Home Broadband & Home Phone

[Khalidz]

Does fibre optic broadband really make a HUGE difference to online gaming?
Is it really worth paying the extra for it? I say extra as it will cost me only £1 more for BT infinity as I am paying £13 for o2 broadband on the middle package and paying BT for my line rental so I could triple my speeds.
Has anyone done the change over to fibre optic? and is it that much faster...?
Thanks

[Guest2]

Does fibre optic broadband really make a HUGE difference to online gaming?

Probably not because speed is not that important, latency is and having a fibre product it's not any better or worse.

Is it really worth paying the extra for it? I say extra as it will cost me only £1 more for BT infinity as I am paying £13 for o2 broadband on the middle package and paying BT for my line rental so I could triple my speeds.

See here
But if it's only £1 more then it seems silly not to but looking around the forums there are many users that aren't getting the speeds that they think they should......now where have I seen that before ?...oh yes up to 20meg ADSL !
The problem is everybody, and that includes BT, is still learning about vDSL.

[Waylander]

Does fibre optic broadband really make a HUGE difference to online gaming?
Is it really worth paying the extra for it? I say extra as it will cost me only £1 more for BT infinity as I am paying £13 for o2 broadband on the middle package and paying BT for my line rental so I could triple my speeds.
Has anyone done the change over to fibre optic? and is it that much faster...?
Thanks

Probably not, a better upload would help if your hosting a server mind you. But if your not suffering from lag of high pings beyond a certian point your not going to see a differnce.

[Chris1207]

Does fibre optic broadband really make a HUGE difference to online gaming?

Probably not because speed is not that important, latency is and having a fibre product it's not any better or worse.

Slightly disagree with this part... most ADSL connections, and certainly O2's have interleaving on the line. This can increase ping times, albeit usually not to a significant degree... however it can increase lag.
Personally, I play on french game servers. Previously on VM I got a 25-30 ping, now I get a 40-50 ping - so not a significant change, but the lag that interleaving causes can really affect game play at certain times.
On fast moving FPS / MMORPGS, it can be the difference between life and death !
If I could get my VM connection back for anywhere near the (much MUCH lower) price I'm paying now - I'd go back to them in a flash.
Don't get me wrong, my O2 connection is fast (22.5mb/2.5mb up (annex M, yes the exchange is in my back garden), and it's generally pretty stable and reliable. But, IT'S NOT FIBRE !

[Guest2]

@Chris1207
N.B. I'm not a gamer.
Agreed, lag is caused by the interleaving function performing on FEC and if interleaving was off but latency was still at the same level then the lag would not be apparent. So if forward error correction is at a high level then the greater the lag i.e. if the line /connection is very good then even with interleaving on the lag may be bearable because interleaving doesn't have to work very hard.
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/interleaving.htm
But whether the throughput speed is 8Mb or 38Mb would make no discernible difference to gameplay.

[Khalidz]

Thanks lads!
You have given me plenty to think about, sticking with O2 or moving to fibre optics with BT for £1 extra
The issue with BT is their horrific customer service which I have been burnt before with.
I play online gaming most of the time for PES 2012 PS3 which is really just servers and I do not have too many issues eventhough my noise margin on my BB II is on 12 and I am getting 13mb Download and 0.94mb upload which is not great but ok for now. I know soon online gaming might need fibre optics to run more efficently with gaming getting more and more advanced.
decision decisions eh...

[npr Level 27: Desk Jockey]

The issue with BT is their horrific customer service which I have been burnt before with.

Why just BT, have you looked at Plusnet's FTTC. Yes they are owned by BT but do have a good reputation.

[Khalidz]

With BT it seems alot more cheaper with their line rental and infinity package, have not looked at plusnet, never knew they did fibre optics.
Cheers will check it out!

[Chris1207]

@Chris1207
N.B. I'm not a gamer.
Agreed, lag is caused by the interleaving function performing on FEC and if interleaving was off but latency was still at the same level then the lag would not be apparent. So if forward error correction is at a high level then the greater the lag i.e. if the line /connection is very good then even with interleaving on the lag may be bearable because interleaving doesn't have to work very hard.
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/interleaving.htm
But whether the throughput speed is 8Mb or 38Mb would make no discernible difference to gameplay.

Yup, agreed. The one thing fibre has over DSL products though is that, unless there's contention/congestion issues, it has practically no lag - but speed is generally irrelevant.

[Guest2]

The one thing fibre has over DSL products though is that, unless there's contention/congestion issues, it has practically no lag

Why is that, do you know ?....I understand that vDSL has dynamic interleaving i.e. it can't be turned off, so unless the connection is "always perfect" surely lag must enter the equation occasionally ?