BT Landlines

[DavidF]

We in Australia had this issue some years ago with the introduction of the NBN - National Broadband Network - which everyone was forced to join. Even my aged mother-in-law, who had no internet interest, had to get an internet connection, using the NBN, to continue with a phone service.
There were two main issues that affected me - each house could only have one phone connection point; and in the early days the house connection was still using the old phone cables, ie slow. There were also issues 'back to base' alarm systems and medical alert systems.
My house had three phones (on the one number). To achieve this with the NBN I had to purchase a three handset wireless phone package - with the main phone at the NBN connection point.
The issue with speed has been resolved with time. Originally fibre optic cables were only brought to a local node (some 200m from my house) - with the old copper cables from the node to house. We now have fibre optic cables to the house connection (but not inside the house) - but it has taken years.
Strangely, in mother-in-law's case, as she had no previous internet connection she got fibre optic cables to inside the house from day one!

 

[peter]

It'll be similar here - but most households in the UK have been using DECT cordless phones for many years rather than relying on wired extensions. One reason for this is that BT used to charge a quarterly rental fee for wired extensions - which only they were allowed to install.

What BT will be doing in 2025 is a cut-down version of the proposal I presented to one of their directors in 1999. In those days it would have been ground-breaking, but a quarter of a century later it is just a natural progression. And whereas my proposal would have benefited households which were being left behind by technology, the forthcoming changes could have the opposite effect.

 

[Mitch_in_Notts]

Interesting to read your experience with Fibre installation. We were booked with City Fibre for fibre installation on 28th December a.m. They arrived 11am. Installed by 2pm. We were their second call of six that day - 3 booked for am, 3 for pm. Doubt they got 3 or 4 out of the six done! Be interesting to see, if you ever get connected, if you get a speed improvement.
To me the broadband speed is no different at around 30Mbps(currently 43Mbps - will be 11Mbps after 4pm on weekdays) on Wifi, though the house computer gets 75Mbps which is wired. We are with talktalk. My neighbour is on BT and was upgraded a month before us. Similarly 30Mbps. She was told to get better speeds she would need to use wire into the box, as we have with our main computer. Surely to have to wire everything defeats the object of Wifi.....

 

[peter]

If and when our upgrade is completed we'll go from 10mbps download to 500mbps (with a guarantee of 250mbps minimum). More importantly, since I send out around 300,000 emails a month, the upload speed will increase from 1mbps to 63mbps.

Not bad for an extra £8 a month. For a further £10 a month we could have had twice the bandwidth, but I couldn't see the point.

The fibre terminates in my study, so my computers should benefit from the maximum speed. Our BT Whole Home system has a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 2600mbps, but if we get 1% of that I'll be happy.

 

[DavidF]

With my current setup - fibre optic to road connection and copper into the house - I have 54 Mbps download and 19 Mbps upload speeds.
I don't believe we (in Australia) have the option of retro-fitting fibre optic from the road connection into the house.

 

[peter]

With my current setup - fibre optic to road connection and copper into the house - I have 54 Mbps download and 19 Mbps upload speeds.
I don't believe we (in Australia) have the option of retro-fitting fibre optic from the road connection into the house.

I doubt you need higher speeds - I would have been happy with the speeds you have.

 

[Bob Spiers]

If and when our upgrade is completed we'll go from 10mbps download to 500mbps (with a guarantee of 250mbps minimum). More importantly, since I send out around 300,000 emails a month, the upload speed will increase from 1mbps to 63mbps.

Funny I should come across this posting after reporting a fault on our landline (provided by Talk Talk fibre to cabinet) and at the same time checking on my computer fibre to house speeds via Trooli (Kent based). I chose to remain with Talktalk (ftc) even after upgrading to Trooli (fth) last October as Trooli did not offer a landline connection at the time. My wife prefers the landline as do one or two elderly relatives (yes more elderly than yours truly) who have no other option at the moment. The landline fault was fixed by a visit from an Openreach Engineer but must congratulate Talk Talk on their speed in sorting things out.

On the full fibre Trooli front my latest speed check reveals Download 311.72 mbps and Upload 106.14 mbps Both vary from time to time with previous downloads averaging 254 mbps and the upload 60+. So a steady improvement since installation.

 

[peter]

I hope you got a good deal from Trooli - they seem expensive for a service that doesn't include a landline number. Our FTTC is only slow because (being in a rural area) we're a long long way from the nearest cabinet - but I'd have thought you'd get higher speeds in town.

