Xilo / Cable & Wireless / Murphx

Have just had a new line installed on the Taunton exchange - LLU providers are C&W, TalkTalk, and Sky.

Unfortunately the cab this line is connected to has been declared non-viable for fibre.

As such I want to go with a suitable LLU provider. The line is rather long, with the property being 3.3KM from the exchange ATCF so the speeds won't be stellar.

As such, I asked the Openreach engineer who installed the line to fit it with a Filtered Faceplate, and I want an ISP that has manual control over the line profiles, as I want to have a 6dB Target Noise Margin with interleaving disabled.

I would choose TalkTalk but as I've just had the line installed am in contract with BT and TalkTalk don't do the broadband by itself, and I know that Sky don't allow fastpath on their lines.

Has anyone on C&W LLU every successfully had their line profile manually changed?

Your title mentioned Xilo, but not the body of your Question?

If Xilo is an option, I'd whole heartedly recommend them to you - they will work with you to get the best out of the line , plus they are only a 1 month rolling sub - to my mind the ultimate way of putting your money where your mouth is!

Recommend the router I use as well if you like control - Billion 7800n - quite pricey but worth it IMHO

I'd add that I'm probably around the same distance from my exchange a you (possibly a little less) and achieve around 5.5MB compared to the poxy 3MB I used to get with O2

Not that far from you either in WSM!

(OK, for exchange comparison it may as well be Leeds!)

Thanks very much.

All I am having difficulty deciding is whether to opt for Xilo's TalkTalk LLU package or their C&W LLU package, as Tom from Xilo sales reckons it will be difficult convincing C&W to lower the SNR / disable interleaving on a long line...

Hi...

After lots of problems with ADSL2+ via BT kit, DLM appeared to keep playing with my download speed (sync speed up and down more than a Nuns drawers!). On advice from folks here, I went "partial LLU" with Xilo (Uno Broadband). Their Pro 24 package using TalkTalk kit. Fixed 6db profile and I've had a great (except for one BT line fault) experience. Totally stable and a great sync to the exchange.

So basically a VERY happy customer.

PS. Both their O/L and phone support are first class.

I was on a 6dB downstream SNRM when I first connected up, which was more than a year ago, with uno's partial LLU (TT LLU enabled exchange) "pro" product. However I prioritize stability over speed so have interleaving enabled. 13Mbps sync on a 37dB attenuation and a first class service

Edited by 4M2 (Sat 23-Feb-13 19:12:14)

Thank you (both).

I decided to order the C&W LLU product from them in the end.

I couldn't justify having a usage cap like that on an LLU product when there's the option of no limit for £12.99 / PCM.

I think I'll value the unlimited usage more than uber flexible line profiles

Thanks again for the input everyone!

I'm sure you wont be disappointed.

But bare in mind that the Pro 24 package is unlimited at weekends and between 12 and 6 am.

Plus they are going to be launching some sort of unlimited Pro package in April of this year.

Hope things work out for you. Good luck.

In reply to a post by 4M2:

I was on a 6dB downstream SNRM when I first connected up, which was more than a year ago, with uno's partial LLU (TT LLU enabled exchange) "pro" product. However I prioritize stability over speed so have interleaving enabled. 13Mbps sync on a 37dB attenuation and a first class service

Don't want to cause any thread drift here (honest) ... but out of interest, what modem/router are you using?

PS. Sorry... I see that you've already answered this before (assuming you are still using the Thomson TG585 v7)!?

Edited by MrBeeline (Sat 23-Feb-13 21:14:14)

In reply to a post by MrBeeline:

Don't want to cause any thread drift here (honest) ... but out of interest, what modem/router are you using?

PS. Sorry... I see that you've already answered this before (assuming you are still using the Thomson TG585 v7)!?

Yes still using a TG585 v7 with 8.2.6.5 generic firmware

BTW. have you checked out the new prices for "pro 50GB" unmetered after 8pm, etc.

In reply to a post by MrBeeline:

I'm sure you wont be disappointed.

But bare in mind that the Pro 24 package is unlimited at weekends and between 12 and 6 am.

Plus they are going to be launching some sort of unlimited Pro package in April of this year.

Hope things work out for you. Good luck.

How much is the Pro 24 package?

In reply to a post by Banger:

How much is the Pro 24 package?

For me Pro 24 75GB was £26.39 inc. VAT but now I have changed to Pro 50GB, un-metered after 8pm for £14.99 inc. VAT - there were no internal migration nor activation costs and the service remains on partial LLU (CPW).

Thanks. Currently on LLU SPMF with Vivaciti but I noticed there maybe a migration fee, will have to wait and see what new packages Xilo come up with as my current package is unlimited.

In reply to a post by Banger:

Thanks. Currently on LLU SPMF with Vivaciti but I noticed there maybe a migration fee, will have to wait and see what new packages Xilo come up with as my current package is unlimited.

Yes probably a good idea to wait until April when the unlimited Pro deals are launched as MrBeeline mentioned

If you're already on TTB equipment (SMPF), we can't* migrate you to our TTB SMPF product i'm afraid.

Limitations within TTB systems that error on these orders *most of the time.

Matt

In reply to a post by 4M2:

In reply to a post by Banger:

How much is the Pro 24 package?

For me Pro 24 75GB was £26.39 inc. VAT but now I have changed to Pro 50GB, un-metered after 8pm for £14.99 inc. VAT - there were no internal migration nor activation costs and the service remains on partial LLU (CPW).

I don't understand why the Pro packages are so expensive compared with the C&W LLU packages.

