What ISP for fiber?

Well after I spent a bit of time going through all ISP's and deciding on which one to migrate to but remain on the BE network, I just found out that it will cease to exist come March.
On the off chance I noticed my exchange has gone from not in any roll out plans to under evaluation which is a step forward.

Do I let my contract with BE go to Sky and upgrade to their fiber when it goes live?
Or migrate to someone like BT or Plusnet etc and again upgrade to Fiber when it goes live?

Who is regarded as a good fiber provider in the UK? I really don't mind about price as I would rather pay extra for a product that has good support, Stable speeds etc.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

For FTTC then in general I don't think you will have anything to worry about with BT, Sky or Plusnet of the biggies.

Zen and IDNet have a high reputation. I went from O2 LLU to IDNet when I wanted FTTC, and after a year moved to Plusnet. I have no regrets.

Of the resellers we see here, I suggest (alphabetically) Aquiss; vivaciti and xilo/uno.

I don't recall any ongoing general speed issues on FTTC at any of those. Plusnet had some hiccups in evening latency for a few months after going true unlimited but that appears to be sorted.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

For FTTC then in general I don't think you will have anything to worry about with BT, Sky or Plusnet of the biggies.

Zen and IDNet have a high reputation. I went from O2 LLU to IDNet when I wanted FTTC, and after a year moved to Plusnet. I have no regrets.

Of the resellers we see here, I suggest (alphabetically) Aquiss; vivaciti and xilo/uno.

I don't recall any ongoing general speed issues on FTTC at any of those. Plusnet had some hiccups in evening latency for a few months after going true unlimited but that appears to be sorted.

Seeing as everything is either BT 21CN, Sky, TT or AOL LLU then I'm sort of leaning towards Sky LLU at present and let my BE contract auto switch to them during the takeover. That way I'm not locked into a 12 month contract. If it is junk then I can leave.

I just hope my cabinet goes live sooner rather than later for fiber.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I don't recall any ongoing general speed issues on FTTC at any of those. Plusnet had some hiccups in evening latency for a few months after going true unlimited but that appears to be sorted.

IDNet is currently having some evening issues as well. Been ongoing a week and BT apparently fluffed an order so will likely continue a few days yet. To be fair it's the first time we've had an issue like that in the 18 months I've been with them but it's always a bit irritating if an ISP fails to anticipate demand.

This is what has always put me off going back onto BT's equipment. Always had issues around our area.
Anyone got a rough idea how long it takes from fibre roll out to go from under evaluation to accepting orders? I thought I read it can take up to 15 months or something similar?

One thing which you may want to consider is that when an exchange is enabled, BT based FTTC ISP's are pretty much ready to go whereas Talktalk and Sky will have to order a special cable to connect FTTC to their own network. It may mean waiting a bit longer. Not a big consideration but one which can be annoying in the short term.

Thanks
Tim

NOTE: BT Wholesale still has to order the special cable so BT Infinity, PlusNet, IDNet and others can provide service, just that BT Wholesale seems to move faster to place the order

In reply to a post by michty_me:

This is what has always put me off going back onto BT's equipment. Always had issues around our area.

The issue is with one of their transit or peering links rather than at the customer end. It could impact any ISP that buys capacity off BT (which is possibly all of them at some point).

Edited by Andrue (Fri 08-Nov-13 11:19:52)

Isn't pretty much EVERY exchange "under evaluation" that hasn't got fibre already?, due to the BDUK funding?.

Thanks for the information people. I think for the time being I'll stick with Sky LLU or wait for that to swap over from BE and re-visit this thread once the cabinets go live. My Sky contract will be a rolling contract so should be able to leave pretty sharp if it is poor.