Which FTTC ISP?

Hi all

FTTC is coming to my exchange (WMHAS) in the next couple of weeks. I have decided to go with a FTCC service due to my distance from the exchange (I only currently get around 2Mb on O2 LLU).

Which ISPs are currently offering FTTC products? Should I go with BT Infinity, or is there a better option?

Any advice much appreciated.

The answer depends on your requirements and budget.

Robertos site has a good list of ISPs that are offering FTTC products.

In reply to a post by Spasch:

The answer depends on your requirements and budget.

Robertos site has a good list of ISPs that are offering FTTC products.

Thanks, I'll take a look

Have a look at TBB's guide here as well -link

well if you ask me m8 infinity is a no brainer atm its the cheapest in that list with unlimited usage ( well 300gb fup ) to get anywhere near that usage you would be paying several hundred pounds, but if your estimated speed is under 15 mb then you wont get infinity so will have to go with a more expensive option.

It depends on what he wants to use it for.

BY Infinity might be the cheapest but i'm not going with them. If i'm getting 40mb speeds, i want to be able to use that speed whenever and however i choose. I don't want to be told when and when not i can download, use p2p, usenet.

In reply to a post by Corbula:

It depends on what he wants to use it for.

BY Infinity might be the cheapest but i'm not going with them. If i'm getting 40mb speeds, i want to be able to use that speed whenever and however i choose. I don't want to be told when and when not i can download, use p2p, usenet.

Do they have any restrictions on usenet?

I don't know the details but as far as i'm aware they throttle traffic through nntp port i.e. usenet.

But don't hold me to that.

In reply to a post by Corbula:

I don't know the details but as far as i'm aware they throttle traffic through nntp port i.e. usenet.

But don't hold me to that.

You're wrong.

infinity is a no brainer

static IP ? IPv6 support ?

plus i think BT infinity will cut your speed to 2meg during peak hours for 30 days if you go over 300 gigs usage per month

bt might throttle you, they might not, but if your thinking of p2p and usenet, then how much are you willing to pay for say 300gb usage, some isps are charging 49.99 for 120 gig, that aint gonna go far if you use newsgroups or p2p alot, thats nearly a third of the usage for double the money, what we really need is a few people with fttc who are with diff isp's get them to p2p/newsgroups and see what speed diff there is between sync speed and actual dl speed, then we will know if bt throttle or other isp' for that matter, ive heard as many people moan about other isp's as they do bt, just depends how deep your pockets are.

oh dont forget, at bts price you could actually have 2 phone lines with a combined 600gb usage limit for less £'s than some isp's want for 100gb plus, just a thought.

Edited by deleted (Wed 23-Feb-11 22:26:12)

In reply to a post by Corbula:

It depends on what he wants to use it for.

This is a very good point.

I am not a heavy downloader, so 300GB or "unlimited" packages aren't of interest to me.

I work from home, so I need a reliable ISP that performs consistently (no throttling or traffic shaping). I need 10Mb rather than 2Mb upload, as well as a static IP. A usage allowance of around 30GB should be plenty.

I have looked at all of the links above, and so far ADSL24 and Fast.co.uk are looking promising. Does anyone have any thoughts on these two ISPs?

Edited by deleted (Thu 24-Feb-11 09:06:55)

Very happy with ADSL 24 FTTC. Like the unlimited hours with the pro package, no shaping or throttling like some FTTC suppliers.

DrT

In reply to a post by DrTeeth:

Very happy with ADSL 24 FTTC. Like the unlimited hours with the pro package, no shaping or throttling like some FTTC suppliers.

Thanks, I have decided to go with ADSL24 when my cabinet gets enabled on 2 March.

Is BT infinity bad for streaming i was thinking going with one of the thee
bt , aquiss or virgin 50 megs . what do you recken guys
i would be doing a lot of streaming around 8-9pm onwards

I am considering the Aquiss business 45 package, as the peak time is 8am to 8pm. So after 8pm is unlimited as are the weekends. Hopefully my cab will go live at the end of March.

I can't speak for all ISPs, but I am sure many of us will be thanking you for sending all the heavy users to BT Retail, leaving the rest of us to focus on quality connections.

In reply to a post by Johnct:

Is BT infinity bad for streaming i was thinking going with one of the thee
bt , aquiss or virgin 50 megs . what do you recken guys
i would be doing a lot of streaming around 8-9pm onwards

I guess it's really down to what you want and need.

One major difference from your lineup is that we are a small personal ISP v 2 massive multi-national operations.

Its a pleasure to hear that their are people aware of and considering other smaller providers.

i like to consider the smaller companys as dont read off a script
and least if there is a problem the phone call does not go overseas
unlike the bigger companys. usage would be around 10-13 gigs per day off peak and a lot more at the weekend so i guess this would not be a problem
also going by some of the posts on the site
the install time is at least 3 weeks form the time of ordering would this be able to get installed any quicker ?

thanks

In reply to a post by yarwell:

infinity is a no brainer

static IP ? IPv6 support ?

10Mbps upstream?

I'd recommend BT

But I am Bias.

I have just gone for Fast.co.uk with their 45GB 10/40Mbs service for our small business. No shaping, no port blocking, unlimited uploads, £27/month. I'm confident the download limit is OK (Never got near our 30GB (including uploads) with our ADSL service) and unlimited uploads is good as we produce video content for our websites. No fixed IP though, although not a problem for us. So far the support is friendly although (documented elsewhere here) we have an ongoing problem with YouTube streaming reliability. Fingers crossed they will fix this soon.

Ian

if you go to robertos website it has a list of FTTC i gave to add onto the list
http://www.robertos.me.uk/html/isps_offering_fttc.html
from what i did hear bt infinity cuts your speed if you go over 300 gigs usage in a month
but i spoke to the (CEO) ian livningstion team on the phone yesterday and they said this does not happen at all the only thing that might happen is you may get a letter informing you
of your usage

In reply to a post by aquiss:

I can't speak for all ISPs, but I am sure many of us will be thanking you for sending all the heavy users to BT Retail, leaving the rest of us to focus on quality connections.

Shame there is no way to "Like" a post on here.

This is the reason I prefer to avoid any company claiming to offer an "unlimited" package, as in my experience these tend to attract the heavy users. As resources are finite, this has an impact on the quality of service for all subscribers.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know whether BT do any traffic shaping on their Infinity connections?

In reply to a post by GregUK:

Out of curiosity, does anyone know whether BT do any traffic shaping on their Infinity connections?

Yes they do. P2P is clobbered.

In reply to a post by TheHorseman:

I am considering the Aquiss business 45 package, as the peak time is 8am to 8pm. So after 8pm is unlimited as are the weekends. Hopefully my cab will go live at the end of March.

I can't fault Aquiss at all, stable connection, blazing speeds and some nice tools on their website to monitor things (Nice people on the phone too!).

whoever goes for BT make sure you dont download more than 300 gigs in a month because if you do they will cut your speed down down to 2megs at peak times hours for the next 30 days