Why UK's Ebbsfleet Fibre Trial is Slow

IanFogg | June 23, 2008, 11:36 AM

A couple of weeks ago I was quoted on the BBC describing the BT/Openreach Ebbsfleet fibre as slow. What the BBC missed was my emphasis on upload speeds, see the speeds listed here and compare them with other European countries in this report.

So, this UK trial is offering just 2Mbps upload speed, compared with 10-100Mbps fibre-inspired upload speeds elsewhere in Europe.

What I find most frustrating about this is that a trial should be aiming to understand how a service will perform and how user behaviour will change. This paltry 2Mbps upload speed is little different from DSL speeds: Telefonica-owned Be already offer commercially a 2Mbps upload speed in the UK.

The BBC is not completely wrong though: the Ebbsfleet download speeds are not especially wonderful either.

Related reports:

The Fiber Alphabet,
FTTx Broadband Technology and Its Effect on Net Neutrality

The Fiber Future
How FTTx Speeds Compare with WiMAX, 3G, DSL, and Cable