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0 pointssamwillis4y ago0 comments

I think we (in Stamford Lincolnshire, UK) must be pretty unique right now with TWO competing FTTP startups both rolling out on the same streets. One day you will see Lightspeed Broadband pulling their fibre through the BT ducts and putting boxes on the top of telegraph polls. The next day Upp Brordband will be on the same street. So bizarre they they are doing the same town!

Apparently we are due to have BT put in their own fibre in the next few months too. Really don’t understand why they are doubling up the infrastructure.

Hoping for a local price war!

0 comments

martinald4y ago

Basically there is an enormous amount of capital (at least £10bn from startup providers) out there going into UK FTTH builds. BT focussed too much of content (BT Sport) instead of FTTH and private equity now thinks there is an opp to steal marketshare from BT/VM.

However BT have now now committed £10-20bn, VM probably a few billion.

It will quickly consolidate like it always does.

samwillisOP4y ago

Thanks, I figured it was something like that. One of the startups here is a bunch of former BT execs so I was assuming they were hoping to exit by selling either to BT or VM.

rconti4y ago

Very strange! Mine was not quite as happy a story, but here in Silicon Valley (1mi from Facebook) I got a local ISP announcing fiber, and the very next week AT&T was running their own lines. This was back in 2019, and it felt like "everyone" had fiber before we did. 2 years later I guess it feels like old hat. And the local ISP has not yet run the fiber they promised. But one fast ISP is better than zero!

Good luck with your deployment. I'm still so happy about it.

bcrl4y ago

Your incumbent killed the local ISP's project. Fibre customers generally won't change ISPs in the first 2-3 years of having service, so being undercut by the incumbent makes it worthless to continue with the cost of construction when you'll only get a handful of customers. I know because the incumbent has done exactly the same thing to me. A project that planned on having 140 customers can't be supported by 5.

rconti4y ago

They're actually still rolling out, just slowly. Of course, this might well have caused the slowdown.

aphrax4y ago

How strange to see my hometown mentioned! Still not too far away and yes hoping for some local competition

mattlondon4y ago

Here in high-density London, we're stuck with ~70mbps ADSL and not even cable.

Not representative of all of London, but at least around my parts it is slow ADSL or nothing :(

ccakes4y ago

Nit: if 70Mbps isn’t a typo, then you’re on VDSL not ADSL.

ADSL tops out at ~24Mbps while VDSL can go much higher, albeit over shorter distances than ADSL

charcircuit4y ago

Are you suggesting 70Mbps is slow ADSL? There are many places where not even a tenth of that speed is possible.

SturgeonsLaw4y ago

I had a chuckle at the 3.5Mbps that the wet string was getting in the article. When I first moved in to this house, I was getting around 3Mbps on ADSL. Thankfully now I'm on 100Mbps fibre (not amazing by global standards, but good by Australian standards).

That wet string would have been an upgrade for me.

1 more reply

tgpc4y ago

BT have left a large number of people on ADSL. No VDSL upgrade.

867-53094y ago

it's the UK average for urban ADSL. and those many places are where the FTTH startups are springing up

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

martinald4y ago

However BT have now now committed £10-20bn, VM probably a few billion.

It will quickly consolidate like it always does.

samwillisOP4y ago

Thanks, I figured it was something like that. One of the startups here is a bunch of former BT execs so I was assuming they were hoping to exit by selling either to BT or VM.

rconti4y ago

Good luck with your deployment. I'm still so happy about it.

bcrl4y ago

rconti4y ago

They're actually still rolling out, just slowly. Of course, this might well have caused the slowdown.

aphrax4y ago

How strange to see my hometown mentioned! Still not too far away and yes hoping for some local competition

mattlondon4y ago

Here in high-density London, we're stuck with ~70mbps ADSL and not even cable.

Not representative of all of London, but at least around my parts it is slow ADSL or nothing :(

ccakes4y ago

Nit: if 70Mbps isn’t a typo, then you’re on VDSL not ADSL.

ADSL tops out at ~24Mbps while VDSL can go much higher, albeit over shorter distances than ADSL

charcircuit4y ago

Are you suggesting 70Mbps is slow ADSL? There are many places where not even a tenth of that speed is possible.

SturgeonsLaw4y ago

That wet string would have been an upgrade for me.

1 more reply

tgpc4y ago

BT have left a large number of people on ADSL. No VDSL upgrade.

867-53094y ago

it's the UK average for urban ADSL. and those many places are where the FTTH startups are springing up

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse