New ISP (Opal LLU?)

Hi!

Looking to see if I can get better value for money, currently on IDNet's Home Supermax product (£36 per month), I notice my exchange now has TalkTalk LLU (Opal?) available. Really don't want to go with TalkTalk but I understand some ISPs (for example Vivaciti) are selling LLU products using Opal's equipment.

Main uses are gaming (so low latency is essential), iplayer and browsing/http downloading.

Currently looking at Vivaciti's ADSL2+ LLU 100GB FUP product, is Vivaciti the only ISP selling products using Opal or do I have other options?

Thanks in advance!

Xilo also resell the Surfwise packages via Opal LLU.

Benefits are it's a partial LLU product, so no full line unbundling and the ensuing nightmares if you want to bail out. It's ADSL2+, so sync speeds are great if you are close enough to your exchange. Download speeds are fine, if you can find any of the big file hosts that aren't on the throttled list.

Torrents and newsgroups are traffic managed 24/7. Gaming - only online game I play is Star Trek Online (nerd alert!). This is unplayable during the daytime on IDNet Surfwise. Whether this is a local congestion issue, or a peculiarity unique to this game I can't tell. IDNet support say game traffic isn't throttled, so don't know what's going on there.

I haven't played any fps game online for a while, so can't tell you what pings are like to UK servers etc.

Thanks for the reply!

So IDNet also offer a Surfwise package? I'm assuming I can't get it with IDNet as it's not showing ADSL2 as an available option when I put my number in the checker.

I was with Vivaciti's ADSL Max Surfwise product last year which was pretty terrible during peak hours....I'm guessing things haven't improved then?

Just to correct post...

Our product is vastly different from that of the previous provider mentioned.

None of our services are traffic managed in any way, shape or form and nor do we require users to buy an add-on to remove/lower the traffic management.

Matt

Sorry, got my wires crossed there. My previous ISP was also IDNet. Funnily enough, I was on the same product as you too.

Meant to say Vivaciti Surfwise, or, as it's labelled in my client portal - Surfwise - ADSL2+ LLU 100GB FUP Broadband.

I've been on this for about 3 months and have no complaints, apart from the mysterious lag issues with STO.

Just had a chat with the eldest lad, he plays a lot of Xbox multiplayer, he says he's had no issues since I switched over. Full green bars pretty much every server. If you can live with the throttling and your exchange has no timeframe for 21cn, you can't really do any better atm, at least not until more LLU providers get in on the action at your exchange, or BT pull their fingers out and get you on WBC.

In reply to a post by uno:

Just to correct post...

Our product is vastly different from that of the previous provider mentioned.

None of our services are traffic managed in any way, shape or form and nor do we require users to buy an add-on to remove/lower the traffic management.

Matt

Currently looking at Vivaciti's ADSL2+ LLU 100GB FUP product

I was ofc talking about the product he mentioned, not yours. I just pointed out that you also resell LLU broadband via Opal, not to imply your product was the same.

In reply to a post by Koppo:

I was ofc talking about the product he mentioned, not yours. I just pointed out that you also resell LLU broadband via Opal, not to imply your product was the same.

Sorry, I read..

Xilo also resell the Surfwise packages via Opal LLU

We do not have a Surfwise product and I believe that is a product offered by their supplier of TBB (Opal) services.

Matt

So apart from the STO lag issues you've been happy with the decision to move from IDNet to Vivaciti?

Well, tbh it was a no-brainer. I download a fair bit and being able to do that at 1400kbps, as opposed to what I was getting on my capped 8meg Max Premium service, makes it a winner.

I am also only paying £20 per month for it, which is a massive saving over what I was paying IDNet. Not to knock IDNet though, their Max Premium service is outstanding for what it is.

I keep hoping someone else will stick some kit in our exchange. With 8k residential and 450 business lines I don't understand why it hasn't happened yet. Sky have unbundled the other two exchanges in our town, my exchange still has more lines than both of these combined. Maybe there's a space problem in the exchange building or something *shrug*.

The traffic management is a bit of a pain. The big file hosts like Fileserve, Hotfile etc are all throttled. Don't torrent or Usenet, so don't know how badly they are throttled.

Apart from that, I'm happy with it I guess.

Apologies to Xilo, I thought they also resold the Opal service.

Edited by deleted (Thu 02-Jun-11 15:38:57)

Hmmm I think the speed will be similar to what I'm currently getting as I'm a fair distance away from the exchange, but the £15 a month saving is quite tempting!

With regards to the file hosts traffic management - does that just applies during the day?