BT INFINITY

Hello All,
My house is a long way from the telephone exchange hence my download speed varies from bad to mediocre. 2844 Kbps maximum last September. This followed a communication from BT stating that they had improved the service and speeds would increase, which generally they did. My record of BT speed tester results show a similar maximum (2848 Kbps October 2011) At about the same time the "For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps was showing. The test today has it at 1200-4000 Kbps.

Yesterday Think Broadband recorded a speed of 894 Kbps.

BT are now offering BT Infinity, of course at greater cost. Am I being naive in thinking that when fibre optic cables were installed from the exchange to the cabinet that the service would automatically improve? Or are BT operating a two tier service - copper and fibre optic cable or just deliberately slowing the service, unless one pays to upgrade. Also I notice they mention a £25.00 one of "activation" fee. What is this for?

The previous upgrade would have been to ADSL2+ which just runs over your normal copper cable. On longer lines only a marginal improvement is usually seen.

Infinity runs over fibre optic to the cabinet and then the broadband connection is ran from there to your home over the existing copper. They are 2 completely different services.

Put your number into the BT Wholesale availability checker and it'll tell you that FTTC speed you're expected to get if your cabinet has been enabled.

The one off fee is yo cover the cost of the modem and technician visit.

Sorry I forgot the bit haha.

If you order Infinity option 2 the £25 charge is waived. TBH the £25 on option 1 is very cheap. Most other ISP's are charging as much at £100 for activation.

In reply to a post by wychwar:

Hello All,Am I being naive in thinking that when fibre optic cables were installed from the exchange to the cabinet that the service would automatically improve?

Not naive, you just haven't happened to see a description of what is actually involved.

BT do not run fibre to your cabinet, they run it to a new one near to it. Then they link the two with copper. Your existing broadband is not affected, as it is coming down the copper from the exchange to the pre-existing cabinet.

So for Infinity it is an upgrade to get broadband down the fire to the new cabinet. Your phone stays on the copper, and the fibre broadband gets onto your phone line through the link between the two cabinets.

Infinity is just the name for the FTTC service offered by BT Retail. Just like ordinary broadband there are many different suppliers.

See my FTTx page for a more detailed explanation, and the "ISPs offering FTTC" link under that. The list there is just the main ones that get discussed on this site, and there is a link on the page to a summary spreadsheet with more ISP detail for them, produced by orly and yarwell.

Hi there:

As I don´t use BT at all & as I have a Sky TV+HD account, I use Sky for my phone line & Talk package as I have their unlimited Talk Package with Sky, as I also phone up the Sates & some European Countries as well, & BT don´t offer this facility as I do chat on the phone quite a bit - so that´s why I don´t use BT!

Here are Eclipse Internet my ISP´s Business Fibre info:- http://www.eclipse.net.uk/fibre-broadband/product-an...

Yes BT Infinity do charge a £25.00 monthly fee, but you´ll need to sign up to their 18 month contract for it, as that is very cheap & as I pay £30.00 for my Eclipse Internet Home Pro ADSL broadband on an Innerleithen BT ADSL exchange as I can´t get fibre as yet - My down-streams do actually average around 6.95MB/Sec 24/7 as I do live 473 meters from the BT Innerleithen Exchange!

Once BT Infinity has been rolled out in our area - I´m most likely to upgrade to fibre through Eclipse Internet http://www.eclipse.net.uk/fibre-broadband & fast as I do plenty of huge downloads from Microsoft TechNet etc, and the monthly cost with Eclipse Internet will be around £37 to £40 per month excluding my £3.99 domain costs per month that Eclipse hosts for me as well!

The BT Infinity online chat advised me that can only offer me Infinity from June 30th, 2012, but both kitz http://kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php & Sam Knows http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search supply the BT RFS date which is March 1st, 2012, but the BT Infinity site http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProduc... states that Innerleithen will be upgraded upon March 31st, 2012. Why the discrepancy? - That´s BT for you!

You can do these Speed Tests as my following Sky Centre Forum posting I did:-

Sky Help Forum - Speed Testers + ADSL-Fibre + Exchange Checkers! - Help & Support from the Official Sky Forum http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-Broadband-Speed/Spee...

