Fibre Broadband

I have noticed that there seems to be a distinct lack of people posting anything about EE/Orange's Fibre Broadband offerings, are people just not taking it up ? or does it work so well that nobody that has signed up already has anything to complain about, I can't see me getting it even though it is now available at my exchange due the increased cost involved to what I pay atm for my broadband & phone package I just wondered what other peoples thoughts are on this ?

I think I've only seen 1 EE Fibre here: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/multiuser/f/4190664... . It's early days yet!

I've no interest in upgrading cuz 1) I already get 20 Meg ADSL2+, 2) cost, 3) I wouldn't let EE touch my voice line with a bargepole.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

I've no interest in upgrading cuz 1) I already get 20 Meg ADSL2+, 2) cost, 3) I wouldn't let EE touch my voice line with a bargepole.

I'm still on up to 8 with a speed of 6 but my line is still with BT. EE ring up quite often trying to get the line. Fibre should be here within weeks so will have to think again then.

Keith

surely the price will have to come down at some point that is if BT want mass take up of Fibre Broadband as I just cant see the majority of people wanting to spend close to £40 a month for it with EE/Orange or anyone else in today's economic conditions I see this is what the Plusnet site is quoting me for upto 76 meg Fibre
Monthly payment
Unlimited Fibre Broadband£19.99
Promotional discount (for 6 months)- £10.00
Plusnet Protect powered by McAfee Included
Line rental£13.99
Talk Anytime £4.00
Voicemail (1571)Included
Monthly total £27.98
for the first 6 months
now if that was the price full stop then I would sign up in a flash & I am sure so would a lot of people apart from maybe Ray lol sorry mate.

In reply to a post by keithwjones:

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

I've no interest in upgrading cuz 1) I already get 20 Meg ADSL2+, 2) cost, 3) I wouldn't let EE touch my voice line with a bargepole.

I'm still on up to 8 with a speed of 6 but my line is still with BT. EE ring up quite often trying to get the line. Fibre should be here within weeks so will have to think again then.

Keith

Hi Keith, I was with BT for home phone and I'm now with EE Orange for landline rental and landline home phone with free evenings and weekend calls. Orange do not touch your phone line it stays with BT and you still get the same BT caller answering service and caller display. You just pay Orange and not BT.

In reply to a post by E7er:

Orange do not touch your phone line

They do in the sense that they would be responsible for sorting out any faults on it. (Don't talk about BT OR, they are not your contractor). With all the experience of Orange BB Support, can you imagine that their Voice support will be any better? While BT Retail's is excellent.

In reply to a post by musicmate:

apart from maybe Ray lol sorry mate.

I'd have no qualms for taking PN Unlimited 76 Meg Fibre Broadband Only @ £19.99 pm.

It's 67% the price of EE's equivalent which includes E & W/e calls which I can get from BT for nowt anyway.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by E7er:

Orange do not touch your phone line

They do in the sense that they would be responsible for sorting out any faults on it. (Don't talk about BT OR, they are not your contractor). With all the experience of Orange BB Support, can you imagine that their Voice support will be any better? While BT Retail's is excellent.

If there was a telephone line fault it would passed to BT to rectify, I cannot see your problem, you must think you are still on the Orange LLU network where Orange were more involved with the network. Don�t forget Orange have passed the running of the network over to BT. So it�s just like being with BT but you pay EE Orange.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/broadband/357307/orange-...

One reason I would not have BT broadband is you cannot use Microsoft Outlook Express unless you use something like Google Gmail, mostly BT broadband customers use Yahoo Mail.

https://login.yahoo.com/config/mail?&.src=ym&.intl=uk

https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=mai...

In reply to a post by E7er:

One reason I would not have BT broadband is you cannot use Microsoft Outlook Express unless you use something like Google Gmail, mostly BT broadband customers use Yahoo Mail.

According to this page, BT Yahoo email supports POP3: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6876/...

well all i can go by with the home phone is my personal experience, I have had the anytime calls package with my orange broadband for the last 2-3 years & touch wood have never had any problems with it, a couple of weeks back I had my Neighbors all Talk Talk Customers knocking on the door asking if my phone & broadband was working ok which it was, theirs was cut off all that day but I had no issues at all, so no complaints here on that score.

You miss the point!

