BT or Zen for FTTC

I'm looking to move from BE to an FTTC solution. Over the past month or two, my speed has gone from a consistent 8Mb to around 6 with daily disconnects. Using their 'reliability' profile, the disconnects go away, but the speed goes down to 3Mb. So I need a new home.

I've narrowed it down to BT Infinity business or Zen Internet. I need 5 static IP addresses as I host a few things.

Zen claim to do no traffic shaping on anything but they have a 200GB monthly cap (instead of a peak cap like ADSL24) and it will cost me 60 quid to get setup. They do offer a 12 month contract though.

BT won't charge me the 60 quid for setup and they include a router for free. They also claim to be unlimited in their bandwidth setup, but I can't get a straight answer on throttling or shaping on their business connection. I'd also be signing up for 2 years, and they can't guarantee me an uplink speed which is concerning to me.

Does anyone have any experience with BT's shaping on their business FTTC connection or know what Zen charge when you go over the 200GB / month cap ?

Thanks in advance,

I can't really answer the question, but if you are suddenly getting daily disconnects I would expect the cause to be between the cabinet and your computer. There's a slight chance it is E-side of the cabinet, as my problem was, but you haven't given any info on what you and BE have done to try to trace the fault.

If the fault is D-side then unless it is your router or filter it is going to be even worse with FTTC and you will get a screwed-up connection. So I feel you need to find it.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I can't really answer the question, but if you are suddenly getting daily disconnects I would expect the cause to be between the cabinet and your computer. There's a slight chance it is E-side of the cabinet, as my problem was, but you haven't given any info on what you and BE have done to try to trace the fault.

I've replaced my filter and the cable that connects it to the router. I can't try my other router due to BE's bridged method of providing static IP addresses - my only other router doesn't support this.

I had BT do a line test, and that came back saying that no faults were found.

If the fault is D-side then unless it is your router or filter it is going to be even worse with FTTC and you will get a screwed-up connection. So I feel you need to find it.

BE had me change the profile to 'reliable' and that resolved the disconnects. They then closed the ticket.

BT will guarantee me a minimum of 16Mb down (but no up guarantee), which is the main reason I'm considering this move. Zen say that their contractual minimum is 12Mb which again, I could live with.

Though there is also the possibility that a recent FTTC installation for someone else has caused your wiring within the cabinet to be disturbed. We've had a couple of those. (Which considering the number of FTTC connections, and the number reported fine here, makes it extremely rare).

If that's the case then yours will be fixed by going to FTTC.

I have had Zen for ADSL and now FTTC. FTTC works well for me with download speeds approaching 50Mbps most of the time and gaming pings of 5ms to UK servers. It does slow down a bit sometime at peak times but not enough to really be noticed.

There is no traffic shaping etc and for me it just works well all the time. This and the customer service / support is what you pay the extra for. Rather than just reading off scripts and English not being being close to their first language at Zen they understand what you mean and normally sort it out for you on the first call. Unlike most ISP's they also call you back when they say they will.

It just depends on what you need and what you want to pay