all pay broadband

I am in the process of deciding what to do broadband wise.

We have a wireless point to point service here run by a company called All pay, the access points are on top of churches and mine would come from the cathedral.

At the moment I pay £19.90 for a ADSL service which give me 4megabits and that is only because I mucked around with the SNR. It is unlimited, and no traffic management.

This wireless service is £18 for a five megabit service or £29 for a 10 megabit service, for that it is unlimited and since I would not need my home phone I would save a tenner or so on that a month.

The problem is that BT is bringing fibre to us, so they say this year, but to be honest I don't really need or want 40megabits or anywhere near it and it is Bt equipment, i remember the problems I had last time with BT.

this wireless service is £100 connection fee, which is not much more than fibre, but I can pay it over 12, 18 or 24 months.

My main problem is that if in 12 months if I go for a 12 month contract I decide it is not for me, it will cost me even more to get a phone connected and get back onto ADSL fibre.

If fibre was not coming here for say another 12 months or so then I would go for this All pay, but I really can't decide what to do.

Here we go again, I was like this when I changed from Bt to ADSl24.


The one good thing about All pay is that it is a local company and anything goes wrong, it is a local call to local people, I know that ADSL24 customer service is in this country.

even if I do go for all pay it will still cost me money as I need to get a router and then a cheap voip box.

I've got both Fixed Wireless and FTTC.

The main thing about FTTC it that in my experience it does not suffer from the vagaries of ADSL, subject to your line from the cabinet being in reasonable condition (and if not it ought to be repaired but this can require persistence). At 650+m from the cab and with a heavily jointed (repaired) underground line, my throughput speeds are consistent at 38Mbps down and 4 up for over 6months now.

My fixed wireless service is good too, at around 5 miles from the transmitter, on an older aggregate 20Mbps symmetric channel (10/10), my average is 9Mbps down and 6Mbps up, but watch the backhaul as Fixed Wireless is normally a shared service and contended. That said slowdowns have not been an issue for me. Pings can be as low as 7ms compared to the 16ms on my interleaved VDSL2 service. I've not much experience of using VOIP but Skype seems to operate OK, and clearer than my analogue line.

I'm sticking my neck out here but if the fastest speed/lowest ping is not an issue, and if the local loop to the cab (not link from cab to exchange which is replaced) is not in such poor condition or line length to the cab so great as to rule out any greater speed than 10-15Mbps, then the consistency and security of FTTC as BT isn't going to go bust or withdraw the service (and its technological development) in my view makes it preferable in principle, but it can be a close call. (It was the opposite with ADSL where the combination of the local loop quality, exchange distance and DSLAM issues meant the local Fixed Wireless service was always preferable). The line of sight now and in the future is the critical factor for Fixed Wireless. Weather hasn't been an issue.

One thing if you're not a demanding user, is that with the better tech of VDSL2 I think the choice of Provider is less important so I wouldn't rule out the cheaper services. The Fixed Wireless operators, being local, rarely have economies of scale so a viable business model is important: I'd always ask for and check out some local customer references if you can.

Go for it, support a local firm and ditch BT all together.

If you don't make many calls and are on a pay-monthly mobile contract you may find that there is no need to get VoIP as you could just use your mobile to make calls using your allowance. I guess the only disadvantage is for people calling you and if mobile signal is poor this might not be piratical.

Ethernet/cable routers are cheap, cheaper than ADSL ones. Do they include or sell one?

Not much to gain if you go for the 5Mbps package so might as well go for the 10Mbps one for more than double your current speed.

As I'm sure you know BT's FTTC time scales slip, some have even slipped by a year already!

Getting back a land line in the future might not be as expensive as you think. You might just need to take a 18-24 month contract or order broadband at the same time to get the line re-activated for free.

You've got nothing to loose.

Thanks people

I have sent another email asking for some more info, i went into town on Saturday because I knew their van was there, so I ask them some questions and they gave me a pack to have a look at. it told me how it all worked, but no prices Anyway they sent me a email telling me the prices and i have sent another one back for more info.

