UPC - Future Upgrades

lambchops

Had an engineer out today as my service was kinda sketchy. Turns out the contract installation guys had installed the modem on the wrong point, was told by the engineer that he was surprised we were getting any service at all.

Anyway to the point after he was finished had a little chat with him and he mentioned that UPC are definitly planning to upgrade their network to provide at least a 100Mb service and that in the coming weeks there is going to be an upgrade to 50Mb for those on 20Mb. No mention what the lower packages will be upgraded to.

T-b0n3

Really hope this is true

thewing

50MB!!!!!!!!!And I thought i was in heaven on 20MB....sweet jesus...terrible customer support, but as long as it doesn't break, what a product!

Have read there planning 50MB early this year and 100MB by late 09/10.


So that would tie in with what you are saying.


I wonder though 50MB as on virgin in the uk is on a new version Docsis3.0, which require new modems, but i believe it is even possible to reach 50MB on newer Docsis1.0 modems.


Wonder will they be swapping modems or just pushing current ones to there limits.

Jonathan

lambchops wrote: »

Had an technician out today as my service was kinda sketchy. Turns out the contract installation guys had installed the modem on the wrong point, was told by the engineer that he was surprised we were getting any service at all..

FYP.

thefinalstage

God ****ing dammit! UPC I will wait only so long before I destroy your back haul.

yoshytoshy

i'm a new customer with upc and the speeds that speedtest are showing are ridiculous

Irishpimpdude

yoshytoshy wrote: »

i'm a new customer with upc and the speeds that speedtest are showing are ridiculous

WTF try download this file and tell me the speed http://ftp.esat.net/pub/linux/debian-cd/4.0_r6/alpha/iso-cd/debian-40r6-alpha-CD-7.iso

Stevek101

Such a slow upload speed...

yoshytoshy

I've tried heanet for an ubuntu download ,usually its around 2.2mb - 2.5mb

Irishpimpdude

yoshytoshy wrote: »

I've tried heanet for an ubuntu download ,usually its around 2.2mb - 2.5mb

Holy crap have u rebooted your modem recently? and what part of dublin u in?

yoshytoshy

had to turn off the modem a couple of times due to errors with routers and stuff. haven't had it off for a few days now ,modem has two phone ports on it aswell.

Irishpimpdude

yoshytoshy wrote: »

had to turn off the modem a couple of times due to errors with routers and stuff. haven't had it off for a few days now ,modem has two phone ports on it aswell.

When did the speed change?

rh555

Download speed of 2.5MByte/sec is 20Mbit connection which I assume he has. To get speeds over 30Mbit on cable u need DOCSIS 3 modem which I am guessing he doesn't have because I don't believe UPC is issuing these as of yet. On a normal DOCSIS 2 modem these speeds are impossible and therefore clearly wrong.

I read that Speedtest.net sometimes gives crazy results and I guess thats the case here.

If you have a router attached to a cable modem it can give false speeds, ie local network speeds.

Simi

And the jpeg he's attached showing a download speed of 3.9MB/s?

yoshytoshy

cisk wrote: »

If you have a router attached to a cable modem it can give false speeds, ie local network speeds.

thats what i was thinking myself ,some sort of internal loop. at the moment it's modem - wifi router - lan router.
any tests i've done have been done on the lan router ,so it's probably that.

getting loads of lags today ,never get dropped or disconnected just unresponsive. not familiar with these things because my eircom connection never gave any trouble.
might have to buy a linksys router as mentioned in other threads.

Yep you cant go wrong with Cisco mate routers

Irishpimpdude

rh555 wrote: »

Download speed of 2.5MByte/sec is 20Mbit connection which I assume he has. To get speeds over 30Mbit on cable u need DOCSIS 3 modem which I am guessing he doesn't have because I don't believe UPC is issuing these as of yet. On a normal DOCSIS 2 modem these speeds are impossible and therefore clearly wrong.

I read that Speedtest.net sometimes gives crazy results and I guess thats the case here.

And im guessing you are wrong you can get alot more the 30Mbit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS#Speed_Table

Cow Moolester

I posted this a couple days ago here!

UPC rang saying that the lines in my area had been upgraded and that since I'm on a 20mb package I will be upgraded to the new speeds for free

Kensington

Irishpimpdude wrote: »

And im guessing you are wrong you can get alot more the 30Mbit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS#Speed_Table

Aye, DOCSIS 2.0 lets you get about 38Mbps raw data throughput. That's only if you're the only one on your cable segment using their connection at that time. So the HEAnet speed is possible. Speedtest one's are a bit crazy though!

