Is G.Fast worth it?

[gizard]

Thinking of changing from standard BT VDSL FTTC (20/80) to G.Fast ~ 30/200 is it worth it (apparently FTTP will not be around for years in my area)?

Don't really want to use BT kit as it's always given me grief so would be upgrading the the Vigor 2860 I have to 2866 to be compatible with the G.Fast

[jeremyc]

How far are you from the cabinet?

I had no end of reliability problems with my BT G.Fast service which OpenReach were repeately unable to fix. Their ultimate recommendation was to downgrade to the 80/20 VDSL service, so I terminated the contract (got a refund) and have been very happy with a shiny new FTTP service provided by another operator.

[595Heaven]

You need to be very close to your cabinet for it to work any better than ADSL2+ (if it works at all)

Our village has just had Gigaclear laying FTTP infrastructure which is great timing as my Plusnet contract ends soon. Very mixed reviews from people who have had it installed though…

[gizard]

How close is close?

I think the copper cable is ~ 200m from memory when another engineer broke it in the cabinet end an engineer put his fluke test at my end and said hmm there is a break about 200m from here which happened to be on one of the pairs inside the insulation about a 1cm from the punch down in the cab!

[gizard]

measuring it on google it's closer to 240m

[jeremyc]

gizard said:

measuring it on google it's closer to 240m

You may find it works OK, but you may struggle to get a stable 200Mbps downlink speed. It seems G.Fast is a black art, with no one understanding really how it works. Coupled with the generally parlous state of the copper cable from cabinet to home that is relies on, it means that it is almost impossible to predict how good the service will be (if it works at all).

I was just over 300m from the cabinet and, though it worked perfectly well for 12 months, it ultimately went to ratst and 18 engineer visits later they threw in the towel.

Luckily Community Fibre was rolled out in my area and I now have 300Mbps up/down at a lower cost than my BT broadband.

I documented some of my trials and tribulations in this thread.

[jeremyc]

Oh, and BT's sales team will tell you that it will work at whatever maximum speed they have for the distance they think you are from the cabinet (they don't have accurate measurements).

The reality is no one can say whether it'll be reliable, nor what speeds are possible, until it is installed and tried.

[gizard]

Could I run ADSL on the same line - or same line but different Pair??? - there is a thought.... then load balance between the 2

[phil-sti]

gizard said:

Thinking of changing from standard BT VDSL FTTC (20/80) to G.Fast ~ 30/200 is it worth it (apparently FTTP will not be around for years in my area)?

Don't really want to use BT kit as it's always given me grief so would be upgrading the the Vigor 2860 I have to 2866 to be compatible with the G.Fast

I’ve had g fast for 2 years and it’s been fine. Very few issues with it and the speeds have been solid.

[somouk]

If they will sell it you and you want the higher speeds then its worth the upgrade. As mentioned, it is very limited by distance from the cab, I think the maximum is just under 400m line length.

[camel_landy]

It's not about the speed, it's the latency.

M