UPC Speed increase?

Joo0 · 26-09-2014 06:55PM #1

For the past 4 years UPC have upped the BB speeds they offer.
Will the same happen this year?

salamanca22 · 26-09-2014 06:57PM

Who knows, in the past they have not advertised it until it is available.

Joo0 · 26-09-2014 07:00PM

They will have to do something now that Vodafone are starting up FTTH.
Would it be hard for UPC to extend and offer FTTH?

blackbullet · 26-09-2014 07:12PM

Ive been getting a few calls recently there upgrading anyone whos on 200mb to 500mb in mid oct- or november here also introducing 2 new products 500mb down,50mb upload-1.2gb download 150mb upload speed,i look forward to it.

salamanca22 · 26-09-2014 07:13PM

blackbullet wrote: »

Ive been getting a few calls recently there upgrading anyone whos on 200mb to 500mb in mid oct- or november here also introducing 2 new products 500mb down,50mb upload-1.2gb download 150mb upload speed,i look forward to it.

Calls from who? That is very interesting!

RustyNut · 26-09-2014 07:14PM

So long as its not through that piece of sh1t horizon box.

Joo0 · 26-09-2014 07:19PM

RustyNut wrote: »

So long as its not through that piece of sh1t horizon box.

Whats the upload speed on the 500 package?

Thor · 26-09-2014 10:42PM

blackbullet wrote: »

Ive been getting a few calls recently there upgrading anyone whos on 200mb to 500mb in mid oct- or november here also introducing 2 new products 500mb down,50mb upload-1.2gb download 150mb upload speed,i look forward to it.

Those speeds are far beyond the what UPC's current technology would allow. Although Libery Global are the main pushers beyond the new Docsis 3.1 platform. The issues is that moving to Docsis 3.1 would also require new modems, making an automatic speed upgrade at those levels impossible.

I doubt we will see a massive jump in speed for UPC this year. They may follow suit with other UPC.NL and offer at least a 20Mb upload speed. Perhaps home users will get the same 250Mb max speed as business customers.

pm. · 27-09-2014 12:57AM

blackbullet wrote: »

Ive been getting a few calls recently there upgrading anyone whos on 200mb to 500mb in mid oct- or november here also introducing 2 new products 500mb down,50mb upload-1.2gb download 150mb upload speed,i look forward to it.

Source ??

the world wonders · 27-09-2014 09:53AM

They should upgrade their routers to 802.11ac WiFi, that's what would make the most difference

ED E · 27-09-2014 01:45PM

the world wonders wrote: »

They should upgrade their routers to 802.11ac WiFi, that's what would make the most difference

The majority of client devices don't support it yet, its too new to be cost effective yet.

bk · 27-09-2014 03:12PM

Well UPC already offer 500mb/s to business customers, so it is possible, but it would certainly push the limits of DOCSIS 3.0 and I think we are unlikely to see those speeds in the short term.

In Poland UPC already offer 250/20 to costumers and are seemingly testing 500mb/s to customers in 4 cities, so it certainly is possible.

In the short term I think we will see them:
- Push the upload speed up to 20mb/s for all products
- Increase the entry level speed to 100mb/s
- Increase the top speed to 250mb/s

They really need to do this now to compete with Vodafones 100/20 product for €35, which really outperforms UPC's entry level products both in terms of speed and price and even outperforms UPC's top package in upload speed.

In the medium term (next 2 years) we will likely see DOCSIS 3.1 introduced and speeds of between 500mb/s to 1Gb/s

They will need to do this so that ESB/Vodafone don't get ideas about extending their new 1Gb/s FTTH network into UPC areas.

However note the DOCSIS 3.1 will require new modems to achieve those higher speeds, so it won't likely be a "free" upgrade like we have seen in the past.

When D3.1 is introduced I'd imagine the network will be a mix of DOCSIS 3.0 modems offering the entry level product (the one most people buy) with speeds about 200 to 250mb/s * and DOCSIS 3.1 modems being a premium product oferring speeds of between 500mb/s to 1Gb/s

* With an entry level product of between 200 to 250, it would put some nice distance between them and Eircoms 100mb/s VDSL2.

I also hope they look at introducing quality 802.11ac routers and fix the wireless problems with the Horizon box.

AlanS181824 · 28-09-2014 10:20AM

If they do bump their speeds I think I'll cry a little!

I chose Vodafone over them as the upload really makes a difference to me.

I really hope Vodafone/ESB FTTH rollout scares the living shîte out of UPC and Eircom cashing them to upgrade their networks to FTTH.

More options are always a good thing for the consumer

Alun · 28-09-2014 11:06AM

Tbh I'm not really bothered with an increase in download speed, but an increase to 20Mbps or even 50Mbps upload would be very nice.

