Fibre is coming....which ISP

Fibre is supposed to hit our area by the end of March 2014. I am currently with Zen, and have been happy with their service. Howver, as the demands of modern BB have increased, I am finding the speed very tedious. I am about 4 km from the exchange and get an download speed of about 3 Mb and an upload of 0.7 Mb, so fibre can't come quick enough.
My monthly usage probably averages between 30 & 40 GB, and fully expect this to jump once fibre is here. So I will be looking for an unlimited package, and either stay with Zen or jump to BT. SO can anyone steer me as to which one I should go with when the time comes.

TIA

BT, SKY, PlusNet, Talk Talk, Vivaciti, Zen

Go on price as the service for FTTC is basically the same. There are currently 2 speeds, 40 download or 80 download. I use a SKY 40 download and have not seen any performance issues with 4 people using the service, while downloading movies etc, all at the same time. I am thinking of moving to a 80 service with a different provider for an extra £2ish overall, but in reality I do not need it.

Of course the speed the OP can get will depend on how long his line is from the cabinet.

I was going to ask a similar sort of question as mine is due to be enabled on 31st May.

Currently on a supposed 6.5Mb line, although on BT's equipment getting about 5.5, but tonight 4.6. The estimate checker says I can get between 72Mb and 80 if on an impacted line, or 80 - 79.9 on a clean line. But I hear things about peoples FTTC dropping to ADSL speeds and want to try and avoid that.

Does LLU, only involve ADSL lines, or can it involve Fibre optics as well? Just wasn't too sure if they had separate equipment in the exchange like they do for LLU lines.

The reason am asking is that, on BT.. my line is around 5.5mb, but when I was on Be, I was getting a 7mb line. I'm assuming it was because I was on different equipment in the exchange. So I was just wondering if there was a similar thing for FTTC.

Re the speeds on FTTC dropping to ADSL levels, you've either come across someone with a line problem or a long line. The "impacted" figure for your line is what Openreach think might happen once there are a fair number of FTTC users on your cabinet. So in the normal run of things you've no need to worry about that aspect.

The difference in performance between Be and BT should not have been that great. Maybe it is worth posting about it in the General Chatter (for the widest audience) or the BT forums about that as a separate issue. I can think of a few possible reasons. It could be that whatever is causing it would have a bigger effect on FTTC, or none.

On FTTC your connection speed is determined largely by your distance from the Fibre cabinet. All the equipment in the cabinet and the fibre as far as the exchange is Openreach, even for the LLU suppliers. At the exchange it is handed over to the (wholesale) supplier using a "GEA link". From there it goes into the BT Wholesale WBC system or the LLU supplier's backhaul.

Currently as far as I know that means BT Wholesale, Sky, TalkTalk and Zen, though I think in many exchanges Zen still use BT Wholesale.

There are also Daisy and Coms wholesalers, used by some of the smaller ISPs. Those two don't have their own handover points in the exchange, but AIUI take a feed from BT Wholesale or TalkTalk at the exchange into their own backhaul.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 30-Dec-13 00:04:48)

The problem with the larger ISPs is that they have to put in filters, because the government says so, smaller ISps are not touched, they also have to ban certain sites, again smaller ISps don#t.

The other problem with larger ISps is that they want you to have other services from them, I know someone who got Bt and the amount of rubbish they get sent from BT trying to get them to update to fibre and have you view is way over the top. Ok you will have fibre anyway, but it is the other stuff you may not want.

The problem with smaller Isps are their prices, they can't compete with the larger providers in that way.

If you are going for a larger provider, maybe EE or Sky will do you.

BT is a terrible company if you have a problem, their call centres are a total waste of time, mind you so is Talk Talk.