 

[Mitch_in_Notts]

On the full fibre Trooli front my latest speed check reveals Download 311.72 mbps and Upload 106.14 mbps Both vary from time to time with previous downloads averaging 254 mbps and the upload 60+. So a steady improvement since installation.

Wow, and I thought my accessing up to 43Mbps Wifi and 75Mbps on the house computer on Talk Talk full fibre was an improvement on the old copper line speed. Bear in mind we are just 5 miles from Nottingham City Centre, in a built up area, so by no means rural, - your speeds are amazing!

 

[peter]

According to Ofcom the median download speed in the UK was just over 50mbps in March 2021 - it must be a lot higher now.

 

[Bob Spiers]

I never cease to be amazed at reactions to both my coastal Kent download and upload speeds. Brummie friends/cousins (the more technically minded amongst them) are generally unimpressed, those living in rural areas (mainly the West Midlands) think I am taking the 'mickey' or exaggerating as they moan about speeds similar to the 'old -copper ethernet -days' when you would be lucky sometimes if the download speed reached two figures and just a needle flicker with upload. I am generally content and find Trooli a good company to deal with; a tad expensive I suppose but I took all that into consideration a while ago. The speeds are compatible with the package chosen and although they do vary each time I take time out to check, as I said previously, they seem to have got better as time goes on. Suits me sir!

 

[peter]

I never cease to be amazed at reactions to both my coastal Kent download and upload speeds.

What amazes me is that you needed to upgrade to FTTP at all - surely in an urban location FTTC was quite fast enough?

 

[Paul Reeve]

What amazes me is that you needed to upgrade to FTTP at all - surely in an urban location FTTC was quite fast enough?

I am in an urban location (Orpington), there is fibre to the house available, but I am on fibre to cabinet. Our usual speed is 14-16mbps, so way off ofcom’s figure!

 

[Pauline]

We're not urban, but are only about 250 metres from the cabinet and although I haven't checked recently, our upload speeds are somewhere in the region of 50-60. It's fibre to the cabinet and copper from there to the house. Before we moved about a year ago, it was copper all the way and and about 8 Mbps.

 

[peter]

Our usual speed is 14-16mbps, so way off ofcom’s figure!

Ofcom's figure is the median, so half are higher and half are lower. You don't mention who your ISP is but some offer more than one FTTC speed option.

But presumably you're happy with the speed you're getting otherwise you would have upgraded?

 

[Bob Spiers]

What amazes me is that you needed to upgrade to FTTP at all - surely in an urban location FTTC was quite fast enough?

Rather a naïve comment if I may say so Peter, my reasons are my own and do not need to be explained. Although long past the need for a faster car or bigger TV or the latest 'Which' recommended gadget (sorry about that), a fibre to premises connection was always on my Bucket List. So when all I saw in the area were Trooli engineers with their distinctive yellow vans digging up pavements, I decided the time was right to investigate. I have multi devices (not all computers per se) and had never been fully satisfied with the FTTC offered by Talk Talk, so it was a natural transition to seek out FTTP. I have no regrets in switching and the transition offer was favourable as was the eventual arrangement I came to with TalkTalk to keep the landline.

 

[peter]

Rather a naïve comment if I may say so Peter, my reasons are my own and do not need to be explained.

If you mean that I was naïve in expecting you to give a straight answer to a straight question then all I can say is that I live in hope. But I see that despite saying that your reasons didn't need to be explained you've done it anyway!

 

[Bob Spiers]

If you mean that I was naïve in expecting you to give a straight answer to a straight question then all I can say is that I live in hope. But I see that despite saying that your reasons didn't need to be explained you've done it anyway!

I simply had too or we would go back and forth for ever

 

[Sue_3]

We live in an urban area, although actually on the edge of a small town, so not as urban as being in a city. We upgraded from FTTC to FTTP last year because we have a growing number of devices that connect to the internet and were starting to get buffering when streaming TV, which was very annoying. The upgrade fixed that and everything runs faster now, so we feel it was worth a small increase in the monthly cost.

 

[peter]

Just in case anyone is wondering, Vodafone told me last week that Openreach were planning to fix the fault in the optic fibre over the weekend. Although an Openreach van was spotted at our nearest cabinet (over a mile away) on Friday, we still don't have working connection.