new isp recommendation

hello everyone

i was with be unlimited upto 24megs for years and getting approx 16 megs and was very happy wth them, Then sky took over be unlimited and i was transferred to sky just under year ago and im synced at 15-16 megs and upload 1.1.

now sky want to charge 17.50 a month for a adsl2 llu service.

The question is would you pay sky 17.50 a month for a llu adsl2 service as there is fibre out there roughly same price.

please i would some some help on what i should do stay, move isp etc etc,?

thank you so much for your help

Have you checked you can get FTTC? If you still have a non-LLU phone, try this checker. If your phone is Sky LLU then take the address option from there. Do not use the "Postcode" option!!

If you can get it, the Sky 40/10 FTTC sounds like a good bet for you. We could do with knowing which exchange you are on.

Sounds like the £17.50 is high because you are choosing to not take voice line rental from Sky.

What price are they offering if you take both voice and broadband from Sky? Standard pricing is £7.50 for broadband plus £16.40 for the broadband.

Plenty of offers from other providers, but they usually want you to move the voice to them too.

Thanks for the quick reply

the phone line is with bt as it was with be and sky.

It's 12.50 for bb plus 5 pound sky talk supplement and now extra 2.50 welcome offer. total of 17.50 now but pricey now.

Any ideas

thank you

if you insist on the voice NOT being the broadband supplier then cost will be higher.

PlusNet (assuming exchange is WBC ADSL2+ enabled) supplement is £2.50 for not taking phone, but you also miss out on the welcome discounts, so missing out on £2.50/m bb plus £15.95 voice for 12 months then standard price of £9.99.

There is BT of course.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband-offers.html

thank u for the reply I did a check

FTTC Range A
(Clean) 49.9 35 11.8 7.2 -- Available
FTTC Range B
(Impacted) 42.8 24.7 11.8 5.2 -- Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 15 -- 8.5 to 19 Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex
M Up to 15 Up to 1.5 8.5 to 19 Available
ADSL Max Up to 7 -- 6 to 8 Available
WBC Fixed Rat.e 2 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Other Offerings
Fibre Multicast -- -- -- Available
Copper Multicast -- -- -- Available

the line at mo is with bt line and I had be and now sky.

What bt infinity like its 18 pound month on 12 month contract going up to 23 on month 13. They reckon no traffic management, throttling.

As you seem to want to keep your phone with BT, (like I do), Infinity 1 Unlimited looks good. There's no traffic management or throttling, but they do warn there may be a bit of congestion at busy times. Compared to what you are getting now I think you should be fine.

If you decide to go for it, check the cashback sites, (Quidco and TopCashBack - most of the time they are near-identical but occasionally very different), and also BT's own Sainsbury's tokens and the like.

thank u.

I do game online and went with Be for the superb service and line optimisation and now sky brought be.

At the mo have my line with bt and separate broadband but with sky now charging me 17.50 for bb. Sky won't offer fibre with the line with Bt even tho they took over Be and with customer lines with bt.

if anyone knows this I like to know why u can have adsl and and bt line but not fibre and bt line.

oh and and ping times for gaming I've read that on fibre interleaving is always on and where adsl2 it can be lowered or turned off.

so the choices I have is to move all voice and broadband, or put bb with plusnet as someone kindly suggested, bt are they still poor, or still pay sky 17.50 for adsl2 but they did know offer to take some money off.

Sorry to everyone just wanna get sorted before next bill hopefully

once again thanks to everyone

I was the same as you, BE>sky. I took their fibre 40/10 service when it became available and I have to say it has been excellent with pings the same as when I was on interleaved ADSL2+.

I was with Zen for the phone line (although i don't use it for voice calls) but took free sky line as part of the deal although I will be reviewing my options when the 12 months free line rental is up as there are cheaper options out there.

It is down to a commercial decision of sky why they won't let you have fibre without taking their line rental

As MrSaffron says.

Years ago Sky used to allow anyone to have their phone with someone else (Shared Metallic Path Facility is the technical term), but then stopped it except for legacy customers. But if they changed to a different product they had to take the new terms and put their phone with Sky as well (Metallic Path Facility).

When they bought Be and O2 they allowed people who had their phone not with O2/Be to stay the same with Sky. I can't remember what happened with people with O2/Be phone as well as broadband, which was in fact SMPF not MPF - but that's another story.

Just like Sky's own legacy customers who upgrade to Fibre, you would have to move your phone to them as well if you did. It makes sense once you see the detail, as all ISPs impose their latest T & Cs when people change product.

