Possible move from O2 LLU

A couple of years ago this forum was very helpful in sorting out poor broadband performance, which culminated in me signing up with O2 and their LLU service from the Stratford upon Avon exchange.

Now at the end of year 2 and seeing some price increases prompted me to look at what else was available. I immediately considered BT Infinity as the FTC box is 75m from my home. However it is still quite a price hike if I look at Option 2 with unlimited usage. Looking at my stats, I use around 30gb a month so am now considering Infinity option 1, which although is 'only' quoted at 38mb, this is still a useful increase over the 11 to 12 I am getting currently.

Does anyone have any views on this product and is it possible to upgrade to a higher speed during the initial agreement term?

Thanks

Steve

Just a quick check, as I'm not on Infinity, I'm on Plusnet fibre instead. (I assume you are aware that most mainstream ISPs can supply FTTC? Infinity is just the BT Broadband (Retail) product name).

With you being so close to the cabinet, you can probably get it, but have you checked? It is definitely a new FTTC cabinet, near to the phone cabinet? What does the BT Wholesale Checker say?

Yes you can upgrade during the initial term without penalty. However, it does seem to depend on who you speak with - sometimes they use the same contract end date and other times a new contract end date based on 12/24 months depending on your original.

Must have been tired last night when I posted. I had not logged on and appear as an anonymous poster! Sorry

Roberto, yes I have checked availability and I can get all levels of Infinity. I have also looked into the other cable providers, using the BT FTTC and without fail, they require taking their telephone line rental as well. This is something that I cannot do, as I use a BT service which gives a second number over the same line, which I split out using a 'twin talk' unit. None of the other phone providers are able to offer this. Cost is a big consideration as currently I am paying £13 for the O2 LLU service plus BT line rental plus BT anytime call package (£4.90). The 38mb BT broadband looks a good mid way product.

Steve

Plusnet, vivaciti, ADSL24, Xilo/uno, AAISP, IDNet, Zen, ....

All quite happy with whoever already has your line.

I'm on BT line, have had IDNet FTTC, now PN.

I agree that there are other providers who will not dictate that you take their line rental package, however the actual cost of their fibre packages are quite high. I looked at Plusnet, ADSL24 Zen and Vivaciti and as Plusnet only quote the 40mb line speed and similar download limits, I used that as a benchmanrk:

Plusnet: £21.49 pm plus £50 activation fee (actually the same speed was quoted for both packages!)

ADSL24: £27.90 pm

Zen: £27.60 pm

BT Infinity 1: £18 pm plus £25 activation fee (half price for 3 months and a £25 Sainsbury's voucher)

Its a similar story on the higher speed products as well. Add to that, with BT you get BT Openzone thrown in, then it seems to make sense to go with them.

Or then there is Virgin 'up to 60mb' on its own (no phone line) for £27.50 pm (half price for 3 months)

Or am I missing something?

Steve

Edited by deleted (Mon 16-Jul-12 11:00:54)

Well for starters you are comparing PN 120GB peak allowance with BT 40GB overall allowance. I'm currently on PN Value Fibre at £16.49pm, though in a Market 1 area it would be £22.99 after three months.

RobertoS,

Thanks for clarifying the difference. I had obviously missed that. More food for thought!!!

Steve

Both the PN value and Extra have an unlimited overnight period which many find useful but the BT "unlimited" is pretty unbeatable if you need extremely high volumes. Apart from Sky.

PN also have the option (£5pm) to remove the various speed restrictions. I don't have that, as I don't get hit by them. BT slow P2P dramatically at times, with no way I know of to avoid it other than VPNs.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

BT slow P2P dramatically at times, with no way I know of to avoid it other than VPNs.

Depends what you mean by "dramatically" but all I've seen is the statement at the end of this page:
http://beusergroup.co.uk/technotes/index.php?title=D...

I've also seen others post that BT Infinity was slowing torrents, but now seems to not - perhaps they dynamically adjust it depending on loads.