Do i dump BT after 10 years paying £27-£29/month?

Guys - I am not technical - so please help....

I am with BT and have been for 10 years or more - almost 5 years at my old address and now over 7 here. My exchange is Sydenham (0208 676 XXXX). I pay £27.98 per month having paid £29.99 for several years - i feel BT have ripped me off!

The reliability is great - i have a Netgear Router (Range Max ADSL2+) It is almost 100% but the speeds can be poor especially for uploading photos and my connected backup.

I have 2 PC's networked in my office (1 for work and 1 for home) and use the wireless connection for my iphone and sometimes my laptop, plus my wii but i only really access news and weather on that when recovering from a session on wii fit!

When i got my Iphone CarPhone Warehouse tried very hard to get me to move to O2 BB but i was a coward and did not want any hassle esp as i work from home and need the reliability.

I am about to change jobs and i will become responsible for the bills for my Broadband so am looking for a good value package. O2 does look great but have also seen some poor reviews.

I have 2 BT lines at the house (the existing one with BB on it), plus an 0208 778 XXXX number.

I want to avoid any hassles and wondered if it made more sense to take the new BB on the line that i do not have it on today and see how it performs and then tell BT to get lost. Would that be sensible or should i just bite the bullet and go for a mac code?

I just did the BT speed test and got these results (not entirely sure what they mean)....

"1956 kilo bits per second" - is that good or a 3 leged scabby dog?

O2 and your site say i can get 8mb - would that make an appreciable difference to me?

Sorry for all the questions - a bit of a thicko here!

Thanks - your help would be appreciated.

Baz

I would just bite the bullet and get a MAC. Then sign up to O2 Standard if that is what has been offered. Link your iPhone to the broadband and you will be paying £7.34 per month. No-brainer.

Nearly all the O2 problems are on O2 Access, which is the non-LLU package. As your exchange is O2 LLU'ed you just need to be sure that you get offered the Standard not the Access. (Standard runs on O2 equipment at the exchange and if that is full they will offer Access and you do not want that!).

If you do decide to go with O2 you need to know that if you sign up through Quidco you can get £70 cashback this month, as well as the free month.

If you post the stats from your Netgear we can give you a better idea of the speed you should get. If you go to 192.168.0.1, login and scroll to the bottom of the page there is a Statistics button. The stats look like this:-

System Up Time 299:47:26
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN DHCP Client 981221 1397055 0 6744 35130 11:46:51
LAN 10M/100M 1110689 37293 0 231 4 299:47:17
WLAN 11M/54M/130M 3007465 2423482 0 1847 450 299:47:02

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 7568 kbps 1157 kbps
Line Attenuation 49.0 db 30.0 db
Noise Margin 3.1 db 6.4 db

Yeah, dump BT, move to O2 LLU. Hell, move your line rental away from BT to the Post Office too and you'll save even more.

Sorry for late reply - been away...

Very useful advice.

A couple of qs -

why did you suggest the standard tariff - i was going to go for unlimited as i do not like caps on anything, especially as i may be working from home again soon.

What is Access? Just in case they dress it up as something else.

I will also go to quidco - wow! Thanks

My stats are:

System Up Time 177:50:32
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 1652039 1764571 0 884 1366 177:49:03
LAN 10M/100M 1708258 1838731 0 1190 973 177:50:27
WLAN 11M/54M/270M 441054 139454 0 308 22 177:50:20

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2272 kbps 288 kbps
Line Attenuation 29.0 db 15.0 db
Noise Margin 28.5 db 31.0 db

Thanks!

Barry

Standard is unlimited, by capped to 8 Mbps. Although seeing your stats, you may get around 14 Mbps on Premium or Pro. Note that these 3 are on LLU.

Access is the 8 Mbps product based on BT Adsl Max, and is poor.

What was the bit about 2 phone lines?

I have 2 BT phone lines and could use either. I could request a MAC code for my existing line - 0208 676 XXXX or order it on my other line (Which does not have a current supplier) on 0208 778 XXXX and once it is all working turn off the BT one. I just thought that it would save hassle.

Well, you'll probably get similar results from either so it's your choice.

Have you got an O2 mobile to get the discount?

I suggested the Standard tariff just because we had no stats to go on the judge what you might get. The Standard tariff is an LLU "up to 8Mbps" service so I expected it to be nearest to what you are paying BT that huge amount for, so the price contrast was relevant to showing you that you should move on.

By the way, does that £27-£29 include the line rental or is it purely the broadband?

From those stats you have an excellent line with broadband on it and there is no guarantee that the other would be as good. It might of course be better. I recommend just getting the MAC and migrating that line. That also avoids a possible ADSL cease charge on it. The normal down-time on such a migration is under 30 minutes. Mine was under 10 minutes.

For some reason you are still on a fixed speed 2Mbps connection. If you were on ADSL Max you would connect at 8128kbps giving you something called an IP Profile of 7150kbps. That is what actually governs your maximum download speed on a BT Retail or BT Wholesale line. (BT Wholesale supply nearly all the "up to 8Mbps" ISPs - BT Retail being just one of the poor ones by the way. Do not upgrade to BT "up to 8Mbps" at any price as the speeds vary horrendously whereas your 2Mbps one is probably fairly stable).

Given your stats the O2 Premium package will effectively optimise your line as it should connect above 16,000kbps and give an actual download speed of mid 13000's.

Re going for "unlimited", all O2 packages are usage-unlimited.

Re Access, that is a BT Wholesale based service "up to 8Mbps" that O2 offer where they do not have their LLU kit or the LLU kit is full. You can tell by the price - £17.13 or £22.02 the same as Pro, but only up to 8Mbps. See here.

I went with the existing line. Yes - i do have an o2 mobile so i am saving almost £20 per month - wow!

Actually signed up have you?