Openreach saying GFast connection available, but sky say max is Ultrafast

[Ballgirl]

Can anyone help, I just want to get faster speeds but Sky is saying I can't upgrade. Why can't I get Gfast via Sky? 

[TimmyBGood]

@Ballgirl 

Could you post the first few lines of text from below that table?

[Ballgirl]

[Ballgirl]

@TimmyBGood 

[TimmyBGood]

@Ballgirl 

OK. so no FTTP available, and G.fast looks potentially problematic: it's worth noting that's an end-of-life technology which some ISPs have simply stopped selling.

Ah: if the non-PSTN version of the technology ('SOGfast') isn't yet live locally, that's going to be an issue, and I think that's what the WBC SOGEA Availability Date 'Green'  means.

[Chrisee]

@Ballgirl were you told no over the phone or just with the online checker if the latter its worth calling as many upgrades can only be done over the phone.

G.Fast is no longer being rolled out as Openreach have switched over to full fibre. The performance of the technology has not been as goid as predicted. Sky do not currently offer an upgrade route from G.Fast to full fibre when  that becomes available leaving customers stuck on an old technology or having to change ISP. For those reasons plus the relatively modest increase in speed Sky offer I would not swap what I assume is a rock steady VDSL service synching at 80Mb/s for G.Fast.

[TimmyBGood]

@Chrisee @Ballgirl 

I suspect it's the transition from G.fast to the appallingly-named 'SOGfast' that's the issue.

Since stop-sell on 05/09 there's no new G.fast: it has to be the SOG version and my reading of the table is that's not yet shown as 'Available' in that location despite G.fast infrastructure having been installed some time ago.

[Chrisee]

@TimmyBGood your probably right but my point really was G.Fast can be a poor upgrade especially given the lack of a real upgrade path to full fibre although at some point Sky/Openreach will have to offer one but that could be a long way off.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Chrisee wrote:

G.Fast can be a poor upgrade

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Looking at that table, Ultrafast 1 over G.fast would probably be a doubling of speed for @Ballgirl and that's got to be tempting where FTTP may still a long way off.

It's really the uncertainty over the (lack of) future of the technology and its overlap with FTTP that's a problem.

[simon194]

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

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@Chrisee wrote:

G.Fast can be a poor upgrade

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Looking at that table, Ultrafast 1 over G.fast would probably be a doubling of speed for @Ballgirl and that's got to be tempting where FTTP may still a long way off.

It's really the uncertainty over the (lack of) future of the technology and its overlap with FTTP that's a problem.

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I thought Openreach had stopped selling new G.Fast connections some time ago.

Sky definitely stopped selling it last year.

[TimmyBGood]

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@simon194 wrote:

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I thought Openreach had stopped selling new G.Fast connections some time ago.

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They 'paused' installing more G.fast street pods back in June 2020, and I suspect never started again: the pandemic didn't exactly help.  It remained an available wholesale technology in provisioned areas though.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/06/openreach-confirm-g-fast-broadband-rollout-paused-unti... 

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@simon194 wrote:

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Sky definitely stopped selling it last year.

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I think that was some other ISPs: as far as I know Ultrafast 1 over G.fast is still a possible Sky product.

[TimmyBGood]

@simon194 

Actually this article suggests as of last month Sky is the last remaining big ISP still selling it ; )

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/10/the-misery-of-diminishing-choice-in-g-fast-uk-broadban... 

Until recently consumers could at least bank on BT  and EE  still offering G.fast packages (they’re generally the cheerleaders for Openreach products), but all that changed with the recent branding switch. Now if consumers in areas where G.fast is the fastest option put their postcode into BT  and EE ’s websites, then the best they’ll be offered is significantly slower FTTC or ADSL2+ tiers.

The story is much the same at Plusnet  (though they never officially sold G.fast), Zen Internet , iDNET  and the list goes on (Vodafone  never did G.fast either). The only major ISP left still offering G.fast in all the areas we tested is currently Sky Broadband  (well done Sky), but you’ll only be able to take their 145Mbps tier and that’s hard luck if you wanted to switch from a 300Mbps plan on a different provider.

[Ballgirl]

I'm frustrated as Brsk are offering 900mb broadband in this area but apparently there's an issue with the exchange needing a new track and they can't feed the cable to our property. 

Looks like I'm destined to stay on Ultrafast until Openreach can sort out the infrastructure 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Ballgirl wrote:

Looks like I'm destined to stay on Ultrafast until Openreach can sort out the infrastructure 

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Just to be clear, what you have now is presumably 'Superfast' (FTTC) at 80Mbs

'Ultrafast 1' (150Mbs) can be G.fast or FTTP.

'Ultrafast 2' (500Mbs) and 'Gigafast' (900Mbs) are always FTTP.

[TimmyBGood]

@Ballgirl 

Unless you already have G.fast and we've been confusing things ; (

'G.fast' and 'Gigafast' are absolutely not the same thing, and G.fast isn't an abbreviation for Gigafast.