Upgrade worries with no FTTC

[TheDoctor1964]

I'm terrified we are going to lose the internet this coming Wednesday 30th. I have pasted our checker results here, and I don't understand it all but it seems (as we suspect) we do not currently have ANY fibre connection. We are using the phone line to connect at present, but my husband mistakenly agreed to a new Sky package/router without checking the fibre at our home.

We currently have Sky Broadband Superfast via the phone line, but I think the new offer is for Sky Broadband Ultrafast 1, We have twice begged Sky to cancel the new deal and revert to the old one, but it hasn't happened, and on Wednesday it looks as if they will activate the new package which appears to be fibre only. They are sending an engineer to install Gfast whatever that is, but without FTTC I don't think the new deal will work.

Can anyone confirm that we have no fibre, either to the cabinet or house, and IF our current internet package is changed to a fibre one (Suprfast 1), what will happen if we keep using our current router, the SR203.

[TimmyBGood]

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@TheDoctor1964 wrote:

on Wednesday it looks as if they will activate the new package which appears to be fibre only. They are sending an engineer to install Gfast whatever that is, but without FTTC I don't think the new deal will work.

Can anyone confirm that we have no fibre, either to the cabinet or house, and IF our current internet package is changed to a fibre one (Suprfast 1), what will happen if we keep using our current router, the SR203.

G.fast delivers Ultrafast 1 (150Mbs maximum, 100Mbs guaranteed minimum) using the existing copper phone pair connecting back to a local fibre 'pod' within 100 metres of the address.

There's also an Ultrafast 2 (300Mbs maximum) version of G.fast which Sky has never offered.

You'd need an SR204 Hub though, as it's that model which contains a G.fast modem.  If you don't currently have one, Sky should be scheduling its despatch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.fast 

[TimmyBGood]

@TheDoctor1964 

Incidentally the top two lines in the table indicate FTTC is very much available (that's what your 'Superfast' service will be using now) : it would be extremely unusual to have G.fast in an area without that.  What you don't have locally is 'full fibre' (FTTP)

[TheDoctor1964]

Thanks! Sorry to be dim, but does the word "available" in the BT checker results mean that it's available in the area in general, OR to our house in particular. It would be news indeed to us if we are using FTTC - and I have heard that GFast is unreliable if the cabinet is too far away (which ours is).

BTW, we are in a set of private roads that cannot be accessed by the usual round of builders/engineers - even basic road repairs are impossible, let alone fibre installation.

[TimmyBGood]

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@TheDoctor1964 wrote:

does the word "available" in the BT checker results mean that it's available in the area in general, OR to our house in particular.

The result is specific to the individual address. 'Green' for G.fast means available.

It would be news indeed to us if we are using FTTC - and I have heard that GFast is unreliable if the cabinet is too far away (which ours is).

'Superfast' IS FTTC (where it's not FTTP).  G.fast typically connects to a much closer 'pod', not the local cabinet, but is potentially vulnerable to all the same issues as other copper broadband technologies.

BTW, we are in a set of private roads that cannot be accessed by the usual round of builders/engineers - even basic road repairs are impossible, let alone fibre installation.

That may be a challenge for the Openreach FTTP rollout, then.  In the ongoing absence of full fibre you're lucky to have G.fast: that deployment ceased some years ago at about 10% national coverage.

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