Re interleaving on FTTC, maybe on Sky it is always on, or someone may be talking rubbish, but that would be a Sky "stability" choice. It isn't always on at the Openreach FTTC level and I'm not aware of any ISPs forcing it on.

In reply to a post by kamelion:

I have to say it has been excellent with pings the same as when I was on interleaved ADSL2+.

Should read non- interleaved


Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.244.70]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms SkyRouter.Home [192.168.1.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 12 ms 14 ms 14 ms 027809b0.bb.sky.com [2.120.9.176]
4 14 ms 12 ms 13 ms ntl-ge2-9.prt0.rbsov.bbc.co.uk [212.58.238.189]

5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 11 ms 12 ms 12 ms ae0.er01.telhc.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.109]
8 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms 132.185.255.149
9 14 ms 14 ms 13 ms bbc-vip115.telhc.bbc.co.uk [212.58.244.70]

Trace complete.


From Manchester

once again thank u to all repied.

i contacted sky and they confirmed it be 17.50 for my adsl2 service i asked any offers available as there was fibre options roughty same price and she said no it be 17.50 and couldnt lower the 17.50 either.

so looks like i be leaving sky. They also woudnt do no adsl to fibre uograde without taking the line.

help me in where to go, are bt infinity good, are virgin media good, etc etc please please any help much appreciated

thank u

Edited by deleted (Sun 22-Feb-15 02:17:47)

If your looking for cheapness PlusNet are probably your best bet.

I think where you have this sort of situation and have made up your mind to move there is no point in staying put and haggling. Assuming you are out of initial contract period so that there is no penalty you may as well take whatever offers are around

As to which ISP I'd go BT or Plusnet. Having been with both I've had nothing but good service from both

Hello everyone and thanks to everyone.

I requested my Mac from sky and its got to posted as the adviser said they don't have access emails. Sky did offer me 5 pound off a month my llu service but wouldn't give fibre unless they take the line from bt.

still unsure what to do with my broadband been reading up and seeing comments from good to bad bout throttling, shaping, profile resets, poor speeds, poor customer service.

could I ask users if not to much hassle please to post there isp and a rating and to be honest.

Thank you so much

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html

I wonder what percentage of users have actually used customer services. Do they leave blank. or, complete using perceived customer service from this site in speedtest..

In reply to a post by flippery:

I wonder what percentage of users have actually used customer services.

Good question! (How many "normal" users would notice a drop in speed from 70Mbps to 50Mbps?)

There is no requirement to enter all ratings. Although the number of assessments given when hovering over the histograms is identical for all three categories we have several times been assured that only the actual stars are counted.

I tend not to give a CS rating as I rarely use it.

The speed rating was dropped some time ago.

And you now get two or three items a month with various speed test statistics for the providers, plus can do by area which I do for various regional news releases.

Hello
sky have offered me 5 pound off the 17.50 but
didn't say about does this involve new contract.

I still haven't received my mac yet from sky.
What would u do accept fiver off or leave?.

Thank u

In reply to a post by nine:

help me in where to go, are bt infinity good, are virgin media good,

For BT you have to have a BT phone
For Virgin you have to have a Virgin phone or pay extra

Do you realise Virgin Media is a totally different technology?

It comes in underground and doesn't use your existing telephone line. There should be a small hole on the pavement outside your home.

They fish down in there for the line for your house, then connect some coax cable to bury from there to your wall where a box is fitted for wires into the house.

If the op was thinking of getting a FTTC via virgin, that ship has sailed because talk talk have bought virgin national ADSL AND FTTC over BT wires , they too would require your line as part of the deal just like Sky

I don't think there ever was VM (Openreach) FTTC.

Maybe they didn't then, ??

Move the line to Sky, get fibre. Job done.

You will never find a good deal whilst keeping the line with BT, unless you choose BT broadband then it may work out cheaper.

Even virginmedia, they do not directly charge you line rental although they just bundle the price of their "line rental" in the broadband price they provide you. You are still paying for upkeep of the line as part of the cost of the broadband.

Call them again!

I have just 'signed' a new contract with them for broadband only @ £7.50 per month which is the same as I have been paying for the past 12 months.

hello all

i got my mac on 5thday after asking sky for it. sky offered fiver off and bt did offer line rental, 40/10 infinity and 24/7 calls for 120 over 3 months.

not sure if thats good or bad. sky 18 month contract bt is 12 but support ive heard is poor on bt compared to sky.

thank you

a little update

as u know sky offered me 5 pound off sky broadband adsl2 from 17.50 to 12.50

I called up bt and they offered infinity 1 for 15 pound a month for 12 months but I've been reading up so much bad stuff bout bt from poor support service, low speeds, hh5 dropping, re syncs.

don't want to jump into long contract if I get rubbish

What would everyone do? .

