Which ISP should I go with

After a number of years of waiting for fibre to be installed to our cabinet we are literally a week away from Openreach finalising the installation and being able to order a fibre connection. The question now is who should I go with. I'm currently with Sky but want to cancel as much of my Sky stuff as possible because I'm sick of paying them so much. One of the neighbours told me I'd be better going with BT for the following reason:

BT own the lines and rent out certain lines to other companies such as Sky, TalkTalk etc. BT will only put 50 houses on per fibre line however others will put on 250 houses therefore I'm likely to get faster speeds with BT than I am for other companies.

Does anyone know if this is actually true or not?

Thanks.

That sounds like misinformed junk to me. BT Openreach have to offer equivalent services to all ISPs, whether that is BT Retail, Sky, or any number of others.

Some ISPs will provide lesser or greater services than others based on how much they are willing to buy from Openreach and how much the invest in support, backhaul, etc, etc.

To my mind BT Retail are probably about middle of the pack. There are better ISPs (people like AAISP) and there are worse. And it is often dependent on how lucky you are - some ISPs provide excellent service in some cases but bad service in others.

There is a fair list of potential ISPs you could go with and they all have their pros and cons. But, saying that BT Retail is better because of their relationship to BT Openreach is pretty much a nonsense.

By the way, I am currently with BT Retail so it isn't as if I am dissing them - I actually am fine with their service. It isn't the cheapest and it performs fine for me but others have had very different experiences.

The advice provided by the neighbour is rubbish. Ignore that in its entirety.

All major providers, Sky, TalkTalk, Sky, PlusNet and BT should be able to provide a decent fibre connection to you which will be relatively similar.

Sky is a little lacking if you get the Sky Hub as the wireless is only 2.4Ghz. If you get the Sky Q Hub that is much better.

Plusnet is quite cheap right now.

Do you care if the upload speed is only 2Mbps (as is PN and TalkTalk) on their 38Mbps packages?

I would opt for the slower speed 38Mbps or 52(on BT) initially and upgrade if needed.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 01-Sep-16 16:33:35)

Complete garbage, for several reasons including those already given by others.

Are you expecting the cabinet to be enabled for FTTC (VDSL2) or FTTP by the way? The way the two are delivered to the home are very different. But in both cases the service between you and the exchange is completely provided through Openreach, and they are legally forced by Ofcom to treat all ISPs the same in respect of making a connection available.

On FTTC the fibre stops at the new cabinet and the circuit is from there to the phone cabinet and on the existing phone line to the house. On FTTP there isn't a new cabinet and the fibre comes all the way from the exchange to the house.

I'll assume it is FTTC you will be getting.

At the new FTTC cabinet there is a DSLAM which is similar to the exchange equipment that handles your broadband now. Connected to that are several "line cards", each with several connectors. One connector per FTTC customer connected to the cabinet.

Those DSLAMs can have multiple 1Gbps fibres, (I think some might have multiple 10Gbps ones these days), back to the fibre exchange head-end. Don't forget that as soon as the customer is a hundred metres or so away the speeds they can connect at fall away from the maximum 80Mbps.

At 600 metres my connection is ~57Mpbs and for people further away it falls off rapidly. Bear in mind that someone who isn't streaming produces relatively little throughput on a consistent basis, and it is only the actual throughput that travels along the exchange <> cabinet fibre. Not the total of the connection speeds.

Barring a fault or problem of some kind which gets fixed, congestion between users and the exchange doesn't happen. At the exchange the ISP buys a 1Gb or 10GB connection to the Openreach fibre termination kit from its own backhaul. From thereon it's entirely up to the ISP how much capacity they provide - just like it is with ADSLx.

Have Just Signed Up To Pulse8 Fibre Myself Very Good Reviews Plus There Response Time To Email Support IS Second To None

Hi
Pulse8 or Origin broadband also worth consideration
K

I recently joined pulse8 as well and so far its very good. Constant maximum speeds of 80 Mbps 24/7. Support respond via email in 5 minutes or so in my case. So as of now recommended

+1 moved to Pulse8 from Vivaciti, now get maxed out download speeds during the day as well as evenings on Single and multistream tests.
Only difference is that no longer have G.INP enabled on line and so sync 7 Mbps lower.

In reply to a post by rarrar:

+1 moved to Pulse8 from Vivaciti, now get maxed out download speeds during the day as well as evenings on Single and multistream tests.
Only difference is that no longer have G.INP enabled on line and so sync 7 Mbps lower.

Is that normal? If so I won't be going there!

No, G.INP is disabled by a DLM reset which happens when you change products or move ISPs. It should come back on is a couple of weeks or so, if you're on a Huawei cabinet.

Different story on an ECI cabinet - you may be waiting till April.