Which Fibre Optic Broadband Supplier?

I have decided to upgrade from ADSL broadband to fibre optics, but I am not really sure who to go for between Unlimited BT Infinity and Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Broadband & Calls.

Speed and reliability are very important to me.

Your suggestion(s) will be most appreciated. Thank you!

Plusnet seem to be flavour of the month at the moment. Who are you currently with ?

Thank you, Zarjaz. I am currently on O2 broadband.

'kay, so no straight conversion to their FTTC offering then.

I can thoroughly recommend Plusnet.

Great, intelligently run network and fantastic staff who are willing to go the extra mile

My route was O2 LLU for years >> IDNet FTTC in Feb 2011 >> toss-up between BT and Plusnet FTTC in Feb 2012 which was decided in favour of Plusnet on the huge difference in the quality of the sales people on the phone >> an upgrade in January 2013 restarting my 18 month minimum term.

Another happy bunny .

I have always kept my phone line with BT.

If your phone line is also with O2 then care is needed when migrating. Plusnet normally take the broadband first then the phone line about three weeks later. In that three weeks O2 may place a cease order on the line because your broadband has been migrated away. Things then get very messy and nerve-wracking.

Ideally you get Plusnet to place a SIM Provide order on Openreach right at the start. That should avoid any issues but is in itself a bit unreliable at the Openreach end.

It inevitably means the broadband migration is delayed until the phone line move, as instead of a MAC type system the phone line has to take a minimum of something like three weeks to allow the losing CP to contact you and check you want the move to happen. To avoid slamming.

I am grateful to all of you who have so far replied to my post. I note, in particular, the issues raised in RobertoS' reply about possible problems migrating phone line and broadband at the same time.

I completely agree and, in that sense, I am thinking about first moving my phone line back to BT then broadband later to Plusnet.

Is this a good idea, RobertoS?

Definitely!

You lose the opportunities of cheap bundles of BB + phone with same provider, but you gain the avoidance of hassle when migrating BB in the future PLUS the excellent BT voice fault management.

Thanks, XRaySpeX. I will give BT a call to arrange for my line to be moved back to them.

Home phone is BT's core business before it decided to diversify, and I think that it still does it well. The only minor downside is that BT home phone tariffs tend to be marginally pricier than competitors.

In reply to a post by oubase:

BT home phone tariffs tend to be marginally pricier than competitors.

Yes, all the others are followers of BT.

When you take the phone package take only the free "Unlimited Weekend Calls" Plan cuz when you later take the BB package it will almost certainly include a higher Call Plan and you don't want to pay twice over.

Also consider the Line Rental Saver for a year paid in advance.

Thanks again, XRaySpeX. Very good points indeed and that's exacly what I will do. Cheers!

In reply to a post by oubase:

Thanks, XRaySpeX. I will give BT a call to arrange for my line to be moved back to them.

Home phone is BT's core business before it decided to diversify, and I think that it still does it well. The only minor downside is that BT home phone tariffs tend to be marginally pricier than competitors.

I think of the highlighted bit as akin to an insurance policy. I pay the slight extra to remove all the risk of the sort of hassle that moving the line around can cause. Plus, as XRaySpeX says, I find the BT Retail line fault handling superb.

The need on Plusnet then to pay the setup charge is simply an extension of that. Over the length of time one hopes to stay with any ISP that fades into insignificance compared to picking the right service provider for the individual person's desires.

An incidental thing you may not have seen is the recent BT Smart Talk app. I have it on Android with an O2 SIM-only contract and it works well. I haven't tried it away from home but it often connects to a source. At home it lets me use my BT landline account and call plan without using anything from my O2 contract - which in my case is irrelevant regarding minute usage but highly useful for 08xx numbers, even on Evening & Weekend as I am.

RobertoS, the BT Smart Talk app is actually one thing I can't wait to start to use. It's such a clever thinking by BT in the sense that, in a way, your land line travels with you subject, of course, to your mobile device having a 3G or WIFI access.

My phone line is now in the process of being migrated back to BT as I contacted the customer service this evening just before 8pm. Once it's fully migrated, I will then get in touch with Plusnet for fibre optic broadband which I am very excited about. The prospect of a download speed of up to 40mb is quite tantalizing indeed given that I have always been on a 2/3mb since I started using broadband.

Is 40Mbps the estimate on your line, and you are going for "Unlimited"?

Just that there is a 40Mbps product that you may be looking at, but that has a peak-time allowance of 40GB and a small amount of throttling in the evening. Although my total usage including the unlimited overnight period is under 11GB I upgraded to unlimited whan it became available.

With a 40Mbps estimate I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some headroom to get quite a bit more. Any idea how far away your FTTC cabinet is?

No, the estimate on my line is 61.3mb. I am wrong in saying 'up to 40mb'.

I am going for the 'Unlimited Fibre Broadband' (up to 76mb speeds) for £19.99/mth, not the (essentials fibre broadband) 40GB monthly usage of up to 38mb speeds. I want the best there is as I am not price conscious.

I don't know how far away my FTTC cabinet is, but I know that I am approximately 1.2 miles from my exchange.

On a slightly differently note, can you recommend any good fibre optic capable router, or do you suggest I make do with the one supplied by Plusnet? Is it good enough?

Edited by deleted (Fri 12-Apr-13 23:23:47)

That's OK then .

Re the router, see my conversation with OCdragon in this thread.

As you are "not price conscious", I think you might be better with one of the high-end ASUS routers. Do a Search in these forums over the last month and you'll find a lot posts about them. Or just go by this post/thread . Infinity and Plusnet Unlimited use the same BT Openreach and BT Wholesale products so router recommendations are identical.

RobertoS, you and all the other guys who responded to my post have been very kind and helpful indeed. I will have a look at those links regarding router. Thank you very kindly.

Regarding the phone Call Plan with BT, I forgot you are not taking a BT BB package later. Therefore you should take whichever BT Call Plan suits you.

If you can afford the initial outlay, I find it better to pay the line rental annually, and then get the Anytime calls package (£5.15p/m), that way you get all 01, 02, 03 calls free plus 0845 & 0870, then I use either my mobile or 18866 for anything else.

Saves a few bob over the year

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

If your phone line is also with O2 then care is needed when migrating. Plusnet normally take the broadband first then the phone line about three weeks later. In that three weeks O2 may place a cease order on the line because your broadband has been migrated away. Things then get very messy and nerve-wracking.

Ideally you get Plusnet to place a SIM Provide order on Openreach right at the start. That should avoid any issues but is in itself a bit unreliable at the Openreach end.

It inevitably means the broadband migration is delayed until the phone line move, as instead of a MAC type system the phone line has to take a minimum of something like three weeks to allow the losing CP to contact you and check you want the move to happen. To avoid slamming.

I just went through the online-order process when ordering Plusnet FTTC. The line was previously with Sky.

They automatically chose to do a simultaneous provide. As you need an engineer for FTTC anyway, I don't see it as any delay.

Speaking to the seemingly very knowledgable engineer I had, he doesn't seem to think there are any issues with simultaneous provides anymore - especially with FTTC. His only gripe was that he often found himself having to nudge the engineer at the exchange to swap the line as somehow they seem to end up getting behind his schedule.