John Lewis or BT in rural area (no fibre)

Hi. I have just joined the group as I am looking for some advice.

I live in a rural area without fibre broadband. Have been with BT for several years and have just come to the end of my broadband contract. Was about to recontract when I saw on a comparison site that John Lewis do a much cheaper offer (£19 / month vs around £25 for BT, plus free evening & weekend calls from landline which is useful as we also have poor mobile signal indoors). The question is, will my internet speeds and wifi signal be worse than with BT? Five people in the house including one gamer so getting the best speed that we can under the circumstances is important. JL quote a range of 6-13 Mbps for my area. BT quote 7-14 Mbps - why should these be different? I sometimes get higher than this though, 15 or 16 if I run a speed test. Part of me wants to just try JL and see, but the 14 day cooling off period expires the same day as the JL connection starts so there's no trial period. Minimum speed guarantee is a paltry 2.5 Mbps which means it has to be virtually unusable before you can leave in contract without paying a hefty cancellation charge so it could be an expensive mistake if I end up getting the lower range of the speed estimate.

Currently have a BT smart hub. John Lewis customer service told me that they use a Zyxel VMG8924. Does anyone know how this compares to the BT smart hub (which is locked to BT) for wifi signal?

Thank you in advance for your help. I'm not technologically-minded so please be gentle!

The ADSL2+ side should not change in speed, unless the modem is poorer or better than the Smart Hub. Hard to give any definitive answer as so many variables involved.

John Lewis is a white label Plusnet service, so same connection as Plusnet just different hardware and possibly different customer service levels

The speed quotes differ because of interpretation of the data, one might be playing it safe, the other optimistic, or it might be a reflection of a bigger slow down to be expected at peak times, impossible to say with certainty.

If the gaming is as tolerable i.e. good for the speeds and latency you have then I'd pay the bit extra and say with the devil I know, rather than risk things.

John Lewis may be cheaper than Plustnet in areas served by small exchanges where Plusnet charge more.

Thank you. My teenage son is saying the same. As I understand it, JL won't be faster and there's a good chance it could be slower because of traffic management protocols and / or inferior modem/ router. Shame, as that £40 John Lewis voucher for signing up, is dangling tantalisingly in front of me. If it was just me, I'd change. Roll on fibre broadband - expected sometime in the next 5 years...

Yes, plusnet was more than BT.

If you think that you might be happier staying with BT, don't be afraid to tell them about the other offers and cashback deals, and ask them if they can offer you a better deal.

They do have some flexibility to offer discounts if you are out of contract and are prepared to sign up for another fixed period deal, as you would have to with a new supplier anyway. However, do bear in mind that BT have recently introduced higher annual increases in monthly charges, CPI+3.9% I think?

Edited by sparky_paul (Sat 14-Nov-20 16:39:51)

If you sometimes get 15Mbps on an ADSL line I'd stay with your current supplier.
ISP changing can be a nightmare to be avoided at all costs.

In reply to a post by chud51161:

If you sometimes get 15Mbps on an ADSL line I'd stay with your current supplier.
ISP changing can be a nightmare to be avoided at all costs.

How many of the people that change ISP have problems, please?

In reply to a post by chud51161:

ISP changing can be a nightmare to be avoided at all costs.

I think you have that wrong.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

In reply to a post by chud51161:

If you sometimes get 15Mbps on an ADSL line I'd stay with your current supplier.
ISP changing can be a nightmare to be avoided at all costs.

How many of the people that change ISP have problems, please?

everyone i know complete nightmares

In reply to a post by chud51161:

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

In reply to a post by chud51161:

If you sometimes get 15Mbps on an ADSL line I'd stay with your current supplier.
ISP changing can be a nightmare to be avoided at all costs.

How many of the people that change ISP have problems, please?

everyone i know complete nightmares

So how many is that as a proportion of all those who change ISPs please? For example, I have changed a number of times and never had a problem.

Edited by GonePostal (Sun 15-Nov-20 00:54:30)

Six times here. Never had a problem.

In reply to a post by chud51161:

ISP changing can be a nightmare to be avoided at all costs.

Probably the silliest comment I've ever read on here.
You'll be telling us the moon landing was faked next... ah, nevermind.

