SoGEA stands for Single Order Generic Ethernet Access.
Up until now, to deliver broadband to a home or office, you needed to have a traditional phone line installed and then ADSL Broadband or Fibre Broadband provided on top of it.
BT Openreach are now delivering a single order version of Fibre Broadband and GFast Fibre Broadband that means you or the provider do not have to install a traditional copper phone line to compliment the service. SoGEA includes an underlying version of a phone line.
The advantages of this are:
- Cheaper Costs: The combined cost of a phone line and broadband is slightly more expensive than SoGEA – but this does vary from provider to provider
- Quicker Fix Times: Faults can now be resolved much quicker since the customer only needs to provide one support call to their provider. Since some users, use one provider for their phone line and another for their broadband, SoGEA negates more than one call.
- Enables easier home working solutions.
- More reliable: Since there is no traditional phone line frequencies being used, there is less of a chance of interference and an unstable connection.
The drawback to this service is that SoGEA users will no longer have access to a phone number. SoGEA does not allow users to connect a traditional phone to the BT Socket. Users will have to adopt VOIP to be able make and receive phone calls.
What is SoGFast Fibre Broadband?
SoGFast Fibre Broadband is the GFast variant of SoGEA Fibre Broadband.
What Speeds are available with SoGEA Fibre Broadband?
The up-to speeds that are currently available are:
- SoGEA 40mb / 10mb
- SoGEA 55mb / 10mb
- SoGEA 80mb / 20mb
Is SoGEA or SoGFast different in performance than FTTC & GFast?
No, you will receive exactly the same performance as you currently do. In some bases you will get a better performance since there is no call traffic that can interfere with integrity of the service.
Where is SoGEA & SoGFast Available?
SoGEA is not available everywhere but it is available to 28 million premises across the UK. It will become more and more common over the next few months.