ex BT Home Vodafone at Home Phone & BB customer - should I move to Vodafone Fibre?

MiketheMechanic

I got a call from my ISP (Vodafone at Home) today to say that Fibre Broadband is now available in my area.
I was with BT Home phone & Broadband until this provider migrated to Vodafone At Home a few years ago.
I'm still on the old BT Home Phone rates and pay 39.99 a month for 3MB BB + phone rental.
The old BT call charges are pretty good - with 8.16c inc. VAT to the UK and USA peak and off Peak.
I'm actually getting close to 7MB download speed fairly consistently on speed tests, seems to be capped at this, but I think the line can handle more.

Can anyone tell me what my line stats below would indicate my line can handle?
The Line checker on the Vodafone site says 24MB download, but I'm sceptical.

Line State Up
Modulation ADSL2+
Data Path Fast

Downstream Upstream
Max Allowed Speed (kbps)8123 828
SN Margin (dB) 14.00 14.80
Line Attenuation (dB) 30.50 14.00
CRC Errors 0 0

Finally, I'm using a fairly standard eircom netopia 2247 ADSL modem.
If I go for the new Fibre broadband, will I need a new modem?
I see that Vodafone mention that they provide a
High Performance Modem for Fibre Broadband Customers
29.99 for 12/18 month contract or free for 24 months.

I'm thinking about the €37 per month service - are there any downsides to switching to this?

Thanks in advance for the help and advice.

MtM

bealtine

MiketheMechanic wrote: »

Can anyone tell me what my line stats below would indicate my line can handle?
The Line checker on the Vodafone site says 24MB download, but I'm sceptical.

Downstream Upstream
Max Allowed Speed (kbps)8123 828
SN Margin (dB) 14.00 14.80
Line Attenuation (dB) 30.50 14.00
CRC Errors 0 0

on dsl about 15 Mbs

[/QUOTE]
If I go for the new Fibre broadband, will I need a new modem?
[/QUOTE]


Yes you will need a VDSL modem but your line stats won't be the same as the new cabinets (they are extensions of the exchange) should be closer to you and you will now be connected to them rather than all the way back to the exchange

swoofer

you are a bit behind but the whole process has been poorly handled and it appears it is made up as you go along. I am the same as you but I paid 62 per month, all free calls and free to uk plus 3 mobiles. And it worked great was on 6.6mb. Recently the rest my line to 5.6 and I am stuck. So I rang 1907 and asked for new fibre broadband, I got a 12 month package, its for existing customers, free install, free modem and its now 44.50 per month as I have a VF mobile as well. I am 750m from cabinet and its installed next wednesday, I have router already. And you get 100 mins etc

When you sign up the give contract over the phone and record it. How far are you from the vdsl cabinet?

its a no brainer but post back if needs be

MiketheMechanic

bealtine wrote: »

on dsl about 15 Mbs

If I go for the new Fibre broadband, will I need a new modem?
[/QUOTE]


Yes you will need a VDSL modem but your line stats won't be the same as the new cabinets (they are extensions of the exchange) should be closer to you and you will now be connected to them rather than all the way back to the exchange[/QUOTE]

I'm a bit behind the times - I just read about the cabinet mapping project and I am approximately 900 metres away from it by road. Its about 1km closer than my old standard PSTN exchange.

Based on this, does anyone have an idea on how fast this might be? is 70Mb possible?

Thanks,
MtM


https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1M_lYcvMkt7xIqqSa43TdS1s25oRqtA2JgpxAkYM#map:id=4

bealtine

MiketheMechanic wrote: »

I am approximately 900 metres away from it by road.

Based on this, does anyone have an idea on how fast this might be? is 70Mb possible?

You won't get 70Mbs at 900m...sorry. You might get about 30Mbs (25Mbs most likely) at that distance.

MiketheMechanic

GBCULLEN wrote: »

The whole process has been poorly handled and it appears it is made up as you go along. I am the same as you but I paid 62 per month, all free calls and free to uk plus 3 mobiles. And it worked great was on 6.6mb. Recently they reset my line to 5.6 and I am stuck. So I rang 1907 and asked for new fibre broadband, I got a 12 month package, its for existing customers, free install, free modem and its now 44.50 per month as I have a VF mobile as well. I am 750m from cabinet and its installed next wednesday, I have router already. And you get 100 mins etc

When you sign up the give contract over the phone and record it. How far are you from the vdsl cabinet?

its a no brainer but post back if needs be

Thanks GBCULLEN, I'm catching myself up quickly on this fibre upgrade stuff! I'm 850-900 metres away from the new VDSL cabinet.