To find your perfect dedicated ISP:-

Your best option would be to go to either kitz http://kitz.co.uk/index.htm or thinkbroadband http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ & search for an ISP whom specialize in Broadband/Fibre Optics Services as both these organizations do provide all Broadband/Fibre Optics related info! - as that´s how I got Eclipse Internet! - Wow!

For any one of the following six (6) Download Speed Testers:
broadband-test http://www.broadband-test.co.uk/ - Works with Internet Explorer 9
broadbandspeedchecker http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ (Broadband Speed Checker) - Works with Internet Explorer 9
speedtester.bt.com http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ (Provided by BT for ADSL + BT Infinity - Fibre Optics tests) - works with IE9
speedtest.net http://www.speedtest.net/ - Works with Internet Explorer 9
thinkbroadband http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html (Sign-in to thinkbroadband with Internet Exploer 9 x86 for this test)
The thinkbroadband Speed Test requires a 32-bit browser with an installed up-to-date Java for doing this test
thinkbroadband http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html (Only if using Internet Exploer 8 pick the 100MB download speed test. - Only if using Internet Exploer 9 avoid thinkbroadband & rather use speedtester.bt.com http://www.speedtester.bt.com/) instead!

For any ADSL Line Tests + Exchange Checkers + How to get Fibre:-

Please also do carry out from any one to all these tests just as proof!

It would be wise to try & get Sky Broadbandto do a BT exchangethroughput check to your home and a broadband phone line quality check as well. Also do these following tests:-

. Kitz - ADSL line and exchange checker . http://kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php is to find out what your telephone exchange supported broadband speeds are, and also it gives the exact distance that you are located from your telephone exchange as well.

thinkbroadband - Broadband Internet Service Providers http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isps.html

BT Infinity
– How to get fibre optic broadband http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProduc... (enter your broadband line number including the dialing code - as this is to check if your own BT Exchange and your own BT/non BT landline supports the new BT Infinity/Fibre Optics on offer or not!)

SamKnows - Broadband Availability Checker http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker
SamKnows - Telephone Exchange Search http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

You'll need to input both your full broadband/phone # include (dialing code+phone number) and your zip/post code as well in order to carry out these checks! Any of the above tests should be sent on to Sky Broadband Support possibly via their Help Site!

For Ping Tests:-
Use http://www.pingtest.net/ for ping tests & select “Begin Test” then wait for the results & you’re done!

For Exchange Congestion Checkers:-
Use http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/ (to check upon your line congestion if you have any)

Thanks. Xen.

Edited by x_osn (Wed 11-Jan-12 23:30:28)

£3.99 domain costs per month that Eclipse hosts for me as well!

Good Lord! £48 per year.

How much web space and email do you get for that, and how much do you use? Is the domain registered in your name with Nominet or theirs?

A .uk domain costs under £4 a year from even expensive dedicated hosts. One of which is mine, where web and mail hosting for 2 domains starts at £15pa.

Hi: With Eclipse Internet I´ve got a 100MB web space with an unlimited e-mail facility for my site which can be increased for a further 250MB at an additional monthly cost of £3.99 per month. By the end of June 2012 - I will have sorted out which way I´d like to go for both my ISP services & for my domain hosting as well!

My x-osn organization is an European 15 page domain that´s registered to me as follows:-

http://www.x-osn.eu/

Global computer networks/servers hardware replacement program available for all organizations' & implemented every 60 months!

Thanks. Xen.

Edited by x_osn (Thu 12-Jan-12 00:03:26)

Ummm .

A .eu registration by my lot is £8pa inc Vat. Web and email space depends on requirements, see the link in my sig for more info.

Dazzling website .

Hi: Thanks for your web-site info & update + general UK web-site costs! After studying your site I found it to be pleasing to the eyes - Keep up your good work! It took me a week & a half to create my site!

Thanks for your Dazzling website - response!

All the best!
Xen.

Edited by x_osn (Wed 11-Jan-12 21:10:55)