Broadband help

[rosiebear]

Sorry for being a numpty and going on a bit, but curiosity is getting the better of me.

I live in a block of 8 flats which is part of a larger building. It is close to a BT exchange and is very close to the centre of a major town. Despite this, recent enquiries tell me that BT will not install fibre optics round my way until May 2012, though I don't hold my breath.

Yesterday, an unknown company (to me) offered me 1 gig through fibre optics!

How can they do this when we only have copper wires from exchange to building?

The connection will be WiFi...why do they need to install a connection point in my place. Why can't they put just one connection in the block, or even one per floor and gives us password access (I know this can be done becuase this has been the set up in some hotels)?

Do I need such high speed. The biggest need I have ever had was for streaming live television a short while ago, which worked pretty much ok?

Normally you can't get fibre installed without the whole block agreeing.

[WTFH]

Who is the company, and what was the "1 gig" they were offering?

Because, speed wise, the max you'll get out of fibre today is 100Mb.
Are you sure it wasn't a 1 GB download limit per month - i.e. quantity, not speed.

Click here to see what speed you are currently getting: UK Broadband Speed Test with Broadband StreetStats

[MatthewB]

They maybe able to offer fibre where BT can't if there's an existing fibre installation by the likes of Virgin Media (or any number of the failed Fibre start up companies that ploughed millions into the infrastructure with no market to buy the end product). Even BT fibre is still only likely to be to the green cabinet in the road rather than to your door, running copper for the remaining distance.

They won't install it to the block and give you a password as they are just the provider of a service to a single customer. If there was sufficient interest you might be able to get your block management company to buy it and provide it as a service to everyone.

1 gig is very quick, Large businesses operate on far less. Crudely it's enough to provide 125 homes with an 8mb service. It's unlikely you'll get that speed even from fibre at the mo. Virgin have said they can do 1.5 but that's a way off.

[rosiebear]

It is a joint venture between hyperoptic and management going into entire development. I still don't get the advantage of high speed fibre optics in the building when all there is, is the slow copper stuff between building and exchange.

[MatthewB]

Looking at their site they appear to be a traditional fibre reseller who are trying to carve out a niche by taking business fibre connections (which are more readily available than consumer fibre and will run back to the exchange) and deploying them to large blocks of flats. It's a relatively sound idea in theory (It'll all be BT fibre anyway). I'd still run a mile the site reeks of "good idea, no idea how to implement"

[Oliver_K]

Originally Posted by rosiebear

It is a joint venture between hyperoptic and management going into entire development. I still don't get the advantage of high speed fibre optics in the building when all there is, is the slow copper stuff between building and exchange.

I have fibreoptic broadband at home. The way it works for me is that the fibre optic line is from the exchange to a junction box 2 roads away then copper to my house. Ths still makes the connection 38Mb/s rather than the 10Mb/s I was getting before I switched to fibre. It makes things like the iPlayer through the TV super smooth and good quality.

The less copper wire from the exchange the better as copper looses Mb/s the longer the cable is, where fibreoptic doesnt. (think national grid having to put thousands of volts through the cables between pilons because so much is lost.

I think im right??

[rosiebear]

Thanks Oliver, I get that bit now....leakage from different types of transporters. There is less leakage from fibre optics than from copper