Elstead Exchange and FTTC

Everything seems to indicate that by the end of the year Elstead will have FTTC provided under the BDUK scheme. A local councillor has stated that being a smallish exchange there will be no LLU. To me that means I am obliged to continue having a line rental from BT and therefore restricted to use BT for FTTC.

Of course with ADSL, other providers could be chosen but I would be excluded from lower priced deals.

Have I got my facts right, because the thought of having BT as a broadband supplier when FTTC is available, sends shivers down my spine?

Feedback on my thoughts would be very welcomed.

There are 3 mainstream suppliers - BT, Sky and Talktalk. There are also a number of secondary suppliers like Entanet and Daisy who allow small resellers to resell their connections. Of course, there are the traditional ISPs who essentially resell BT connections like Zen, Plusnet, IDNet, etc.

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

Everything seems to indicate that by the end of the year Elstead will have FTTC provided under the BDUK scheme. A local councillor has stated that being a smallish exchange there will be no LLU. To me that means I am obliged to continue having a line rental from BT and therefore restricted to use BT for FTTC.

Of course with ADSL, other providers could be chosen but I would be excluded from lower priced deals.

Have I got my facts right, because the thought of having BT as a broadband supplier when FTTC is available, sends shivers down my spine?

Feedback on my thoughts would be very welcomed.

FTTC is available from many ISPs.

In reply to a post by somerset:

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

Everything seems to indicate that by the end of the year Elstead will have FTTC provided under the BDUK scheme. A local councillor has stated that being a smallish exchange there will be no LLU. To me that means I am obliged to continue having a line rental from BT and therefore restricted to use BT for FTTC.

Of course with ADSL, other providers could be chosen but I would be excluded from lower priced deals.

Have I got my facts right, because the thought of having BT as a broadband supplier when FTTC is available, sends shivers down my spine?

Feedback on my thoughts would be very welcomed.

FTTC is available from many ISPs.

Yes, Yes I know all that but each says that you have to pay the line rental to them. If LLU is not present, how is that possible?

Say you can get FTTC. Who would you want to rent the phone from and who would you want to get the FTTC from, if you could choose anyone?

There are lots of layers involved in this.

LLU is about extra equipment in the exchange building - usually by the likes of Sky or TalkTalk, or that ilk - plus backhaul to the ISP. That means they can provide telephony services and broadband services using that equipment, bypassing most of BT's equipment.

Without LLU, you are restricted to using equipment that belongs to BT Wholesale.

However, that doesn't mean that you have to use BT Retail as your ISP or telephony supplier.

That means you can choose, say, Plusnet as your FTTC ISP and pay them for line rental for the telephony package too. They act as the retail-level ISP to you, but buy the services from BT Wholesale on your behalf.

I have done a variety of these options:
- Old setup, we paid BT the line rental, and telephony charges, but had Plusnet's FTTC service.

- After moving, our new setup went with Plusnet for both the line rental and the FTTC package.

Neither setup required nor used LLU equipment or backhaul.

Note: Plusnet do broadband-only deals, but they just made them more expensive if you don't take line rental with them.

FTTC should arrive by the end of this year. My present setup is Line Rental with BT and ADSL Broadband with TalkTalk. I am on a legacy Nildram tariff that diverts outgoing calls via TalkTalk giving me 500 minutes anytime calls.

Here are my speed test results: http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13719...

It seems that from August ADSL2 will be available from my exchange
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 15 Up to 1.5 8.5 to 19 31-Jul-13

I am quite happy to consider TalkTalk for FTTC however the T&Cs state:
Only available to TalkTalk Essentials or Plus customers with TalkTalk line rental. Subject to availability, location, minimum speed and a min 18 month contract.

So the question boils down to: Could I have TalkTalk as my FTTC supplier on the Elstead exchange [when available] and as ADSL2 is available sooner [August], could that be used for say 2-4 months and then upgrading to FTTC [with the same supplier] when available.

Personally I think that won't be option and that I would be obliged to use an FTTC service from BT, or one of their rebadged outfits such as PlusNet. My gut feeling is that the other two main suppliers, TalkTalk or Sky, would NOT be available to me.

Clarification on this would be most useful.

TalkTalk only offers its FTTC product if you take their line rental too. So you cannot do what you want.

When you say rebadged outfits, their service can differ a fair amount from what BT Retail offer, because they use/buy different levels of service from BT Wholesale.

It is all in the layers.

The FTTC providers who give you freedom to put your line rental with whoever you like often charge a little more. Plusnet while they heavily market the phone+broadband do do the fibre without line rental, at £22.49 for unlimited
http://www.plus.net/home-broadband/broadband-only/

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

TalkTalk only offers its FTTC product if you take their line rental too. So you cannot do what you want.

