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Ignitionnet · 29-08-2008, 22:23

Virgin can't afford to build out new areas with existing cable technology let alone with fibre to the home.

Virgin can't afford to offer free upgrades at this time as it requires new modems which are still not cheap. O2 / Be have offered 20/24Mbit services significantly cheaper than Virgin Media for some time and there's been no competitive action from Virgin to address it since the 20Mbit upgrade.

100% fibre optic network can provide analogue TV however why would you want to?

Presently TV over fibre at least in the USA isn't IPTV but is delivered in the same way that the fibre optic segment of Virgin's network carries the TV signal. Digital signals modulated onto an RF carrier, multiplexed and carried on a particular wavelength on the fibre then demodulated at the home. The NTU converts the optical signal into RF to be carried on a bit of coax to a set top box. You could do similar with analogue if you chose carrying it on wavelengths on the fibre.

They could certainly also provide telephony, infact BT's Ebbsfleet trial provides for telephony using a standard telephone. Your dial tone comes from the NTU again, which is battery backed up to continue to provide telephone service during power failure. You just plug the phone into a port in the home which goes back to the NTU which allocates a 64kbit digital channel in a kinda similar manner to telephony over ISDN.

29-08-2008, 22:23	#17
Ignitionnet Inactive Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire Age: 45 Posts: 13,996	Re: fibre optic is ist worth it? Virgin can't afford to build out new areas with existing cable technology let alone with fibre to the home. Virgin can't afford to offer free upgrades at this time as it requires new modems which are still not cheap. O2 / Be have offered 20/24Mbit services significantly cheaper than Virgin Media for some time and there's been no competitive action from Virgin to address it since the 20Mbit upgrade. 100% fibre optic network can provide analogue TV however why would you want to? Presently TV over fibre at least in the USA isn't IPTV but is delivered in the same way that the fibre optic segment of Virgin's network carries the TV signal. Digital signals modulated onto an RF carrier, multiplexed and carried on a particular wavelength on the fibre then demodulated at the home. The NTU converts the optical signal into RF to be carried on a bit of coax to a set top box. You could do similar with analogue if you chose carrying it on wavelengths on the fibre. They could certainly also provide telephony, infact BT's Ebbsfleet trial provides for telephony using a standard telephone. Your dial tone comes from the NTU again, which is battery backed up to continue to provide telephone service during power failure. You just plug the phone into a port in the home which goes back to the NTU which allocates a 64kbit digital channel in a kinda similar manner to telephony over ISDN.