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XGS-PON Packages

MrJG08
On our wavelength

Virgin have nearly finished rolling out their XGS-PON FTTP product in my area, I was speaking to one of their guys that confirmed what they were rolling out and he said it is capable of 10Gbps symmetric.

I know you won't be able to get 10Gbps from the get go, but will they be offering 1Gbps symmetric packages or still the same bollocks and cap the upload to 50-100Mbps?

Also any one know the prices of their new service?

Thanks.

115 REPLIES 115

For the 'legacy' DOCSIS (cable) service, there are actually very good technical reasons for the upstream speeds being far lower than the downstream, and to explain it and justify it, you'll need to understand how it works and also (alas) the history behind it*.

XGS-PON, does use an entirely different underlaying technology and the above technical restrictions don't really apply. Now as @IPFreely states, how VM or their marketing department decide they want to package and sell the product(s) is another matter? They might, for example, deliberate throttle the upstream, unless you are prepared to pay a premium. And that's entirely their prerogative, don't like it, fine, don't pay and go elsewhere? Although VM will be banking on the majority of customers not being 'bothered' to go elsewhere!

But, right now, it's all speculation, ultimately VM are a commercial entity and what they want to do above all else is to make the maximum amount of money, but not to the extant that their entire customer base up and leaves - in which case they make no money at all! So it's going to be a wait and see exercise.

* Think where the cable technology originally came from, which is to provide video and TV services. Now these are almost entirely downstream biased, you have a lot of data coming down to your set top box (ie the video streams) but very, very little going back. DOCSIS was designed to piggy-back off of this existing setup (without breaking it), and also consider that, even now, the vast majority of domestic internet use is downloading, watching 'cat videos', etc. Even now, there is still an incentive to prioritise download provision over upload; this is slowly changing but the process is still, well, slow!

Nah symmetrical by default on XGSPON 😁

Shouldn't be long before some folks on VM are seeing speed tests like this one.

b26f2d23-1c13-4969-a8cb-e9c3b5067063

There is a common misconception that fibre means superfast broadband and that VM's DOCSIS is a constraining factor. The reality is that VM's network is perfectly capable of much higher download and upload speeds, but it makes no commercial sense to spend a ton of money to offer much higher speeds than Gig1 when the average UK download speed is 65.3Mbps and the average UK upload speed is 15.5Mbps. What we know is that most people typically subscribe to speeds below what is available, and nothing I have seen makes me think that it will be any different in future.

XGS-PON will enable VM to deliver higher symmetrical speeds cheaper than using DOCSIS. There will certainly be higher speeds in future but it all depends on what makes money whilst being aware of what the competition is doing.

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Hub 5, TP-Link TL-SG108S 8-port gigabit switch, 360
My Broadband Ping - Roger's VM hub 5 broadband connection

It isn't a misconception that VM's HFC network with DoCSIS running over it is a constraining factor, Roger. To get to 100 up needed rebuild in some areas. To go past that to 200 needs work refarming spectrum at the bare minimum as VM's network is often pretty noisy. Above 200 just isn't happening. 

If you need to physically replace everything bar the cables and the tap banks in the network to make it go faster seems reasonable to say the network isn't capable. 

Most folks don't care about the standard, it doesn't matter, only VM's implementation. 2000/1000 cable is a thing already in the real world but not happening on VM. 

As far as vanity tiers go VM like advertising fastest widely available so when Openreach release their 1.8 Gbit/s download wholesale product in the not too distant VM either give that up or go higher. VM have never given it up. It's why Gig1 is 1.1-whatever Gbit. 

The vanity runs both ways: punters have the fastest, they sell the fastest.

Going to 100 upload was way more expensive than 2000 down. 2000 down has been ready to go for a while and is inevitable. 

XGSPON Capable.

It's a bit like IPv6 Capable.

VM Reality will be different, expect their packages to slightly beat BT and not much else.

----
I do not work for VM, but I would. It is just a Job.
Most things I say I make up and sometimes it's useful, don't be mean if it's wrong.
I would also make websites for them, because the job never seems to require the website to work.


@VMCopperUser wrote:

XGSPON Capable.

It's a bit like IPv6 Capable.

VM Reality will be different, expect their packages to slightly beat BT and not much else.


Why would they do this and leave that upload capacity sitting there doing nothing? They're paying for it by paying more for ONTs with burst mode lasers. 

A reminder a fair amount of the XGSPON is going to be Nexfibre, with VM a customer. VM's cable network's limitations aren't Nexfibre's problem. 

Martyn
Up to speed

just got xgspon, 1140/52 -.- wonder how long for the new packages?

Connection: Virgin FTTP Gig2 (XGSPON)

MrJG08
On our wavelength

Are you trialling it or is that your area fully up and running for everyone?

Did you ask them about symmetrical speeds?

What a load of **bleep**, wth is the point in using around 0.05% of the available bandwidth and crippling the connection.

 

Trialing, it does seem strange, also no sync speed available in the hub 🤔 I guess that’s just the new network 

Connection: Virgin FTTP Gig2 (XGSPON)

MrJG08
On our wavelength

Let us know how it goes and if you get any speed changes.

Thanks.