Looking for new ISP (Xilo vs Goscomb)

Hi

I have been with BE for about 2 years and while for the majority of that time I've had excellent broadband with no downtime, however, I have experienced their annual routing problems, like the ones they are currently facing which are destroying connections to certain EU regions. But my biggest reason for leaving is the sale to Sky and the lose of their good support people.

I have actually tested Sky broadband (moved to them for about a week 8 months ago) and was appalled by the congestion levels on my exchange (Canterbury), which by the looks on their forums may still be unresolved, I was also shocked by what they call a support center.

What I'm now looking for is an ISP which offers BE LLU (As hopefully this won't be congested). I'm also looking for one that has good levels of support that I can count on when things go wrong, secondly an ISP that has their own Routing & Peering which is stable (Unlike BE) and hopefully has some sort of redundancy when their primary routing systems start to experience problems. (From what I've experienced BE simply continue using the broken routing until hopefully it is fixed.)

I've looked around and Xilo keeps popping up as a reputable ISP for BE. Though I know little about their routing, is it different to BE's (i.e. If BE Retail has routing issues will this effect Xilo BE LLU?) While Xilo seem to be well priced I've heard some worrying posts regarding their support though to some degree this sounds like it has been improved.

Another ISP that I've come across is Goscomb, they are definitely the more expensive choice. However, they definitely appear to have their own Routing which they seem to be proud of. Though I don't know if their support will be any better than Xilos' as there is very little reviews, posts about them.

I would appreciate some opinions on these two ISPs? Is Goscomb worth the extra money. And just how resilient/stable are their routing/peering compared to BE?
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EDIT: Unfortunately ISPs like AAISP are completely out of my budget as I believe my monthly usage is around 200GB if not more. AAISP is just to expensive with a families usage.A

I also play quite a lot of online games and latency is a key factor here, and issues such as BE's routing problems render games like Guild Wars 2 unplayable when my average latency of 30ms sky rockets to 400ms.

Edited by deleted (Sat 06-Jul-13 10:33:01)

Most of the ISP's that the o2 wholesale products use different peering to that of the o2/be retail service, Xilo like most will use the peering transit's supplied by their supplier's I belive xilo use Dailsy wholesale for o2 wholesale, so unless there was an issue at the exchange such as a fault with the o2 llu kit or congestion on the exchange link , you should be isolated from the usual broken peering ect,
But like with any other ISP your geographic location can and does play a part in your base latency level, Because the o2wholesale service has to be routed from your exchange (o2 network) to a handover point then onto daisy's network, or in some cases there can be a third party link in between the 2 ,this for some will often increase the base latency, Unfortunately there is no real way of knowing how you will fair on the latency side, but is usually only a 1month min term ,so if it doesn't work out,you aren't tied in
Goscomb only sell the Annex M 02wholesale with unlimited data the other 2 o2 wholesale products have a useage cap, and are 3mths min term for some reason or other both ISP do how ever charge a migration fee even though no physical migration takes place at the exchange, o2 retail/wholesale use the same llu equipment , there are other other isp's who also provide o2 wholesale Aquiss they seem to get good feedback

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 06-Jul-13 15:22:29)

I used to be with Goscomb on a ADSL1 service and was very impressed. No slow downs at peak times and support is on a par with AAISP, if not better. Was almost in tears when I left them to join the devil himself, aka TalkTalk but had no choice as BT will never offer more than 8 meg at my piddly exchange in the Highlands. Really miss you Goscomb

+1 for Goscomb. Was on ADSL2+ for just over a year. Only left as BT were supposedly introducing fttp to our area, and Goscomb would have been just too expensive. (Hasn't happened yet). Support always quick and first class, even though I was only on one of the cheaper options.

Thanks for the replies

Goscomb may be the the way to go.

Is it correct that if I'm currently on BE LLU with BE and there is no exchange congestion, the same would be true if I was on Goscomb/Xilo/AAISP BE LLU Products, or is there still a chance that I could run into exchange congestion once on a new BE LLU product?

Also I'm currently connected to BE LLU (on BE Retail) my line syncs at: 11582 Kbps could I expect the same downstream sync if I migrated over to Goscomb's Be LLU package?

I noticed that the AAISP HOME::1 offers a 150GB & 250GB package for £35 and £45 respectively. (Did not see this last I checked) Though 150GB I think will be to little for my needs, however, I can't seem to find what LLU their HOME::1 uses. Is it BE, TalkTalk or BT?

Yes AAISP IIRC use O2whloesale (BE/O2LLU) as their LLU offering and i think it's only £1 to migrate in , you would be best ringing them, Your sync speed should be like for like , per profile, As for exchange congestion both wholesale and retail would see similar problems as iv'e said they both use the same physical infrastructure the same backhaul link llu kit (dslam port/line cards tie pairs) they only route your traffic differently via possibly a different Vlan to your isp's wholesale providers data center instead of to o2 & BE retails data centre

aaisp. 02 llu

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 06-Jul-13 18:24:48)