What is VDSL? | Reliable reviews

VDSL stands for High Speed ​​Digital Subscriber Line. In the UK, the most common standard is VDSL2, connected via FTTC, often subscribed to by BT Openreach, although other telephone companies using cable infrastructure include EE and Plusnet.

The FTTC stands for Fiber-To-The-Cabinet. This means that the nearest street closet is connected to the telephone exchange with a fiber-optic cable, but when connected to the closet is still used copper telephone wiring of the old school, which is slower, but means that existing infrastructure can be used for faster internet -connections. This last stage of the path is often called the copper last mile.

The fastest VDSL2 VPlus connections (Appendix Q) have a theoretical maximum download speed of 300 Mbps and a maximum download speed of 100 Mbps, but older deployments that did not allow upgrades have a slower upper threshold and are still slower. actual deployments.

The average download speed for VDSL2 FTTC connections in the UK is 42.6 Mbps, but there are strong differences between speeds in urban and rural areas – the longer the copper cable, the slower your internet connection. The highest average download speed for the FFTC VDSL connection was around 16 Mbps in 2021.

For comparison: full fiber load speeds (FTTP or Fiber-To-The-Premises) averaged 145.4 Mbps, and for cable connections (for fiber-optic cable infrastructure from an independent vendor such as Virgin Media) averaged 111.1 Mbps, but peaked at a download speed of 490.3 Mbps, depending on the subscriber package. Neither Virgin Media’s cable nor BT’s full fiber offerings use VDSL, but instead use fiber or cable modems rebranded by reputable manufacturers.

VDSL modems and modem routers differ in that in the UK they still use a standard RJ11 cable that goes from a regular telephone outlet to the back of a router or modem.

You can often search for VDSL modem routers of your choice. In cable and full fiber installations you will usually have a special junction box to which you can then connect a standard unmodeled network router.

Modernization is underway across the UK to increase the coverage of fiber networks, leaving more business subscribers and consumer subscribers to receive full fiber connections. You can use Mobile and broadband check from Ofcom to see what speeds are available for your address.

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The data in this explanation are taken from Ofcom Online report on the nation for 2021 and Study of broadband speeds.