In reply to a post by E7er:

If there was a telephone line fault it would passed to BT to rectify

"Passed" is the operative word. You still have to call Orange to get that action in motion and my qualms are that that voice support is no better than their BB support which we all know is atrocious. With BT Retail you don't even need to speak to them to get a voice fault tested and logged.

I wasn't suggesting having BT BB, only voice, but:

In reply to a post by E7er:

One reason I would not have BT broadband is you cannot use Microsoft Outlook Express unless you use something like Google Gmail

Why can't you use OE with BT? Explain!

In reply to a post by E7er:

[One reason I would not have BT broadband is you cannot use Microsoft Outlook Express unless you use something like Google Gmail, mostly BT broadband customers use Yahoo Mail. [frown]

I assume this refers to BT Yahoo mail?

Why oh why would anyone want to use BT Yahoo mail or any other e-mail provided by an ISP as you always end up in bother when you want to change ISP's.

Best solution is to acquire your own domain and use a hosting company to run an IMAP mail system - total cost around £15 per year.

If you really want web mail (why????) then use Gmail or similar mail that is free and not linked to any ISP.

There is then no problem at all and no future problems either. Job done.

I have a BT Yahoo mail account, havent used it since joining BT Broadband earlier this year - BT have my email address as [email protected].

Not trying to convince anyone who refuses to be converted; but WLR has exactly the same automated line monitoring and fault rectification as what is known as a BT retail line (and I've experienced it). It's also a tad simpler to tell whether an analogue problem is a line issue than for a broadband issue; even for a dumb ISP? Well, that was my experience with Orange.

I've no doubt that once the issue in the hands BT OR it is handled the same, as it should be by the Regs; it just getting it into those hands.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by E7er:

One reason I would not have BT broadband is you cannot use Microsoft Outlook Express unless you use something like Google Gmail, mostly BT broadband customers use Yahoo Mail.

According to this page, BT Yahoo email supports POP3: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6876/...

Hi Oliver thanks for that link to BT Internet showing how to configure Microsoft Outlook Express to receive BT Internet emails.

My friends who have BT Internet use BT Yahoo and I ask them, �why are you using BT Yahoo for your emails� and they say, �You have to with BT Internet, you cannot use Outlook Express�. So anyone! What�s this BT Yahoo for if customers can use Outlook Express?

I always thought maybe BT Internet did not run email servers.

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?.intl=u...

In reply to a post by E7er:

My friends who have BT Internet use BT Yahoo and I ask them, �why are you using BT Yahoo for your emails� and they say, �You have to with BT Internet, you cannot use Outlook Express�. So anyone! What�s this BT Yahoo for if customers can use Outlook Express?

Sounds like you need to re-educate your friends (and urge them to upgrade from XP...)

No ISP blocks POP3, so any email client (including Outlook Express) can be used. Some ISPs block port 25 outgoing, but the vast majority of SMTP servers listen on an alternative port, usually 465 or 587, and these ports are never blocked. It's just a case of configuring the email client to use an SMTP port other than 25.

In reply to a post by E7er:

What�s this BT Yahoo for if customers can use Outlook Express?

It's the mail server, where the mailboxes are stored, that BT provides via Yahoo. It can be used as Webmail or it can be accessed with any PC mail client such as OE.

It's no diff from Orange's mail server, http://email10.orange.co.uk/webmail/en_GB/inbox.html , which can also be POP3'ed with OE.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by E7er:

What�s this BT Yahoo for if customers can use Outlook Express?

It's the mail server, where the mailboxes are stored, that BT provides via Yahoo. It can be used as Webmail or it can be accessed with any PC mail client such as OE.

It's no diff from Orange's mail server, http://email10.orange.co.uk/webmail/en_GB/inbox.html , which can also be POP3'ed with OE.

Well you don�t have Zen Yahoo, or Orange Yahoo, so why do they have a BT Yahoo? These friends of mine were adamant they could not use Microsoft Outlook Express with BT Internet for emails, because it will not work.

I can see and access my Orange emails from the Orange website if I choose to, how come BT Internet users cannot access their emails from the BT Internet website?
It looks to me BT don�t want to get involved with provisioning an email service for their home domestic customers, so they palmed it off to Yahoo.

