In reply to a post by RandomJointer:

>>I'm really surprised to hear that takeup has been poor of Infinity

It hasn't.

BT Group Q3 results reported BT Infinity alone added 95k customers in the quarter.

Here you go again .

Robflet: "In my cab there's only 144, and there's a lot more than 144 homes served by the cabinet".
CarrieLaw: "I hadn't realised that there was a limited number of fibre connections in each box".
Me: "The standard cabinet has space for 288 connections, but only set up for 100 initially. Takeup generally has been poor". (Note no mention of Infinity. My way of condensing the often reported fact that takeup of Openreach FTTC is often reported to below BT Group's expectations).
CarrieLaw: "I'm really surprised to hear that takeup has been poor of Infinity ....".
Me: "It isn't just Infinity, it's Openreach FTTC in general. Though BT Infinity has by far the highest takeup due to price." (Clarification).
CarrieLaw: "I do expect an awful lot of new FTTC connections via Sky's new service in April though".
Me: "Probably".

The whole point is that CarrieLaw does not really need to worry about the number of connections in a cabinet, but that she has a point about Sky may be a game-changer.

Calm down (RJ) dear.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 11-Feb-12 14:39:46)

Always calm, Roberto.

Fact is you were posting misinformation that FTTC takeup was 'generally poor'

It isn't and you were called on it.

BT Infinity alone added more punters in Q3 than Virgin added to cable broadband in the whole year.

I stand by my statement that FTTC takeup is generally poor. Infinity takeup is quite good due to its cut-throat pricing policy.

Unfortunately I don't have access to Openreach and BT Wholesale data on original and revised forecasts against current connections, but believe what I read in respect of those.

I think we both consider Infinity would be a reasonable choice for CarrieLaw.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I stand by my statement that FTTC takeup is generally poor. Infinity takeup is quite good due to its cut-throat pricing policy.

Unfortunately I don't have access to Openreach and BT Wholesale data on original and revised forecasts against current connections, but believe what I read in respect of those.

I suspect that BT are actually quite happy with the FTTC uptake rate (regardless of what they said about Cardiff in March 2011) - hence their decision to increase the rate of their openreach roll-out.

At the moment, they are doing 7,300 BT Infinity installs/week - a 16% increase in the rate compared to the previous quarter.

As most of their big competitors haven't yet launched FTTC products in any meaningful way, BT Retail will also be getting lots of new customers (and having traffic on their own network always appeals to them)

Added to that, other ISP's customers will be ordering FTTC as well

FTTC is now available to 7m households - BT Infinity alone has 400,000 customers (5%) and many of those areas won't have had it available for long, so expect to see a higher uptake as people get used to it being available/see it at their friends/family or finish existing contracts (or Sky etc. roll it out)

There is only one thing now that really does put me off pressing the "order" button for BT Infinity, and that is the horror stories I keep hearing about the customer service in India - or rather lack of customer service. And I suspect that is the same for many people.

I'm absolutely sure now that I want an FTTC connection and have already arranged for my master socket to be moved in readiness, but as yet I'm undecided which company to go for. If I want unlimited at a price I can afford to pay, it has to be either BT or Sky really - but if I could get by on risking 120GB a month I'd probably go for PlusNet or Eclipse in hopes that their CS would be better than BT. Eclipse may be the better bet as I understand downloads at weekends do not form part of the allowance. I know both say you can download overnight outside of the allowance but that isn't any good to me as I'm an early bird to bed!

It's a shame more ISPs don't offer unlimited on FTTC. The whole object of FTTC to me is be be able to download/stream movies and tv shows, music from Spotify, plus the content of iTunes in the Cloud and Photostream. In a way, pricewise to me this feels like the early days of dial-up again on pricing, where I used to have to pay a fortune for an ISP and pay by the minute online. My phone bill regularly ran to £90 a month. Maybe it's simply because it is early days too for FTTC and prices will come down eventually.

EDIT: Apologies I've just seen that Eclipse do indeed do unlimited, but unfortunately it's a LOT more than BT Infinity at £59 per month + line rental. But it's a possibility if I give up my Sky tv package. I suppose I could give Eclipse a try on their cheaper 100GB allowance and see if it's enough for me, and if not bite the bullet, get rid of Sky, and use that money to upgrade to unlimited with Eclipse.

Edited by deleted (Sun 12-Feb-12 09:03:39)

I'm also tempted to switch to Infinity because, for the same cost as my current Zen package, I'd get unlimited usage instead of 50GB downloads at around twice the speed (maybe). But I'm worried about customer service and possible restrictions on what I could do with the connection.

For example: I got the impression from something I read that BT insist on outgoing emails passing through their own SMTP servers and being sent using a BT email address. All my emails have gone for some years through 1 and 1's email service to/from my own domains and I'd obviously want to keep on like that using 1 and 1 servers. Would I have a problem or have I misunderstood something?

I also got the impression that I wouldn't be able to make use of the free WIFI connections when out and about if I didn't share some of my own WIFI from the HomeHub. I'd want to use my existing Billion 7800N (with its Ethernet WAN) instead of the HomeHub - and, indeed, Linux rather than Windows - and, again, I've got the impression that this would cause a problem.

Any advice gratefully received.

p

I hadn't heard about the outgoing emails problem and certainly if true that would be a dealbreaker for me as I've used Fastmail.fm for years and would want to continue doing so.

Regarding the HomeHub, I would probably give it a try for a while and if unhappy then switch to a Netgear. I know Netgear routers work with FTTC as Plusnet and Eclipse use them. I'm confident with Netgear routers, I know their UI, and like to set up my own internal network with assigned IP addresses etc.

I think in reality, most people on here who have Infinity, have an excellent trouble free service. I have had Infinity since April last year with no issues what so ever. Given the price, it is excellent value for money and with download/upload speeds going to double in the next couple of months, it will get only more attractive a proposition.

In reply to a post by nelix01:

I think in reality, most people on here who have Infinity, have an excellent trouble free service. I have had Infinity since April last year with no issues what so ever. Given the price, it is excellent value for money and with download/upload speeds going to double in the next couple of months, it will get only more attractive a proposition.

Yes, like every ISP really - we only tend to hear about the very bad experiences. I'd probably be very happy with Infinity as long as I never had occasion to ring the customer service desk in India.

Thanks CarrieLaw.

The Billion 7800N has an EWAN port and certainly works with Infinity; and I wouldn't want to change it. I've had quite a few routers over the years, including from Netgear, and most have been fine - but the Billion is the best I've found so far. But as you say, it's largely a question of what you're used to and comfortable with.

Apart from anything else, I need to be able to control from the router end when my daughters can access the Internet and when they can't! Don't know whether that's possible or not with the HomeHub.

p