UK ISPs and Fibre to the Cabinet

[bertcocaine]

FTTC has now been rolled out to a number of exchanges in the UK, and there are also some resellers through BT wholesale. However, I'm struggling to find accurate info about which ones offer it. Other than a couple of random business ones (at stupid prices) I've only found three residential mainstream ISPs that will quote me for fibre:

BT (wouldn't touch with a barge poll)
Virgin (not in cable area, plus they throttle)
Plusnet (p2p throttling amongst others)

Does anyone know of any others? I've been waiting for Be (my current ISP) to offer it, but they just keep taking registration of interest with no mention of when.. Sky are trialling in London (as I think are others) but that's no use to me!

Any help?

[bertcocaine]

I've now found Talk Talk will also offer it, but again they throttle..
What's the deal with throttling anyway? They claim it's to protect other users so it doesn't slow the network, but Be and Sky manage fine. O2 use Be's network ffs so no idea what their excuse is..

[flysfooty]

Lets face it, it has nothing to do with protecting others from a slower network, its all to do with them charging max price for a shit service and getting away with it.
if they can't produce it they shouldn't be allowed to offer it!
another example of the fu**ed up system we live in and how the general public gets screwed while the fat cats get richer.

[bertcocaine]

That's one reason I went with Be. Start ups with philosophies are much better across the business world.. Despite being bought out by O2 they still have their own approach and haven't been limited, although that's a smart business decision given the number of tech savvy types that use it and would have moved elsewhere. Despite price rises I'm still paying what I was paying at the start (other than a small VAT price change) and their tech support is top class too.

[bertcocaine]

right finally found one that doesn't appear to have throttling issues, Zen. Anyone used these guys? reviews seem positive, prices are ok (ish). £30+VAT for a 50gb download limit with full speed and 2.3 up, extra £5 for 10m up! £80+VAT connection fee not the best pricing but I'll pay a little more for freedom
Can't decide whether to wait and hope Be or Sky get their arses in gear, as they may be cheaper (well Sky will be anyway) and they will have unlimited products..

[bertcocaine]

Finally... Sky have just rung me and offered me 40Mbps (rising to over 60 once they have tested the new BT double up) and unlimited (not just in name) for £20 a month. free install and router as well, not available to everyone until April but pre-registering has just paid off.

Sad to be leaving Be, great ISP, but they can't offer me this kind of speed.

[fergyc]

My exchange gets done on 1st June. Hopefully o2 jump on it!

[Meads]

Im with NewNet, I get 37mb down and 10mb up for £36 a month with unlimited download and upload.

[bertcocaine]

and install complete!



straight out of the box, first ten days they'll be playing with it to find optimum, so speed may well edge up.

[bertcocaine]

My exchange gets done on 1st June. Hopefully o2 jump on it!

well Be couldn't tell me when, although might not be too long. O2 own Be and use their network, so I'd expect that at the same time. O2 throttle some stuff like p2p though, where as Be and Sky don't.

[scunny37]

I use Aquiss for my fttc broadband which gives me around 35Mbps down and 8 Mbps up though I do use their business package rather than family package which costs £38 (Business 45).

However, now that BT have upgraded all fttc street boxes I've just ordered my upgrade off aquiss, dropped down to the cheapest business package in order to keep price similar. Predicted speeds now are 72Mbps down and 18Mbps up - can't wait for this to come live

[bertcocaine]

nice! Have they actually rolled out the double (up to 80M) in your area? Mine was supposed to have this on BT (although not Sky pending their testing) but the OpenReach guy yesterday told me they are still limited to 40M here at the moment. Once rolled out and enable by Sky too I'm hoping to clear 60M, although given mine is currently rated at 32 and I'm clearing that, and the engineer said the box on my wall was registering the full 40M.. I'm now dreaming of more!

[scunny37]

This is what my ISP told me:

"BT have rolled out profile 17a to all cabinets to allow for the newer sync options"

So I assume that meant all cabinets had been done. In my case, I just have to wait for the BT engineer to turn up at my cabinet and update my profile for my line. The orders in and they haven't come back and said "oops, your cabinet hasn't been done yet" so all looking good

[fergyc]

well Be couldn't tell me when, although might not be too long. O2 own Be and use their network, so I'd expect that at the same time. O2 throttle some stuff like p2p though, where as Be and Sky don't.

Never done it for me. AFAIK that's the bottom end package that throttles

[flysfooty]

and install complete!



straight out of the box, first ten days they'll be playing with it to find optimum, so speed may well edge up.

Bert, is that through sky? i'd like to see what the upload goes up to when they've finished playing with your line if you don't mind posting again.

My exchange was done in Feb accordingly so i have registered with sky and hoping for a call off them to see what they can do. I'm with the already and the exchange is only 150yrds away so i could be in for some good speeds. I'm more interested in the upload speeds cos i already get nearly 20mb down so can't see me really noticing any difference between 20 and 40 but deffo would love to double up on the upload.
Could be a whole new bunch of p2p streamers soon....

[bertcocaine]

Bert, is that through sky? i'd like to see what the upload goes up to when they've finished playing with your line if you don't mind posting again.

My exchange was done in Feb accordingly so i have registered with sky and hoping for a call off them to see what they can do. I'm with the already and the exchange is only 150yrds away so i could be in for some good speeds. I'm more interested in the upload speeds cos i already get nearly 20mb down so can't see me really noticing any difference between 20 and 40 but deffo would love to double up on the upload.
Could be a whole new bunch of p2p streamers soon....

sorry mate missed your reply before.

I'm getting around 1.6M up, they've told me it's limited to 2M for now as they haven't tested beyond that. Once testing is complete, they will bump it up to the line limit.

[scunny37]

FTTC upgrade now in full swing and getting 71Mbps down and a shade over 16Mbps up - very nice

[actonbhoyrob]

Bert i know the thing with bt BUT i can honestly say im very happy with infinity 2 72 mb dl speeds (80 promised) 16 mb upload speed (20 promiesd) not a fault even tho my had few teething issue they were very helpfull (u ask the price of this package all i pay is £25 pm) tho i paied my line rental in advance @ £110 btw sky admit the cap speeds u wont get full amount of speed

[twiggy]

sky buy o2 and be isp's got my email last night gutted had a quick look around and it only seems that bt and sky do true unlimited at the min and are ok with p2p it will be 6mths before the takeover happens

http://www.beusergroup.co.uk/technot...le=Sale_to_Sky

[DEAD_MAN_WALKING]

sky buy o2 and be isp's got my email last night gutted had a quick look around and it only seems that bt and sky do true unlimited at the min and are ok with p2p it will be 6mths before the takeover happens

http://www.beusergroup.co.uk/technot...le=Sale_to_Sky

Yer read this yesterday on the BBC website, i was quite shocked as well as its not just O2 but BE broadband as well - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21627614