FTTC less than 12Mbps so they won't install?

Have just been informed by Eclispe that the reason why no-one will supply fibre broadband to my house even though my exchange is fibre enabled is because the line checker is reporting a download speed of less than 12Mb. Well 11.1Mbps to be exact.

They say that BT Infinity and there fibre products won't be installed for people who have a download speed of less than 12Mbps because that is their minimum guarenteed download speed for FTTC.

Am very disapointed

It may be checking out the following isps:-

AAISP
ADSL24 (Orders also taken for 5Mbps estimates and customers successfully connected.)
Aquiss (Orders also taken for 5Mbps estimates and customers successfully connected.)
Fast
IDNet
Plusnet
Spitfire (business)
Timico
TitanADSL
uno/xilo
Vispa
vivaciti
Zen

(list lifted from robertos's website)

Andrew

It doesn't help you, but it's less than 15 meg, not 12.

In reply to a post by adrian109:

Have just been informed by Eclispe that the reason why no-one will supply fibre broadband to my house even though my exchange is fibre enabled is because the line checker is reporting a download speed of less than 12Mb. Well 11.1Mbps to be exact.

They say that BT Infinity and there fibre products won't be installed for people who have a download speed of less than 12Mbps because that is their minimum guarenteed download speed for FTTC.

Am very disapointed

Phone BT and ask for : and ask for option 3 with fibre, this is for sub 15Mbps lines

Agreed a friend of mine has this.

Hi Adrian,

A number of ISPs, including ourselves, accept orders below 15Mbps estimates. In our case, and I am sure others, we also do this without limiting the upstream sync.

BT set the 15Mbps limit purely for marketing limits, to keep their "infinity" brand pure. Other ISPs are willing to work to lower limits - and that certainly benefits those who have abysmal speeds at present.

On the Plusnet forum is an example of someone connected, using FTTC, at over 4km from the cabinet (where the exchange is 8 miles away). The speed is only around 1Mbps (and it took some finessing), but this is a customer who couldn't keep a stable connection at all - and now sounds pretty happy.

BT want to keep infinity as "premium", but it is capable of helping *anyone* if it is allowed to.

In reply to a post by tonym:

Phone BT and ask for : and ask for option 3 with fibre, this is for sub 15Mbps lines

I believe this costs more than Infinity though; it can result in an ADSL2+ connection as many posters here have found the BT phone answerers are completely ignorant of that product - often needing to contact the CEO's office, and as Aquiss say - that BT option is capped at 2Mbps upload, which is silly seeing as the download has in many cases been well over 20Mbps.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 15-May-11 09:44:24)

Post deleted by Zarjaz

Fixed thanks .

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by tonym:

Phone BT and ask for : and ask for option 3 with fibre, this is for sub 15Mbps lines

I believe this costs more than Infinity though; it can result in an ADSL2+ connection as many posters here have found the BT phone answerers are completely ignorant of that product - often needing to contact the CEO's office, and as Aquiss say - that BT option is capped at 2Mbps upload, which is silly seeing as the download has in many cases been well over 20Mbps.

I know nothing about the costs and surely if after an order specifically for that product( Broadband with fibre) and the op ended up with a ADSL2+ connection, he would be well within his rights to cancel the contract, because they failed to supply bla bla.
To be honest I dont believe the majority of users are worried too much about Upload speeds. Certain groups of users maybe.

It is all about having all the options available to you so you can make a decision based on what is available and what you need, and what you can afford.
I have no problems with smaller isp`s, I had a very good service from one of Aquiss`s old competitors UKFSN and have used a few of the smaller (at the time) ISP`s, Demon , Nildram, Eclipse, Zen, UKFSN . All gave a very good service to me .

Edited by tonym (Sun 15-May-11 10:43:11)

In reply to a post by tonym:

I wasn't aiming to contradict you, just point out to the OP that Option 3 with Fibre is often not plain sailing. There have been several cases of a blank "Computer says no" type reponse, only resolved by contacting the CEO's office, and the latest case is this one where it wasn't even ADSL2+ supplied, it was ADSL.

Cancelling at that stage is not a viable option, as the user would be left with nothing. Though in the linked case a migration back to Be would be feasible, (probably not to O2 if that had been the previous ISP), and a huge amount of hassle with BT to get it authorised.

Is the speed likely to improve for me in the future or is that it now, will I always get less than 15Mbps?

There is nothing to say you won't get more than 15Mbps now.

We have dozens of examples of customers who were expected (reported) to get under 15Mbps, but when they actually got FTTC installed with ourselves got higher sync speeds.

The estimate is highly unlikely to improve, but in my opinion it is highly likely an actual connection would be nearer 20Mbps than 15Mbps. Similar to what Aquiss says, just more hopeful as I don't carry the can if 15 is all you got, but he would if you went with them.

The estimates have always been very low compared to actuals. The higher ones were all raised a bit ago from what they started at, I don't know about ones like yours.

The BT Wholesale estimate right now for my line says:-

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 28.9Mbps and upstream line speed of 6.4Mbps.

Since the minute I first connected on 18 Feb my actual connection is 40000/10000, with IP Profiles 38717/10000 - the maxima.

If your cabinet is enabled, then I suggest you have a look at Aquiss's website. "BT Broadband Option 3 with Fibre" will also be available if the cabinet is enabled, but unless you have a lot of will-power you could find it a struggle getting it, whereas Aquiss should be no bother at all. I'm past enjoying stress for the fun of it , and I get the feeling you wouldn't want much either.