So....Decisions

Hard to keep up with this forum and the ISPs offering fibre and the performance and prices... Currently on 20meg sky unlimited, getting the full 20meg download, paying all together something like £13 for line rental £5 for calls and £7.50 for broadband....

Really tempted to Infinity and the checker has just changed today to see its available:

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 36Mbps and upstream line speed of 7.8Mbps.

Would BT be the best for unlimited usage? Works out at over £40 a month tho doesn't it? Compared to £25.50 for Sky

Edited by BuckleZ (Wed 01-Jun-11 10:55:21)

Need to say to, my usage over the past months, would probably be under 50GB, but i dont like knowing i have a limit

BT have removed their limits on their Infinity Option 2 product in April. They do apply traffic management to p2p applications.

Worth having a look at the Google spreadsheet that some of the guys have knocked, sorry, dont have the link to it at hand just now.

I personally went with Plusnet because they had no install fee if you take the phone package with them. At least their site is worth a look.

The main thing i am trying to justify is the price increase, i'll get double the download speed and 10x the upload, aswell as the pings being almost 20ms less.

But in saying that, the service i have had from Sky is had been top notch!, no slow downloads at any time and no p2p throttling

Surely Sky can't be far from an announcement?

There has been noting said from them in a long time, could spose just keep my fingers crossed for them

How much do you pay for Sky TV though.

observation: don't watch nearly as much TV now that we have FTTC.

In reply to a post by BuckleZ:

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 36Mbps and upstream line speed of 7.8Mbps.

Would BT be the best for unlimited usage? Works out at over £40 a month tho doesn't it? Compared to £25.50 for Sky

So effectively you'll be paying £1 per 1Mbps increase in d/l speed

I believe most, if not all, of the current FTTC offerings have traffic shaping and/or capped usage.

Yes, Infinity is unlimited and is a good choice as long as you're not a heavy torrent user. I've read that torrents are throttled right down to 20K/sec during peak hours, but it goes to full speed when off peak (though some have said it's slow 24/7).

At least with Sky it's fully unlimited with no traffic management? Plus the main thing is that you are happy with them.

You'll be stuck for 18 months with BT/Talk Talk/Plusnet, though their monthly charge is cheaper than the guys that offer 12 month contracts.

I have ordered Infinity myself and install will be next Friday. My current speed is 4.5Mb with o2, and should get 35Mb after Friday - plus it works out to just over £5 more per month (BT's current offer of 3 months free, and I get £50 back with Topcashback).

If I was in your position, I'd stick with Sky. It's cheap, truly unlimited, you know what you're getting. Maybe you could wait to see what kind of deal Sky would offer when they do FTTC.

In reply to a post by weirdo:

and I get £50 back with Topcashback

I recommend not holding your breath for that £50. My son ordered his broadband way back in January, activated early February. He is still waiting for his £110 + 1% TopCashBack cashback

In reply to a post by Squirrel:

In reply to a post by weirdo:

and I get £50 back with Topcashback

I recommend not holding your breath for that £50. My son ordered his broadband way back in January, activated early February. He is still waiting for his £110 + 1% TopCashBack cashback

Ditto - a friend of mine bought some PAYG mobile phones through QuidCo in November, and he's still waiting for the money the following June.

Well, how I see it is that if I do get the payout, then great. If I don't then I haven't actually lost out - apart from maybe 30 seconds to log into Topcashback and a few mouse clicks.

I've already earned £147 in payout so far with them, and £226 with Quidco. Can't complain about that.

Anyway, just checked the transaction and it's just waiting for final confirmation from BT. Payment of £50.50 is scheduled for 31/7/2011.

In reply to a post by BuckleZ:

.. Currently on 20meg sky unlimited, getting the full 20meg download, paying all together something like £13 for line rental £5 for calls and £7.50 for broadband....

Would BT be the best for unlimited usage? Works out at over £40 a month tho doesn't it? Compared to £25.50 for Sky

If you worked the cost out over the length of the Infinity 18 month contract, it is quite a bit less than £40.

Infinity is £28 per month, but you currently get 3 months free = £420

If you pay the line rental for the full 12 months upfront, it works out at £10 per month (normally £13.90). So for arguments sake, say you paid £120 upfront now, then renewed this again 12 months on. So line rental would be £180 for 18 months.

Total of £600. Divide that by 18 to get the monthly cost = £33.33.

And for me (subtract the above total figure with the £50 Topcashback) = £30.55 for the broadband and line rental. That's not much more than what you are paying now.

Not sure what your current Sky package includes, but the above BT deal comes with calls to UK landlines anytime of the day.

So in terms of cost, you won't be paying a lot more. But it all depends on how stable/trouble free Infinity would be (for you) compared to what you have with Sky now. I have not heard good things about BT customer services though, so bear that in mind should you need their assistance.

In reply to a post by weirdo:

Anyway, just checked the transaction and it's just waiting for final confirmation from BT. Payment of £50.50 is scheduled for 31/7/2011.

