Original
Originally Posted by
Blues&twos
We have recently had fibre-to-the-premises installed (by BT). It involved Openreach running a new cable from the telephone pole in the road to a fibre modem/box which they fixed to the wall inside the house. It needs power, so it had to be fitted near a mains wall socket.
The copper wire telephone connection inside our house (from the master socket to the phones) was not changed.
The new BT wireless Homehub plugs directly into the new fibre box on the wall.
Our broadband speed has increased significantly to an average of about 60Mbps (download) and 20Mbps (upload). Previously they were about 7Mbps and 2Mbps respectively.
It took the BT engineers about 2 hours to complete the installation. We just pay the monthly charge - we didn't have to pay any one-off or extra charges for the new cabling and fibre box to be fitted or for the new Homehub and "disc". The disc is effectively a wireless booster/repeater and is placed away from the Homehub to improve wireless signal strength in any part of your home which normally has a weak or no wireless signal. BT will send multiple discs free if necessary, so your house is fully covered.
BT is trying to roll out fibre to as many properties as possible, so you're right in that they are replacing old technology at every opportunity.
I can add a little bit to your last paragraph. I was speaking only today to friend who is very clued up on telephone and IT technology. About 3 months ago he signed up to a BT trial of their next generation technology. Has was told that as part of the trial, which is obviously in place to test new ideas and technology, his existing copper telephone connection would be disconnected completely and he would be moved over entirely to fibre technology. As part of this he received a new BT hub and two very fancy hand held phones with colour screens. He was given a changeover day but cometh the day nothing happened. He chased this up with BT and was told they were experiencing problems changing over existing ‘copper’ telephone numbers to the fibre system, they then gave him a new date and sent him another hub and 3 more fancy phones. Cometh the next changeover day he suffered the same issues. He chased it up and was given a new date - and another hub and 2 more fancy phones so now he has 3 hubs and 8 fancy phones.
Of course this is a trial and my friend will have no BT bills for at least a couple of years if not more. He said it was BT’s intention to remove all copper infrastructure by the mid 2020’s.
As to FED’s original question, I’m afraid I do not know the answer but given the up/download speeds you quote I would leave it all alone particularly if you live in a multi occupancy building. Can you keep an eye out for your local BT engineers when they are around and ask them? I generally find them very helpful if you show an interest.