UK - First customer of BT's FTTH reports almost 100 Mbps service

[trusted reviews] The first customer in the UK on BT’s FTTP trials has been connected, and has reported download speeds between 67.2Mbps and 92.37Mbps. Upload was a steady 15Mbps, the maximum supported by FTTP. Latency was reported as between 5 and 6ms.

Plusnet user ‘herbiejhopkins’ was connected earlier this week, and reported his findings in the PlusNet forums. The speeds achieved depended on the speedtest service used and the time of day it was run.

“So far the connection has been 100% stable, no problems to report. A huge upgrade to my 2Mb ADSL2+ !”, herbiejhopkins reported.

Plusnet is a BT owned ISP, and as such has access to BT’s FTTC (Fibre-to-the-Premises) trials, which uses fibre-optical connections to offers a theoretical download speed of 100Mbps, and a maximum upload of 15Mpbs.

Plusnet said that more FTTP customers would be connected in the next couple of weeks and that it would extend the trial to a batch of customers in the Milton Keynes area.

As its blog post explains, these speeds are achievable as with FTTP there is no copper cable connection anywhere along the link. All copper connections are limited to a theoretical maximum of 24Mbps using ADSL2+.

BT is currently also conducting FTTC trials, with a theoretical maximum of 40Mbps for downloads, where the connection uses optical up to the cabinet, and then copper to the premises.

Cable rival Virgin Media offers up to 50Mbps service on its DOCSIS 3.0 network, has announced plans for a 100Mbps service. It also claims to be trialling 200Mbps and even 400Mbps.

TrustedReviews recently investigated the various issue with Broadband in the UK, and while the Plusnet FTTP speeds are impressive they will do little to dampen the frustrations of those stuck with basic services.

Are you impressed by the speeds achieved with FTTP? Are you stuck in a remote area on a 1Mbps service with no hope in sight? Vent your thoughts in the comments below.

First Fibre-to-the-Premises Customer Connected – Hits 92.7Mbps