2.2 gbps
When are virgin bringing this out. Heard its not far off ?
Thanks
Forum Discussion
How long is a piece of elastic? VM staff either will not know of the plans for this or if they do will not disclose them. You’ll know when it’s announced.
About the time BT release their 1.5-1.8 Gbit product.
VM's DOCSIS 3.1 network is good for 2.2Gbps but this won't happen as VM is flat out working to get microducts and fibre in place for the migration to XGS-PON (to be completed by 2028).
There is some talk about the future in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQkifgBZ-jw
I believe he touches the 2.2 Gbps subject in that presentation (about it being a fantasy or not).
VM Ireland has been rolling out 2 Gbps for a while (£48*12 then £78).
VM is doing a trial up to March 2024 of 2Gbps down and 200Mbps up on its XGS-PON.
AFAIK the HFC network WILL be uplifted, but they can't go too much on the upstream due to noise, re-segmentation work required and spectrum management. Upstream costs enormously as network design is limited and more around download on HFC. A 2gbps package will arrive on HFC as VM can't wait till the whole network is done by 2028 and then time for customers to migrate to XGS-PON after (so reality after 2028). The would be bleeding customers to ALTNETS who get bigger day by day and BT. 2.2gbps and 150-200mbps upstream can be delivered on DocSIS 3.1 and most of the work for 100mbps upstream uplift means not as challenging as before.
So I would expect 2.2gbps or there about to be the LAST speed upgrade for HFC areas.
It's worth noting a few things about this new Gig2.
1. It only applies to the 1m premises covered by nextfibre's network, so not VM's own XGS-PON which is being built for the other 16.2m and is not yet live although quite a bit of cabling has been completed in some areas.
2. The hub 5X doesn't support modem mode or phone, although I believe that these will be available in 2024.
3. For XGS-PON everything is delivered over IP but there is no recordable IPTV box, so only streaming is possible.
Do you reckon, assuming all of the above, that 1 Gig Xgs-pon / Nexfibre peeps can Volt up to 2 Gig?
The network is quite capable of 2Gbps but Volt is a commercial decision, not a network one. My view, for what it's worth, is that Gig2 is about showing what VM can do with its XGS-PON and not about enabling some people to get a doubling of their Gig1 just by getting a cheap O2 SIM card.
HFC will follow later, but wont be symmetric. Trials already done on this. Virgin already used the term "Volt speed upgrade on selected broadband tiers" and that was the first time I think I saw such wording used.
unisoft wrote:HFC will follow later, but wont be symmetric. Trials already done on this. Virgin already used the term "Volt speed upgrade on selected broadband tiers" and that was the first time I think I saw such wording used.
Indeedy. First indication it's on the way will I imagine be enlarging of the existing ODFM block or another one being added.
Then presumably switching off of a couple of 3.0 channels and enlarging of the OFDMA upstream block downwards.
You know more than me I think, but for me I reckon that's about the limit of the HFC network. They aren't going to be wanting to upgrade bits of HFC to mid-split or high-split this close to XGSPON overbuild.
When VM starts to sell the areas which are covered by its migration to XGS-PON, the services will be exactly the same as on offer now in the nexfibre areas as VM is treating nexfibre's network as its own.
