FTTP reliability

[#1]

I posted recently that I have an order in progress for FTTP. This is currently delayed. I suspect part of the reason for that is that all the people in my village on FTTP have been without Broadband since Monday. 

I've lived here for a while and have had the best broadband available to me from dial up at first to FTTC now. There have been outages over the years but not that many and the worst was no more than a few hours. Given my neighbours experience and those described by @longedge  https://community.plus.net/t5/Full-Fibre/Daily-p-m-disconnections-for-multiple-ISP-s/td-p/1988218   I'm worried about reliability of FTTP relative to FTTC.

I thought the conventional wisdom was that FTTP was more reliable but is there any factual data behind that?

Is reliability worse in rural areas? Apparently the current local fault is that there is physical damage to equipment on a pole that is only accessible with a hoist

[#2]

Apparently the current local fault is that there is physical damage to equipment on a pole that is only accessible with a hoist.

The network reliability of FTTP is better - there is less to potentially go wrong, but obviously the issue you describe above will cause issues - as it would if it was a copper cable. 

[#3 · Accepted solution]

In general FTTP is more reliable than FTTC, but it may not be as resilient.

FTTC has a fibre connection from the main exchange, then a cabinet containing powered equipment, and then the old copper cables to the home (which may have multiple joins along the way). A fault in any of those can affect your broadband.

FTTP is just a fibre cable from the main exchange, so there is a much lower chance of a fault along the way.

If a FTTC copper cable is damaged, or a copper joint fails, then it may well affect just one home. If the fibre to a cabinet is damaged (or the cabinet itself),  then all the homes connected to that cabinet will be affected.

However, with FTTP, one main trunk fibre may carry a very large number of connections. Damage to that may impact hundreds or even thousands of properties, and may take  some time to fix. Many rural areas have no backup trunk fibres (or if they do they are often within the same ducting so are likely to suffer the same damage) - so a whole village may depend on one fibre feed.

So, the chance of a fault on FTTC is higher, but the impact of a fault on FTTP may be larger.

[#4]

Good answer, @corringham 

[#5]

Thanks that's very clear. I guess one saving grace is that if the impact is greater as it impacts more homes, it should have a higher prioity to be fixed, than a single house.

I can see the cabinet from my house so I'm seriously thinking of asking to stay on FTTC.  

[#6]

@the_groundsman 

Another factor to consider living in a rural area is the effect of power cuts. FTTC cabinets only provide back up power for about half an hour. In our village as an example, if we have a power cut our local mobile mast switches off. Consequently, in the event of a power cut, assuming SOGEA (VoIP phone) from a FTTC cabinet, even with a UPS to keep the Hub alive we only have a working phone service for the half hour. Full fibre is remotely powered, so with a UPS there is a working phone for as long as a UPS can support the ONT and Router.

[#7]

Good point @Baldrick1 - although the remote powered FTTP only applies to the OR based network.

Most Altnet FTTP builds do rely on powered cabinets (as they don't have the exchange buildings to use). I have Gigaclear, and their cabinet that serves my area lasts about 2 hours on battery - which to be fair is more than an hour longer than the local 4G mast does.

It will be put to the test next week, as National Grid are upgrading our local low voltage grid. We are due to be cut off on Monday, with re-connection due the following Friday. They have promised some periods powered by a generator, except for  Tuesday (they have advised us not to open the fridge or freezer then). What fun!

[#8]

I must allay any worries that you might have as a consequence of my thread @the_groundsman .

Before upgrading to FTTP I was on FTTC with my cabinet being approx 750 metres away, my connection used to drop once or twice a week and the best speeds I could get were ~40Mbps/7Mbps (I was on 55/10 no longer available).

When I upgraded there was a vast improvement and I started seeing uptimes of 30 days plus until the blip 2 or 3 weeks ago which is now resolved. I'm more than happy with FTTP which is more reliable and many times faster than what I had previously.

I wouldn't go back under any circumstances and for anybody on a long line, it's a 'no brainer' 😊.

[#9]

Thanks @longedge . It looks like the outside cabling is happening this Sunday as they have access to a hoist that day to complete the repair work (it's working again now, but a temporary fix I'm told. So too late to be getting cold feet now 😊.

UPS  - I hadn't considered that before. The specs at Amazon look a bit bewildering. Any personal recommendations. We have frequent short outages especially in the winter months They are usually fixed in about 60-90 mins. Often it's just a few minutes. Seem to be around £100?

[#10]

@the_groundsman 

Can't help with specifics but you need power for the ONT, your router and any Dect phone system you have (if going to VOIP).

Brian

[#11]

Choosing a UPS is a minefield. Most are intended to power a computer just long enough for it to shut down cleanly - if you want to run for say 30 mins or more you need to know your load and check the specs carefully and be prepared to pay more. The ratings on most relate to the maximum load they support (long enough for a clean shutdown), but halving the load won't necessarily double the backup time.

If you are just looking for something to power the ONT and router for a while then the something like the Eaton 3SM36B is probably ideal.