Tag: Internet service offers

Article

Fibre to the premises courtesy of Gigaclear

“Full Fibre” ISPs Call on ASA to Stop Misleading UK “Fibre Broadband” Adverts | ISP Review

My Comments

While the NBN are taking things slowly to roll out next-generation broadband Internet in to Australian communities and providing most with a fibre-copper service, the UK are facing a similar problem.

Most of urban Britain are being provisioned with similar fibre-copper next-generation broadband service, typically “fibre-to-the-cabinet” with a copper VDSL2 link between the street cabinet and the customer’s door. This is while a handful of ISPs and infrastructure providers like Gigaclear, Cityfibre and Hyperoptic are running fibre-to-the-premises next-generation broadband infrastructure, whether to country properties or large urban developments.

But a lot of telcos and ISPs are using the word “fibre” as part of hawking their next-generation broadband Internet product, while it is seen as a keyword by the marketers to say that the service will provide higher bandwidth to the customer than what was normally expected. This is although they are running a fibre-copper Internet service in most of their territories.

What is being raised is how should a broadband service be qualified in relationship to its infrastructure when the service is advertised to the public. It isn’t just about whether a service implements fibre to the premises or not, but how much of the run between the exchange or head-end and the customer’s premises is being covered by a fibre link.

There has to be distinct keywords to say that a service is being provided “fibre-to-the-premises”, a “majority-fibre” service like fibre-to-the-building or fibre-to-the-distribution-point, or a “minority-fibre” service like fibre-to-the-cabinet. Other issues that need to be raised is whether a service is being delivered with symmetrical (upload / download) bandwidth or is an “exclusive bandwidth” service like active fibre where each customer gets the full contracted bandwidth rather than facing bandwidth contention.

What Gigaclear and co are raising is that customers need to know what they are able to get when they sign up for a next-generation broadband Internet service or other advanced telecommunications service.

Article 

50 MBit/s und mehr: Verbraucher wollen immer schnelleres Internet | Computer Bild.de (German language | Deutsche Sprache)

My Comments`

Recently, German households are gaining better value for money when it comes to purchasing broadband Internet service. This is affecting the higher-speed 50Mbps service packages that are being preferred by the younger people.

German Internet customers preferring better value for money for their “50Mbps Talk and Surf” service

These plans are being underscored by their availability as part of multiple-play communications-service deals which include fixed or mobile voice telephony, broadband Internet along with other services. In Germany, the service package that is commonly preferred is the “double-play” service, marketed as a “Talk & Surf” service that encompasses a fixed-line telephone service and a broadband Internet service.

The article highlighted an increase in the preferred connection speed for the broadband services over 5 years with households showing strong interest in the 50Mbps services rather than the “economy” 16Mbps services. As well, the average cost of a fixed-line telephone + broadband service in that country had been dropping slightly from EUR€35.73 per month now to EUR€28.82 per month.

It is being underscored with the increased availability of better-value 50Mbps services in Germany’s larger cities but the 16Mbps “economy” packages are being found to have reduced value for money and this price drop is being described as being a slow one. As is often noted, this kind of value for money when it comes to Internet service doesn’t extend to rural areas which tend to find themselves at a disadvantage in this field.

Personally, I would attribute the increased ubiquity of VDSL-based Internet service in Germany’s urban areas being a factor leading to the improved value for money when it comes to the higher-speed packages.

But the questions to raise regarding the German broadband market is whether there is significant infrastructure-level competition in that country? Similarly, the availability of retail-level competition for residential and small-business telecommunications services has to exist at a sustainable level to assure customers best value for money.

At least something is happening for German households where they are gaining better value for money with their Internet services.