Reply to post: Five points on Broadband architecture and power

Broadband powered by home gateways? Whose bright idea was THIS?

Walter Willcox

Five points on Broadband architecture and power

1. I recommend reading Neil Fairbrother's article entitled "gfast-a-high-speed-cul-de-sac"

2. I replicate Dr Peter Cochrane's (Former BT CTO) comment on that article:-

All this was so obvious way back in 1986....but 'real engineering and economics' has been driven out of the telecoms industry. You can't beat physics (loss and crosstalk) and you can't stop Moore's Law! Mini-DSlams are an insane option! To get network reliability and resilience you have to take out electronics not put more in! To get a 'Green Network' you have to reduce the amount of material used and energy consumed! And Mbit/s are not enough for an obvious future rushing towards us. We have to start talking Gbit/s. But if you want sub-optimal industries and a population who just sit and watch sport on TV....just keep installing copper!

With a copper network you need over 6000 switch site in the UK. If you install optical fibre this number drops below 70. 20,000 man in van crews goes down to 1,000, and all water ingress related faults just go away. Now redo the economic argument. Go figure!

Peter Cochrane

3. I witnessed the commissioning of a FTTC drawing 50 Amps at 48 Volts = 2.4 Kw EVERY time the power is restored, but less when running normally. Let's guess normally 800 W * 50,000 FTTCs = 40 Mw national load. Who do you think eventually pays for this power ?

4. I think National Grid have stated there is ONE % spare capacity during zero wind winter conditions. Does anybody remember e.g. the Didcot fire or the imminent shut-down of Ferrybridge etc. etc. ?

5. The nation has to wake up to the fact that a fully future-proofed broadband infrastructure is absolutely vital for the UK. Whereas e.g. Sport content seems a far lesser requirement. The only ones providing secure systems are a few smaller operators such as Gigaclear , Hyperoptic and the stalwart B4RN DIY folk providing 1 Gbps symmetric over REAL Fibre-To-The-Premises. ALL these systems ONLY require power at a far smaller number of distribution cabinets. They can also provide a reliable telephone service without using the worn-out unreliable aluminium alloy and copper twisted pair PSTN, nor do they demand such a connection is paid for.

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