New one on me, connectivity NOT speed. Where's that covered?

Hi folks,

I never had to consider this one before. I need to get up to snuff with my knowledge about connectivity rather than speed.

I know there are guide lines and voluntary codes and all the good stuff Ofcom likes to bang on about.

Where does the matter of getting and staying connected get to be known about?

I've had some reduced luck of late and it seems this area is a bit greyer than the issue of what speed anyone might reasonably expect to see for a given line.

I need to gain an understanding so I can set about improving things. Just need to know where one is supposed to ask about it.

Many thanks for any guidance on the right place.

Total outage lasting more than two days gets compensation

Nothing on intermittent issues, so you are at mercy of iSP and making case, i.e. nothing is defined in stone for intermittent

From that I suppose one has to look for something radio based then.

I say that because the declared intent to switch to IP phones for normal phone supply means they will want to let the old copper cable rot in the ground.

It's odd, coming in to broadband back in the day, it was people chatting excitedly about who might be able to get it next. Seems it could soon see people talking about losing broadband in their area as the failures mount up, unchecked as they seem to be.

I don't doubt you are correct in there being no hope, I never saw that one coming, but I can see it now.

Sadly the radio based version is not yet affordable as far as I can know.

I'm not sure what might work for me, but I will have to find something that works: I'm housebound, no living relatives, was housebound when I moved here, so don't know anyone around here. As such I have no support network. I have lived autonomously via the internet for about 10-13 years, but that is now under threat I guess.

Looks unlikely to go anywhere good I am guessing. <shrug>

What exactly about your internet connection is under threat?

A new legal requirement where you can request a 10 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up connection is on its way in 2020.

Why do you think copper will be left to rot? By the way copper does not rot hence why copper antiquities can be dug up after 1000's of years. Initial moves to voice over broadband will often mean many are still using the copper so will not be left to rot and the repair metrics are getting stricter year on year as Ofcom increase the targets.

There is the push towards 50% full fibre coverage for 2025 followed by 100% for 2033 to look forward to.

Where, what and when depends greatly on where exactly you are living.

Roughly in order:

At present I detect it's ability to stay connected is diminishing. Sometimes it can go a few days, and other times it won't even manage a whole day.

This new legal requirement; presumably it's by the end of next year, and it does not sound like it is for ADSL. Those speeds for my area are simply not attainable unless you can and do afford fibre.

I have gained the impression BT would like copper to go away, things they have said or the way they have said other things suggest that it would be their desire.

I'd imagine those 1000 year old artifacts would not manage to support broadband, unless of course that is what they are using already which would explain a lot.

Hehe, Ofcom, funny ;o)

I live a very tricky 4 from the exchange. It claims on the checkers that I could get 5-6 down and 1 or maybe a little more up. Right this moment I'm at 4 down because the ISP capped it at 3 for me as that seemed more sensible since that reduced the frequency of the disconnects. I'm at 0.5 up, because that has been set to unlimited. (for all the good those settings did in reality)

I'm told that is what the "best efforts" amount to for today. Tomorrow, who can say?

But that is about speed, and as I said, I'm interested in connectivity, for which there appears not to be a legal requirement at all, unless I am wrong about that, and in that case you really must correct me. A connection which can last a week would be total luxury right now. Not seen that in quite a while.

If you have a fibre option but choose not to buy it for the £5 to £10 a month price difference (in many cases if out of contract on ADSL the fttc services can be cheaper) and the FTTC is at speeds over 10 Mbps then the USO will not apply

USO comes into effect in 2020

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

If you have a fibre option but choose not to buy it for the £5 to £10 a month price difference (in many cases if out of contract on ADSL the fttc services can be cheaper) and the FTTC is at speeds over 10 Mbps then the USO will not apply

USO comes into effect in 2020

I don't know, if your budget does not stretch as far as the price, then is that still a case of choosing not to buy? I'm not sure that it is a choice by then.

So is that to say that if you don't have enough money, then USO is not applicable? It sounds like it might be, but you may have made a typo, I really can't say. Perhaps you can clarify that bit?

I don't think "bills not being paid" via online banking can wait until 2020 if that is what you were trying to convey.

USO defines reasonable priced service as £25/m

Cheapest ADSL is £17 or £17.99 a month, FTTC can be found for £22.50, so yes a difference and for someone with no money a push, in which case what I would recommend mobile since a mobile plan is probably alread on their budget is to just have the mobile for the freedom it provides.

When broadband first appeared in 2000, price was £50 a month, so once you allow for inflation it is substantially cheaper today.

Right now I pay a little more than that reasonable £25.00 figure, and have done for more than 10 years. Line rental on top of course.

I am housebound, and need a mobile rather less than a fish needs a bicycle.

However I suspect it does point to the need to go radio/wireless for the future. All of which is why I think copper might have a very limited future. Certainly for me and probably for others.

As for value for money, it may appear cheaper to you, but if there is so much less connectivity, then it's actually priced rather higher than you may be imagining. It's absence is inversely keeping up with inflation.

There seems little hope, because this is in the mended state, six weeks or so after the visit from the BT/Openreach engineer.

When here, they deemed my kit to be well above average, and accepted the 8 faults on their meter were all at the BT end of things. Having swapped out more than £1000 of BT kit most of those went away, and then changing the line from cabinet to the exchange saw all but one of the remaining problems on the test meter go away. A further day at the exchange saw that one off. The engineer was then pestered by a supervisor "persuading" the engineer to move on to the next as there had "already been enough money spent on this one".

So more than a grand and 2 days spent bringing things back to working order. It seems something else must have happened to their stuff this time. I sure could not say, but even as a layman, I can see this was not how it was meant to be, as far as I have been given to understand things anyway.

I wonder which sort of radio based solution can do better than this? <shrug>

Even though you have no need for a mobile, it can still be a very cost-effective solution. Depending entirely of course on the strength of the mobile signal at your house.

It is now possible to get speeds of the same as FTTC on a mobile phone for £20 per month, with unlimited minutes, unlimited data and unlimited texts. (Assuming the phone is out of contract so already been paid for or bought outright). The phone can be tethered wirelessly to computers and tablets providing full service.

See my sig. I have completely ditched my FTTC and landline. Several people on these forums have also done so. See the Mobile Broadband forum, showing threads active over the last 6 months .