As for them going belly up I can't see it myself, they are a pretty large company that deals with payments, my rent is paid to my Housing association via them and i have heard that in the next few years we are going to get free broadband via them, when that will happen I don't know.


They started this service to give people who live in rural areas decent broadband and I can see the cathedral where the access point is from my gate, I doubt it is even a mile, been trying to find out via google Maps, but can't get the straight line distance thing for some reason.

there is nothing in-between my house and the access point as I am on a hill and the cathedral is pretty tall.


my phone line is pretty old, and was suppose to have been fixed 8 years ago, but nothing have been done, I am surprised that I get 4megabit considering.

i would like to get away from any Bt equipment to be honest if I can get a decent service, going to cable and wireless LLU was the best thing I have done so far regarding broadband.

i know cable style routers are cheaper than ADSl routers, i am looking at a TP link and if I go for fibre i would still need one anyway. i don't think All pay supplies routers.


The only reason I need VoIP is so people who don't have a mobile like my Dad can contact me without paying the earth, I would get something like Sip gate which is free unless I make a call

I will wait and see what All pay says in their reply.

Me again, still not 100% sure what I am doing, but I am leaning towards all pay, i have a visit from someone on Wednesday to have a chat to., don't have that with normal ISps

i will start off with the 5 megaits if I go for it as it will be better than what I am getting now and once the phone line is gone and I paid out for cease fee for broadband I will up it to 10 megabits.

i will be sad to leave ADSL24 as they have offered a good service, but I got to do what I think is best for me, the only problem then is to decide what voip adaptor to buy.

I had the visit from All pay today and to be honest I am impressed, by what I have heard, The only niggly problem I have got is the 24 month contract, I did say at one point I would never take a long contract out again. if I went for fibre from Bt or Talk Talk, which I would not, that is 18 months, sky is 12 months as far as I can see.

ADSl24 i think is 12 months.


I am pretty sure now that I will go with All pay, just got to have a bit more of a think about it and then sort out installation days as they only install on Wednesday and thursdays.

You could ask if you can pay more for the install and have a shorter contract.

You're unlikely to get another faster option in the next 24 months so unless you plan to move house there's nothing to worry about.

When do they do service calls if something goes wrong, just web and thurs as well?

In reply to a post by 5km:

You could ask if you can pay more for the install and have a shorter contract.

You're unlikely to get another faster option in the next 24 months so unless you plan to move house there's nothing to worry about.

Or more reliable to be honest. 24months is long, but I think I will go for it, I will send a email to them today to say yes, at least i can pay for the install fee over 24 months if I want to.

When do they do service calls if something goes wrong, just web and thurs as well?

it is always monitored so I been told, so if there is a problem it will be seen to right away, I should not have to phone them at all. the problem is if I do have to phone them, then there is no evening or weekend support, but if they monitor the system and fix it as soon as it goes wrong then I should be ok.

I have heard some good stuff about them.

i think I will go for it.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

The only reason I need VoIP is so people who don't have a mobile like my Dad can contact me without paying the earth, I would get something like Sip gate which is free unless I make a call

Ive got sipgate and their very good what i like best about them is they have an android app (they may have an iphone too not sure because i dont like iphones lol) I leave this app running 24/7 on my mobile and that enables people to ring my sip number but it comes threw on my mobile just like some one is calling my mobile, It gives me the freedom of using my mobile any were like normal but makes it cheap as chips for people to ring me off landlines (free in most cases) the call quality is excellent too , (i do have unlimited data on three's oneplan though anyone without unlimited data remember to enable wifi were possible)

I also used to have one of these (can be bought on ebay half the price) but now ive got an unlocked CISCO CP-7940G for usage at home (do still have the mobile app on though so it rings on both mobile and the cisco) it was my way of getting a second line with local number for free without paying for second line rental but it would work just as well as a replacement.

Ash

local is best i say. you don't see that these days.