The distance to the nearest switch is too long for higher speeds.

    The alternative for me is cable (which is already laid down to my home but isn't connected), but the cable company deal is hopeless - I need to buy a TV package which I don't need (I'm on digital aerial already) just to be allowed to have cable internet, and when adding up the costs it gets ridiculous. So if I need to transfer more data I have to drive to work.

    -Tor
  • stamptrolstamptrol Posts: 1,731
    edited 2012-12-10 05:30
    Many areas here have access to fibre internet/TV. The fibre terminates at the house and is distributed internally by cable.

    Many packages available, up to about 50 Mbits/s. My current setup gives 20 Mbit/s download, 3 Mbit/s upload and includes a whole-house wireless router. Basic service is about $39/month.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-12-10 06:05
    I'd be curious to know how fast you can reach a server in Taiwan. I have had a fibre-optic service in my building for some time. The landlady provided it to all 20 units. But it seems that anything that reaches outside Taiwan suddenly drops way down in speed. And Europe is the slowest of all.

    Since all the internet TV that I'd like to watch is in the USA or Europe, it was a big disappointment. I can get great service for Chinese language cartoons.
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-12-10 07:11
    I have 5Mbits down and 700kbits up, DSL into the house over copper. Not sure of the cost - around $39 sounds about right (it's bundled with phone). Alternative is cable but that comes with TV packages and we have satellite we are happy with.

    I'm guessing we're copper most of the way back to the central office. We were in a larger Telco's service area but they sold us off a couple years ago. I'm guessing it was better to sell than invest in fiber plant.
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,951
    edited 2012-12-10 07:37
    I'm getting 36Mbits with Comcast Blast Plus (coax)
    $44.95 for 6 months also includes digital economy cable TV.

    After promo period I will threaten to cancel, so I get to keep the same low price.
    result at 7pm local time (pretty busy)
    2364370448.png
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2012-12-10 07:55
    Loopy Byteloose wrote: »
    I'd be curious to know how fast you can reach a server in Taiwan. I have had a fibre-optic service in my building for some time. The landlady provided it to all 20 units. But it seems that anything that reaches outside Taiwan suddenly drops way down in speed. And Europe is the slowest of all.

    Since all the internet TV that I'd like to watch is in the USA or Europe, it was a big disappointment. I can get great service for Chinese language cartoons.

    I just tried a 27.9 MB download from Terasic in Taiwan, and got a peak speed of 1.4 MB/sec.
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2012-12-10 08:56
    We have Verizon FIOS which includes phone and Internet for $70 per month. I could add cable television for maybe $20 per month, but I don't watch it, and the kids use Netflix anyway. The original speed was 10 mbs down and 2 mbps up, but when Comcast matched that speed they went to 15/5. I imagine that they have even more headroom available, but they are waiting for Comcast to up their speed again.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-12-10 09:29
    tonyp12 wrote: »
    After promo period I will threaten to cancel, so I get to keep the same low price.

    That's a good strategy, let's just keep it to ourselves. If the cable companies find out, they'll call our bluff. :)
  • John AbshierJohn Abshier Posts: 1,116
    edited 2012-12-10 10:18
    I have Time Warner Cable. Best download test was 3.75 Mbytes/sec (30 Mbits/sec). Other test were only half as fast. Upload is constant at 125 Kbytes/sec (1Mbit/sec). Internet, phone, and cable (no premium channels or DVR) is $160 a month. Time Warner is the only game in town and they act that way. A threat to go somewhere else would not be believable. Fifteen to 20 miles away is Google's test of fiber to the home. It should start service soon if it has not already. Parts of Johnson county Kansas (metro Kansas City) have competition. When Al Gore was talking about the information superhighway, I remarked that Leavenworth was on the information cow path.

    John Abshier
  • VonSzarvasVonSzarvas Posts: 3,506
    edited 2012-12-10 12:11
    Perhaps we are lucky here as just ran a few tests with these results:

    Place, Ping (ms), Download (Mbps), Upload (Mbps)

    Boston, 118, 6.71, 10.16
    London, 41, 37.67, 24.04
    Budapest 4, 55.58 34.21
    Local (50km) 7, 72.12, 31.59

    Fiber optic direct to house. Supposed to be 90/30

    Edit: Omitted the price... around 40 GBP / month. Also correct the ISP advertised speed above (wrote 120/30 incorrectly at first post!)
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2012-12-10 14:22
    I pay for 12Mbps, but I see 25Mbps throughput. I have a version 2 modem instead of version 3. Version 3 supports throttling by the provider, Version 2 does not. So I can only get the max that the line physically supports. I am stuck with this old hardware, unable to upgrade.
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2012-12-10 15:21
    Our area has fibre already and I was asked by work to trial the 40Mbps system, I turned it down as I didn't want the mess of putting the fibre into the house and giving up the present kit I have, I get about 5Mbps at the moment which I am more than happy with.

