BT Sky service in the WA5 postcode- Callands Area

Hi all,

Really suffering with Virgin media and 152Mb which only delivers sub Mb for eight hours a day. Guess which 8.... network utilisition cripples my connection in the evening, it works fine during the day and VM seem no nearer fixing this with constantly shifting fix dates.

I have checked my postcode and it says I can bet BT infinity2. before I jump out of the frying pan into the fire can anyone give any feedback or point in the right fdirection to find out how BT or Sky fibre is running in my area? I don't want to jump from one over subscribed mess to another.

Thanks in advance

Edited by deleted (Mon 01-Feb-16 08:29:07)

Just a bit of info. BT Infinity is BT Retail's product using Openreach FTTC, (Fibre To The Cabinet). Nearly every ISP in the country can sell that, and most do. It doesn't have to be BT itself you buy from.

BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet are the biggies. Smaller are more personal customer service. For example AAISP, Aquiss, Pulse8Broadband, uno, Zen. Plus 100+ more.

Did the BT site give you a speed estimate? The estimator that uses, but giving more info, is this one. It won't work with a VM telephone number I don't think, so use the Address Option. Do not use the pure Postcode option that you did - it is often very inaccurate, for technical reasons.

If you paste the table from that, plus the line above it that gives the exchange and cabinet number, people will be able to comment. Remove your address of course, but we do need the exchange and cabinet number.

You can also have a look using this map, which when you drill down to your area will show the last three months speed test results logged on the Main Site of these forums.

Cheers for the quick response. I had used the checker but didn't spot the technical details.

Struggled to get the table to format properly, this is the best I can do at this time of night....

Exchange WARRINGTON is served by Cabinet 78

Featured Products Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate(Mbps) Downstream Range(Mbps) Availability Date
High Low High Low
FTTC Range A (Clean) 80 74 20 20 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 80 70.4 20 19 -- Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 2 -- 1 to 3.5 Available
ADSL Max Up to 1.5 -- 1 to 2.5 Available
WBC Fixed Rate 0.5 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 0.5 -- -- Available
Other Offerings
Fibre Multicast -- -- -- Available
Copper Multicast -- -- -- Available




WBC SOGEA is currently not available on this cabinet due to following reasons:- Sorry your cabinet is temporarily unavailable, capacity will be restored as soon as possible.


For all ADSL and WBC Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC or WBC SOGEA) services, the stable line rate will be determined during the first 10 days of service usage.


For FTTC Ranges A and B, the term "Clean" relates to a line which is free from any wiring issues (e.g. Bridge Taps) and/or Copper line conditions, and the term "Impacted" relates to a line which may have wiring issues (e.g. Bridge Taps) and/or Copper line conditions.


Throughput/download speeds will be less than line rates and can be affected by a number of factors within and external to BT's network, Communication Providers' networks and within customer premises.

The Stop Sale date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2012; the Formal Retirement date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2014. The Stop Sale date for IPstream is from 31-Jan-2013; the Formal Retirement date for IPstream is from 30-Jun-2014.

Well if the checker is to be believed, you must live very close to the cabinet, which is all to the good.

Time then to pick your ISP and order.......

Cool, probably between 50 to 75m ,to the cab. But based on my Virgin experience how can I find out how highly load the specific cab is .......

you can't, but cab level congestion isn't usually regarded as a problem with BT FTTC.

I'm WA2 (Winwick) - cab 210.

I have had SKY Fibre Pro since October and live pretty close to the cab:

FTTC Range A (Clean) 80 80 20 20 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 80 74.4 20 19 -- Available

I connect at the max speed and it has never dropped below 76 / 18.5 no matter what the time of day.

I'm really impressed with SKY Pro, you get dedicated support team which you can phone, chat to online or use the forum. The fixed IP is great as well.

Edited by kingbiscit (Thu 04-Feb-16 09:59:53)