There is a lack of free tie pair capacity at Poplar so the OP, or anyone, may have long wait to get a connection from any ISP.
Some LLU operators may have free pairs while others dont. IPstream services are also affected.
Maybe a case of keep trying until a pair from a ceased service becomes available.

Are you planning on getting Sky TV at the address? If you are and Sky have spare capacity at the exchange (which going by the O2 problem they may not) then Sky LLU on the mid package will give you a decent amount of download and will allow the line to run at it's max speed. If you can't get Sky LLU then I would steer clear of Sky Connect.

I'm afraid it sounds like you are going to have to pay a high amount for the "unlimited" download even if you do only get a 2Mb line - it is the amount of download that costs the money not the speed at which you can get it. And as you probably know the BT charging structures aren't geered towards large amounts of downloading.

In reply to a post by Simon_G:

In reply to a post by Rockh:

O2's LLU service is available at Poplar so you could well get much better speeds than 2 meg for less than £20 per month.

Ahh too slow with the reply.

Not according to the people I spoke to O2 it isnt! LOL

This may sound daft to you, but try Be as well as O2. They seem to split the connectivity at each exchange so that one sometimes has spare when the other hasn't.

In view of the general problem at the exchange it's unlikely, but worth a try.

Re an IPStream ISP, have a look at AAISP. Very low peak allowances, but big off-peak and also an unmetered night period. I agree with others that at the moment O2 Access is very dodgy. Browse the forum here. The latest suggestion for improvement is 8-12 weeks. A bit ago it was the end of March.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 05-Mar-09 11:45:02)

In reply to a post by rogan8:

There is a lack of free tie pair capacity at Poplar so the OP, or anyone, may have long wait to get a connection from any ISP.
Some LLU operators may have free pairs while others dont. IPstream services are also affected.
Maybe a case of keep trying until a pair from a ceased service becomes available.

Thanks for the info Rogan, looks like I'm gonna have a long wait

This may sound daft to you, but try Be as well as O2. They seem to split the connectivity at each exchange so that one sometimes has spare when the other hasn't.

In view of the general problem at the exchange it's unlikely, but worth a try.

Tried Bethere, nothing available.

AAISP looked interesting until I saw that Peak times are limited to 1Gb or 2GB which will do me no favours as both me and my partner work from home.

Thans for the info though.

In reply to a post by ian72:

Are you planning on getting Sky TV at the address? If you are and Sky have spare capacity at the exchange (which going by the O2 problem they may not) then Sky LLU on the mid package will give you a decent amount of download and will allow the line to run at it's max speed. If you can't get Sky LLU then I would steer clear of Sky Connect.

I'm afraid it sounds like you are going to have to pay a high amount for the "unlimited" download even if you do only get a 2Mb line - it is the amount of download that costs the money not the speed at which you can get it. And as you probably know the BT charging structures aren't geered towards large amounts of downloading.

Sky cannot offer LLU at the address (although I will be taking up Sky TV at some point), otherwise I would have gone for a bundle deal on MAX or something.

So it looks like:

Sky Connect (which people are telling me to steer clear of)
O2 Access (which people are telling me to steer clear of)
Virgin National (which people are.......hmmm I'm sensing a pattern here)
Tiscali (Not a personal favourite, but by far the cheapest out of the lot)
AOL (Would not touch it with yours!)
AAISP (Not enough peak hour allowance - otherwise might have been good)
BT (Major problem in the past with them at a different address)

any more to be looking at?

Post deleted by RobertoS

O2 are supposed to be addressing the Access problems by adding capacity, and it was thought the end of March. But the latest rumour is 6-8 weeks .

And what's to stop it happening again a couple of months after that is the problem. They are gaining customers at such a rate it has to be very hard to forecast the equipment needs.

Another possibility would be Plusnet Pro, but that's a 12-month contract with no getout.

In reply to a post by Simon_G:

any more to be looking at?

UKOnline

UKOnline

Looked good until I saw the bit where it forced me to buy a Netgear wireless G router for £50