UPC will need to go DOCSIS 3.0 though to get achievable 40Mbps packages, if that's what's coming in. Otherwise, everyone will be sharing that ~38Mbps of throughput on the segment. Contention will take on a whole new meaning! Two 40Mbps subscribers will only get 20Mbps average when the two of them are downloading at the same time :eek:

Either that or they're going to have to give a channel to each 40Mbps subscriber using v2.0, totally unfeasable.

Irishpimpdude

Well he was still wrong lol

Steffano2002

We're to cheap to pay the extra €10 EUR a month to get 20Mbps so I hope we get upgraded to 20Mbps when they start upgrading! Might actually pay the extra €10 EUR if that means getting 38Mbps (or even 50Mbps with a new modem/router)!

bk

Well in the Netherlands, UPC has 120mb/10mb BB for just €80 per month!!!
24mb/2.5mb for just €30

http://www.upc.nl/internet/

Once UPC start going over 20mb for these prices, Eircom are f$%ked

AlmightyCushion

bk wrote: »

Well in the Netherlands, UPC has 120mb/10mb BB for just €80 per month!!!
24mb/2.5mb for just €30

http://www.upc.nl/internet/

Once UPC start going over 20mb for these prices, Eircom are f$%ked

That appears to be a fibre connection not the stadard cable they use here.

lambchops

Cow Moolester wrote: »

I posted this a couple days ago here!

UPC rang saying that the lines in my area had been upgraded and that since I'm on a 20mb package I will be upgraded to the new speeds for free

I remember seing your post about getting the phone call about the upgrades! I was talking to one of thier own engineers who lives where he can't get ntl! and even he seemed exited about their upgrades because of what he could eventually get in his area when they go live where his lives!

bk

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

That appears to be a fibre connection not the stadard cable they use here.

I checked that, it is EuroDOCSIS 3.0 not Fiber To The Home (of course being cable it is a Hybrid Fibre Coax network with Fibre to the Node), they only use Fiber in the name as a marketing thing, just like Virgin Media (previously NTL) does in the UK.

Basically their products entitled "Fiber Power" use DOCSIS 3 modems, while the other products, without "Fiber Power" in their name, use DOCSIS 2 modems.

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/19/191835/news/091508.pdf

Cool to see what we might get down the line.

garytuohy

they were checking lines around clonshaugh and I asked and they said they were upgrading!

J_Dublin15

For sure they are not shaping torrents right now, thats all I am going to say

christophicus

I never thought I would say this, but I actually don't know what I am going to do with anymore bandwidth. I am on 20Mb atm. I have run out of things that I want to download. At this stage I download a movie( legally of course ) every once and awhile, and a beta or demo of a game whenever a decent one comes out. Everything else I do could be easily done on a 6 Mb line.

Untill decent TV channels start appearing online I Don't really think I am actually getting much of an advantage from my 20 Mb connection. Anyone feeling the same as me ?

P.S Don't get me wrong, its great to see them constantly upping their game, 5 months ago before I had the 20Mb connection I would have been extactic about the upgrades. As it is at the moment though, its simply nice.

paulm17781

I know what you mean. I'd considered downgrading my 20Mbps but just can't bare to let it go. I'd probably be the same with 50 too!

Shiny

christophicus wrote: »

I never thought I would say this, but I actually don't know what I am going to do with anymore bandwidth. I am on 20Mb atm. I have run out of things that I want to download. At this stage I download a movie( legally of course ) every once and awhile, and a beta or demo of a game whenever a decent one comes out. Everything else I do could be easily done on a 6 Mb line.

Untill decent TV channels start appearing online I Don't really think I am actually getting much of an advantage from my 20 Mb connection. Anyone feeling the same as me ?

P.S Don't get me wrong, its great to see them constantly upping their game, 5 months ago before I had the 20Mb connection I would have been extactic about the upgrades. As it is at the moment though, its simply nice.

I'm only on a 5Mb smart connection and I reached that point 6 months
ago. My old attitude was HOARD HOARD, Must download INTERNET.

Now its, meh, I can get nearly anything I want in less than 20minutes.
In the case of NTL, that would be 5 mins for 20Meg, 2mins for 50Meg.:eek:

Actually if this keeps up I might consider changing from Smart to NTL.