When you say rebadged outfits, their service can differ a fair amount from what BT Retail offer, because they use/buy different levels of service from BT Wholesale.

It is all in the layers.

The FTTC providers who give you freedom to put your line rental with whoever you like often charge a little more. Plusnet while they heavily market the phone+broadband do do the fibre without line rental, at £22.49 for unlimited
http://www.plus.net/home-broadband/broadband-only/

Thank you, confirmation of what I thought that TalkTalk will have to be off my shopping list.

The difficulty I now have is a short list of ISPs that can [when the time comes], or shall will say able to, provide me with a FTTC service. It seems that PlusNet can but who else is there, apart from BT that gets the thumbs up from Thinkbroadband subscribers?

Just as an aside I find that I am connected to cabinet #1 located today within the confines of a private garden, complete with 3 or more telecom manhole covers as the garden path! I don't suppose they are going to be too pleased to have another cabinet with possible audio noise to annoy them.

Depends on your budget and usage profile really, entanet resellers might be worth a look.

If unlimited is a key thing then yes choice at low price is limited

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Depends on your budget and usage profile really, entanet resellers might be worth a look.

If unlimited is a key thing then yes choice at low price is limited

Thank you for your response. I can live with a download limited of 100Gb. Does that widen my potential list of suppliers?

Currently I pay BT line rental plus £32 to TalkTalk but that includes 500 anytime minutes. So I guess my budget can stand £55 a month but it would be nice if it were a [lot] less.

I guess I've already mentioned Plusnet.

The package we're on would give you unlimited broadband allowance on the "up to" 80/20 speeds for £20pm, with line rental at £14.50pm and an anytime call package at £5pm, plus caller display at £1pm. That's a total of £40.50.

We actually pay the line rental up-front, in a single yearly payment. At the moment that is £131, which is the equivalent of £11pm - so that's nearer £37pm equivalent.

I'm not sure the call charges are that brilliant when outside the "anytime" package, so check those charges.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

I guess I've already mentioned Plusnet.

The package we're on would give you unlimited broadband allowance on the "up to" 80/20 speeds for £20pm, with line rental at £14.50pm and an anytime call package at £5pm, plus caller display at £1pm. That's a total of £40.50.

We actually pay the line rental up-front, in a single yearly payment. At the moment that is £131, which is the equivalent of £11pm - so that's nearer £37pm equivalent.

I'm not sure the call charges are that brilliant when outside the "anytime" package, so check those charges.

Very good information, thank you. 2013 should see the availability of FTTC in Elstead and is quoted as being from September 30th but realistically I reckon it will be Christmas time before I will be connected. Internet searches show I am feed from cabinet #1 and that planning permission was recently granted for the adjacent FTTC cabinet http://waverweb.waverley.gov.uk/live/wbc/pwl.nsf/(Re...

I reckon I am 700 yards from that new cabinet. Can you get a fixed IP from PlusNet's FTTC offering?

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

I guess I've already mentioned Plusnet.

The package we're on would give you unlimited broadband allowance on the "up to" 80/20 speeds for £20pm, with line rental at £14.50pm and an anytime call package at £5pm, plus caller display at £1pm. That's a total of £40.50.

We actually pay the line rental up-front, in a single yearly payment. At the moment that is £131, which is the equivalent of £11pm - so that's nearer £37pm equivalent.

I'm not sure the call charges are that brilliant when outside the "anytime" package, so check those charges.

**UPDATE**

I contacted PlusNet and found your package price would not be available to me as their will be no LLU on the Elstead exchange. So my price, for the same facilities as you, would be £64.20 - Currently my ADSL with BT line rental and TalkTalk Business costs £46.74 so an FTTC service for me adds £17.46 to my monthly outlay. I think I will look around a bit more before making a decision.

Yes you can - one off charge of £5.00.

Unless I am mistaken though, you have to wait until you are connected before you can order. Order via the member centre.

That figures because it's a Market 1 exchange so they won't give you the cheaper rate.

That'll be because Elstead is a market-1 exchange, and only offers BT-based services (which means, as you said, and I should have noted, there are no LLU suppliers).

In this case, it isn't a technical issue, but is all about the regulations set by Ofcom.

HOWEVER...

The price increase from the PN "low-cost areas" (ie market 2 and market 3) to the higher cost areas (ie market 1) is only £7, for the unlimited fibre package.

But you mentioned that you currently have a TalkTalk business package. Were you enquiring at PN about their business packages, or residential ones? I guess you are in a whole different ballgame with business...