Same here, moved from O2 Premium because
1) always needed higher speeds, got tired of asking wife "are you downloading? I need to do some work via VPN"
2) O2 have recently jacked up the prices on old, unlimited packages and are clearly wanting to get rid of them altogether, putting everyone on more expensive and limited packages with stupid P2P restrictions.
And so:
* 37.5/8.2 Mbps up/down. Rock stable.
* FREE BT Home Hub 3 (just £5 P&P though, fair enough) -- not many options there but hey, I just want it to work and that's what it does.
* WPA2 security.
* Tab with codes you can take out of router, enter into your laptop, then put back.
* WiFi "N" means the WiFi experience is now much better. Both my work laptops support 802.11n and with both I get a lovely experience where speedtest.net shows me same net speed as above via wired. So saved on switch downstairs already - WiFi now gives me great speed, usually 144 or 130 Mbps nominal.
* You can configure the router to turn off WiFi while you sleep, to save on energy bills even further (they say router even at full op takes less energy than an energy saving light bulb).
* 4 Ethernet ports available; port 4 is Gigabit, ports 1-3 FastEthernet. Also there's USB port, good for a memory stick, but won't work with a printer. Port 4 could be used for your NAS.
* BT FON and OpenZone - virtually unlimited WiFi around whole UK and abroad, too. You can choose to join FON or not - they don't care, you still get your WiFi. I did - it is just fair and they only would give 512kbps separate subnet to the FON customers when they are connected.
* Quite good and convenient billing system.
* Now, no FUP (was about 300GB a month). It's now really Infinity.
* I can see by speedtest.net there is still reserve of bandwidth, so they just shape link rate at 40Mbps, more is definitely possible. The engineer said during the installation that there very probably will be speed upgrade somewhere down the road. (By Force, am I happy after very boring 4/1 I used to have...)
All that for £28 a month: BT Infinity Option 2 (Unlimited) + BT Unlimited Anytime Calls (including 0800, 0845, 0870). First 3 months FREE, router is FREE too, just £5 P&P. I also took Rental Saver offer -- £120 up front for a year's worth of line rental (£12.60 pm otherwise i.e. £151.20 annually).
Additional stuff:
* 5GB space for backup. With this upload speed - 8Mbps - online backup is a doddle. Can buy 50GB if you want but I am very content with SkyDrive now.
* Email account which I use for job search as it has my first & last name - looks serious.
* FREE Security software (McAfee based? dunno, don't use myself) - lots of licences.
* Child web nanny software (for those with kids).
Now, the drawbacks.
* 18 months contract. (So what, if I move house, I'll take this with me.)
* They do shape P2P. Work days from 1500 till 2400, weekends from 0900 till 2400 (if I got my memory right). So I just leave it overnight and in the morning voila, files are here; I set the client to shut down after getting file and seeding till decent ratio. Somehow upload always keeps roughly at 100KB/sec (~800 Kbps) even though it's not limited by me - don't know the reason (P2P shaping or just me?).
* There were a few niggles on the web site, showing incorrect plan (BT dealing with it right now); but activation was at the date they said, the engineer moved the master socket where I wanted it, now no need for Powernet between downstairs & upstairs... They respond to my tickets, usually a support person calls you and gets all details by phone. Good lads.
... did have to perform couple router/modem pair moves to obtain the best WiFi quality... and that's it!
"It just works" © Steve Jobs
So far, so very good.
Cheers
M
Edited by deleted (Fri 10-Jun-11 03:45:08)
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