Low cost ISP - O2 access any good?

Hi there!....

A friend of mine is currently moving into a house in Lampeter, which is about on the border of south Ceredigion (the south of mid/west wales, if tht helps, north of Carmarthen).

She's not planning on having a TV, making her internet connection fairly important to her.

At the moment, her phone line is to be connected, and she is looking for a broadband provider. She has no access to LLU, and so is limited to IPstream products.

I've been out of the broadband provider ratrace for quite some time now, so I don't really have much advice I can offer her as to the best provider at the moment. She does however want unlimited usage, and as such is attracted to BT option 3 (their "unlimited" one). My spidey sence is tingling about that though, and I suspect that the BT service is not so fantastic for her needs, not least for the possibility of being hit by it's FUP?

She uses peer to peer - usualy bittorrent - to varying degrees each month, and needs a stable connection for voip and email, as well as a *reasonably* quick download speed.

Being an o2 customer, I am tempted to recommend the O2 Access package, but I notice that some users are having problems - is it a backbone issue, or exchange contention (I would assume a relatively rural exchange wouldn't suffer with exchange contention to a significant degree usually?)

So... is there another package comparable to or better than BT's offering, at an equal or lower price to suit her needs? Can I recommend O2 Access, or is there something more suitable, even if it's BT's offering?

Many thanks.

Until her phone line is connected it'll be hard to get an accurate speed estimate. She could try ADSL checker.

Because of the low level application of FUP I doubt that BT will be suitable. Can you give any estimate of her likely monthly download?

A disadvantage of O2 Access is the long contract.

It may be worth looking at the decent monthly contract ISPs such as NewNet, Zen, and IDNet.

For a larger allowance it is worth looking at the Entanet resellers, but note their current problems.

Entanet is out because of their forthcoming throttling.

That's the problem with the speed though - her line is being connected now, and her broadband provider will be the first activation of that new line - as such, it needs to be a reasonable provider... There's no telling what her line speed will be, but I'm more concerned about her recieving an actual throughput resembling what could be expected of that line speed.

... length of contract is not so bad - 12 months preferable, but 18 months is OK. I've been told by o2 that if she is unhappy, she can migrate out at no charge so long as it's within 30 days of the date of activation.

As to her downloading - could be less than 10 gigs one month - the next it could be 40gig ... maybe on the odd/unusual month it could even be 60gig - there is actually no way to know for sure. Bear in mind that having no TV, she'll be downloading stuff, youtubing a lot, and watching streaming video from various other sites (including perhaps BBC's Iplayer) as and when the mood takes her... which is why the unlimited connection is so important to her.

I had a feeling that BT's FUP might come into play a bit quickly even for unlimited customers.

... In any case, the ISP I'm looking to recommend will be fairly stable in her area, without insane throttling, and with a better or equal service to BT option three, with a lower price. Even if it doesn't quite fit the above requirements, as long as that much is true than it's worth a recommendation over BT.

Edited by crimsone (Sat 21-Feb-09 18:03:42)

If O2 Access still have that 30 day get out of jail card I'd certainly give them a go. You could use that ADSL checker in my previous post to get a speed estimate according to her address.

O2 Access, which is the one experiencing the problems, would normally be the answer. They have just had too many people signing up in the 3 months to be able to handle it. The new kit they need takes 3 months from ordering from BT to be installed. Rumour (fed by some O2 support, but other O2 support say they have no knowledge), is that ugrades are expected around the end of March.

Which is over 30 days away .

In view of your comments and John2007's suggestions I would think it it is a case her taking the risk with O2. It's the only one that stands a chance of meeting her requirements as stated by you so far. It just depends whether you and she believe like I do that O2 aren't spending all this money on advertising and incentives and not intending to put the kit in to supply the takeup.

Otherwise it is an expensive package from Zen or IDNet. (I'm beginning to hear bad noises about IDNet actually, I need to go and browse their forum).

Could someone tell me - is she less likely to be affected by said problems with access living as she is near a relatively rural exchange, out in the sticks of West Wales?

Is it a problem with oversubscription playing on exchange contention, or has the problem travelled up thw backbone of the network to affect everyone?

Just spoken to o2 for a second time...

They claim that th throughput of an 8meg line, as it currently stands, is roughly equivelant to that of a 2MB linespeed (I forget the exact figure) with the problems, and that they are hoping to sort things out within the next "few weeks" (which in business terms could mean as many as 8 lol lol lol) They do however say that the problem is an exchange contention issue, not a central pipe/backbone issue, and confirm that customers of exchanges less likely to be oversubscribed would be less likely to experience significant/serious throughput problems.

Unless you are doing large downloads you probably wouldn't notice the difference between 2Mbps and 8Mbps in practice.

I'm not sure what you are being told by support is correct. It is possible they were thinking LLU not Access, they frequently get confused.

O2 LLU has some exchange contention issues and these are being addressed. O2 Access appears to have Centrals issues. A "Central" is a piece of equipment. "Central pipe/backbone" is what I would call backhaul - the capacity of the links from the exchange to the ISP premises.

If there was exchange congestion causing the problems some O2 Access customers are experiencing then that congestion would probably but not certainly remain when the customer migrates away, which doesn't seem to be the case. Check her exchange here, preferably with the post code, but otherwise the exchange name you think she will be on. Wales is a funny place. You are looking for the VP status.

I could go into more detail but this post is long enough. The more I have typed the more I think you have just had an answer relating to O2 LLU not O2 Access.

Not easy in your position. How hard do you get thumped if you advise wrongly?

It's a pity there isn't an obvious alternative, but unless she wants to go up to the £70+ range then there isn't. It's that sort of price, or cross fingers and go with O2 for the 30 days as John agrees, or cut the requirements.

Unfortunately if I am right the 30 days isn't long enough for O2 to come good if she finds problems. On the other hand I could be completely wrong in my diagnosis of the trouble and what you were told is correct, and she may be fine from day 1.

I joined o2 access and speeds were great for 4-5 weeks (outside the free get out clause) now speeds at peak times drop to 150 kps do not move to o2 access !