Kodiack:

I feel like I'm partially to blame for this arguing, so let me reiterate: My initial post tonight was largely tongue-in-cheek, and no, I do not have any expectation whatsoever of gigabit connectivity the moment October rolls around. I am quite happy with my connection now, and I'm grateful that we can have such a now-solidly-performing line when we would otherwise be limited to VDSL. I would have personally switched months ago were it not for my flatmates insisting we stay with Vodafone, but now that the congestion has seemingly been sorted, I've been consistently pleased with the results.

However, I do hope that Vodafone will potentially lower prices a bit to stay competitive. My fear is that if Vodafone cannot encourage customers to use the cable network, then they will not continue to invest in it. I'm honestly really impressed with the investment that has apparently gone into the network, even in areas that have fibre available. Though choosing between fibre and cable will be a no-brainer: Fibre will be notably less expensive while simultaneously providing several times the bandwidth. If Vodafone wants the cable network to survive, then they need to give it a competitive edge, otherwise the network is basically only here to satiate many customers until fibre is available.

Particularly for the sake of people that won't be getting fibre for several more years, I do hope that Vodafone can continue to give the HFC network the continued love and attention it needs, as they have for these past several weeks. I imagine the DOCSIS 3.1 rollout will be a huge success, but I hope that Vodafone can at least find a way to keep it running as a reliable revenue stream. As frustrated as I've been with Vodafone's slow improvements over these past 1.5 years, I do still hope that they can do well with this network. It's the only thing that some people have for  "ultra" high-speed Internet access. I just hope that - for the sake of competition - Vodafone can also keep it competing with fibre.

Call me cynical and highly sceptical of anything Vodafone says, I still don't want to see them invest all of these resources into such massive upgrades, only for it all to be for naught two years down the road.

Vodafone, I do wish you the best of luck, even if I am the first to come biting at your feet when congestion rears its ugly head. I understand how difficult the business case for pushing these advancements onto this network must be. At the end of the day, you are providing a service for people that would otherwise be stuck with potentially much worse for years to come. When the network is performing as advertised, it is indeed fair to see that cable is UFB-comparable. Heck, keep advertising UFB even when cable's 100 Mbps and fibre's up to 1000 Mbps. I really, honestly do not care - so long as those advertised speeds are realistic. :)