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Two_Zons
join:2013-10-22
St Albert, AB

Two_Zons

Member

[AB] FTTH Edmonton (St. Albert) when?

OK, I'm new to these forums, but in my searching for information on the above I found allot of posts here, but no recent ones. Once here, I decided to register as I have been tracking FTTH for years and there seems to be a lot of good discussions here.

Back in the early 90's I saw fiber brought into new homes and thought FTTH was just around the corner. Now in 2013 and fiber seems like vaporware. I've seen "Fiber" and "Optic" used in marketing for DSL and Cable services in different markets but they were just marketing jargon, presumably based on the fiber optic backbone of the network.

I have recently been rejuvenated in my hopes for FTTH. I was just on a trip to see my wife's family in Newfoundland. Her sister has Bell Alliant's internet service called "FiberOP", and she told me that she had fiber optic internet. I was pessimistic, thinking it was just another marketing phrase. So did a check on my phone via her wireless. Speedtest gave me a ping of 9ms, through her wireless (provided by bell) and was quite far from her hub. I've never seen close to 9ms ping to a remote server, ever. I didn't get a chance to get to a hard line and get a good test but I got a DL of 50Mb/s on my phone.

Later I did some reading on Bell Alliant's webpage and it seems that it is indeed FTTH. This is in Newfoundland! They still have all their power lines above ground. Not what I would think of as the province leading the nation in technology and connectivity. Her FTTH plans start at $120/month for 50/30 and include cable and phone. The $180 package is 80/30 and includes full channel cable/HD with PVR. I am extremely jealous.

I am a Shaw extreme customer. I have tested my connection at ~90Mb/s, but my latency is horrible. I constantly get frozen youtube video's, lag and delay with loading web pages. I have had Telus in the past, the speed is no where near as fast but the latency was far superior.

I have seen info here and there that Shaw is going to have FTTH services. Does anyone have any details?
yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON

yyzlhr

Member

Fairly certain that shaw and other cable MSOs are only rolling out FTTH in new developments. It simply does not make sense for cable companies to overlay FTTH in existing areas as an HFC network that is well maintained can offer fibre like speeds.

Telcos like Bell, and Bell Aliant are more keen on rolling out FTTH as xDSL technology can't make it past 100mbps in real world conditions.
Two_Zons
join:2013-10-22
St Albert, AB

Two_Zons

Member

said by yyzlhr:

can offer fiber like speeds.

Speeds yes, but latency NO. Speed is only one aspect of performance. Cable has horrible latency and suffers from peak time performance issues. DL speeds only work when the host can push at your speed, which for 20Mb plus is rare. DSL has much better latency and peak time performance than cable, and Fiber is much better than DSL.
rotohoto
join:2012-03-31
canada

rotohoto

Member

If there is no congestion, docsis adds less than 10ms over what fiber can offer.

Bran Flakes
@24.114.41.x

Bran Flakes to Two_Zons

Anon

to Two_Zons
Cable in St Albert has far better routing than dsl offerings. In fact dsl with IPTV is just as impactful as peak time usage on cable.

Shaw has FTTH in several neighborhoods throughout Edmonton I would call and find out if it's in St Albert yet.

Dsl FTTH Is pointless as same non FTTH speeds are offered albeit you will be ok with having 4 TV's on same time
18286719 (banned)
join:2013-02-02
Whistler, BC

18286719 (banned) to rotohoto

Member

to rotohoto
5-10 ms yes, but a connection that is infinitely more stable with no signal issues, aswell as having potential for upload speeds much higher then docsis

jtl999
join:2012-11-24
canada

jtl999 to Two_Zons

Member

to Two_Zons
Telus has 50/10 now. I have 50/3 with Shaw now it it has the same problems as you have. Switching to Telus soon.
ilianame
join:2002-06-05
Burnaby, BC

ilianame to rotohoto

Member

to rotohoto
said by rotohoto:

If there is no congestion, docsis adds less than 10ms over what fiber can offer.

In real world comparing Shaw to Novus,
I find a 20-30ms average delay with DOCSIS.

Stopped playing FPS competitively because of that.
18286719 (banned)
join:2013-02-02
Whistler, BC

18286719 (banned)

Member

you stopped playing fps why? also im fairly sure that on a node that isnt congested it should take 4-8ms to hit the cmts, from that point on most isps have fiber backbone so essentially good cable connection vs regular fiber connection you will save 4-8ms on the fiber, but unfortunately i still think the biggest deal is peering, telus seems to do the best peering for me, and i have heard novus' peering isnt to great, shaws peering can be good or bad, i found it hilarious that my traffic going to texas was going through van, through edmonton, through chicago, to dallas, lol.
rotohoto
join:2012-03-31
canada

rotohoto to ilianame

Member

to ilianame
said by ilianame:

In real world comparing Shaw to Novus,
I find a 20-30ms average delay with DOCSIS.

I'm not saying you couldn't see that, but of that 20-30ms difference at most 10ms could be chalked up to the fact it was docsis. Assuming a clean line, no congestion, etc etc...
Obviously there's a lot of other factors to account for though.
yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON

yyzlhr to Two_Zons

Member

to Two_Zons
said by Two_Zons:

said by yyzlhr:

can offer fiber like speeds.

Speeds yes, but latency NO. Speed is only one aspect of performance. Cable has horrible latency and suffers from peak time performance issues. DL speeds only work when the host can push at your speed, which for 20Mb plus is rare. DSL has much better latency and peak time performance than cable, and Fiber is much better than DSL.

All of these issues can be managed if the cable company chooses to do so.
Two_Zons
join:2013-10-22
St Albert, AB

Two_Zons

Member

said by yyzlhr:

All of these issues can be managed if the cable company chooses to do so.

"can be" but are not. I have been switching back and forth from DSL to cable for over 15 years in several different locations in the Edmonton area. DSL has consistently lower latency. In my current location I even had them trench new cable to my house. Latency is still bad.