Hey! Broadband

Website. https://heybroadband.co.uk/

Apparently they are rolling out fttp in a few places (High Wycombe being my local area). Symmetrical 1Gbps for £40 a month, introductory offer.

Now being a bit of a sceptical sort I work on the old adage of "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is!!".

Question is, has anyone heard of them, is using them or has any thoughts? A quick Google has not really helped and worried that if I switched them may be left with a headache and grief from swmbo!!

I'm going to email and ask some q's around whether after minimum term migration is possible to another fttp supplier, what is supplied they just say "router" (have no need for a router just need a wan into existing)...at the price it is tempting but want to get more info, so any comments much appreciated.

The pricing you mention is not that unreasonable. I have not found any installation details on their web site. If you are going to use their fibre it may well be better to stick with them as a supplier rather than any 3rd party as they will likley have to fix any problems that you may encounter. You might be able to learn about the quality of their service by getting in touch with other customers. It could be wise to get their service up and running before cancelling any existing service that you have.

If you want to use a different router you could ask them if the box they provide can be put into bridge mode. You should also establish that you could use your own choice of VOIP provider.

What you choose to do will likely depend on what alternatives you have.

I am surprised at their claim to provide free installation. Digging up a hard surface such as tarmac is expensive.

Maybe they use PIA?

I've got F&W connecting me to Hey!Broadband service earlier next week (Gerrards Cross area).

Shall report back with how it went.

I have it - but in Horsham, one of their other rollout areas.

Just been activated today. It has been quite a saga, this is how it went for me

4th Feb attempted install, but aborted because they encountered a blockage in the BT Openreach ducting.
Competed a 'permission to dig' form which said that I would be contacted within 3-4 days.
After two weeks, with regular chasing the 'dig team' turned up unannounced spent about an hour find the termination point and the location of the blockage but then declared that they didn't have the right tools to dig the hole.
Waited another two weeks, chasing them up, eventually told they would be coming on 27th Feb - they didn't show. Complained at the team was sent round on 1st Mar and completed the work and did a very neat job - put the block paving back perfectly.
Then I had to chase to get the installers to come back - they came and completed the work on 10th Mar but advised that because of a network upgrade I would not be activated until today (12 Mar).
I got emails saying I had been activated but clearly I hadn't so chased the support team who resolved that quickly.

So installation - if you don't have a blockage it is probably very good. If you have a blockage the company they sub-contract the digging out are terrible - not the actual workers, but the management. They seem totally disorganised and lack respect for the customers that they are messing about. But I have to say that the workers that actually do the digging and installation have been fantastic.

So performance - first day, but I'm getting about 930Mbps up and down with a ping of 1mS - can't complain about that.

The router is a TP-Link Archer 500V that doesn't seem to exist on the TP-Link site - I think it is a special for the likes of Hey! Broadband.

I did manage to find a manual and it has loads of features, but unfortunately, it looks like Hey! Broadband put their own firmware on it which really dumbs it down.

I guess that is good for most people - you can do the basics very easily.

But it is so dumbed down, it is missing features I would expect - like being able to set IP addresses and set DHCP range so you can't set static IPs. In fact you can't even turn DHCP on or off.

Another disappointment is that the Hey! Broadband firmware has separate SSIDs for 2.4G and 5G wireless - you can't have a single SSID that is mixed 2.4G and 5G like I have on my current Sky hub.

I've also taken out the landline phone option but need to port my number across so can't comment yet on what that is like.

They fairly recently did Horsham and Broadbridge Heath, judging by the speed and lack of roadworks assume they used openreach ducts. Also not using openreach network in this area as max is gfast.

My Hey!Broadband service was installed this morning (Gerrards Cross area). Went well, very accommodating installers (who I believe are a 3rd party contractor). My street is served by Poles so it was just a matter of running a fibre from the Node on the pole to my property. Took the time to listen when I explained I‘m a bit precious about neat and tidy cabling on the outside of my house and did a good tidy job. Took about 2hrs.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, the router they provide is a managed very locked down TP-Link Archer router with only basic settings accessible....but they have no problem enabling Bridge mode so that you can use your own kit (I love Draytek Routers personally).

940Mb up & down.

Very pleased so far.

Edited by nofappingway (Tue 16-Mar-21 18:10:25)

In reply to a post by Fishbed:

So performance - first day, but I'm getting about 930Mbps up and down with a ping of 1mS - can't complain about that.

That's the real world limitations of Gigabit ethernet.

I believe the only way you'd get the full 1000 is with a 2.5g ONT, 2.5G router, 2.5G Network card in the pc and a sufficient cable to carry that speed.

Edited by jhorton88 (Tue 16-Mar-21 15:57:33)

In reply to a post by jhorton88:

That's the real world limitations of Gigabit ethernet.

I believe the only way you'd get the full 1000 is with a 2.5g ONT, 2.5G router, 2.5G Network card in the pc and a sufficient cable to carry that speed.

That's correct. Your 1G ethernet is carrying frames that look like this:

Text
1	<<preamble>><<<ethernet header>><<TCP/IP headers>><<PAYLOAD>><<crc/postamble>>

and it carries them at 1,000,000,000 bits per second. However your speedtest is counting only the rate for the PAYLOAD portion of each frame.

In reply to a post by jhorton88:

In reply to a post by Fishbed:

So performance - first day, but I'm getting about 930Mbps up and down with a ping of 1mS - can't complain about that.

That's the real world limitations of Gigabit ethernet.

I believe the only way you'd get the full 1000 is with a 2.5g ONT, 2.5G router, 2.5G Network card in the pc and a sufficient cable to carry that speed.

Don't forget that extra large MTU (jumbo frames) will increase the net throughput of any ethernet link, by increasing the ratio of payload to preamble (plus IP and TCP headers etc.) but need to be supported end to end to be of any benefit. These are by no means standard on any internet links....before anyone tries.

Typical/standard MTU of 1500 will give a maximum (payload) net rate of roughly 940 Mbits/s on a gig link. Going to an MTU size of 9000 keeps the overhead the same, but increases the effective payload rate to roughly 990 Mbit/s on a gig link. So the throughput penalty is approx. 5% between the standard 1500 MTU and jumbo frames.

The same ethernet 'rules' apply whether the link is 10 Mbps or 400 Gbps.

Edited by Pheasant (Tue 16-Mar-21 17:48:52)