Nine members and a guest (who is signing up when she sees our treasurer) were at Warsash. Stuart recently had full-fibre broadband installed, courtesy of CityFibre and Portsmouth-based ISP Toob. Everyone will be getting fibre installed in homes and businesses, as Openreach are in the process of replacing the copper wire based telephone network with fibre (even those who want 'just a phone line'- obviously not you, dear readers!), and CityFibre, Toob (who have their own network in some parts of Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire) and many others, plus Virgin Media, are building their own networks. So, Stuart talked about the install process, how we got here, via dial-up, ISDN, ADSL, and the fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) that's been the fastest option for many of us until now, and what you can do with a 900mbps connection (upload as well as down). Downloading a terabyte worth of software in three hours or less instead of 42 hours or more, for a start! Some of the attendees had already switched to a similar speed with Openreach or others, and much discussion on the topic followed.
If you want to find out what services you can get in your area, the Ofcom broadband checker is the best starting point- some sites don't list CityFibre (or other non Openreach/Virgin Media options) at all, or only mention some ISPs. Spending some time then investigating your options will pay dividends- certain sites tend to favour 'big brand' services like Sky and Virgin, not necessarily the fastest, cheapest or best value options.
Also, Linus Sebastian did an excellent video on his YouTube channel about what you can and can't do with such a speedy connection (the pricing issue he mentions thankfully doesn't really apply in the UK, full-fibre is the same price or less than slower options from most providers).
