[tomalpha]

Not the bulk of FTTP connections in the UK, to which this article refers, which run over Openreach’s common last-mile or Virgin Media’s DOCSIS cables. They’re the only National operators offering gigabit, or near-gigabit speeds.

There are plenty of smaller ISPs that run their own fibre and do offer symmetric connections, but the bigger players all off asymmetric connections.

[jayflux]

Your comment contradicts itself. You mention a bulk of FTTP connections then mention virgins DOCSIS. I’m assuming you’re talking about their Coaxial cables, if so it’s not FTTP in the first place it will be FTTC.

My understanding is their new fibre lays are all “symmetric ready”, same with BT. You’re right they currently don’t operate them in that fashion, but they’ve laid the groundwork. See below.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/11/first-trial-us...

[iMerNibor]

I'm a customer of virgin's fttp connection, which is converted from fibre to coax on premise - so yes, actual fiber going to your house, but running docsis in some fashion or other

The article you linked covers this as well:

> while more than 1 million of their premises are also being served by “full fibre” FTTP using the older Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) approach to ensure compatibility between both sides of their network.

As for them going symmetric in the future: I'll believe it when they do, not holding my breath

[tokamak-teapot]

Do you know what makes them asymmetric? Is it just traffic shaping at the ISP, or is it some hardware limitation?

[komadori]

It's not necessarily a hardware limitation (depending on hardware), but the at the physical layer the frequency plan for a DSL or PON connection typically allocates a narrower band for upstream traffic than downstream traffic. GPON is usually 2.4 Gbit down and 1.2 Gbit up across everyone attached to the same optical splitter.