Live data from Hacker News

UK ISPs have to stop lying about broadband speeds

wired.co.uk

101–110 of 112 posts

Re: UK ISPs have to stop lying about broadband speeds

#101
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying a house in a rural area is a nightmare as you don't really know in advance what speed you will get and the speeds quoted on sites like Rightmove are for entire postcodes - not the property in question. We bought a house last year in a rural area in Scotland - not far from Edinburgh and were appalled at the broadband options. We get 20Mbps down and 1 up which is enough for most things (barely) but that was one…

It's not even rural areas that suck, I'm in zone 4 London, so pretty suburban, and I get about 7Mbps down/0.5Mbps up! The FTTC roll-out said it was planned for my cabinet, not just says it's not.

Boat dweller in Central London here. EE 4g gives me between 20 and 60mbps and 96gb data a month.

Re: UK ISPs have to stop lying about broadband speeds

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Usual case of MP's with zero technical knowledge FTC make much more sense economically - if the Govemnet wants it has to give something back other wise why as a share holder should I pay for it. TBH 11 Mbs is fine for a consumer do they realy need more I only get 3.8 or so and I only ever have the odd hang on iplayer every 9 months

11 Mbps down starts out as "fine" for the average home user, but remember needs change. What if that home user gets a Ultra HD TV and starts streaming Netflix in 4K (needs a steady 25 Mbps)? What if they have kids, who can be more voracious users? Also FTTC is asymmetric, which means 11Mbps down corresponds to something quite horrible up. Which means video conferencing doesn't work well. Which means home-working, Sky…

I have done muti national podcasts USA UK and AUS not problem on my notspot 3.5 MBS.

Telemedicene and Video conferencing have been the latest thing in telecoms for decades.

Just because you singular want something doesn't mean its sensible in the context of planning your countries national infrastructure or sense for a national telco which has to balance multiple needs.

And what happens when some pensioner askes the PM during an election why there pension is not going up and "they" are subsiding these kids dowoading porn on facetubes - ask Gordon brown about being ambushed like this.

Re: UK ISPs have to stop lying about broadband speeds

#103
post #64
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not even rural areas that suck, I'm in zone 4 London, so pretty suburban, and I get about 7Mbps down/0.5Mbps up! The FTTC roll-out said it was planned for my cabinet, not just says it's not.

I'm in zone 4 too and I get 200Mbps. I could pay for more, and I'd probably get it, but 200Mbps is fine. I guess it's just a dice roll. /shrug

I'm in zone 2, I have 76 Mbit vdsl, in reality it's 40-50 Mbit on good days. Virgin is not available in the building.

Re: UK ISPs have to stop lying about broadband speeds

#105
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every home I have lived in for the past 10 years or so has had Virgin fibre to the home. BT don't have the monopoly at all, they just have poor infrastructure and are the defacto that most people choose. Our unit didn't have a direct fibre connection when we took the lease, we rang Virgin and they used infill money to lay a fibre cable to all the units on the trading estate at no cost to us other than the initial £20…

Are you sure it's actually fibre? Or is it their bullshit coax cable (HFC) they mis-sell as "fibre"?

AT&T does that a lot around here... every 6 months they knock at my door saying that they have been improving the network and sell it as fiber but the fiber only goes to a main box in your neighborhood, and copper goes to your house (it's probably been the same for the last 10 years)... but to tell you the truth, I don't care if it's fiber, only the actual speed matters (with AT&T it is not very fast).

I could get 2000mbps with Comcast and can only get 25mbps with AT&T...

Re: UK ISPs have to stop lying about broadband speeds

#106
post #57
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having had three few provider and different tech, unless I have a need of 1Gbps+ broadband speed in the future, I would much rather have copper RJ11 or RJ45. Copper Ethernet RJ45 is the best. No more modem, just plug and play. Installing a Ethernet cable is, assuming enough space in the pipe, can be easily pulled through using whatever force you like, I don't think you can actually do any damage to the cable while in…

> Copper Ethernet RJ45 is the best Not to be That Guy, but RJ45 is a plug standard; normal ethernet cable is "cat5" or "cat6", and normal 10/100/1000 Ethernet is limited to just 100 meters. Which is completely useless given the average cabinet distances in the UK.

