Fibre ready

Hello.

I've just had word that my line can now get fibre, not as fast as I hoped but a lot faster than I'm getting now. Link below with speeds possible. Well, now that I've got fibre I just don't know where to start, who to choose as an isp and what package I should go for. I want to keep my phone separate from my broadband (with Idnet for my phone). I obviously want the best isp and I've seen a number of you talking about Andrews and Arnold who seem to offer excellent packages but at a slightly higher price than most. Don't mind what I pay just want something that'll give me a good speed and reliability. Before I make my decision I would appreciate if you folk on here would give me best advice you can on who and what I should choose. I was hoping to keep on with Xilo, as they've been really decent to me but I don't want to sign up to a 12 month contract if I can help it. Is the fibre speed quoted (38.3) the actual speed I will get or will it lose some of this rate before it gets to me? Sorry I don't know too much about speeds etc.

Caley.

Fibre Speeds

The speeds are an estimated range. Hopefully in the range shown but no guarantees it will be.

On 12 month contract, since Openreach has a 12 month minimum hard to find a shorter contract for new fttc connections

Thanks for responding.
I did notice that A & A are offering

Only a 6 month term, then rolling monthly contract, no catches

Was looking at that but I'm still unsure. One month contract would be great. Would I need to buy a new modem/router?

Caley.

My phone has always been with BT, though I am considering much cheaper alternatives.

As MrSaffron says, you are very unlikely to find less than a 12-month contract.

I used to have O2 LLU ADSL2+ but jumped from there as soon as I could get FTTC. As I was a bit worried about the cost and contract length (I'd always been on monthly on ADSLx), I went to IDNet for the FTTC on their 40/10 product. That was February 2011.

Although I paid the year up front, which meant I only paid for 11 months, at the end of that I felt much happier but felt I was paying through the nose for something that should work just as well somewhere cheaper.

So in Feb 2012 I moved to Plusnet on what was then their only FTTC product, 40/2 on an 18-month contract. IIRC about £85pa cheaper. As hoped, no noticeable difference except the slower upstream.

Late that year I went onto their 80/20 trial, and when they brought out their main release of 80/20 I upgraded officially to that, rather than revert to the 40/10 that replaced the original 40/2 at the same time. That meant restarting my 18 month term when I only had seven to go, but I didn't think twice.

I'm now out of that contract and on straight monthly, and have no reason whatsoever to look around.

My recommendation is upgrade with Xilo or jump to Plusnet. Bear in mind that if you don't take Plusnet phone then you don't get the big discount deals, and there will be a setup charge.

If you are looking at AAISP Home::1 then that includes a router. Your existing one won't work unless it has a WAN input socket or a built-in VDSL modem.

Plusnet supply a usable (not brilliant) router free (£5.99 P&P), and Openreach supply a free modem when they do the install.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 17-Sep-14 22:25:44)

In reply to a post by caley:

Thanks for responding.
I did notice that A & A are offering

Only a 6 month term, then rolling monthly contract, no catches

Was looking at that but I'm still unsure. One month contract would be great. Would I need to buy a new modem/router?

Caley.

Hi Caley,

I'm pretty sure that A & A is 12 months for fibre (I upgraded from the ADSL version of the Home::1 version to fibre still on the Home::1 package and I'm sure it mentioned 12months and then rolling contract.)
TBH I wouldn't worry about it anyway, I've been with them 1 1/2 years and any problems I've had they've sorted (getting openreach out to fix fault at cabinet a few times after connection came loose, and getting onto talktalk when on ADSL when I had constant 20% packet loss at the exchange).
I was with Xilo before and both give amazing support, I'd give the edge to A & A because you can contact them on the phone easy, Xilo I struggled to get through (although Matt replied super fast to raised tickets).

With A & A you get sent a router and the engineer who comes on the day will bring a modem, So you wouldn't need to buy anything extra (depending on router you have you maybe able to use that one for fibre so with other ISP's you may not need a new router either)

Key features on Home::1 has:-

- Only a 6 month term, then rolling monthly contract, no catches
- Block of IPv6 addresses statically assigned (/48 per customer), and single static IPv4 address.
- Includes preconfigured WiFi router (ADSL or FTTC), or PPPoE DSL bridging router (ADSL lines) and filter or modem lead.

and

- Only a 6 month term, then rolling monthly contract, no catches
- BT & TalkTalk lines only (BT 20CN ADSL, BT 21CN ADSL2+, BT FTTC, BT FTTP, TalkTalk)

Simply an extra £10pm for FTTC 40/10.