One thing I notice though, the new Vodafone Home charges are a generally a lot higher than I'm currently paying for Vodafone at Home (ex BT Home) - especially for US and UK landlines (11.00c vs. 8.16c per min inc Vat) also, Australia fixed line off peak, (45.74 vs 8.16c!) I don't make many National calls. I'll have to work out if this BB upgrade will actually end up costing me more per month than the plan I'm on right now.

MtM

MiketheMechanic

MiketheMechanic wrote: »

Thanks GBCULLEN, I'm catching myself up quickly on this fibre upgrade stuff! I'm 850-900 metres away from the new VDSL cabinet.


MtM

Correction, I measured the distance from the VDSL cabinet to my house last night, and it turns out its only 650 metres.

What kind of speed could I expect in theory? 30-40Mb?

bealtine

MiketheMechanic wrote: »

Correction, I measured the distance from the VDSL cabinet to my house last night, and it turns out its only 650 metres.

What kind of speed could I expect in theory? 30-40Mb?

40/50Mbs perhaps, depends on how the cables are routed

swoofer

I'd say you will be pleasantly surprised, that line is good. 50 easy.

gbc

MiketheMechanic

Just a follow up on this.

Fibre installed today - I'm very unhappy with the speed.:mad:
~20Mbs down.
I was expecting much more given how close I am to the cabinet

Could vodafone be artificially throttling this?

Is there anything that I or vodafone can do to increase this? Who should I raise this with?

MtM

Kristopherus

I'd give it a couple of days to settle down. If it has'nt improved by Thursday You should ring them. By the way, what are you paying for? 50 or 70mbps?

swoofer

mike can you check the profile you have been given and post a speedtest result. how close are you to the cabinet and are you sure its the one you are connected to?

on modem go wan , then click on dsl.

MiketheMechanic

GBCULLEN wrote: »

mike can you check the profile you have been given and post a speedtest result. how close are you to the cabinet and are you sure its the one you are connected to?

on modem go wan , then click on dsl.

I will check when I get home again.
The installation engineer said he was connecting me to a different cabinet (VDSL 30) , which is about 200m up the road from the one closest to me. (VDSL15) He couldn't offer an explanation for this - he said it was the one he was told to connect me to. 200 extra metres of copper is killing me I'd say.

Really unhappy with this - I wonder if vodafone can resolve this. I don't remember if I have a cooling off period for this.

swoofer

well if its any consolation I am in the same boat as you, nearest cab is 170m from me and the one I am connected to is yes... 800m from me. The explanation is that is where my line is terminated and no you cant have it terminated at the nearer one. As they say this is ireland.

the cooling off is 7 days from the date you agree the verbal contrac, thats if my memory serves me right.

enigmatical

It doesn't actually matter what your existing line stats are.
Your existing line goes all the way back to the exchange, where as the FTTC "fibre" service is provided from a cabinet near to your home. So, the line's only going back that far.

So, basically the stats for your 'traditional' ADSL line have no bearing on it at all.

What matters is your distance to the cabinet.

In general though, it's a fairly dramatic speed improvement and the closer to the cabinet you are, the closer to 70mbit/s you'll get.

JackieChan

GBCULLEN wrote: »

well if its any consolation I am in the same boat as you, nearest cab is 170m from me and the one I am connected to is yes... 800m from me. The explanation is that is where my line is terminated and no you cant have it terminated at the nearer one. As they say this is ireland.

the cooling off is 7 days from the date you agree the verbal contrac, thats if my memory serves me right.

If you requested a new line could you get connected to the nearer one? It would cost you but might be worth it.
Im going to be in a similar position, I have a new cab about 20m from my house but Im pretty sure Im connected to an older one 700m away.My area is not due to be upgraded until next year so i will worry about it then

swoofer

If I was getting 7mbs before I would expect a bit more than 20mbs. But when testing later make sure its the wired connection and plug out the phone lead for a little while.