Thank you for your help

I moved from BE Unlimited around 3 years ago ( Before Sky Took Over ) to PlusNet i fiind that they have good customer service,based in the uk ,Fully Unlimited service , part of BT but cheaper, Caller Id only 99p a month BT charge more.
Calls from plusnet to plusnet cutomers are free,IF you recommend family and friends you get a monthly discount.


David

Talktalk business is alright

pretty ok price .

thank u
ur tt connection good speed stats and ping I was
on tt many many years ago I left them to go be
unlimited.
my line download on fibre only capable of bout 52
ish. At the moment im on sky adsl2 at 15-16
megs.
Another thing my line d/l showing a snr 0.8db
lowest ive seen that 0.3db which looks like
something wrong sonewhere. I was thinking if I
spent money on sockets and stuff but then
changed isp I get that free in the installation

Only if a engineer install ,

as the newer option available to ISP is a wires only install or FTTC cabinet only install , no engineer visit , BR Openreach modem or interstitial faceplate, supplied or installed
That and the running of line tests from the NTE to make sure all is working as intended before they close the job
Sky and possibly TT both opt for this wirse only option, they supply a vdsl allin 1 capable modem/router and standard Adsl plug in type filters ,
Some other ISP's also offer this as an option , but customers can still request a managed install

Edited by tommy45 (Tue 24-Mar-15 16:26:56)

Hello

What's bt infinity like from readers on here thank u I have ps4 online at mo with sky and on fastpath for decent low ping. .

got a move to fibre soon got 4 week waiting list.

Whats gaming like on fibre will i see increase in pings or same or lower, will I be stuck on interleave.

I've gone to fibre for pings and upload as my pings are good but upload poor.

Thanks to all

BT are still in denial about problems with the Homehub 5 Type A and G.INP which has been enabled on Huawei cabinets. If you have a Huawei cabinet and BT send you a Homehub 5 Type A then you will see a lot of interleaving and high pings on your connection.

However, if you're on an ECI cabinet, there isn't a problem currently.

Even without that while some get lower pings, some get higher pings on FTTC. A lot will depend on what your pings are like now on ASDL2+, e.g. if they are 60 to 70 ms then probably will improve

If under 20ms then unlikely to change.

You will gain from the upload, which will ensure that any voice/twitch and other activity does not impact on game play

thank u for replys.

yeah currently adsl2 pinging like killzone shadow fall which now Germany server 28ms, if ping bbc can get below 10ms,

been reading up bout that g.inp and cabinets if I get a type a bt can shove it unless a firmware is due or dump hh5 get a billion router.

is fast path possible on fttc or vdsl?.

does ping increase on adsl being copper where fibre is fttc part copper so fibre would get there quicker.

I do use voice on gaming on my measly 1.3 upload on ps4 only get 890kbps.

will infinity be ok for gaming and surfing, still got nearly 4 week waiting list.

Thank u

If Infinity was NO good for gaming then am sure 1000's would be appearing to say so.

It should work fine, but no one can guarantee since for all we know you may be surrounded by people archiving the internet in their basement nearby.

Clean lines with no errors do get a fast path and really great pings, but then for some games this brings with it the problem of a game engine imposing extra lag to compensate and level the playing field, i.e. your connection can be too good.

I'm a PC gamer, so by all means ignore it, but I'm a fairly decent BF4 player (specialising in TDM) and I was having ping of 7-15ms on my favourite servers. I've had some problems with occasional ping spikes (>200ms) which would get me knocked out of servers, so Sky switched interleaving on.

That hasn't stopped those occasional ping spikes, but my standard ping is now 25ms+

Have I felt any difference in gameplay? Nope, not a jot. I can still finish at or near the top of the scoreboard most games.

Now of course games handle their network latencies differently, so lower has to be better - in case you play a game that doesn't do a good job of levelling the playing field, but would I consider interleaving (with a 15ms penalty) to be a deal-breaker? No.

hello all thanks for all replys still waiting for my fibre to be installed.

Does fibre optic drop speed much in peak times?

