O2 LLU and BT?

Hi,

Nearly a year ago I was helped tremendously on this forum, following terrible problems with my connection speeds etc. The long and short of it was that I migrated from Plusnet to O2 as my local exchange housed their own equipment. Happiness has been constant 14mbps speeds with no spikes/interruptions at all.

Recently BT have made FTC available in my area and as I can see the cabinet around 75 meters away, I am considering this option for when my O2 contract ends in early August.

However looking at the pricing structure for the phone/infinity packages, they do not seem to make sense. For example option 1 which gives infinity plus weekend unlimited calls costs £18 per month, while the option 2 with unlimited anytime calls is £28 per month. The current cost of an unlimited calls add-on to a phone line contract is only £4.70 per month (which I am on). How come the huge difference?

Just realised I am rambling, so back to questions!!

A) Does anyone know why the package costs vary from simply adding bolt-ons to line rental?
B) With Infinity still in its infancy would I (in your opinion) be ill advised to move across considering my current broadband speed?

Many thanks

Steve

In reply to a post by Racehunter:

A) Does anyone know why the package costs vary from simply adding bolt-ons to line rental?

The £18 package has the slower 2Mb/s upload speed plus a data transfer limit of 40GB/month.
The £28 package has the proper upload speed and unlimited data transfer.

In reply to a post by Racehunter:

B) With Infinity still in its infancy would I (in your opinion) be ill advised to move across considering my current broadband speed?

From reading the reports on this forum, most people appear to be happy with Infinity.

Thanks for the explanation. I really don't know how I missed that one!

I suppose I had better read all the posts about Infinity now.....................

Steve

You do know that many other ISPs can supply Openreach FTTC, not just (BT Retail) Infinity? Sadly O2 isn't one.

I have a list on this page, but been on holiday so there may be more since the date of that - 6 June. The spreadsheet linked to on that page is a good place to check.

Hi RobertoS,

Yes I was aware of the different providers and if I remember correctly, Plusnet and TalkTalk both offer FTTC in Stratford upon Avon, however, price wise it still looks like BT is the best cost option as I am already with them. I also have to consider that through BT I pay for an additional service, Call Sign, which allows a second phone number to be allocated on the same line. If I was to switch my phone service provider, in search of cheaper FTTC provision, then I would lose this hugely beneficial low cost option.

I suppose I could wait and see if/when O2 move into the market, but from what I have seen most BT competitors also limit upload speed to 2mbps and that's also not taking into account the limited capacity at each cabinet, unless that is scaremongering.

I have to say that I have been extremely happy with O2 but obviously the temptation of even higher speed is appealing!