Should I take BT 20CN or BE?

I am currently on O2 Access (local exchange not unbundled) but that has to end and I think I want to migrate to AAISP.

AAISP sales tell me that I can either have a BT 20CN line or a BE line. What should I go for?

Is the BE line and its advantags worth the £20 more per month on the basic price?

I am aware that the units on BE give more value for money, especially in peak time.

However, if I decided for the BT 20CN I could restrict my use and manage with not doing much in peak time (maybe 2 GB = 2 units per month) and relegating donwloads to the off-peak or even night time.

So my estimate on the base of this would be that I need 4-5 units on BT 20CN which would come to £24 or £27 per month.

On BE, I could possible do the same with only 2 units (maybe 3 units), bringing it to £38 or £41 per month.

This calculation already brings the price difference BT vs BE down from the £20 to maybe £10 to £15 pm.

Would you recommend the BE line under these circumstances?

How much faster than BT 20CN would the BE line be?

Currently, my line syncs at 2,500 on O2 Access (BT 20CN).

I could live with that if I could get any decent speed at all on O2 which I can't. Sometimes the real speed goes down to dial-up modem speeds. With AAISP I expect to get a good ADSL speed even on BT 20CN.

But if BE can give more, this is tempting

Edited by deleted (Thu 15-Apr-10 18:34:29)

Post deleted by 12eason

You can't get BE with AAisp if your exchange isn't unbundled.

In reply to a post by 12eason:

You can't get BE with AAisp if your exchange isn't unbundled.

That is what I originally thought as well, but AAISP are adamant that they CAN get me connected on BE while O2 (and samknows and BE) say the exchange is NOT unbundled.

We emailed AAISP and this was their answer: "Thank you for your email. I can confirm that Broadband through a BE line is available on your line. Please go ahead and place the order."

Maybe AAISP sales advisors got it wrong? Howeber, when I go to the order process on the AAISP website it also gives me BT 20CN and BE as available options (upon entering the phone number of the line).

My exchange is THP (Pangbourne, Berkshire)

What would you suggest I do?

By the way, my original post included a typo in the sync speed which I have corrected by editing.

Here is the current status from the O2 router:

DSL Connection
Uptime: 1 day, 2:28:18
Modulation: G.992.1 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 448 / 2,848

As the modulation shows, it is definitely (and unfortunately) O2 Access. The cost is £22.50 without discount, £5 less if the O2 mobile is topped up with at least £10 within a quarter). LLU would be only £12.50/£7.50 on O2.

In reply to a post by robjames:

In reply to a post by 12eason:

You can't get BE with AAisp if your exchange isn't unbundled.

That is what I originally thought as well, but AAISP are adamant that they CAN get me connected on BE while O2 (and samknows and BE) say the exchange is NOT unbundled.

We emailed AAISP and this was their answer: "Thank you for your email. I can confirm that Broadband through a BE line is available on your line. Please go ahead and place the order."

Maybe AAISP sales advisors got it wrong? Howeber, when I go to the order process on the AAISP website it also gives me BT 20CN and BE as available options (upon entering the phone number of the line).

My exchange is THP (Pangbourne, Berkshire)

Order it.

Ofcom Classification Market 1
This exchange has BT Wholesale as the sole provider of broadband services.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Order it

Okay, but why? How better off will we be speedwise with BE?

See my original question.

In reply to a post by robjames:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Order it

Okay, but why? How better off will we be speedwise with BE?

Depends on your attenuation. What is it?

In reply to a post by robjames:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Order it

Okay, but why? How better off will we be speedwise with BE?

See my original question.

With a BE line, you won't be constrained by any line profiles, so what your line is currently sync'd at is what you will get (less the usual overheads, of course). Also, on BE, you can select noise margins and interleave settings yourself.

Edited by deleted (Thu 15-Apr-10 22:26:53)

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Depends on your attenuation. What is it?

DSL Connection
Uptime: 1 day, 6:29:50
Modulation: G.992.1 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 448 / 2,848
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 18.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 31.5 / 59.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 16.0 / 15.0
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / TSTC
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 1 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 3 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 2 / 2,123,555
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 2 / 1,509
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 1 / 1,276

Well, your line sync probably won't improve much but the lack of profiling and throttling will improve your connection no end - if indeed, you were able to get BE.