Edit: Just emailed them now about a price for TV+BB(20Mg)

lotas

download speed is all well and good, but what i want is Upload speed... and maybe some sort of off site backup (i know they have that for their business customers). if i had my way, i would like to see, say, 4-8mb up, and a dedicated link (symetrical) to their backup service. i dont mind paying for it (as long as its reasonable), but i do want it to be fast. I currently take quite a lot of photos, and they aint small (RAW images weigh in at 22-29mb/s for my 5D MK II). it just takes too long to upload over a 1.5mb connection... 2min per file... fill 2 4Gb cards (which is quite easy) and your talking about 12 hours to upload.... just very wrong...

Stokolan

I noticed something interesting the other day. I use usenet a fair bit and noticed something funny with speeds from it.

When i am grabbing posts i get this speed most of the time
18.7Mbps/2.3MBps


but when downloading headers i noticed i was getting this and higher
80.6Mbps/10.1MBps


Is there any reason why when downloading headers the speed increases that much? or maybe is it a sign that all they need to do is hit a switch for the rumored speed upgrades.

any ideas

lotas

what are you using? Sounds like news server? What server, and what client? can only thing it could be compression of some sort...

Astraweb now use compressed headers which supposedly makes them 10X faster.

Stokolan

cisk wrote: »

Astraweb now use compressed headers which supposedly makes them 10X faster.

Well i guess thats the answer so

and here I thought it was something nice

irishguy

Just got a call from UPC (yes i know 6pm on a Sunday) and they told me they have upgraded the lines in my area and I should have quicker speeds during peak times, then they tried to get me to sign up for there phone package. No mention of new peak speeds though

Irishpimpdude

irishguy wrote: »

Just got a call from UPC (yes i know 6pm on a Sunday) and they told me they have upgraded the lines in my area and I should have quicker speeds during peak times, then they tried to get me to sign up for there phone package. No mention of new peak speeds though

That could be what they ment by better speeds

cahirhennessy

irishguy wrote: »

Just got a call from UPC (yes i know 6pm on a Sunday) and they told me they have upgraded the lines in my area and I should have quicker speeds during peak times, then they tried to get me to sign up for there phone package. No mention of new peak speeds though

What area is that?

AlmightyCushion

irishguy wrote: »

Just got a call from UPC (yes i know 6pm on a Sunday) and they told me they have upgraded the lines in my area and I should have quicker speeds during peak times, then they tried to get me to sign up for there phone package. No mention of new peak speeds though

I assume by this he means there was a problem with contention before but this upgrade has fixed it somewhat.

RoyalMarine

christophicus wrote: »

I never thought I would say this, but I actually don't know what I am going to do with anymore bandwidth. I am on 20Mb atm. I have run out of things that I want to download. At this stage I download a movie( legally of course ) every once and awhile, and a beta or demo of a game whenever a decent one comes out. Everything else I do could be easily done on a 6 Mb line.

Untill decent TV channels start appearing online I Don't really think I am actually getting much of an advantage from my 20 Mb connection. Anyone feeling the same as me ?

P.S Don't get me wrong, its great to see them constantly upping their game, 5 months ago before I had the 20Mb connection I would have been extactic about the upgrades. As it is at the moment though, its simply nice.

i agree, there isnt a huge amount anymore is there.

ive hoarded almost 6tb's! from rapidshare. im kinda fed up with it now.

lotas

irishguy wrote: »

Just got a call from UPC (yes i know 6pm on a Sunday) and they told me they have upgraded the lines in my area and I should have quicker speeds during peak times, then they tried to get me to sign up for there phone package. No mention of new peak speeds though

that sounds like its just the backhaul... wonder what they actually have around here in Tallaght... have had their connection since it first began, and i think that was 8-10 years ago now (ahhh, back in the day when i have a 100k/s down connection...). have no idea what their backhaul is up here, but never seem to have a problem with it.

irishguy

I am in Ringsend D4. The connection was working fine I have had no probs, so I dont know why they were even ringing

Solair

UPC are rolling out fibre-to-kerb / fibre-to-last-node technology. Basically, it means that there's a box on the street somewhere that is connected to a fibre optic cable. That box connects to end users via coaxial cable, so you'll still just have a normal cable socket in your house. However, you're only sharing that line with a few other users and it's quite a short run back to the node so huge speeds are very definitely possible with EuroDOCSIS 3 modems.

