Copper Broadband

[ACM475]

I am currently waiting for Openreach to reconnect the street cabinet to my house so that I can access BT broadband. According to Openreach the maximum download speed over copper cable is 24 mbps. How then can BT offer 76 Mbps? No doubt there is some wizardly process, but it would be interesting to know.

Thanks

[countrypaul · Accepted solution]

Iirc:

ADSL up to 8Mb/s

ADSL2 up o 24 Mb/s

VSDL up to 80 Mb/s  (FTTC)

It suggests you will be on ADSL2 rather than VDSL

[ACM475]

Thanks, but then how can BT offer 67 Mbps?

[imjolly]

It is possible your cabinet/area has not been upgraded yet to FTTC -  fibre to cabinet and copper to your home hence your connection is limited to ADSL2+ speed

[iniltous]

Your question is a little vague , BT ( and any other ISP that offers access to Openreach FTTC ) can offer 74Mb ,  ( in fact they can offer up-to 80Mb over copper,  if FTTC is available ) that’s if  the property quoted that speed , is close enough to the cabinet to receive it ( in my case , I’m around 80-100m away from the cabinet and 80Mb is easily achieved ) before FTTC was available, the copper ADSL service was about 3Mb because the exchange is approximately 5Km’s away, both ADSL and FTTC the speed delivered is dependent on the distance from the exchange ( with ADSL) of the cabinet with FTTC .

As already stated the theoretical maximum from exchange based ADSL2 is 24Mb , from VDSL/FTTC is 80Mb , both things are true , obviously if you are not offered FTTC speeds then either there isn’t FTTC available in your area , or , more likely, there is are spare ports in the cabinet.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@ACM475 

You are not going to get 24Mbs on ADSL2+ from BT Retail, its normally limited to 20Mbs, assuming you are adjacent to the exchange.

What BT broadband package have you ordered?

[ACM475]

So am I being misled by BT regarding my expected download speed? It comes with a digital phone connection, presumably using the same bandwidth.

[licquorice]

No.

If you are connected directly to the exchange by copper your maximum speed is 24M

If you are connected to the green cabinet by copper your maximum speed is 80M

In both cases the actual speed will depend on the distance to whichever is serving your property.

However, the number of ports in the green cabinet can be fewer than required and that being the case you can only get the maximum speed of 24M from the exchange until a port becomes free and you can upgrade.

If you enter your address in the checker and post a screenshot (with your address edited out) we can see what is available to you.

Digital Voice uses virtually nothing.

[ACM475]

Sorry I have the screen shot of the cabinet data in my photos, I don't know how to post to this page

[licquorice]

Click on the camera icon