Knowledgebase
Will my existing Billion router work with BT Infinity FTTC /FTTP fibre
Posted by Billion UK Support on 31 December 2011 03:46 PM

 

The background

 

BT has started to rollout fibre connectivity either throught their own ISP division (BT Internet) or via other participated ISPs.

There are two variants of fibre, FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) and FTTP (fibre to the premises). FTTC is the one widely available since the cost is much lower than laying fibre directly to any home.

FTTC = fibre to the cabinet from the exchange then VDSL2 to home via existing telephone cables. Since most carbinets are usually within a short distance to homes (less than 1km) a much higher speed than ADSL2+ is achiveable.  ADSL2+ has a maximum limit of 24Mbps downstream where as VDSL2 has a maximum of 200Mbps. Both ADSL and VDSL belongs to the xDSL family so factors like line length, line quality and interference also applies. Currently BT offers up to 40Mbps on their FTTC solutions and are looking to double it up to 80Mbps in 2012.

 

FTTP = fibre to the premises and currently BT offers up to 100Mbps for it. The speed can easily reached 2-300Mbps in the future but due to the cost it is not that widely available. It is more cost effective to have fibre for a block of flats rather than having fibre directly to a single home. Since it is not using xDSL technology so interference has minimal effect.

 

Will my Billion router work with fibre then?

 

Regardless of FTTC or FTTP, BT installation there will some sort of termination point to link up with your equipments i.e. a modem.

Typical installation of BT FTTC will involve an engineer visit to your premises who will then install a BT faceplate and a BT Opereach modem. The modem has a single Ethernet port so you can connect it to a single computer only. In order to share your new fibre line then you will need to connect the BT Openreach modem to a router. You will require a router with a WAN port so you can connec the Openreach modem to the router via an Ethernet cable.

 

List of current Billion routers with a WAN port or EWAN port:

  • BiPAC 6200NXL
  • BiPAC 7300N
  • BiPAC 7402X
  • BiPAC 7402GX
  • BiPAC 7402NX
  • BiPAC 7404VNOX
  • BiPAC 7404VGOX
  • BiPAC 7800
  • BiPAC 7800N
  • BiPAC 7800GZ

 

If your existing Billion router is listed above then it can work with Fibre. You will need to configure the router to use EWAN as main interface and then select PPPoE and enter your ISP's username and password. Setup will be shown in a seperate article.

 

Alternative to the two box solution for FTTC

The Billion BiAPC 8200N is  a VDSL2 modem/ router which can provides a single box solution for FTTC instead of the two box solution. You simply need to connect the telephone cable (RJ-11) to the 8200N instead of your Openreach box and then configure the PPPoE username and password and you can share and enjoy always on Internet connection to multiple computers or wireless devices.