o2 home broadband access

I'm thinking of changing broadband services from BT to something else. Basically because BT are overpriced.

I was looking at the o2 broadband. I inputted my number and it told me I was outside their area but they could offer me o2 Home Broadband access.

I'm assuming this service uses BT own network. I'm thinking of switching to it because it's cheaper than BT.(£17 a month for o2 customers).

Has anyone got experience with o2 home access. Is it better than BT total broadband, worse or the same?

I've heard o2's unbundled service is good but I haven't heard anything about their access service.

Don't bother .

It varies from very good for 2-3 weeks in every three months, till it gets over-subscribed again, to poor for the rest of the three months till more new kit is brought in.

At the moment I think it may be on a good spell, but four previous episodes I have seen have always dropped off again. I used to hope they would have some sort of scheduled upgrades organised by now, maybe once a month or something, but it seems not.

For total upload and download below 20GB per month look at Newnet. Above that AAISP, IDNet and Zen. For huge allowances at £19 look at Entanet resellers such as ADSL24 and vivaciti but be prepared for some odd things happening.

Entanet use WBC (BT ADSL2+) and IPSC. WBC is dodgy. Also as BT roll out more WBC exchanges Entanet move IPSC customers over to it and seem to reduce IPSC capacity, thus possibly degrading rather than enhancing other IPSC connections that use the same capacity but from a different exchange.

Edit - Comparisons.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 15-Aug-09 17:55:09)

ok thanks. Not sure what to do now.

Problem is my exchange hasn't got much choice when it comes to unbundled services. Tiscali, AOL, Orange, Talk Talk, and Cable and wireless.

I know that C&W on my exchange is unrelieable. When I was with Bulldog my connection wasn't very stable.

I have friends on Talk Talk and their service is terrible. I've heard Tiscali have a very strict fair usage policy which I would probably violate on a regular basis. AOL is part of Talk Talk and i've heard bad things about orange as well.

My BT connection is very stable. It never disconnects although it does get congested sometimes. I was hoping that o2 access would be exactly the same as BT with it being on the same network.

Does anyone know if BT offer price matches or discounts if you phone for a MAC code?

I would be happy if I could get them to price match o2's £17.13 a month but not sure if they would do it.

What happens if you apply for a mac code?. Do they automatically disconnect the service after so long?
I'm scared of them not giving me a discount and just giving me the MAC code then disconnecting me.

Ouch! Plenty to go at there .

An O2 Access connection would not disconnect any more than the BT one does. You would actually be on the same connection from you to the exchange. All that happens is the exchange equipment then routes you to O2 servers not BT servers.

O2 does not have any traffic management or punitive throttling over 100GB like BT, but does get prolonged spells of congestion and I think not just in the evenings. So I don't recommend it.

I believe from what I read that Bulldog when it was independent and used C & W was quite good. It was when Pipex then Tiscali bought them they went badly downhill.

What I hear now re C & W is that vivaciti and Xilo are quite good on it though with occasional problems - the same as Demon who are shifting a lot of customers onto it but Demon with far higher numbers of course. With Xilo and vivaciti you do have the benefit of small-company support rather than useless call centres.

You could look at vivaciti's Surfwise 75 product. That is resold Murphy I think, not Entanet, so is still your BT type connection. It is a 75GB FUP not fixed limit and is claimed to be flexible.

BT certainly offer retention deals! There is a bit of a spat at the moment going on here from someone who wants such as deal as a new customer. I think there have been some rather better deals mentioned recently than the ones he quotes.

A MAC is valid for 30 days from issue and should lapse if not used. If you use it then most ISPs take your notice period as starting from either the request or issue dates. I have a feeling Orange take notice as starting from the migration date, which has to be legally unsupportable. Some require you to give separate notice of leaving (maybe that is where the Orange customer went wrong), but you have to be very careful not to mention Cease or Cancel, as that is often taken to mean Cease/Cancel your ADSL and so you end up cut off, charged £23 for the cease, unable to get a MAC/migrate, and unable to order for a few days after cut-off while the BT databases catch up. Then a connection fee from your new ISP.

So far as I know BT are well-behaved in this respect. You would just ask for a MAC, then they may offer you a deal so you withdraw the request, or you reject the deal and get the MAC. What happens wrt the notice if you take a MAC should be in the Terms & Conditions, but it certainly will not be an automatic cut off.

I think before contacting BT you should decide where you would go if you didn't get a suitable deal, then ask for the MAC and see what happens. That way you also have something to judge the deal against, not just your current service.

Thanks.

So if BT do give me a MAC code they won't disconnect me unless I actually use it?

Sounds like it might be worth trying then.

BT have phoned me twice trying to get me to renew my contract but each time they only offered £22.90 per month. I asked them to give me a better offer but they wouldn't go any lower.

I'm going to call their cancellation line for a MAC code and see if they will offer me a better deal.

All you have to watch is that you still ask for a MAC code to be sent, as you are still considering migration while you think about their offer. Do not mention cancelling or ceasing your contract.

Totally safe that way. I can't include a link to the OfCom rules as their web site is down for maintenance.

From the OfCom web site:-

2.18 Paragraph A1.13 of the MAC Process requires communications providers to check that
their customer does not wish to transfer their broadband service before the
communications provider ceases that broadband service. It states:

�The Communications Provider shall not issue a Cease Request for the
Broadband Service unless the Communications Provider has
established that the End-User does not wish to transfer the Broadband
Service to another Communications Provider.�

Phoned them.

They didn't need to give me a MAC code in the end.

I managed to get a fiver a month knocked off my broadband and a couple of quid knocked off my line rental in exchange for another 12 month contract.

She also said my exchange is being upgraded to 20 meg in january which is a bonus

Didn't "we" work out that Surfwise was the o-bit package of the same name, although it is true that Vivacity do some other stuff via Murphy.

Most of the hiccups on surfwise seem to relate to o-bit selling it retail with traffic management and then letting vivacity sell it clean. So naturally half of o-bit have been confused and keep enabling traffic management, caps, etc. Ho-hum.

That's good then .

Though you should read around a bit about the BT WBC (ADSL2+) before you rejoice too much . Also if you get under 4Mbps now you are unlikely to get any better.