My bt line cabinet is bout 8 houses down i know that as i had line fault before and bt bloke said it was there. But where my bt line cabinet is there no fibre cabinet near it. The only fibre cabinet i can find is bout 15 houses back up the hill from my line cabinet.

my adsl quote from bt is upto 15megs and i currently synced 15.8 sometimes hitting over 16. The fibre quote is fttc A clean down 49.9, low 35. Fttc B impacted 42.8, low 24.7. This makes me feel as my fibre cabinet further then is the one im finding,

i also got a filtered master socket and 1 filtered extension, would i be able to use the filtered extension for location of fibre router.

routers can i request a hh5 type B as heard type a are poor compatibility or just buy my own

thank u

It would all depend on where in the world the server you wanted to play on is located, and the ISP's peering
But if you have a FTTC connection ,even if you ain't you may wish to host a game server or and voice coms server such as teamspeak or ventrilo, the lower ping and less lag the better, BT has some strange routing that increases latency for no obvious or logical reasons,

In reply to a post by nine:

hello all thanks for all replys still waiting for my fibre to be installed.

Does fibre optic drop speed much in peak times?

Depends on the ISP mostly,(how hot they like to run their network) But there can be other factors that may impact performance at times too,

In reply to a post by nine:

My bt line cabinet is bout 8 houses down i know that as i had line fault before and bt bloke said it was there. But where my bt line cabinet is there no fibre cabinet near it. The only fibre cabinet i can find is bout 15 houses back up the hill from my line cabinet.

The FTTC cab is normally within 50mtrs of the PCP that your phone line is connected to, So maybe as you suspect you are on a different PCP further away, the estimate would suggest this, although it is exactly that an estimate,not always accurate

In reply to a post by nine:

i also got a filtered master socket and 1 filtered extension, would i be able to use the filtered extension for location of fibre router
routers can i request a hh5 type B as heard type a are poor compatibility or just buy my own

thank u

If you have
One of these type of filters which is what a BT engineer would supply & fit, as part of the managed install there is no need to filter telephone extensions , you can run an extension unfiltered from the filtered faceplate to a line box and connect the modem to that, or it can be hardwired by connecting to the A & B lugs on the inside of the faceplate, but use cat 5 or other twisted pair quality cable, (Avoid the flat stuff)
As for the modem/router supplied by BT (HH5) you can request version B but there's no guarantee that they will supply this type you may get a type A , that is incompatible with G.inp currently, as referred to earlier in this thread

Edited by tommy45 (Sun 26-Apr-15 21:48:40)

thank you for the quick reply s

i got infinity order but can always cancel it as i want i for gaming and chat, and download bit quicker.

And if bt got some weird routing issue and g.inp adding loads latency maybe look elsewhere.

this ain't going work now i think. For my master i have adslnation filtered faceplate with a newish(last yr) bt test socket behind it i have just one extension to filtered faceplate socket and joining the 2 faceplate's is bt cw1308 the proper bt wire used in property's.

Hello everyone

have I gone and made a mistake getting a infinity order.
Looking at posts on various forums I'm now having 2nd thoughts.

I'm seeing things like:
my infinity keeps dropping, my speed had dropped after like few weeks, latency/high pings, g.inp, homehub keeps dropping connection.

also with line att on adsl2 was 29.5 db and now 31db and on fastpath 3db with a stable connection will it be same but just faster

thanks to everyone

Are you able to try an alternative to the homehub? I had problems with all my devices disconnecting and it was an issue with the homehub and the way it calls back to check for updates. Installed a different router and my line has been very stable since.

If it is a line fault rather than the hub then you may find you would have the same issue with any ISP. Certainly g.inp affects all ISPs.

EDIT: Sorry, thought you had BT and were seeing issues. BT have a very large number of customers and some people will have problems. Look at any big ISP and you will see a likely similar ratio of posts of issues. Your experience will entirely depend on your circumstances - barring the homehub I have had no problems with BT line in getting on for 3 years. My ping is between 7 and 9 ms (although it does go up to about 11ms between 8-10pm). Downloads are generally at line speed (downloaded a large game patch last night at about 6:30pm and had line speed the whole time).

Luck of the draw - most people have been "lucky", some haven't. The ones that haven't are the ones you will generally see on forums asking for help. The lucky ones tend not to post so much - they don't need to.

Edited by ian72 (Wed 29-Apr-15 08:26:26)

I've found my fttc cabinet it's a huawei cabinet and from my address to the cabinet using Google maps is 0.3(482 metres) to 0 4 miles(642 metres)

Does that mean g.inp is enabled and is that good or bad and have I now got a better router and getting rid of the hh5?.

At these distances from the cabinet is it worth the upgrade to fibre?

What speeds am I likely to get?

Thank u so much

I'm 600m and with G.INP getting syncs as per my sig. Before G.INP it was more like 57/13Mbps.

I've seen some on these forums getting quite a lot more (pre-G.INP) and also some getting less. I don't recall any under 50Mbps.