Being a bit optimisitc aren't we MB.....
- indeed - he obviously believes Mr Vaizey and Hunt and BT (small club), although it may well happen in Bracknell I suppose.
Out 'ere in t'sticks it will be a decade before FTTC arrives, I reckon, and FTTP- well, I may get it piped to my coffin. Obviously MB has no idea of the state of our 'local copper' (and I don't mean PC Plod).
Not really. I know at least 3 friends who've already got it, in Manchester and Hampshire. My exchange is scheduled for December 2010.
I know there's a few teething issues (like the rollout logistics are back to the bad old days of early BT rollouts), and maybe Dec 2010 is a little optimistic, but first quarter 2011 is a little more realistic, and that's when we're intending to start reselling it (not through BT).
Please do not take my post #2 as an endorsement of Plusnet, it is far from that but I am aware that my problems are down to distance by copper from exchange and BT throttling my speed. PN have no influence on this as they simply resell a product. Why Zen, who are LLU, can do this (speed over 512 in contrast to PN's 18ish) and BT cannot I have no idea
LLU providers have a difference from the BT offering thus:
1) Different DSLAMs in the exchange (differing manuf/cost/quality/firmware)
2) Different backhaul from the exchange to their network
So, as for #1 your modem/router can sync at a specific speed based upon the efficiency of it's handshake between it and the DSLAM, and as for #2 if you sync at a high enough speed then don't get enough of a real-life speed over it then it's to do with the backhaul being either too small, too congested, or both.
e.g. IF you had an Alcatel chipset in your home router, and your exchange LLU provider uses an Alcatel DSLAM, and you're both using router and DSLAM firmware designed for proper interop between themselves, and you're the only LLU user from that specific provider in the exchange, and the backhaul from the exchange to the ISP (and onto the internet) is greater than your modem sync rate, THEN you're going to get the fastest speed available.
...and any deviation from the above optimum scenario *can* have a greater or lesser effect upon the speed you'll get.
e.g. If your modem is Alcatel and your DSLAM is Fujitsu it may not be able to sync at the same rate as an Alcatel-Alcatel or Fujitsu-Fujitsu pairing, or if your ISP hasn't kept up it's interop work with the modem/router manufacturers or hasn't patched the DSLAMs then you might get a lower sync as well. Then despite the sync rate, if you have more users competing for the same bandwidth provided by the ISP through the entire length of the journey to the internet, you're going to get a lower bandwidth than expected anyway. Remember, the contention ratio basically relates to the amount of customer connections sharing the same ISP bandwidth.
HTH.
Mike.