ED E · 28-09-2014 11:18AM

I'm on 120/10 and even thats enough. Doubling the upstream would make a very small boost on my VPN traffic but thats it, 99% of the time I wouldnt notice.

IMO better CPE and better network management(no spamhaus blunders) should be what they invest in first. Their last mile bandwidth is totally fine for the next 2-3 years, then hit us with 500Mbps or Gig DOCSIS.

Cuddlesworth · 28-09-2014 07:50PM

Alun wrote: »

Tbh I'm not really bothered with an increase in download speed, but an increase to 20Mbps or even 50Mbps upload would be very nice.

Any increase in upload is a decrease in download. UPC prefer the current arrangement, upload isn't necessary for 99% of their home customers.

AlanS181824 wrote: »

If they do bump their speeds I think I'll cry a little!

I chose Vodafone over them as the upload really makes a difference to me.

I really hope Vodafone/ESB FTTH rollout scares the living shîte out of UPC and Eircom cashing them to upgrade their networks to FTTH.

More options are always a good thing for the consumer

In business terms, anybody who is rolling out FTTH would pick a densely populated area where the only competition is Eircom DSL. At the moment competing against UPC doesn't make sense. They can up their product to similar price/value means and the infrastructure has been in place for a significant period.

bk · 28-09-2014 09:59PM

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Any increase in upload is a decrease in download. UPC prefer the current arrangement, upload isn't necessary for 99% of their home customers.

While that is true for DSL based technologies, it isn't really true for cable.

Well strictly speaking you are correct, there is only so much bandwidth and it has to be divided up between download and upload speeds. The reality is cable has vastly more bandwidth available to it versus DSL, they should easily be able to increase upload speeds with no effect on download speeds.

The reason they don't is because in the cable DOCSIS specs till now, they made the same incorrect assumption that you have above, that consumers don't want upload speed! So instead they primarily focused on download speeds and upload was just a second thought.

But this then caught them flat footed as high consumer demand for better upload speeds has emerged from consumers, with backups to cloud services, HD videos uploads to youtube, etc.

The cable industry is hurting with bad upload speeds versus FTTH and to a lesser extent VDSL. It is quiet embarrassing for UPC, that Vodafones entry level product which is almost half the price of UPC's most expensive package, has twice the upload speed as UPC's top package!

To be honest if I had the option, I'd take Vodafone/Eircom 100/20 over UPC 200/10. The upload speed would make much more difference then the download speed.

Fortunately the good news is that the cable industry has recognised it's mistake and is much more focused on boosting upload speeds in the new DOCSIS 3.1 spec. While still not symmetrical, DOCSIS 3.1 will have a shared bandwidth of 10 Gbit/s downstream and 1 Gbit/s upstream. A vast improvement.

However in the meantime I hope UPC can do the same as they have in Poland and boost the speeds of the current products to 20mb/s here too.

livEwirE · 29-09-2014 10:14AM

Alun wrote: »

Tbh I'm not really bothered with an increase in download speed, but an increase to 20Mbps or even 50Mbps upload would be very nice.

Agree 100%, I'm currently on UPC 200/10 and at this stage the upload speed is a joke. They should be offering at least 30mb up!

Praetorian · 29-09-2014 11:07AM

Eircom are trialing a new technology FTTB. I'm going to be the first recipient. Fibre to the brain MAN!

I think UPC Ireland are nuts to still have only 10m/bit upload. 20m/bit is okay, but still only 10% of the down stream rate

It reminds of the first implementation of home adsl when Eircom rolled out 512 x 128

gordongekko · 29-09-2014 11:09AM

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Any increase in upload is a decrease in download. UPC prefer the current arrangement, upload isn't necessary for 99% of their home customers.

Increased downloads is not necessary for 99% of their home customers either.

ED E · 29-09-2014 11:38AM

Praetorian wrote: »

Eircom are trialing a new technology FTTB. I'm going to be the first recipient. Fibre to the brain MAN!

I think UPC Ireland are nuts to still have only 10m/bit upload. 20m/bit is okay, but still only 10% of the down stream rate

It reminds of the first implementation of home adsl when Eircom rolled out 512 x 128

You talking about Basement or Building?

Theyve had FTTH trialists for over 18 months on GPON.

Praetorian · 29-09-2014 11:58AM

Ed e,

Sorry I was trying to be funny

ED E · 29-09-2014 01:28PM

Praetorian wrote: »

Ed e,

Sorry I was trying to be funny

D'oh, I shouldnt post before I've had my coffee :pac:

vibe666 · 29-09-2014 02:12PM

it's crazy really considering they has 10mbit uploads back when they first did the 100mbit trials all those years ago.

UPC Speed increase?

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