Out of the country for 3 years and everything's changed!

Wow, this is my first post here in quite some time, possibly from back in the ADSLGuide days. How are you all?!

Anyhoo, back in 2011 we were happily with Be Unlimited right up until we left the country for what was supposed to be a year. Three years later we've finally returned and oh my, has everything changed! Be is no more, and FTTC is now readily available in our street (the inlaws get FTTH but that's another matter!). I've been looking around at what's available and is it really the case that every provider is much the same as eachother? BT, Plusnet, Sky, Zen etc are all offering 80/20 speeds for around the same price (need to watch out for that line rental cost) and all "unlimited".

Is that basically it these days? Choose a provider based on cost, length of contract and customer service reputation rather than there being any kind of thrust and parry of different packages at different speeds and with different caps/usage policies? Is service contention even a thing anymore, or do all of the ISPs ultimately run over the same backhaul?

I feel like I've been on another planet for 3 years and have so much catching up to do. Help!

For FTTC Openreach control the DSLAM hence the same set of speeds on sale.

Sky, TalkTalk unbundle the data to their backhaul when it hits the exchange.
Zen has its own backhaul network too, but for some smaller exchanges it may use BT Wholesale
The market has abandoned usage limits in the consumer area apart from a few suppliers as backhaul costs have come done.

In reply to a post by Noiz:

Is that basically it these days? Choose a provider based on cost, length of contract and customer service reputation rather than there being any kind of thrust and parry of different packages at different speeds and with different caps/usage policies?

There are still differences in caps/usage here and there but otherwise you're right.

In reply to a post by Noiz:

.(need to watch out for that line rental cost) ..

lol - you've obviously been reading the forums!

Given that all these ISPs are essentially reselling the same Openreach infrastructure, using the same phone cable with the same GEA-FTTC wholesale costs, then product variation is very different. Yes, they might have slightly different internal or back-haul costs, but product differentiation at the basic service level is always going to be difficult.

That's why, in that you see differences, these are often at the level of what's bundled. TV/sports/film channels, special short term deals and so on.

For their to be fundamental competition, it would have to be at the infrastructure level and, apart from VM and a few small Altnets, there's not much of that about. The issue is the cost barrier. Putting MSANs into exchanges is one thing. Putting in any form of large scale network infrastructure over large geographical areas is something else again.

nb. contention is a potential issue as that is under the control of the SPs. Personally I've never seen any contention on my FTTC service in that speed test results are within 10% of one another whatever the time of day. Other ISPs (or locations) may vary.

Edited by deleted (Mon 10-Nov-14 13:47:59)

Even BT Wholesale back-haul is used, that doesn't necessarily mean the service is the same as regards contention as ISPs still get to choose how much bandwidth they purchase.

How about line rental for sick squid?
http://www.pulse8broadband.co.uk/

In reply to a post by professor973:

How about line rental for sick squid?
http://www.pulse8broadband.co.uk/

As long as you pay for their expensive (compared to plusnet/sky/BT et al) broadband.

In reply to a post by Galoka:

In reply to a post by professor973:

How about line rental for sick squid?
http://www.pulse8broadband.co.uk/

As long as you pay for their expensive (compared to plusnet/sky/BT et al) broadband.

Some can't see the wood for the trees.....

Edited by deleted (Mon 10-Nov-14 22:35:47)

In reply to a post by Galoka:

In reply to a post by professor973:

How about line rental for sick squid?
http://www.pulse8broadband.co.uk/

As long as you pay for their expensive (compared to plusnet/sky/BT et al) broadband.

Well you are welcome to PN customer service. I remember the reign of terror, waiting a week for an answer to a ticket. Pulse8 are £14 cheaper than what I am paying for my two services at the moment, and PN & BT here. Plusnet are not cheap on a Market 1 exchange. near enough as expensive as BT proper, £22.49 for broadband only and where are the no contract FTTC deals?

Edited by professor973 (Mon 10-Nov-14 22:47:27)