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6906/...

http://web.orange.co.uk/p/email/home

In reply to a post by E7er:

These friends of mine were adamant they could not use Microsoft Outlook Express with BT Internet for emails, because it will not work.

As I said before, they are mistaken.

In reply to a post by E7er:

It looks to me BT don�t want to get involved with provisioning an email service for their home domestic customers, so they palmed it off to Yahoo.

Why not outsource email provision to a company specialising in email provision? Seems to make sense to me, rather than taking it in-house and potentially making a hash of it. Sky outsource email to Google, soon to move to Yahoo too.

Yes, BT made a hash of it alright in much the same way that Sky did. That's why both outsourced.
So Sky are going to use Yahoo instead?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

So Sky are going to use Yahoo instead?

Yep, migration is in April 2013.

In reply to a post by E7er:

how come BT Internet users cannot access their emails from the BT Internet website?

Why should they? There is no hard and fast rule that an ISP must only provide its email itself.

I show you another strange arrangement. AOL BB users have their email, and their user IDs, provided by a diff company, AOL UK a subsidiary of AOL Inc USA, and have always have done. This is cuz when CPW (TT) bought AOL Inc's BB some years ago they did not include the email and user IDs. AOL BB and AOL UK are diff firms as can be shown from their websites:

AOL BB: http://www.aolbroadband.co.uk/ (Like BT, you can't access your emails from here)
AOL UK: http://www.aol.co.uk/ (You access your emails from here)

You may consider it an anomaly that whilst BTw provides Orange's BB, it is not involved in their email. Orange still provides its own email and its email servers, I believe, are hosted in France by France Telecom.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by E7er:

how come BT Internet users cannot access their emails from the BT Internet website?

Why should they? There is no hard and fast rule that an ISP must only provide its email itself.

Does www.btyahoo.com not count?

Just you wait till EE get their hands on Orange website and email. Then you will lose your email.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Just you wait till EE get their hands on Orange website and email. Then you will lose your email.

I found out why the poor BT Internet customers cannot use Microsoft Outlook Express or any other email readers with their BT Yahoo mail. Yahoo want them to pay for the Yahoo Mail Plus service.

The ability to access Yahoo! Mail using an email reader program such as Outlook, Eudora, or Thunderbird is only available to customers of our premium Yahoo! Mail Plus service. To determine whether you have purchased this service, please visit the My Services page.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100120...

http://help.yahoo.com/l/uk/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/mail...

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?.intl=u...

Edited by deleted (Mon 24-Dec-12 10:31:01)

In reply to a post by E7er:

I found out why the poor BT Internet customers cannot use Microsoft Outlook Express or any other email readers with their BT Yahoo mail. Yahoo want them to pay for the Yahoo Mail Plus service.

Wrong. BT Yahoo email comes with POP3/SMTP access by default: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6876/...

But since you don't seem to be listening to this advice, I'm probably wasting my breath.

Hi,

I take the EE fibre service on the unlimited tariff having upgraded from Orange ADSL in November. It was a tough decision to stick with Orange/EE as I was weighing up swapping my email address if I moved to another provider vs. moving to a provider that would undoubtedly offer a more per formant service, in the end I chose to remain with Orange / EE to retain my email address and see how their fibre service performed.

I would say the reliability has been excellent since migrating. Download speed is as to be expected for a 37mbps connection, taking into consideration the traffic shaping etc. For me then often overlooked upload speed of 9mbps is what sets the service apart and is one of the reasons I took the fibre offering in conjunction with the increased reliability.

In terms of cost I am paying in the region of £10per month more than I was for the ADSL service(negotiated rate). Whether that is good value or not is down to individual opinion and not my place to say.

The level of quality for ringing support etc. is not a key decision factor for me given the reliability of the modern service (both BB and phone line).

In reply to a post by y9rog:

I was weighing up swapping my email address if I moved to another provider

You retain your Orange email addy when you leave provided you reactivate it online about every 219 days. Your Internet account is downgraded to a dial-up account which you do not need to use.

You are confusing Yahoo! Mail with BT Yahoo! Mail.

EDIT: Indeed even on Yahoo! Mail you don't need Yahoo! Mail Plus. I've just POP3'ed my free plain Yahoo! Mail.

Just follow: http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index?locale=en_GB&y=PROD_M...

Also needed to tick "Access Yahoo! Mail via POP" on my Options pages.