You will not get it by that date - I'll bet my hat on it. My son's was confirmed in February, payout to be 30/04. Response from TopCashBack today was give it at least another 4 weeks. So if you get it at all it will be at least 3, possibly 4 months after the scheduled date, which in my case is nearly 7 months after it was confirmed.

for somebody that's already getting the full 20mb sync on Sky i would say FTTC is a pointless move .

In reply to a post by woweebert:

for somebody that's already getting the full 20mb sync on Sky i would say FTTC is a pointless move .

Unless you want a 40Mb sync, of course!

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by woweebert:

for somebody that's already getting the full 20mb sync on Sky i would say FTTC is a pointless move .

Unless you want a 40Mb sync, of course!

Yeah; or the 10Mb upload!

In reply to a post by adebov:

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by woweebert:

for somebody that's already getting the full 20mb sync on Sky i would say FTTC is a pointless move .

Unless you want a 40Mb sync, of course!

Yeah; or the 10Mb upload!

... unless you're on Plusnet, where you're stuck with 2Mb for now!

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by woweebert:

for somebody that's already getting the full 20mb sync on Sky i would say FTTC is a pointless move .

Unless you want a 40Mb sync, of course!

Oh whoopy i got a 40mb sync . thing is your FTTC connection probably performs no better on through put until every one has gone to bed than the Sky LLU 20mb connection at peak times . so again . a pointless upgrade for somebody that is syncing at the upper reaches of ADSL2+ on a relatively uncongested LLU network .

The extra upload could indeed be help full if your running a file server from home , but little else needs a 10mb upload that i can think of . maybe if your hosting games but not to play them , as bandwidth requirements are very modest to play on line

So with a 20mb connection on a uncongested network at a very competitive price , why pay more for a 40mb connection that wont run any faster at peak times than the 20 mb connection the OP already has ?

The upload and very low pings are a great selling point to gamers.

the peak time congestion and increased ping jitters are not a good selling point to gamers , no matter what the TV adverts say . And as said the extra upload only helpful if hosting games and is completely unessential if not running a server .

More does not always mean better , i have a friend near the top of the MLG still playing very successfully on a 1mb/256kbs legacy connection .

Or two friends that share a house and a 448kbs upload and both game at the same time , again with out issue and yes that is with voice chat .
Admittedly neither are going to be good hosts .

Sky are not the greatest and best ping's due to them not allowing fast path , but they are stable and consistent ping's , something that FTTC is struggling with IMHO .

So again i say if your syncing at the top reaches of ADSL2+, FTTC is a pointless move as FTTC connection is unlikely to out perform regularly a Sky LLU ADSL2+ connection at peak times .

But admit that the extra upload would be the biggest selling point to move from a ADSL2+ 20mb connection to FTTC .

And i still say the best gaming ISP is BE* and have seen it constantly giving better ping's than FTTC .

So its very nice having a 40mb/10mb connection but do you actually need it and the extra cost involved ? the answer for most on a 20mb Sky LLU ADSL2+ connection , is " no i don't " Or " i need bragging rights , my cat is blacker than yours " ( but is it really ? )

Interesting about the jitter, its not something I've observed on pingtest.net. So your saying that as a technology VDSL is more jittery then ADSL2+? Or is it purely a back-haul problem with the ISP's in question?

As for pings typlically for an interleaved line your looking about 35ms on pingtest, 27ms on fastpath and Infinity around 15ms.

Being the host on any games ensures no shenanigans go on with people unplugging their ethernet cable from the router...

Edited by deleted (Mon 06-Jun-11 12:38:24)

On standard ADSL i had my fastest ping to London 8 to 10 ms on the now gone UKonline , i had a Fastpath connection that gave a 12 to 14ms pings over sky LLU network , on my murphX connection i have the same ping's as on UKonline but this is down to how you are routed .

BT 21CN has some very strange routing where as a example , some people in the southern areas are routed over the Birmingham node and not giving impressive ping's

And yes there is clear evidence of back haul slow down at peak times on BT 21CN that will increase jitters and does by my observation of the many TBB quality monitor test results that have been posted by FTTC users , on this forum , that are allot more accurate than Speedtest.net .

But again this is down to what node you are connected to , with some nodes performing allot better than others .

Its simply not a black or white decision when you have already got a 20mb sync on a uncongested LLU network at a very competitive price .

As said the extra Upload being the biggest reason for moving to FTTC whilst having a 20mb sync on Sky but the extra upload is not needed by the majority of users unless hosting a server or needing to make large uploads , so rather than jumping on the bandwagon for faster , its worth pointing out faster does not always mean better .

As take up of FTTC increases my points might become very valid and those that have moved from a very good LLU connection to FTTC might wish they had stayed put .
I fear this will be especially true of those that have gone with BT , who seem to be offering this technology at a price point , other ISP don't want to match .

I have been here before and this is in my opinion , but after my many years here on TBB its become easy to spot potential problems , the last time i popped my head up above the parapet was for O2 Access ( and how right was i about that ) and i got shot down that time .

Put simply , how much capacity will ISP be prepared to supply so people can pump the FTTC connections and will it be as much as ISP that have LLU networks ?

Pingtest.

tbb BQM in sig.