[Gllug] Proposed broadband improvements

[Christopher Hunter]

On Thu, 2010-05-13 at 14:00 +0100, Jason Clifford wrote:

> Nobody is running fibre to your home. It's only going to the nearby
> cabinet if it's happening at all.

Perhaps you should tell BT that!  We have FTTH (Fibre To The Home) here
in Muswell Hill - we're one of the first two trial areas.  

BT have (of course) limited the data rates available - mostly in their
effort to reserve capacity for their fibre-TV offering (you can't really
call it "cable TV").  

BT have plans to clobber Virgin (not before time) and effectively offer
a rival cable TV service along with all the other communication
facilities they already provide.  There are rumours of very fast 'net
connections (too fast for Windoze clients!) and their "enhanced
telephony" (video phones with conference facilities).

That said, the silly buggers have gone for the wrong way of installing
the fibre.  At work, I have one of the most extensive fibre networks in
the country, so I have a pretty good idea of the way it should be done. 

They've just use "fibre cable" which looks just like a (fairly thick)
electrical cable, which they've just buried into the ground.  No ducts,
no armouring, just the "cheapest" way of getting fibre from place to
place.... Not good.

We use "blown fibre", which is inserted into plastic ducting, which is
about the diameter of a large hose.  The ducting itself has "sub-ducts"
within it - each is about the diameter of a drinking straw - which allow
the easy, quick and cheap addition of more fibre.  When the ducts are
already installed, adding extra fibre is just a case of literally
blowing is down the sub-duct with compressed air. The initial capital
cost of installation is slightly higher, but it's less prone to damage
and endlessly upgradeable (at little extra cost)!

Chris

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