Is fibre broadband a waste of £ for our situation?

wiganken · 17 Jan 2021

My ADSL (copper wire) download speed is 13.2 Mbps (see BT Wholesale Test Result picture), which I feel is enough bandwidth for our situation. We use Netflix which only needs 5 Mbps leaving 8.2 Mbps for one other user (there are only the two of us). We only do web browsing, emails and maybe the odd online video clip.

Actual download speed is also dependant on remote server throttling the speed at which they stream data packets so high bandwidth does not guarantee high download speed.

Question - Am I right that, in this scenario, paying extra money (about £4/month extra) for extra bandwidth (up to 35 Gbps) by changing over to VDSL (Fibre-to-the-cabinet in our case) would be a waste of money?

Thanks

EdTittel · 17 Jan 2021

If you can live with your current level of performance without chafing or feeling restricted, then there's no reason to pay extra. With my son attending high school full-time at home right now, and self, son and wife on the Internet all the time, we would go mad at your levels of bandwidth. As a wise, wild old consultant once told me "The answer to any good question always begins with the same two words -- namely 'That depends...'" In your case, whether or not to upgrade depends on trading the positive consequences of a modest speed boost against the higher monthly costs. If the expense is trivial, upgrading causes no pain. If the improved performance means you can do more (and in my case, that means "more work and mo' money") the upgrade literally pays for itself. Otherwise, status quo is always easy and involves no extra effort.
HTH,
--Ed--

Megahertz · 17 Jan 2021

I have cable TV and the internet access is by coaxial TV cable.
I originally had 15M bps and was enough for my needs (Netflix, downloads)
Due to another ISP with optic fiber on the market offering me higher speeds, I received an upgrade, first to 60M bps and then to 120M bps (same contracted price -15Mbps)
I didn't see any real difference. Of course downloads are much faster, but It don't make any difference it it takes 8 minutes or 2 minutes to download as I will be doing another task while downloading on the background.
A faster link doesn't always mean a faster download. Most of the time the source server limits the speed or sometimes is the multi network connections.

£4/month isn't much but you didn't mentioned how much you pay for the 13.2 Mbps.
Another thing to consider is that it requires a new cabling and new fiber cable modem. Do you pay for them?

trevo · 17 Jan 2021

wiganken said:

Question - Am I right that, in this scenario, paying extra money (about £4/month extra) for extra bandwidth (up to 35 Gbps) by changing over to VDSL (Fibre-to-the-cabinet in our case) would be a waste of money?

Thanks

You obviously meant 35 Mbps...but that is a 3-fold increase with newer technology over your current situation.

For around a pound a week, if you can afford it, go for it.

z3r010 · 17 Jan 2021

For an extra £4 p/m I think it would definitely be worth it, the extra download combined with the extra upload speed I think would give you a better Internet experience.

Samuria · 17 Jan 2021

In most cases Plusnet is cheaper than BT it's owner by BT but better you get router for free and trouble free. ADSL is old now and suffers more from noise and fibre is cheap

cereberus · 17 Jan 2021

Most of my company are working from Home and using MS Teams several hours a day sharing screens and accessing company network. For those on normal cable at around 10 mbps, they found it a struggle. Those who have upgraded to fibre found an enormous benefit.

If all you are doing is accessing things like netflix, maybe 10 mbps is adequate. If you are working from home or childeren are schooling from home, it is really no contest - upgrade.

Bree · 17 Jan 2021

wiganken said:

My ADSL (copper wire) download speed is 13.2 Mbps (see BT Wholesale Test Result picture), which I feel is enough bandwidth for our situation.....

You are not getting near the 'maximum achievable download speed' of 21Mbps, the IP Profile for your line at 13.99Mbps suggests you won't get near the quoted achievable 35Mbps for the upgrade package either. It seems that you may be a long way from the exchange (or your line is poor). That may not make the upgrade as worthwhile as it looks.

For comparison, my copper 'last leg' from cabinet to home is relatively short, and the cabinet is quite close to the exchange. I'm getting close to the maximum on my package.

wiganken · 17 Jan 2021

Megahertz - Your comment "I didn't see any real difference. Of course downloads are much faster, but It don't make any difference it it takes 8 minutes or 2 minutes to download as I will be doing another task while downloading on the background." confirms what I was thinking.

Also your comment "A faster link doesn't always mean a faster download. Most of the time the source server limits the speed or sometimes is the multi network connections.". I agree and have had experience of this when downloading large Windows updates and Microsoft throttle things at their end.

I am currently paying £20.30/month to Plusnet (includes Line Rental) and a £4/month increase to get fibre is not the issue. The issue is paying £4/month and not seeing the benefit on a daily basis. I would probably only see the benefit if Microsoft did not throttle Windows updates and that would only be once/month.

Megahertz · 17 Jan 2021

£4/month is a 20% increase but if you don't need, why pay more?
Another thing to consider is that it requires a new cabling and new fiber cable modem. Do you pay for them?