    The trial suggested I would have to give up my present kit with the possibility of handing over the new kit after the trial (an unprecedented option) so that's why I declined, anyway it will be available for free soon anyway so I may take it up at a later date.
  • rosco_pcrosco_pc Posts: 468
    edited 2012-12-10 16:28
    Here in Taipei (Taiwan) I have cable (combined with TV) with 60/10 Mbps speeds (I seldom get that high though, night time/early morning only). Connection abroad is pretty good (not much difference with the Taiwan servers, but it depends), although some of the programs we would like to watch require the use of a proxy/vpn which lowers the speed dramatically (especially if you do not want to pay for the bandwidth :)
  • Mark_TMark_T Posts: 1,981
    edited 2012-12-10 17:29
    These days I seem to get 20Mbps/1.2Mbit on cable from Virgin Media (used to be NTL, used to be Cambridge Cable...) these days, was originally 6Mbps/75kbps I believe
    but they upgrade occasionally without having to be asked (!). Originally installed May 2005 FWIW
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2012-12-10 17:38
    Attachment not found.


    not to shabby for Fiber,.,., I am paying for 15/15 .... I NEED upload. so this is good .....


    Peter .. Granted my New phone on 4G one time got 36Meg Down 10 Meg up and 120 Ping.... I was like ... WOAH . I can have fun with this ...

    now I can VNC in to my home systems from anywhere ..... * does a EVIL laugh *
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-12-11 06:33
    Well, these are my regular ADSL that I use in Taiwan.
    I also have the landlady's provided fiberoptic that I will run some tests on later.

    The main thing is that speed seems to drop at least 1/4th as I leave Taiwan. Not particularly good for watching TV outside the country.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Regular ADSL local in Taiwan
    9.06 Mbps down 0.63 Mbps up Ping 42ms
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Regular ADSL to Milton Keynes, U.K.
    2.54 Mbps down 0.58 Mbps up Ping 325ms


    Reqular ADSL to Edinburg, Scotland, U.K.
    2.41 Mbps down 0.57 Mbps up Ping 355ms


    Regular ADSL to Manchester, U.K.
    6.38 Mbps down 0.58 Mbps up Ping 343ms


    Regular ADSL to San Luis Ospisbo, CA, USA
    1.73 Mbps down 0.55Mbps up Ping 374ms


    Regular ADSL to NYC, USA
    6.42 Mbps down 0.60 Mbps up Ping 255ms


    Regular ADSL to Paris, France
    2.23 Mbps down 0.57Mbps up Ping 342ms

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    And while I may get more speed out the my landlady's fibre optic, it blocks my Yahoo account - so I rarely use it.

    For my own account I pay about $450TWD or $15USD per month. And the addition of the landlady's line is another $200TWD or about $6.70USD per month.

    All services (regular and fibre) are through Chung Hwa Telecom, the national phone company.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-12-11 07:03
    No sizzle here. The landlady's Fibre optic into a router for 20 rooms does worse that my private ADSL.

    I get some very odd results.

    1. apparently no Ping of the server and some testers won't work without it ( I guess they equate a fast ping with faster service overall)

    2. Nothing earth-shaking .. the highest at 5.7 Mbps download and no data for upload or ping

    3. ZDnet in the UK offered a paltry 0.744 Mbps download.

    4. Others.... 4.42 download in California, USA
    2.96 download ???? and 0.10 up
    2.79 download in Australia and 0.349 up

    ~~~~~~~~
    I really have to wonder what the landlady has done with the router firewall.
  • rosco_pcrosco_pc Posts: 468
    edited 2012-12-11 16:44
    @LoopyByteLoose

    Just tried speedtest here to some places I frequently access (Stockholm and Amsterdam). All of these are through a wifi connection (will have to find some time and a cable to try fixed connection) and ChungWa is also used as the final backbone. I think we pay around NTD 750/US$25 (including TV) for this (I never see the bill for this :)

    Ping times around 300 ms
    Download speed: ranging from 2Mbps - 35 Mbps
    Upload speed: ranging from 1 Mbps - 7 Mbps

    The speed range was very depending on the time I tried this, ping times were relatively stable (+/- 10%) and there did not seem to be a correlation between download and upload speed (ie, download speed could be low while upload was high and vice versa)

    This was very much depending on time
  • Bill ChennaultBill Chennault Posts: 1,198
    edited 2012-12-11 18:14
    All--

    Google stuck fiber on the curb this afternoon. It should be on the side of my house in a week and in the house before Christmas. I'll report when it is up.

    --Bill
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