Hyperoptic

Despite being on an estate that is pretty well connected to the internet, our block was the exception. We could get copper broadband, but it seemed like it would be so terrible to not be worth it. Openreach’s checker says it would have “Up to 1 Mbps upload”!

Instead when we moved in, we decided on a 4G router from Three, which has worked well enough for the past year or so. Generally it can give about 30 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload. The latency is terrible though, especially in the evenings. I use Omnissa Horizon remote desktop for work, and it really can’t handle jitter on the link. This ping output makes the problems obvious enough.

root@desktop:~# ping 1.1
PING 1.1 (1.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=45 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=51 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=53 time=2214 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=53 time=1189 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=53 time=181 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=53 time=2700 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=53 time=1691 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=53 time=677 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=53 time=2720 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=10 ttl=53 time=1704 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=11 ttl=53 time=684 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=12 ttl=53 time=2256 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=13 ttl=53 time=1241 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=14 ttl=53 time=223 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=15 ttl=53 time=2583 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=16 ttl=53 time=1574 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=17 ttl=53 time=554 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=18 ttl=53 time=47 ms
64 bytes from 1.0.0.1: icmp_seq=19 ttl=53 time=40 ms

I’ve been talking to the building management company about this for a while. It seemed at one point like Openreach might install, but eventually they emailed with “We’ve reviewed our build plans for your area and there will be a delay getting Full Fibre to [your building]”.

Thankfully Hyperoptic were able to serve the building. One thing that I found interesting is how they’ve connected up the flats. The fibre enters the building via a riser that connects all the floors, containing utilities. Instead of sending the fibre up through this riser, they routed it through the stairwell, around the edges of the ceiling. I suspect this is because the riser is sealed between floors to prevent fires spreading, and breaking this seal will require some kind of recertification.

Somewhat amusingly Hyperoptic managed to schedule an internal installation appointment for before the fibre was actually outside our flat for them to connect it up! The contractor turned up and promptly left again. I’m glad I didn’t opt for the “one touch switch” option, where they would have probably already cancelled our existing connection.

I’ll report back here once the install is complete — hopefully it’ll be done in the next few weeks, without too much more faff. I’m looking forward to the promised 1 Gbps speeds and latency in the single digit millis. The download speed will be ~30x our current speed, with the upload ~100x faster!