Best ISPs in East Kent?

Been having a bad time with ISPs for the last year or more and I'm tired of being messed around. Tried searching for the answers to my questions, but didn't find what I needed.

I'm in a fairly rural location, but use to get 2.5Mbps for a number of years. Switched to Origin last December and the speed dropped to less than 1Mbps. After a month of stressful arguing, I eventually got them to improve it, but ended up with 2Mbps at best. After reading some posts on this forum, it would appear that the supplied ASUS router/modem could be partly to blame. However, nearly all ISPs are still only guaranteeing 1Mbps or less for my address.

The good news is that a fibre cabinet was installed close by this summer. Kent County Council have assured me that the cabinet will go live by the end of this week after the planned completion for Summer 2018 was missed. I don't believe them or what they're being told by Open Reach more likely. The cabinet will support fast-fibre and possibly superfast-fibre too. KCC's website states that no upgrade for my area is planned. The Open Reach website states that the cabinet is at the 'Connect' state, meaning up to another 4 months of waiting. If what KCC tell me is true, surely it should be at the 'Activate' state by now?

It'd be very nice to get 35Mbps or more, but I'm not sure I need it, so I'm reluctant to pay a lot more.

What I'd like to know is :-

1. Is there a more reliable source of information regarding how long it'll take before the cabinet goes live?
2. Will I get a better connection when the cabinet goes live by default? I've been told all lines will be transferred from the old to the new cabinet. In fact, I think the old cabinet has already gone, but I haven't seen any improvement yet. An increase from 2Mbps to 10Mbps would be great for me, especially if it won't cost extra.
3. Can Origin charge me a disconnection fee if I don't move ISP at the end of contract or I don't renew my contract (I can't find their terms & conditions)? I'm thinking if I don't agree to the T&Cs of their new contract, they'll just disconnect me, which would be fine. I'm also thinking that I may have a lot more flexibility with 4G broadband or maybe just a better mobile phone deal (EE have the only half decent 4G provision in my area). I never use my landline.
4. If I go to a new ISP, which of them will let me leave after they've connected me without penalty during a cooling off period? Most ISP cooling off periods seem to expire before any connection has been made, which is almost useless.
5. Any recommended ISPs for my area? I've had bad experiences with the Post Office (customer service), Sky (connection & customer service) and Origin (broadband & customer service). Also a friends' fibre connection with PlusNet was handled badly quite recently.

Edited by deleted (Thu 27-Sep-18 18:02:09)

There are a few Openreach checkers around of varying reliability, but this BT Wholesale checker is almost always reliable and also the most important. Openreach checkers give forecasts for their part being finished, this one is effectively the one ISPs use to decide what service they can offer you.

If your phone isn't recognised, use the Address checker. Do not use the pure Postcode checker. It no longer accesses fibre data.

It won't give you a forecast date, but will be the first to say fibre is available.

If you post the exchange name and cabinet number from the line above the table, some "informed guesses" may appear .

Thanks Roberto, that's really useful. The results are in this link.

The exchange is BOUGHTON and the cabinet is 13.

Any educated guesses on the way prices are going? There's a Plusnet deal that ends at midnight, which works out as £10.24/month for basic broadband and line rental, if you pay up front for 12 months. Not keen on this option, but if prices are on the up, I may be tempted.

Edited by deleted (Thu 27-Sep-18 17:55:44)

In reply to a post by grazie:

5. Any recommended ISPs for my area? I've had bad experiences with the Post Office (customer service), Sky (connection & customer service) and Origin (broadband & customer service). Also a friends' fibre connection with PlusNet was handled badly quite recently.

I would highly recommend Kent based isp, Orbital Net who have LLU'd most exchanges in Kent. I used to be with Orbital many years ago (when I lived in the Swale area) and they were great. I think their prices start from £30 pm for their FTTC services.

https://www.orbital.net/products/connectivity/fttc

Note that it is saying the VDSL/FTTC service is not yet available. So you can't order it from any ISP yet. Even when it is, there will be no automatic change to your service. It has to be ordered as prices are higher than ADSLx.

There are always several deals running so I wouldn't worry too much over that.

"Contracts" are mislabelled in a way. They are for a minimum term. They don't expire. You just reach the end of that term.

At the end of the term the service continues on a monthly basis, but the price will normally rise to the standard level, not any discounted deal that you signed up to. Many ISPs will give another discount deal if contacted but that almost always involves a new minimum term.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 27-Sep-18 18:42:49)

Coming up to the end of the quarter, which is used as a place holder date for Openreach is not sure, so do not hold your breath, around 50 cabinets that match your pattern each week.

There is no cabinet 13 in our cabinet database as yet, because one has not existed before, which suggests that cabinet 13 is an infill cabinet, i.e. lines will be moved onto the new cabinet that is closer to the premises it will cover than the existing cabinet. This in itself if you have an ADSL2+ service will not improve speeds at all.

If your 1 Mbps is from a very slow VDSL2 service then once the move is complete your speeds will probably increase, but for infill cabinets there are delays as they need to co-ordinate with all the broadband providers involved to ensure that the move of FTTC services has been told to them - i.e. they cannot just break the service and move people without warning and consent from providers.

Entering into a basic broadband (ADSL2+) contract at this time is a bit of waste, as you will be locked to that provider and while many will let your regrade to FTTC you won't get their best offer prices at that point.

So when will cab be live, no one can predict and if this is infill which looks likely the timetable is outside of Openreach control.

Have figured out where cabinet 13 is probably going to be, and looks like your old cabinet was number 6 which is around 2km away, so unlikely that you had any VDSL2 speeds before. Have added to our database, but not moved anyone to the cabinet as yet.

If no VDSL2 services involved for others and from distance looks possible, they will be no need to chase the providers, so its just a wait for the cabinet to live under Openreach control - assuming that there is not some delay with fibre or power getting to the cabinet.

Likely this is what is called an all in one cabinet, i.e. just one new cabinet that cabinets a traditional cabinet with the modern VDSL2 components.

My advice when checking, also check neighbouring postcodes as sometimes the infill cabinets appear in chunks and if someone is said to have availability and you don't it may mean the checkers need a prod, and I can prod Openreach on your behalf if that does happen.

Code Look up states live by November, but take that with a very large pinch of salt, it could be earlier or later.

https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm?xid=1...

It would be worth keeping an eye on https://roadworks.org/ and change the date (top right) to 12 months, this can show up things like cabinet installation (already installed by the sound of it), power connection or roadworks to get fibre to the cab.

I also recommend Orbital Net, they are not far from you being based in Bekesbourne and we have our business broadband with them, oh and my brother in law works there

PS. If you post in the fibre broadband forum if anyone has an idea when NDBOU13 might be live someone may well give you a good hint

Thanks for the extra info. I'm beginning to see how the system works.

What's the relationship between Orbit and VFAST? They appear to be the same company in all but name.

In reply to a post by grazie:

What's the relationship between Orbit and VFAST?

Orbital are the parent company of vfast. Vfast are primarily a wireless Broadband (WiMAX) isp who don�t offer greater than 20-30 Mbps through the external antenna they install for you. Whereas orbital are a fixed line isp with mostly business customers but they also supply residential services as well.