Fibre but not 😡

[Vickym85]

I have been paying for super fast fibre broadband only to find out today by my som who is a telecoms engineer that there is NO fibre to my house 😡 

[gavs82008]

@Vickym85 

Below are some standard things you can and probably have done before calling the team.

Have you done a factory reset to the router indicated in the link below?https://help.nowtv.com/article/improve-broadband-speed

This link also shows any planned outages as well wide spread faults.
https://help.nowtv.com/service-status

You need to call the broadband team. See link for number.
https://help.nowtv.com/article/how-to-submit-a-broadband-complaint1

FYI the call centre operate 8am to 8pm.

[Jayach]

Superfast broadband is FTTC (Fibre to the cabinet) the alternative is FTTP (Fibre to the premises).

It isn't yet available everywhere, and Now do not provide it.

For more information, and to see if it is available to you, check here:

Fibre broadband | Openreach

Note that there are other provides of FTTP (the so called AltNets)

[chilli2]

All mainstream ISPs are doing the same, an old phrase: "mutton sold as lamb" springs to mind.

 The only ( as far as i know) provider that kicked up a fuss was Cityfibre, however the Advertising standards agency ruled that if a fibre optic cable is involved anywhere in the link then it can be sold as fibre - this means that you culd get away with selling dial up as fibre if the modem at the other end has a fibre connection somewhere linking it to the wider internet.

 There not much that can be done now, as we are in the same situation that befell the USA when they sold 3G mobile connections as 4G.

Now use openreaches copper cable network, for fibre you will need a service provider that sells it ( now doesnt) and a new line into the property that contains a fibre optic cable and a new box that this fibre optic line plugs into.

 For copper based services you just use a standard phone socket.

Hving said all of that, ask yourself this question:

 Do you need fibre - aka full fibre ( thanks to the ASA)?

Is the copper based service you are getting from Now fit for your needs? - things can be  improved with your own wifi access pont/modem router - but if Now broadband does the job, and the price is right for you then why change to full fibre with the hassle of having to have an engineer round to install it and add in a new box  called an ONT - which in turn will need its own power supply

There is no point in going for the fastest service when what you have is fit for your needs , and in my case - for me Now's copper service that uses VDSL technology via a fibre to the cabinet connection is good enough and the price is right. If i have to change to FTTP or full fibre then it will be at a modest and lower priced speed profile - why pay more for something that you wont be able to make full use of?

why have a ferrari that you will never be able to get everything out f it when a  little cost effective run around does everything you need?

[Jayach]

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@chilli2 wrote:

however the Advertising standards agency ruled that if a fibre optic cable is involved anywhere in the link then it can be sold as fibre - this means that you culd get away with selling dial up as fibre if the modem at the other end has a fibre connection somewhere linking it to the wider internet.

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I think that is taking things a bit far, and the reasons were a bit more nuanced than that. Much more to do with "custom and practice". 

Before FTTP existed it made sense to call FTTC "Fibre" to differentiate from the, then current, full copper ADSL service.

[RoyB]

@Jayach @chilli2 

Much like going to London is a ‘motorway journey’ when there are nadgery non-motorway bits at both ends 🚎🚜🚛🚜🚛🚜🚚🚗

[Jayach · Accepted solution]

I have to add, did your son. the telecoms engineer, not explain all this to you?

[RoyB]

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@Jayach wrote:

I have to add, did your son. the telecoms engineer, not explain all this to you?

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My question too 😛

[Vickym85]

Yes...he explained everything but the point being my account says superfast fibre and it's not...he came to run me a speed and signsl check as we are struggling to get signal in many parts of the house...i said id got fibre so expect it to be good and he said you definitely have not...he did say they get away with it because somewhere at the exchange would be fibre...virgin media have just laid fibre on my street im switching providers

[RoyB]

@Vickym85 

I’m hoping it’s you getting this a bit garbled (especially at 2am!), because if it’s your son, I don’t want him anywhere near my telecoms 😛

To untangle this; you have what is called Fibre To The Cabinet, which means that from the exchange, which is on fibre to the wider internet, there is more fibre which goes as far as the cabinet, that green or black box, standing about five feet high, that you can probably find on the edge of the road not far from your house. Only the last little bit of the signal journey, from the cabinet to your property, is copper.

Your problem is probably the WiFi in your home, which the Now router is notoriously poor at 😢

So no doubt your son knows he should be checking the speeds delivered by Now over a wired connection from the router, to bypass any WiFi considerations, and that you should be contacting Now to complain if these measurements come out below the speeds that Now has guaranteed you?

But WiFi speeds will drop off from those values the further from the router you are, and drop off more steeply with the Now router than with a decent one.

Going to Virgin, who will bring you FTTP (fibre to the property) will give you an enormous speed boost - FTTP can run about ten times faster than FTTC - and the Virgin router, while it will still show some WiFi drop-off, will have this starting from a higher value, and dropping off less steeply, than with Now.

And startlingly close to Now prices for up to five times the speed, as you perhaps have found already.

I could tell you various ways to optimise the Now speeds a bit, but nothing like that.