BT has won the BDUK tender for South Yorkshire

BT has been accepted to bring 95 % superfast broadband coverage to South Yorkshire.

http://www.rothbiz.co.uk/2014/07/news-4237-bt-set-to-work-on-south.html?m=1

Hopefully good news for those of us on the Attercliffe and Sheffield City Centre exchanges!

Please let it be sooner than 2017 though!

Is it good news? Is Broadband a mess in Sheffield? I use to live on the outskirts and there was no way you were going to get 1mb connection there. I hope its improved for people.

Why don't they just buy the DR equipment and not have to waste anymore money/time.

The DR equipment might not be compatible with their network, they could end up spending more time/money fixing niggles and replacing equipment then just installing new cable themselves??

They've been offered it before and turned it down then, so there must be some reason for not wanting it???

The DR equipment might not be compatible with their network, they could end up spending more time/money fixing niggles and replacing equipment then just installing new cable themselves??

 

They've been offered it before and turned it down then, so there must be some reason for not wanting it???

Yes they want to make a tidy profit from BDUK.

and hopefully a glimmer of hope for those of us whose exchange is fibre enabled, but because we're on direct lines to the exchange and have no street cabinet to upgrade, we'll never get fibre

The Digital Region administrators will probably end up selling certain areas of fibre and the street cabinets that go with those areas (such as Stannington for example, the major outlaying areas) over to BT who will then save on the expense of having to pull their own Fibre to these areas. BT will still have to kit out these cabs with their own hardware, as DR's cabinets use different hardware and BT won't want to have to incorporate other systems into their own auditing processes.

I figure that BT will purchase the DR assets for the City Centre and for the Attercliffe exchanges too, but I figure that they'll do this to keep them dark (unused) so that no other network picks them up and tries to compete again - they don't want businesses to have alternatives to their own higher priced products (Leased Lines) If you're lucky, they may give residential customers access to fibre if BT do end up owning the DR assets, however that then could open a whole can of worms for BT with businesses arguing for fibre access seen as it would then be available in that area albeight only to residential customers. To that end, it's a less risky strategy for BT to purchase those assets (The fibre and cabinets) and to just ensure that those areas stay dark.

and hopefully a glimmer of hope for those of us whose exchange is fibre enabled, but because we're on direct lines to the exchange and have no street cabinet to upgrade, we'll never get fibre

Do people on direct lines not get a good speed anyway? never heard anyone on direct lines complaining when people miles away from the exchange on cabinets were on pants speeds.

---------- Post added 11-07-2014 at 22:07 ----------

The Digital Region administrators will probably end up selling certain areas of fibre and the street cabinets that go with those areas (such as Stannington for example, the major outlaying areas) over to BT who will then save on the expense of having to pull their own Fibre to these areas. BT will still have to kit out these cabs with their own hardware, as DR's cabinets use different hardware and BT won't want to have to incorporate other systems into their own auditing processes.

 

I figure that BT will purchase the DR assets for the City Centre and for the Attercliffe exchanges too, but I figure that they'll do this to keep them dark (unused) so that no other network picks them up and tries to compete again - they don't want businesses to have alternatives to their own higher priced products (Leased Lines) If you're lucky, they may give residential customers access to fibre if BT do end up owning the DR assets, however that then could open a whole can of worms for BT with businesses arguing for fibre access seen as it would then be available in that area albeight only to residential customers. To that end, it's a less risky strategy for BT to purchase those assets (The fibre and cabinets) and to just ensure that those areas stay dark.

BT will never be interested in the DR network or equipment because-

A- its not compatible.

B- They have their own ducting anyway.

If they bought it for a tenner it would be a tenner they didn't need to spend for the reasons I have mentioned.

Do people on direct lines not get a good speed anyway? never heard anyone on direct lines complaining when people miles away from the exchange on cabinets were on pants speeds.

It depends on the direct lines, and the quality of them (aluminium or copper) Some people may be directly patched back to the exchange, but their line would be longer than if they had a cabinet in the road that they could then have a fibre termination point from. If there's a few customers close to the exchange then they may run direct lines out to them rather than go via a green box, they'd still probably be connected to a telegraph pole (though I've seen in some circumstances an actual direct line proper!) The more copper length there is back to the exchange, the more chance of attenuation/interference which degrades the quality of the connection. It depends on how the line is then routed in the exchange, and what path it takes to the relevent equipment as to how much interference it gets.

---------- Post added 12-07-2014 at 10:39 ----------

BT will never be interested in the DR network or equipment because-

 

A- its not compatible.

B- They have their own ducting anyway.

 

If they bought it for a tenner it would be a tenner they didn't need to spend for the reasons I have mentioned.

As I have already stated in another thread previously, Fibre is Fibre (Glass or Plastic/Acrylic/PMMA) it fundamentally functions the same. The differential is how it's terminated which can be easily replaced or exchanged, and what equipment it's connected to which again can be easily changed. Depending on termination and equipment interfaced governs what lightform/wavelength is passed down the cable, which in turn has a bearing on bandwidth & signal distance before drop-off (which then necessitates the use of repeaters). If BT are offered it for the right price that it becomes cheaper to utilise the fibre that's already there than to expend the time doing the work to pull their own then they'll pick it up. BT Group being a global player, they can easily take the equipment in the DR cabinets and sell it forward to someone else to recoup some of the costs.

Another primary reason that they'd probably actually want it is that if they own it, it would cut out another business risk in the form of ownership that they can then go into it and seal it if need be i.e the DR ductwork needs access points into the BT network at every street cabinet. This could be considered a business risk for their security if they don't control it (even something basic light storm damage/water ingress), and I'm unsure but I think this was one of the reasons on why BT argued about the expense of Sub-Loop unbundling during the Ofcom case review.

It still costs BT to open any new ductwork, and it's all considered assets. In theory, the BT ductwork should be getting less cluttered but in practice BT have already admitted ducting issues in several areas which has delayed fibre rollout (in that case FTTP, but the case remains) DR's ducting is a lot newer than BT's and should therefore be in a lot better state than a lot of the BT ductwork. All this will be factored in when deciding if they want it.

Then there's also the fact that there is the PR angle, that BT 'swoops in' to save the day for fibre rollout in these areas, and the political pressure angle - we don't know the full details of the BDUK TnC's for this area, it may have been slightly different here because there's already a readily available fibre network, especially in areas that BT were already dragging their feet. It is more likely that BT already factored these areas as a business expense and decided that it wouldn't be profitable to route their own fibre there. The fact that this cost has already happened for another company that's gone bust - if BT can now pick this up cheap then they've instantly expanded their reach for very little outlay and that would be a no-brainer.

I believe that currently direct lines are stuck on ADSL2+ because if they enabled VDSL it would potentially completely wipe out people on longer ADSL lines due to crosstalk, as the lines are right next to each other as they leave the exchange.

So direct lines are 24Mbit max, a far cry from the 80Mbit of VDSL cabinet connections.

This isn't too much of an issue on cabinet connections because the lines are usually so much shorter and can only interfere with other people on the same cabinet.

I believe that currently direct lines are stuck on ADSL2+ because if they enabled VDSL it would potentially completely wipe out people on longer ADSL lines due to crosstalk, as the lines are right next to each other as they leave the exchange.

 

So direct lines are 24Mbit max, a far cry from the 80Mbit of VDSL cabinet connections.

 

This isn't too much of an issue on cabinet connections because the lines are usually so much shorter and can only interfere with other people on the same cabinet.

Was on about this today with my lad and apparently they have found a way to stick stupid speeds down copper cable so this could be the future for direct lines, no good for long distance though.

Were they not on about sticking cabinets outside the exchange for direct lines and doing FTTC from there? sure I read that somewhere

Of course they CAN do that and it has been suggested, but it costs money. Unless they think they are going to get enough people actually using it then they won't bother.