With that logic everyone would still be on BT and nobody would ever have switched.

I've migrated nearly dozen times since 1999.
Not a single issue on any of them.

An ADSL2+ migration from BT to John Lewis (Plusnet) will be a very simple migration and will likely be on the exact same BT Wholesale exchange hardware. Sync speed should be near identical, downtime minimal.

have you put your postcode recently into the fibre checker on Openreach website this link this will tell you if anything is on its way - Service provider checkers can only offer you whatst here today not what might be coming next werk, month year - https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband

I have already, thanks. Got excited for all of about 10 seconds when I saw the message 'Good news: fibre broadband is coming to your area soon' or something to that effect, before reading the small print with the definition of 'soon' being in the next 5 years or so. It's not even clear whether it or not we will be included : the postcode search implied that we would but on the map, we were outside of the shaded area.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

Probably the silliest comment I've ever read on here.

That's a pretty high bar!

what does it actully say can you post it as that seems a very odd working and suggest its might not be uptodate as language / Terminology suggests not current

In reply to a post by Fastman3:

what does it actully say can you post it as that seems a very odd working and suggest its might not be uptodate as language / Terminology suggests not current

Yes, they seem to have changed the wording recently. I have a screenshot from 31/08/20 from the postcode checker which reads "Better broadband is coming. Good news -we are upgrading your area to FTTP soon" and another one today which says "we're sorry our fibre products aren't available for you yet. However, we are starting to roll out ultrafast full fibre in your area. Provide your details below and we'll keep you up to date....etc"
Neither of them gives any idea of timescale: the current link can be accessed via an article about connecting 3.2 million hard-to-reach urban and rural homes by the mid 2020s. So I'm guessing that could be anytime in the next 5 years.

A few years back changed form BT to John Lewis on 3.5Mbps ADSL, had no problems at all with them. Speed virtually was virtually identical. Now given up with slow fixed line and using 4g instead.

In reply to a post by chud51161:

If you sometimes get 15Mbps on an ADSL line I'd stay with your current supplier.
ISP changing can be a nightmare to be avoided at all costs.

I tend to agree with what you say to a certain extent. In the past when it was possible to migrate ADSL broadband only (not line rental) to Plusnet from BT retail, or other BTw provider, things generally seemed to go well, particularly financially if one was in a Plusnet "low cost area". At the moment there do appear to be some reports of problems that can occur with a migration away from BT retail of both line rental and ADSL to another BTw provider offering a line rental and broadband package which Plusnet/John Lewis do.

As you infer: if the BT retail service is working OK then there is no need to fix it nor perhaps move away and possibly encounter any potential difficulties however unlikely they can be.

Edited by 4M2 (Sun 15-Nov-20 19:49:24)

Can you elaborate on these 'nightmares' as the reasons could range from the expectations of the user being incorrect right the way through to Openreach or the LLU provider being inept?

In this instance, given that JL is effectively a BTWholesale reseller (albeit via Plusnet) there is no LLU involved, so the main areas for disappointment are likely to be either end-user worry or account setup problems.

Whenever changing ISP always allow for a day or two of disruption, that way end-user worry is minimised.

One question would be on the upload side, Plusnet has sometimes appeared to cap adsl2+ upload at 0.4 Mbps, with people needing to contact to raise to 0.8 Mbps. Whether this ever affected John Lewis customers unsure.

Another is variation in capabilities of modem, should be minimal difference these days as ADSL2+ chipsets are mature.

Thank you for your input. I decided to bite the bullet. Changeover date is 02/12. Once up and running, I will aim to come back and report on the new service. Or I might be back before then if I can't get it to work! Thanks again.

Just wanted to feed back. I signed up for John Lewis broadband and home phone in the end and have been with them for over a week. You wouldn't know - there has been no discernible difference in service. Changeover was smooth too. Came with a Sagemcom router which looks a bit tinny (I have to weigh it down at the back to stop it falling over) but does the job fine. Can use wifi in different rooms same as before. I had an online meeting yesterday at peak time which lost the connection twice, which is similar to what I experienced before. Only difference is the price. And my £40 John Lewis voucher was emailed to me yesterday so I'm a happy bunny!

£40 voucher - that will get two bottle of single malt in Waitrose, some good offers there!

Great result.