Re: fibre
Bless their cotton socks - so their latest & greatest FTTP is 300Mbps DL + 30Mbps UL (less contention). Not sure what "long twisted-pair runs" have to do with measured speed across a fibre link, though, unless the fibre connection is plugged into something at the exchange connected that way.
I'm quite happy in my 3rd party FTTP running 100Mbps UL + 100Mbps DL at £44/mo. Perhaps I might splash out a fiver and test out their 1Gbps each way service for a couple of days, although I can't really think of a use-case for it right now beyond bragging rights.
Not entirely sure why a small company can roll out this fibre, and Openreach can't. Admittedly perhaps the small company are splurging some VC capital, perhaps have some govmt grant, and so can afford it as a loss leader for the moment, but BT *should* have the resources to hand to do this sort of thing efficiently (yeah, I know, not a word I'd associate with BT).
Yes, upgrading the existing network is a different kettle of fish, but perhaps running FTTP to all new properties (or developments over a certain size) might be a good policy for Openreach to take... And then use these opportunities to upgrade cabinets in prep for mass FTTP deployment.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