Pulse 8 offer no contract monthly payment Fibre starting at £38 a month for 40/10 and 100Gb.

"Proper Fast.
Prices include line rental & no contracts"

Hi RobertoS.

I'd be hard put to in changing my phone from Idnet. I've got such a good deal from them, £30 every 3 months, that includes line rental, and free calls to a large number of destinations in the world as well as 5 hours free UK anytime calls. I have never gone over the limit as I don't use the landline all that much except to phone Australia mostly.
Today as per your recommendation, I'll have a look at Plusnet and see what I think of their packages. I'll be so sorry if I have to leave Xilo but I'll chase a 1 month contract, if I can get one and if I can't I will stay with them.

Caley.

Thanks for the response IranianGiraffe.

I looked all over A&A site to find where I saw a 1 month contract mentioned and found it (link below).
Have a look at it please but I sure I didn't misread it. Your saying what I've read since joining TBB forum, A&A are a very good isp, great customer service just like Xilo. I appreciate your recommendation.

Thanks.

Caley.


A & A Home1 Info

Hello tbailey2.

I'll definitely have a look at Pulse 8. Never heard of them before but if they offer no contract at all I will go over their website and see if they will fit the bill for me. Are you with Pulse 8?

Thanks.

Caley.

In reply to a post by caley:

Hello tbailey2.

I'll definitely have a look at Pulse 8. Never heard of them before but if they offer no contract at all I will go over their website and see if they will fit the bill for me. Are you with Pulse 8?

Thanks.

Caley.

No, I'm with Plusnet but I'm thinking about it to test out a 2nd FTTC line next month and not commit to 12 or 18 months until I know it works for me. Although I see that there are some quite cheap offers from BT and I already pay their line rental....

Is there anyone out there using Pulse 8?

I wouldn't want to take anything BT I'm afraid. We had a raw deal from them a number of years back and I have yet to see anyone saying nice things about them in this forum. Customer service is not one of their strong points so I've read here on many many occasions. I've had one problem with my phone since I joined Idnet and they sorted it within a couple of hours which BT couldn't do in 11 days. You happy with Plusnet? Had any problems that meant you had to use their customer service? If so what like were they and how long to answer the phone?

Caley.

But Idnet are reselling BT products, or is this not what you meant ?

If you don't want a "BT" based FTTC service then the choice is just Sky or Talktalk.

To be correct

IDNet buy a WBC backhauled version of GEA-FTTC from BT Wholesale who buy loop from Openreach.
Zen in majority of cases buy from Openreach cutting out the BT Wholesale segment.

BT Consumer division also use BT Wholesale for the ongoing link to the Internet, whereas other BT Wholesale customers do not i.e. they run their own network with its own peering arrangements.

Aww, come on Mr.S, if this forum only used correct answers, it'd be a virtual ghost town !

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Key features on Home::1 has:-

- Only a 6 month term, then rolling monthly contract, no catches
- Block of IPv6 addresses statically assigned (/48 per customer), and single static IPv4 address.
- Includes preconfigured WiFi router (ADSL or FTTC), or PPPoE DSL bridging router (ADSL lines) and filter or modem lead.

and

- Only a 6 month term, then rolling monthly contract, no catches
- BT & TalkTalk lines only (BT 20CN ADSL, BT 21CN ADSL2+, BT FTTC, BT FTTP, TalkTalk)

Simply an extra £10pm for FTTC 40/10.

Thanks for that, Clearly that part has changed since I got FTTC or someone made a mistake emailing me and was looking on the pick and mix tariff (not the home::1 I'm on) as that one says "12 month minimum term, 30 days notice".

In reply to a post by caley:

Is the fibre speed quoted (38.3) the actual speed I will get...

You've quoted the fastest 'clean' speed there. I've just moved to FTTC and found TBB's FTTC speed table to be more accurate for me: www.thinkbroadband.com/guide/fibre-broadband.html

The BT checker shows a range 21(impacted/low) to 44(clean/high) and I've ended up just under 30.

Measuring my line (using Google Earth) gives me around 680m.

Post deleted by caley

Hello Zarjaz.

I will not be taking any of your recommendation. Sky, Talk Talk (except Talk Talk business) and BT go well together, dross sticks to dross when it comes to customer service and these 2 are the pits from what I've read here and experienced elsewhere. I read your response to Mr Saffrons comment and I think a lot of beginners like myself can be badly misled if not given precise information. I fielded my initial post asking for help and almost all of the responders have been so helpful. TBB forum is well respected in that people get help from TBB forum users who are more savvy than the one asking the questions. I've learned a lot since frequenting this forum and I know there is someone here who will answer my questions not just correct but precisely and I say I don't think this forum will ever become a ghost toen.