Here's the press release : http://networking.cbronline.com/news/upc_netherlands_to_launch_fiber_power_broadband_services_in_europe

It mentions Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland with other EU markets later in 2009. So, we might see it sometime!

You can expect them to use terms like 'powered by our fibre network' etc.

eircom are trialling similar technology called VDSL. They basically replace those green junction box cabinets with a larger one that contains all the DSL and voice equipment which would normally be located at the exchange. This node is connected back to their network with a fibre optic line and it can offer cable-like speeds over a normal twisted pair phone line using VDSL.

There's a shot of one of the new eircom cabinets : http://www.tfl.eu.com/project2.jsp
(I think they're painted green though)

The difference is that UPC actually have this stuff in place, eircom are still playing with it.

NiSmO

This post has been deleted.

bk

Solair wrote: »

UPC are rolling out fibre-to-kerb / fibre-to-last-node technology. Basically, it means that there's a box on the street somewhere that is connected to a fibre optic cable. That box connects to end users via coaxial cable, so you'll still just have a normal cable socket in your house. However, you're only sharing that line with a few other users and it's quite a short run back to the node so huge speeds are very definitely possible with EuroDOCSIS 3 modems.

Yes, I've been saying this for years, since back when IOFFL was first formed, cable has fantastic potential to make a real next generation high speed broadband network and bring real competition to Eircom.

In fact cable has far more potential then DSL IMO. Even if Eircom roll out VDSL2, it will likely max out at 50mb/s, with cable UPC are already offering 120mb/s on DOCSIS 3 in other countries and there is lots of potential with cable for even much higher speeds.

It shows what a bad, short sighted decision it was for Smart to go with ADSL in their Fibre To The Building developments and what a good decision it was for Magnet to go for ethernet in their FTTB developments, much more future proof.

Of course UPC have many other problems to sort out, before they are considered a top quality ISP in the way that Smart is (in terms of customer support, stability of service, latency, throttling, if not in price).

UPC need to:
- Radically fix their CS
- Make sure all Irish bound traffic is peered through INEX.
- US bound traffic needs to go Ireland -> US direct
- UK traffic needs to go Ireland -> UK direct.
Basically UPC currently rely too much on their European infrastructure, which is fine for main land Europe customers, but not customers in an anglo country.
- get rid of the stupid P2P and torrents throttling (no point in having 120mb/s if these are throttled).

Also UPC need to vastly improve their TV services.
- Need much better PVR service (much better stability, session link and dual recording to start with).
- HD
- VoD and interactivity.
- Cheaper prices more in line with Sky.

wayne040576

NiSmO wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Is your connection down this evening? Mine seems to be. Another upgrade? If so they're really pushing the competition.

kin9pin

I haven't seen anyone from UPC working in my area (Sandyford), but my broadband has been very weird since Friday.
Speed tests from speedtest.ie and speedtest.net give me anywhere between 1.5Mb and 4Mb down on a 20Mb connection. However if I start a large download off usenet I get a constant 18 to 19Mb. Pings have been hopping all over the place aswell making xbox live a bit hit and miss.

DingDong

Solair wrote: »

UPC are rolling out fibre-to-kerb / fibre-to-last-node technology. Basically, it means that there's a box on the street somewhere that is connected to a fibre optic cable. That box connects to end users via coaxial cable, so you'll still just have a normal cable socket in your house. However, you're only sharing that line with a few other users and it's quite a short run back to the node so huge speeds are very definitely possible with EuroDOCSIS 3 modems.

Here's the press release : http://networking.cbronline.com/news/upc_netherlands_to_launch_fiber_power_broadband_services_in_europe

It mentions Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland with other EU markets later in 2009. So, we might see it sometime!

You can expect them to use terms like 'powered by our fibre network' etc.

eircom are trialling similar technology called VDSL. They basically replace those green junction box cabinets with a larger one that contains all the DSL and voice equipment which would normally be located at the exchange. This node is connected back to their network with a fibre optic line and it can offer cable-like speeds over a normal twisted pair phone line using VDSL.

There's a shot of one of the new eircom cabinets : http://www.tfl.eu.com/project2.jsp
(I think they're painted green though)

The difference is that UPC actually have this stuff in place, eircom are still playing with it.

How much does the VDSL kit in the cab cost? Also how many people can it serve

skyhighflyer

My UPC connection has been weird for the past few days. Getting ridiculous ping times of 400m/s to Dublin and struggling to get over 1Mb on a 6Mb connection. Just hope it's something to do with this 'upgrade' business.