two openreach sky fibre broadband same house

[mk38]

Hi, wonder if anyone has two (x2) Sky fibre broadband subscription with two Openreach fibre seperately? 

I am not sure if there's such thing as in general. I have one fibre pulled to my house obviously but wonder if they are able to do a second line? It's just out of thinking of resilience to have two lines and of doubling the bandwidth. I think the max is 1Gbps per fibre.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@mk38 

You can only have 1 line per isp.  Doesn't stop you contacting another isp for a second line so long as you make them aware its a second line and not a switch/line takeover.

Means you'll have a second ont a new isp router 

[mk38]

Oh ic. Wonder if it's a regulation compliance that one line per isp? The thing is I suppose Openreach fibre is used by different ISP's as last mile, so perhaps my main concern is if I can get another Openreach fibre to my house before even considering the ISP. 

[cookiemonsteruk]

@mk38 

You would need to choose an isp and place an order as it will be the new isp who will order the new line. In terms od resilience it probably not offer any fallback/failover as when one isp fibre line is down it will also invariably affect other isps.  So if you want to pay 2 times the cost for 2 isps just to double your speed thats up to you . Do you need 2Gbps let alone 1 Gbps

[TimmyBGood]

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@mk38 wrote:

 It's just out of thinking of resilience to have two lines and of doubling the bandwidth. I think the max is 1Gbps per fibre.

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As @cookiemonsteruk says, having two optical circuits doesn't really do much for resilience given both will be contained within one four-core drop cable and routed through the same CBT and local duct/pole infrastructure. 

[mk38]

I actually want more upload throughput; unfortunately my 1Gbps down is only with 100Mbps, and symmetric offer like Gigalink/city... etc are not available near me at an affordable price.

[mk38]

That's true, I suspect the same last mile but hopefully if the a fox bite into one fibre the other still works. Actually two gets me more bandwidth hopefully.

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

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@mk38 wrote:

hopefully if the a fox bite into one fibre the other still works. 

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That would have to be a very discerning fox with extremely nimble teeth, given there's no separation between the four fibre cores within the plastic sheath of a drop cable other than a few microns of coating.

Openreach lays a four core optical connection to individual domestic properties mostly because there's almost no incremental cost in doing so compared with single core, but also as future proofing for bandwidth: it's not intended for resilience, and service from a second ISP will use an second core in exactly the same physical cable and so is subject to the same physical risk of disruption external to the property.

There's a small potential advantage to be derived from having duplicate fibre pigtails and routers within the premises though.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@mk38 

To truely get 200Mbps upstream you would need a third party router with wan aggregation which combine 2 seperate isps to output a single upstream of 200Mbps  otherwise you'd still have 2 seperate 100Mbps upstream connections

[mk38]

Oh, spot on. That's the tip I'm looking for. So, in theory, I already have multiple cores (x4), and apart from the resilience and picky teeth, I would be able to get 4 uplinks for example without laying extra cable.

I always think it will be costly to get an extra cable in. Anyway, perhaps it's not, and perhaps when I get to the ISP to place an order, this will be resolved. Feel I now understand more.

Many thks folks.

Yes, 200Mbps is not enough. I would rather trade my download for upload if Sky allows to like 50/50.

[mk38]

Yes, got it. I hope one day ISP can do 50/50 rather than 10/90.

[TimmyBGood]

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@mk38 wrote:

So, in theory, I already have multiple cores (x4), and apart from the resilience and picky teeth, I would be able to get 4 uplinks for example without laying extra cable.

For a standard Openreach domestic installation, yes.

I always think it will be costly to get an extra cable in. Anyway, perhaps it's not, and perhaps when I get to the ISP to place an order, this will be resolved. Feel I now understand more.

Openreach will consider they have already spent their per-property allowance on putting the existing optical infrastructure in place: the materials and time for the physical work involved in getting a second drop cable would probably be all charged to the householder as ECCs.  In practice there may simply be no mechanism for ordering such a thing anyway while there are still unused cores in the current connection.

Yes, 200Mbps is not enough. I would rather trade my download for upload if Sky allows to like 50/50.

ISPs cannot purchase symmetrical bandwidth from BT Wholesale without paying 'business' pricing (at between five and ten times domestic rates) : that's an entirely artificial distinction maintained to keep the 'leased line' market going.

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[TimmyBGood]

@mk38 

As @cookiemonsteruk noted above, if you do approach any other Openreach ISP for additional  FTTP service it's absolutely critical that they understand you are not 'switching': this can be a tricky concept for them to grasp because it's extremely unusual.

Realistically there's an inherent risk to any such approach, particularly given potential language difficulties with offshore call centres and the questionable levels of staff training.

[mk38]

OMG, if they end up cutting the link LoL

[mk38]

TBH, I actually thought this is quite a common request a household to have multiple links .... well.