Fibre Optic Broadband - is it worth it?!
- Thread starter Andy B
- Start date
Buz
Registered user
OK
Not as much as Virgin/Cable etc, at least BT will give you broadband throughout the Country.
For the likes of me and you we're never gonna get a decent speed. It's not financially viable. We can get a BT line but no one else where we live, cable will never be offered to us, those companies are only interested in the large cities/estates where they can hit a lot of households with minimal outlay. It's a good job BT are there to supply a basic broadband and dont get me started on Payphones
Which of the old exchanges are you on? I put most of the ones I can remember into http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search and only Lydbrook came up as having no alternative to BT.
Mind you, the names that came up most often were Tiscal & TalkTalk, which I would recommend avoiding.
Here's Coleford: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SSCOL
ADSL2, Tiscali as LLU available.
Buz
Registered user
I'm off Cinderford exchange but don't live in Cinderford
Some areas of Cinderford/The Forest can have Sky/Tiscali etc but the speed isn't going to be any faster due to the fact they ares still using the BT Network.
What i'm saying is the fact none of the 'cable' suppliers would be interested in us out here in the sticks but BT will.
I'm off Cinderford exchange but don't live in Cinderford
Some areas of Cinderford/The Forest can have Sky/Tiscali etc but the speed isn't going to be any faster due to the fact they ares still using the BT Network.
What i'm saying is the fact none of the 'cable' suppliers would be interested in us out here in the sticks but BT will.
They'll only be using BT for the link from you to the exchange. A LLU operator will have a fibre optic link into the exchange and their own hardware connected to your phone line.
You can keep your phone on BT or switch it over to the LLU supplier.
Since I switched to Bethere's LLU via my BT line my speed has gone from just under 2meg to over 5meg. Upload speed has trebled to over 1meg.
I've got a 50meg line and it's fantastic for downloading.
..pay for up to 10meg so can't complain
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E. Buygum
Registered user
The LLU Operators don't have kit in every exchange, only where they think they can make money. Sky has about 1,300 "unbundled" exchanges, for the remaining 4,000+, they use BT Wholesale. A lot of the LLU Operators have networks which are even more congested than BT's and the kit they use is not fundamentally different from that in BT's 21C exchanges. Apart from Virgin, only BT Wholesale is offering Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC), although you can buy it through a number of Communication Providers e.g. BT Retail (Infinity) and Zen. Sky, O2 etc. must be really hacked off as they have invested millions in ADSL 2+ ("up to 20/24Mb") equipment and now BT Wholesale is leapfrogging them with FTTC which uses the much faster VDSL2.
On a related not, Broadband coverage and average speeds in the UK aren't much different from the rest of Europe as exactly the same technologies are used and the laws of Physics apply, even in France. We tend to compare less favourably in urban areas where the ridiculous "let's have a lot of competing cable companies" strategy still hasn't been sorted out by the Virgin consolidation.
There's a bit more to it than that. Most of the problem is not down to installing the cables, it's down to trunking. BT benefited from public funding for most of its trunking which gave it a competitive advantage over any cable companies who were (and still are for the most part) denied access to that trunking and therefore needed to install their own. There's a good reason that all those cable companies went under and were merged into one.
The infrastructure that BT put in originally was, thankfully, greatly over engineered and with the advances in technology we've all benefitted from that (a typical copper pair was only supposed to be able to carry less than 56kb/s, not the Mb/s speeds we're asking from it now).
Buz
Registered user
But at least we have Broadband from BT, even if it is very poor in speed.
TBH i have about 1-1.5Mb at best and that is more than sufficient for my personal use and for homeworking. Probably due to the fact i dont download films and such like. I cant very well complain at the speed, I choose to live where I live and a perk of working for BT is free rental for BB
Lets be honest, Comms Companies need to make money so will always go the route of maximum income for minimum outlay
BT's biggest switch centre in Birmingham is bang opposite my office so 50 feet to my front door? Still only get about 6Mb on what is supposed to be a 10Mb package. As I have more and more people in the office it needs to be a bit more robust.
Had decided to go with Virgin but they say they don't have any fibre in my street!
I live no more than 200 meters away (in cable length) from my local exchange.
My speed is
I'm on an 8mb package.
But we now consider broadband to be pretty much an essential utility.Lets be honest, Comms Companies need to make money so will always go the route of maximum income for minimum outlay
Other utility companies are regulated in such a way that access and costs are pretty much universal, maybe comms should be regulated in the same way.
That's some of the problem. CONSIDER it to be essential.
It may feel that way at times, but it's not like water, elec and gas is it??
And as for an essential link, it's amazing how many people don't have a back up system (ie dial up) for when things go tits up...
True, and for those who are outside the cable area Virgin offer ADSL. I accept that companies have to make money out of it and that VM have not expanded the network significantly since coming in to the cable market, but cherry picking those areas that BT is in competition with VM for does not mean that they're doing it just for the money. Remember, we're talking about properties that are 300 metres apart and they've put the heavy infrastructure in already at the exchange end.
Many don't have a backup because they don't need it due to:-
1. The high level of uptime that it has
2. The speed to fix that it has
How many here have a separate water supply? A backup sewer? More than 1 form of heating for the hot water supply?
Essential does not necessarilly mean required 100% of the time.
1. The high level of uptime that it has
2. The speed to fix that it has
How many here have a separate water supply? A backup sewer? More than 1 form of heating for the hot water supply?
Essential does not necessarilly mean required 100% of the time.
Deleted account Cooperman
Registered user
Was on TalkTalk. Line kept dropping = 1 v unhappy gaming son.
Problem because TT had my phone line, to move elsewhere needed a BT line = +£100.
Found out I will have BT Infinity from December. This equates to a speed for my location of 30
So to save the hassal I have moved back to BT on an unlimied package with no cost for bringing the phone line back
So far so good. Very stable connection and all speed checks are improved getting 7 from a previous 4.
Bring on December - to infinity and...........
Problem because TT had my phone line, to move elsewhere needed a BT line = +£100.
Found out I will have BT Infinity from December. This equates to a speed for my location of 30
So to save the hassal I have moved back to BT on an unlimied package with no cost for bringing the phone line back
So far so good. Very stable connection and all speed checks are improved getting 7 from a previous 4.
Bring on December - to infinity and...........