Those articles you quote are over 3 years old

Edited by XRaySpeX (Mon 24-Dec-12 15:08:21)

In reply to a post by y9rog:

in the end I chose to remain with Orange / EE to retain my email address and see how their fibre service performed.

Using an ISP hosted email system is not, generally, a good idea if it ties you into the ISP as your has.

Now you have decided not to move, at least partly due to retaining your email address, it is clearly time to do something about it.

Either use a third part mail service (gmail, yahoo etc) or get yourself a domain and sign up with a hosting service for an email package (this is the prefered option). This gives you a unlimited number of email addresses ("[email protected]") and you can shift domain to any hosting company - you are not tied in!

I did this years ago and have not used an ISP mail system for 10 years or more. You only need to do it once!

In reply to a post by greenglide:

In reply to a post by y9rog:

in the end I chose to remain with Orange / EE to retain my email address and see how their fibre service performed.

Using an ISP hosted email system is not, generally, a good idea if it ties you into the ISP as your has.

Now you have decided not to move, at least partly due to retaining your email address, it is clearly time to do something about it.

Either use a third part mail service (gmail, yahoo etc) or get yourself a domain and sign up with a hosting service for an email package (this is the prefered option). This gives you a unlimited number of email addresses ("[email protected]") and you can shift domain to any hosting company - you are not tied in!

I did this years ago and have not used an ISP mail system for 10 years or more. You only need to do it once!

I can't argue against the principle of having your own domain name from which you can create your own email address that you can move freely from one ISP to another; sadly it is not a feature used by many domestic users. An experienced Internet user will say it is a breeze to setup, so what's stopping wide adoption? I would say it is nothing more than the ISPs facilities being trouble free to setup and robust in use.

There are certainly a lot of hoops to jump through to have your own email address, the most obvious being actually finding a domain name that is not in use, and suitable for you. Then you have to make the fundamental choice of using forwarding into the ISP email system or having it hosted by an agency. Neither method is the gold standard. The two major issues are "reputation" with hosted services and the other is roaming SMTP availability. If 'greenglide' has not experienced either, he has been very, very, lucky.

An added complication is that with BT you have to prove that you are entitled to use your domain name, which delays you configuring your email client. Furthermore you have to definitely discover the names of the mail servers, their port numbers and security requirements for each server. There is little, to no, published information on this issue and that which can be found generally does *NOT* apply for use with your own domain name.

If you decide to have hosted email facilities, then setting up your email client is easy because your hosting company will provide all the information needed, but by definition you will be sharing a [computer] host with a common IP address. That IP address is unlikely to have a good reputation, meaning that your outgoing emails may fail to reach an intended recipient [especially if AOL] or be shunted into their Junk Mail box.

Using an ISPs SMTP server won't have those problems but you *may* be restricted to outgoing facilities only being possible when connect to your home network. A real pain if you want to send an email when out and about with your laptop.

All the problems highlighted above are resolvable but your average user will need a knowledgeable friend to help out or a deep pocket to call the ISPs help desk. It is very true you only need to go through all this performance once with ongoing benefits and flexibility gained, but it is a giant step for many to take in the first place.

David

In reply to a post by greenglide:

if it ties you into the ISP as your has.

It doesn't, with Orange! Some ISPs, including Orange, allow you to keep your mailboxes with them, sometimes with a caveat to occasionally refresh them.

EDIT: Orange email addys are just like having your own domain in that you make up your own ones thus "giving you a unlimited number of email addresses".

This saves you the paraphernalia of signing up and paying for a domain and/or hosting service which many can't be bothered with.

There are arguments both ways.

The troubles with the GMail, Yahoo and Hotmails of this world are they can get spammy and many sites won't allow you to sign up with them, preferring a "proper" email addy.

One ISP email provider that many overlook is O2. Its email is completely independent of its BB. O2 email is available to anyone with any mobile of any network, not just O2.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Mon 24-Dec-12 20:04:37)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

You are confusing Yahoo! Mail with BT Yahoo! Mail.

EDIT: Indeed even on Yahoo! Mail you don't need Yahoo! Mail Plus. I've just POP3'ed my free plain Yahoo! Mail.

Just follow: http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index?locale=en_GB&y=PROD_M...

Also needed to tick "Access Yahoo! Mail via POP" on my Options pages.

