UK regulator unhappy with Broadband takeup...honest!

spongebob

......whinNNNge sez Oftel, they think 1 million Broadband connections is too low but are happy(ish) with their own work and the growth rate of 28000 new punters a week which means the situation is improving fast.

As the UK has c.15 times the Irish population it would be fair to say that COMREG could very well be unhappy for the same reasons with us if there were only 70,000 broadband connections in Ireland but a growth rate of 1850 new connections a week.

Comreg mainly have themselves and the RAT to blame for there being a little over 1850 connections in TOTAL nationwide.

In other words, the UK Broadband market grows (pro rata) at almost 100% of the total Irish market a WEEK

Oftel think that prices like €60 a month for 1Mb cable from both NTL and Telewest are a help....and comparable to their peers such as France and Germany.

Factoids from The (ever watchful) Register. with a further link to HANG ON A MINUTE WE ARE YOUR CLOSEST NEIGHBOURS YOU BASTARDS ........ sorry,cough, ahem, phew!

I meant to say Oftels survey

..a snifter..

DSL coverage 2003

France (91% of lines)
Germany (90% of lines)
Sweden (75% of lines)
United Kingdom (66% of lines)
United States (65 % of lines)

M

BigEejit

Can IOFFL get this type of information out into the wild ?? .. The UK adds the same number of new broadband users EVERY WEEK as the total amount of broadband users in Ireland on a pro-rata basis...
We all know who is to blame, both for past incompetencies and current vacillating ... we need action, and embarassing the government might be the only way of getting anywhere...:(

De Rebel

Originally posted by Muck

DSL coverage 2003

France (91% of lines)

How do they manage that ? They have a significant rural population. 91% living within 2.5km of an exchange ?

spongebob

Its absolutely Gobsmacking how much our Regulator lets the RAT away with. This report is Competition Commissioner Monti material really

See the average costs for LLU as detailed in the following attached GIF from one page of the Oftel report.

Nows that we have many attributable facts collected in one location I wonder if someone can prod that Jamie Smith fella in the Irish Times to go read it....even if he has to have it explained to him in PR Bunny speak later !


M

Urban Weigl

Originally posted by De Rebel
How do they manage that ? They have a significant rural population. 91% living within 2.5km of an exchange ?

The typical range of ADSL is up to 18,000 feet, which is 6km. Where did you get that 2.5km figure from... Eircon?

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Urban Weigl
The typical range of ADSL is up to 18,000 feet, which is 6km. Where did you get that 2.5km figure from... Eircon?

According to The Guru in this post it is one mile.

tuxy

no im fairly sure the typical range for adsl is 3.5 km
now many the guru knows something about adsl in this country that isnt publicly known but i thought we used the same adsl standard thats used in other countries
and for radsl its 5.5km
in the uk they have radsl but there are no plans for it to be released here

sceptre

It's a lot more complicated than that.

Most telcos worldwide limit access to ADSL at 15000 feet though many under ideal circumstances will allow some to avail of it at 18000.

4000 feet is the limit for VDSL, which is giving some people nice downloads of 26Mps in trials still going on in Phoenix (using the CAP/QAM standard).

Sounds nice and simple for ADSL? Great.

It gets complicated because the actual speed drops the further you are from the exchange. Realistically, you can be afirly sure of getting the highest speed on offer only if you're within 5000 feet from the CO. At 15000 feet people will probably only get 192kps even under ideal conditions. In the US, most providers will accept orders up to 17500 feet (except for Verizon - they'll only install up to 15000). Above 15000 feet the most anyone can expect with ADSL is about 300kps (though as I said above you'll probably be talking 192).

Normally above 18000 feet the best you'll get anywhere is RADSL (in other words when Urban Weigl says the typical range of ADSL is up to 18000 feet he's 100% correct).

For IDSL (144kps), it's mostly limited to up to about 25-27000 feet (though a company called "Rhythms" in the US will install at anything up to 50000 feet)

Technical limits:
The technical limit for 8Mps ADSL is 9000 feet btw. Can't ever go faster than this under the currect technology (at least until ADSL-2 gets out of the lab). With that top speed of 8Mps comes a top upload speed of 1Mps. Technical limit for 2Mps ADSL is 16000 feet.