May be I should have properly name it CAT6A Or CAT8 even. I am talking about FTTB, and not FTTC. Of coz it depend where you live, FTTC makes more sense in most cases in UK, FTTB makes more sense for places like London City.

Re: UK ISPs have to stop lying about broadband speeds

#107
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having had three few provider and different tech, unless I have a need of 1Gbps+ broadband speed in the future, I would much rather have copper RJ11 or RJ45. Copper Ethernet RJ45 is the best. No more modem, just plug and play. Installing a Ethernet cable is, assuming enough space in the pipe, can be easily pulled through using whatever force you like, I don't think you can actually do any damage to the cable while in…

Copper Ethernet RJ45 is the best. No more modem, just plug and play I mean, you still have some kind of consumer equipment there, which the ISP will likely be supplying for almost all users anyway – so that's quite a specific thing. Despite the headline figures, G.fast will not achieve anything close to that. And I have to say that all seems like a little short-term thinking. The fragility of fibre in a permanent ins…

You need Router for Wireless access, it cuts the Modem, ONT equipment. Or if you have just one computer you can directly plug your Ethernet cable to the Wall Socket. I used to live in a building where every flat had Ethernet cable were pre-wired.

If you are in a new building, without furniture and mess, fibre of course make sense. If you live in a Small Apartment, old making installation difficult, Fibre isn't so great. My guess is that the problem may be specific to cities.

Re: UK ISPs have to stop lying about broadband speeds

#108
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming they're the same as my home, they come with a battery backup unit which powers the landlines (as landline phones are normally powered from the exchange - and thus work in power cuts) Of course people who still have landlines nowdays probably have cordless ones that require a powered base station, but I assume that at least in the UK, the line must be left powered during power cuts.

Nope, none of that in France - just a standard fibre socket, and the ISP gives you an ONT that turns it into Ethernet, which then goes into a router. I've never actually seen any ISP there even advertise a battery backup unit, I guess if you need they'll just tell you to buy a standard UPS. No idea how it works in the UK, haven't had consumer-grade fibre here yet, always just got business-grade stuff where you bring…

Is that by law? To have a Standard Fibre Socket? God I wish every government would implement just that.

Re: UK ISPs have to stop lying about broadband speeds

#109
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming they're the same as my home, they come with a battery backup unit which powers the landlines (as landline phones are normally powered from the exchange - and thus work in power cuts) Of course people who still have landlines nowdays probably have cordless ones that require a powered base station, but I assume that at least in the UK, the line must be left powered during power cuts.

Nope, none of that in France - just a standard fibre socket, and the ISP gives you an ONT that turns it into Ethernet, which then goes into a router. I've never actually seen any ISP there even advertise a battery backup unit, I guess if you need they'll just tell you to buy a standard UPS. No idea how it works in the UK, haven't had consumer-grade fibre here yet, always just got business-grade stuff where you bring…

Oh that's interesting, I've lived in two FTTH properties in the UK, the ISP installed a battery backup in both properties just for the phone line as otherwise the landline would die if the power went out and apparently that violates some UK law about landline availability.

Given the rate at which people -- especially younger people -- are getting rid of landlines in the UK I suspect in the future this'll be a non-issue. To be honest I'm not sure why I have a landline still.

Re: UK ISPs have to stop lying about broadband speeds

#110
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, none of that in France - just a standard fibre socket, and the ISP gives you an ONT that turns it into Ethernet, which then goes into a router. I've never actually seen any ISP there even advertise a battery backup unit, I guess if you need they'll just tell you to buy a standard UPS. No idea how it works in the UK, haven't had consumer-grade fibre here yet, always just got business-grade stuff where you bring…

Oh that's interesting, I've lived in two FTTH properties in the UK, the ISP installed a battery backup in both properties just for the phone line as otherwise the landline would die if the power went out and apparently that violates some UK law about landline availability. Given the rate at which people -- especially younger people -- are getting rid of landlines in the UK I suspect in the future this'll be a non-iss…

Which ISPs was that with?

I’ve never actually had a landline on fiber ever. It was always just standard Ethernet on top of which I run whatever I want (SIP client or WiFi calling).

How was that “landline” working? Do they give you a little converter that turns Ethernet into a standard phone jack (and converts it to SIP internally), or is there some other non-IP based signaling for that voice traffic?

Post reply on HN