Those articles you quote are over 3 years old

I have two Yahoo Mail addresses (yahoo.com and yahoo.co.uk) and I cannot configure them to work with Microsoft Windows XP, Outlook Express 6. I have tried for years and no-way will it work for me, Just tried again now with your instructions and it didn�t work, so I don�t use them. I get the continuous reply from Yahoo Mail server�
.
Please enter your user name and password for the following server.
Pop.mail.yahoo.com

If I go to the Yahoo website, I can login with my username and password with no problems whatsoever. https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.src=yhelp&.int...

But I still do use email addresses from my three previous ISP�s and they can be accessed using dial-up or broadband with Microsoft Windows XP, Outlook Express 6.

Edited by deleted (Wed 26-Dec-12 16:42:46)

You did tick "Access Yahoo! Mail via POP" on your Options pages on Yahoo webmail?

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

You did tick "Access Yahoo! Mail via POP" on your Options pages on Yahoo webmail?

Didn�t see anything about Yahoo webmail it�s called Yahoo! UK & Ireland, Yahoo! Mail. I clicked on POP & Forwarding and it takes me to Yahoo premium mail service wanting me to sign up for 12 months at $19.99.

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?.intl=u...

There is no need to split hairs here; you knew what I meant

I don't get that redirect to Yahoo premium mail service. So there must be some concept of legacy accounts. I joined pre- Nov 2009.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

I don't get that redirect to Yahoo premium mail service. So there must be some concept of legacy accounts. I joined pre- Nov 2009.

I've just created a Yahoo Mail (yahoo.co.uk) account from scratch, POP3 works fine with it.

Edited by Oliver341 (Wed 26-Dec-12 20:43:28)

I'm not clear why you replied to me on this, but just to clarify, I had already said a few posts ago that I had already successfully done that.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

I'm not clear why you replied to me on this, but just to clarify, I had already said a few posts ago that I had already successfully done that.

It was in reply to this:

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

I don't get that redirect to Yahoo premium mail service. So there must be some concept of legacy accounts. I joined pre- Nov 2009.

I thought you were suggesting that legacy accounts don't redirect users to Yahoo Mail Plus, and non-legacy (new) accounts do.

Edited by Oliver341 (Wed 26-Dec-12 23:43:21)

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

I thought you were suggesting that legacy accounts don't redirect users to Yahoo Mail Plus, and non-legacy (new) accounts do.

Yes, that was what I was guessing, on the basis that I can POP my free Yahoo a/c and E7er can't.

You never said whether your Yahoo a/c is legacy, if there is such a thing. Oh, I see! You meant you had just created a brand new a/c and therefore it can't be a legacy a/c.

OK, so it's puzzling why E7er can't do the same however old his a/c is.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Wed 26-Dec-12 23:53:37)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Oh, I see! You meant you had just created a brand new a/c and therefore it can't be a legacy a/c.

Exactly! Brand new account, can't be legacy, no redirect to Yahoo Mail Plus.

OK, so it's puzzling why E7er can't do the same however old his a/c is.

Yeah. Mind you I'm puzzled in general, as I thought we were talking about BT Yahoo Mail, and now we seem to be talking about Yahoo Mail instead. And we're also ridiculously OT for this thread now.

Yes, sorry, I read your post originally that you had created a mail client a/c from scratch to an existing Yahoo a/c.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

I thought we were talking about BT Yahoo Mail, and now we seem to be talking about Yahoo Mail instead.

Yes, it was originally said that you can't POP a BT Yahoo Mail and, as I showed you can POP a native Yahoo Mail a/c, it was unlikely that BT Yahoo Mail would restrict it; on top of the fact that BT Yahoo Mail is intended as the email for BT users. If you see what I mean!

Yes, this thread is all over the place. It was originally about EE fibre. This led to the advisability of letting EE take over your BT phone line. Then someone threw a curve early on by introducing the irrelevant BT BB from which this topic emerged .

being the OP I did start to wonder how this had wandered so far from my original question I guess this means not to many posters on TBB have taken up EE's Fibre offering lol

Edited by deleted (Thu 27-Dec-12 17:43:59)

In reply to a post by musicmate:

I guess this means not to many posters on TBB have taken up EE's Fibre offering lol

A fair assumption I think.