Surely they are both just L2TP tunnels to the same peering at Telehouse, are TalkTalk really that expensive in terms of backhaul bandwidth compared with C&W?

Edited by deleted (Sun 24-Feb-13 11:00:54)

In reply to a post by 4M2:

In reply to a post by MrBeeline:

...
BTW. have you checked out the new prices for "pro 50GB" unmetered after 8pm, etc.

I had not until you mentioned them (thanks). Though was aware that there were new packages in the pipeline.

While I don't think my usage really justifies truly unlimited BB. I too think that I will wait until April and see what the complete landscape looks at Xilo/Uno. Looks very much like there should be one of the new packages that would be a better choice than what I'm on now.

Edited by MrBeeline (Sun 24-Feb-13 12:16:33)

In reply to a post by izools:

I don't understand why the Pro packages are so expensive compared with the C&W LLU packages.

Surely they are both just L2TP tunnels to the same peering at Telehouse, are TalkTalk really that expensive in terms of backhaul bandwidth compared with C&W?

These are the new Pro prices, ex. VAT, on my partial LLU TTB line:

Pro 10GB £11.66
Pro 50GB £12.49
Pro 100GB £12.91
Pro 200GB £19.16
Pro 500GB £28.74
Pro Advanced 10GB £22.91
Pro Advanced 50GB £24.16
Pro Advanced 100GB £24.99
Pro Advanced 200GB £30.41
Pro Advanced 500GB £40.41

Pro = ~1Mbps upload speed.
Pro Advanced = ~2.5Mbps upload speed.

Hope this helps with your comparison to C&W LLU packages

In reply to a post by uno:

If you're already on TTB equipment (SMPF), we can't* migrate you to our TTB SMPF product i'm afraid.

Limitations within TTB systems that error on these orders *most of the time.

Matt

I see so the only option is a 21cn migration?

In reply to a post by 4M2:

In reply to a post by izools:

I don't understand why the Pro packages are so expensive compared with the C&W LLU packages.

Surely they are both just L2TP tunnels to the same peering at Telehouse, are TalkTalk really that expensive in terms of backhaul bandwidth compared with C&W?

These are the new Pro prices, ex. VAT, on my partial LLU TTB line:

Pro 10GB £11.66
Pro 50GB £12.49
Pro 100GB £12.91
Pro 200GB £19.16
Pro 500GB £28.74
Pro Advanced 10GB £22.91
Pro Advanced 50GB £24.16
Pro Advanced 100GB £24.99
Pro Advanced 200GB £30.41
Pro Advanced 500GB £40.41

Pro = ~1Mbps upload speed.
Pro Advanced = ~2.5Mbps upload speed.

Hope this helps with your comparison to C&W LLU packages

Exactly, whereas Xilo's totally unlimited C&W product is only £12.99 / Month.

I don't get it.

Essentially, C&W offered unmetered access to their network and TTB charge on a Mbit basis, currently.

Hence why some products are unmetered, some are not. No other science involved.

Matt

Yes, either go to 21CN and stay on that, or do a double migration to 21CN and back from it - but at double the migration cost.

Matt

And the costs for a double MAC? I want to stay away from 21cn DLM although I hear it is alot better than the old days.

You could go MPF from SMPF but no way around a double migration if you want to stay SMPF.

Matt

In reply to a post by uno:

Essentially, C&W offered unmetered access to their network and TTB charge on a Mbit basis, currently.

Hence why some products are unmetered, some are not. No other science involved.

Matt

So you have to buy bandwidth and usage off TT but just bandwidth of C&W? Wow, things have moved on since IPStream. Put a couple of 622s in and job done!

I'm on the BE/O2 16 package with Xilo and have been since December, think they now refer to it as Elite.

I have a long line and the difference in stability between O2 and BT 21CN line management is like night and day.

Zen did a lot to try and help me with the connection but because of the line length the DLM kept hammering the connection speed.

I too had to think a little about the migration cost but decided to got for it and am glad I did.

I know have a rock solid connection running at just over 3.6 Meg which will happily support VPN which I have to sometimes use.

I've dealt with both Matt and Tom at Xilo who have been extremely helpful.

I am definitely an extremely satisfied customer

I'm on Xilo C&W LLU on the Taunton exchange. I can't help on the profile change question, but thought I'd just say that it is certainly great value and I never seem to experience exchange level congestion. I do seem to have occasional noise issues though, with one or two re-syncs almost daily. I tried to do something about it a couple of years ago, but gave up. Fortunately a FTTC is cab is just being installed very close by...

Here is my monitor for reference.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/7a41a40b18a...

Post deleted by MrBeeline

Glad this discussion came up. It's decided me to move over to the new Pro 100GB... looks pretty good value to me.

Edited by MrBeeline (Mon 25-Feb-13 18:03:07)

In reply to a post by MrBeeline:

Glad this discussion came up. It's decided me to move over to the new Pro 100GB... looks pretty good value to me.

Yes I got a couple of emails from xilo about changes, so put in a ticket, after doing an availability check, and the account was changed swiftly and very efficiently

Submitted a ticket and the change was implemented pretty much within the hour.
Now that's what I call good service.

Thanks Matt.

Edited by MrBeeline (Tue 26-Feb-13 17:44:40)

In reply to a post by MrBeeline:

Submitted a ticket and the change was implemented pretty much within the hour.
Now that's what I call good service.

If you wish to change to an un-metered uno Pro SMPF product in the future, if available, I would imagine that will be equally straight forward