I don't have an online link for any of this but I'm sure if you take a poke around and ignore the ISP bumpf you'll find the stuff. Google for "Joe Lechlider" (the daddy of DSL) and "Bellcore" (company) and you'll find the info.

Handiest book on DSL is still probably "DSL: A Wiley Tech Brief" by Jenny Bourne and Dave Burstein. There's a copy in the UL library so I'm sure real libraries have one too.

Convert feet to meters yerselves. The figures above are the actual limits for the technology and limits implemented by US ISPs - are you going to trust figures thrust upon you as fact when they're provided by Irish telcos?

(dammit where's Muck when you need him - he could have said all the above and actually made it entertaining)

Richard Barry

Originally posted by De Rebel
How do they manage that ? They have a significant rural population. 91% living within 2.5km of an exchange ?

France Telecom will be launching a 200 channel “cable TV” service over DSL within the next few months. While they also own several cable TV networks – many of which use fibre – they say that they prefer DSL for TV distribution because subscribers can’t fiddle with the encryption system to get free access!

Vivendi have had a movie service over DSL in the 98000 postcode area for almost a year.

There is no law that says that the DSLAM has to be located in the “exchange” that serves the customer. As you probably know the kit can also be stuffed into street cabinets, where necessary, to provide proximity to the customer. In which case you can get 50 Mbits/sec or more to the customer’s set top box down a DSL line. High speed internet, digital TV, digital radio/music, and ISDN quality VoIP telephony all down the same copper pair!

Anyone with a wide flat screen TV being fed with a 5 Mbits/sec or so feed from Rupert Murdoch’s low quality “give away free” STBs will appreciate the need for better picture and sound transmission quality – particularly for fast moving images such as sporting events and serious music played via one’s hi-fi system.

HDTV will have to come to Europe sooner or later, complete with Dolby Digital sound. This will require fibre to the home cable or VDSL, or equivalent. Or two or more ugly satellite dishes in every home to provide the bandwidth necessary for choice at high resolution.

R.

Dustaz

[Off Topic]

Muck, just to pick you up on HDTV. Its perfectly possible to supply Hi Def over existing satellites. The problem is that Sky tends to prefer to multiplex as many channels as it can on the same signal. This is what causes the poor picture quality.

My understanding of the situatiojn is that if they chose to supply 1 HD MTV instead of 5 different lower quality MTV channels, they could.

[off topic]

spongebob

Originally posted by Richard Barry

There is no law that says that the DSLAM has to be located in the “exchange” that serves the customer. As you probably know the kit can also be stuffed into street cabinets, where necessary, to provide proximity to the customer.
HDTV will have to come to Europe sooner or later, complete with Dolby Digital sound. This will require fibre to the home cable or VDSL, or equivalent.R.

Richard made 2 good points (among many here)

The street cab model will take off next year. This is because

1. Other operators are sick of all the palaver involved in LLU within Eircom exchanges.

2. 3G....requiring 6 times more cells for a given population coverage.

Sceptre quoted the magic number for PSTN, 25000 feet or 5 Miles.

BT ADSL works to 6KM which is around 3.5Miles. The Rats wiring standards ensure that 2.5Miles is the limit here.

5 Miles is also the range of a 2G cell assuming no mountains within the 5 miles. 3G cells have a range of 1.5 - 2 miles typically. I suspect that France Telecom have already provisioned these fibre cabs in order to roll out 3G early next year which is why they are saying 91% coverage is feasible even though France is pretty rural. Richard pointed out that a DSLAM can easily be stuffed in too while you are launching 3G

The idea that DSL and TV will converge with VDSL enabled cabs is a bit optimistic here in the land of he Rat. Technically it could be done last week but VDSL kit is more expensive on a per port basis than ADSL

Back to Oftel though!

See how the market udergoes a kick around 1 year after the tech is initially deployed......we reach the kick point around may/june next year.



M