Orange 8Mb runs at 5Mb?

Had a really strange conversation with my brother the other day...

But, enough of that - back to broadband

He went in and got his son an orange mobile phone contract. Whilst he was there they decided they should sell him broadband. The sales guy informed him that orange had the fastest possible broadband available and that it runs at a whopping 5Mb. Wow, 5Mb broadband only a few years after BT started offering 8Mb wholesale. How amazing.

The really incredible thing was that they continued trying to convince him that 5Mb was the fastest possible broadband speed despite the fact I installed Be for him a month ago which is happily connecting at 14Mb.

Firstly, Orange really should learn the realities of broadband and stop lying to their customers. Secondly, I cannot understand where they ever got the 5Mb figure from anyway - can only assume they checked his number (although even BT say a minimum of 6Mb for the line).

Just really annoys me that these sales people try to hoodwink people into thinking their broadband is the "best" when actually he already has by far the best consumer broadband available.

OK, rant over.

Ian,

It might not be a lie. The product with Orange might be up to 8Mb (ADSL1) but the one with Be would be up to 24Mb using ADSL2+.

There are loads of reasons why speeds may differ such as line condition and quality, supplied router (chipset) compatibility with the exchange end, and even the connections at the exchange.

The data Orange may have had would generally have been provided based on estimates from BT. If you currently have Be as you say, BT won't have much data to base their ADSL predictions on. I.e a colleague here has ADSL2+, at 13Mb, but BT say he can only have 3Mb.

In their defence, it's better to say a lower speed and be realistic, than say a higher speed and be optimistic. I'd rather get a surprise come activation/migration date than a disappointment.

Matt

It wasn't the speed so much that I consider to be the lie. It was the fact they spent some time trying to convince him that they were the fastest you could get and that he was wrong that he could possibly be getting more than they can provide. This is either highly misguided or serious mis-selling.

I see your point - but they can only go on what is written/displayed on their systems.

So, they are not mis-selling their product or trying to misguide you. They are simply going from what data they inevitably get from BT.

If they had said you could get 15Mb, but in reality could not - that would be wrong and a lie.

Matt

In reply to a post by xilonet:

The product with Orange might be up to 8Mb (ADSL1)

FYI: Orange uses ADSL2+ capped at 8 Meg.

Noted but would still be sold as up to 8Mb, surely?

Don't they all? But that wasn't my point. I was correcting your guess at the Mode.

Ahh, I wasn't aware they did that.

Sorry.

Matt

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by xilonet:

The product with Orange might be up to 8Mb (ADSL1)

FYI: Orange uses ADSL2+ capped at 8 Meg.

Who said the relevant exchange is Orange LLU'ed?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Who said the relevant exchange is Orange LLU'ed?

I assumed LOL!

No, cuz he is successfully running Be there @ 14 Meg. I betcha that anywhere O2/Be is LLU'ed, then so is Orange. FYI: Your exchange and my 4 have exactly the same LLU coverage.