Caley.

Thanks for responding b4dger.
So you've ended up with less than you thought you would get. That's my worry in case I get less than the speed I am getting now which is in the range of 15 - 17 adsl2+, and if FTTC speed is going down near these figures there's no sense in going down the fibre route. Samknows says my line is 840m from the exchange but the cabinet is about half that distance.

Caley.

If you want AAISP level of support/reliability but without the eye watering prices then I'd also recommend Talktalk Business. Unlike their residential offering you can keep your BTw based line. Downside is that it's on a 24 month contract though they do allow you free house moves. Feel free to pop in for a cuppa to see for yourself the speeds I'm getting on my 80/20 TTB service... I live on the top of Tower Road Westhill

1.3km telephone line to cabinet and 16 Mbps speed tests.

You would have to be very unlucky to get those sort of speeds if you cabinet is around the 400m of line length. It is not guaranteed that you will get those speeds, but no-one can guarantee that a meteor will not wipe the earth out today.

Even looking at the worse scenario you would hope to be getting above 30Mbs on that line length. But you can't be sure.

My situation was different as my long 20CN line only gave me low speeds - 5 down 0.5 up. So moving to FTTC has been very worthwhile - even though initial estimates did make it look as if I would be getting a bit more!

Another way to look at things is seeing if you are going to gain anything.
Depending on your situation your current connection should be pretty good! My 5Mb line was ok until more than one person at a time wanted to stream video etc.
So if your current line is working fine you might not need to move to FTTC? But if you've got a family all using it and it's struggling you might be better upgrading.

Caley,

Those speeds you're being quoted seem low for a line you think is a little over 400m away from cabinet. My line is 700m ish from the cabinet and I get 33meg (started out at 53meg but when more people joined and cross talk it's gradually fallen), Part of my line is aluminium as well which makes the line even worse, You should definately clear you're current ADSL2+ speeds if you are that close, although obviously not guaranteed you would have to be super unlucky to get speeds less than you are getting now.

Regards
Mike

but no-one can guarantee that a meteor will not wipe the earth out today

I can absolutely guarantee that the earth will not be wiped out by a meteor today. If it is then I will give everything I own to charity.

Hj Caley,

I didn't recommend Sky or Talktalk either ? I was just responding to you saying you didn't want anything to do with 'BT'.

My response to Mr.S was tongue in cheek. I'm quiet au fait with how it all works. Good luck with your choice of provider, and sorry if my posts have muddied the waters on your choice.

Pulse8 review is not much here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pulse8-Broadband/3043...

I don't know how on earth this isp offer one month contract but it seem more expensive overall.

Edited by adslmax (Thu 18-Sep-14 19:20:09)

Hi b4dger.

Sorry taking so long to get back to the forum. I've been doing a lot of checking about distance and Samknows site knows nothing about distance in this area anyway. Using Google I checked that Inverness Culloden exchange is .9 of a mile or 1448m from me the cabinet is .5 of a mile or roughly 805m. Sorry for the confusion but I thought such a well set up site like Samknows would be correct in the distances it published. I'm not sure in fibre terms if that is a good distance from the cabinet or a bad distance. Distances aren't my strong point. But my speeds (below) are what I'm connecting at now. Do they look good or bad? I'm still so undecided whether to go for fibre or stay where I am.

Caley.

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Link Rate 18803 Kbps 1023 Kbps
Line Attenuation 19.5 dB 11.7 dB
Noise Margin 6.1 dB 14.1 dB

Hello again IranianGiraffe.

If you read my reply to b4dger you'll see that the distances I quoted earlier were wrong. I should have checked before quoting Samknows but better late than never. My line was EO till Tuesday of this week and I've been trying to get my head round on what to do next. Thanks for the info though.

Caley.

See my earlier reply where I linked to TBB's FTTC speed/distance table.
At that distance you should get high 20s.

You currently have decent speeds so not that much to gain.
Also see my earlier reply about if you currently have a problem that needs fixing...

Hi baby_frogmella

I've been looking at all options and Talk Talk Business was one of them. b4dger has thrown a few pointers for me to mull over so I'll think about it over the weekend then make my mind up. Thanks for the offer of a cuppa, might take you up on that. Haven't really seen fibre in all it's glory yet.

Caley.