Reply With QuoteYou need an LLU provider if you want to avoid BT. They but their own equipment in to Bt exchanges.
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I am with Sky, and have been since we moved in.Where I am, I cannot get Virgin Media.
Am I right in thinking that all of the "normal" Broadband services rely on the BT/Open Reach connection into the home? I ask as I'm fed up of the internet falling over, slowing down, intermittently having a seizure, and want to know if there are any other options that don't rely on the cable from the box that Open Reach control. It doesn't appear to be an equipment in the home fault, and I'm getting frustrated with the regularity of faults.
I've tried to convince Virgin to put in a line, but there are only three houses "off grid" on the estate and it just so happens that one of them is mine.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated! Thanks.
You need an LLU provider if you want to avoid BT. They but their own equipment in to Bt exchanges.
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Check out the SamKnows website to see what other options your Exchange supports.
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The "last mile", ie the infrastructure that connects you to your local exchange is maintained by Openreach regardless of whose equipment is in there.
If you don't have the option of a Virgin fibre connection, the only alternative is cellular.
Are you on ordinary ADSL broadband or FTTC fibre (Fibre To The Cabinet)? Check if you are in an area that can get FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) as that will remove any local copper connections:
https://www.zen.co.uk/home/broadband
Set up a Broadband Quality Monitor & this will highlight any connection issues & dropouts. You can then use this information to push BT/Openreach further:
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broad...toring/quality
Here you can see the dropouts I was getting from a poor dropwire connection.
What is 4G signal like in your area? Might be able to just get a sim card router.
Do you know how much data you need in a month?
Could always try calling Sky cancellations and tell them you're leaving because the broadband is constantly falling over, may well get more movement on fixing the fault then.
Given the complaints I've read about Virgin it would seem they're no better than anyone else. There have been many threads and comments on here over the years.
Until a month or so ago I had, for many years, nearly faultless service from Talktalk and had renewed my VDSL contract for another two years last spring. Now I get perfect service from midnight to 6pm and from then on appalling service, certainly in terms of ping which, considering I'm an online gamer matters hugely. 400+ instead of 12. It also stops any evening streaming or downloading TV backups from my Sky box.
They say they've found a fault but are being pretty slow about doing anything about it. People say it's contention, but so suddenly? I'm not sure.
Customer service is always a mixed bag - I've never had any issues with Virgin/Cabletel/NTL on that front, but I'm sure for any company, you'll find complaints on that score.Originally Posted by Glamdring
Technically, if you're in a cabled area, Virgin are head and shoulders above anyone else (some grumble about the router/modem, but if your mansion really needs wider wifi coverage, just buy a better router and use that) - If you're not, I suspect you can't get Virgin anyway!
M
^^^ This. I get a maximum of 32MBps from my fibre, that's just as high as it will go due to distance from the cabinet, local architecture etc. It's usually about 26/27MBps with the contention on my street.
I get 80MBps on my EE mobile phone with reception throughout the house. I've looked into just having EE 4G broadband and it's pretty compelling, as long as you don't use a lot of data, at which point fibre is more competitive.
80Mbps! That's incredible, I just checked mine. (EE 4G) and I get 10Mbps, still fast enough to be a good failover though. Even EE only claim 31Mbps average, so you are in a hot spot there.
We had Virgin here and it was down about a day every month. Clearly a local issue as nobody elsewhere had the same problem but they never really managed to fix it so most peeps in our street moved to one of the DSL providers. They all can have problems and it's such a margin industry that customer service is usually pretty constrained.
Some interesting feedback here. Thanks.
Prior to moving we were with Virgin for a LONG time without any particular issues. Sky on the other hand is very hit and miss in my current situation (although strangely it's working fine at the moment).
Check if Vodafone gigafast is available in your area?
Sadly not.
Have a look at Satellite providers. They tend to have reasonable speeds though can't compete with FTTP or good FTTC. If you're a gamer be aware that there tends to be high latency.
I have dispensed with the BT phone line altogether and have my broadband via the EE 4G Network. I get speeds of approx 60Mbps down and 30 Mbps up. The downside of this option is that the largest data package you can purchase is 200GB a month; fine for me but not for everyone.
Last edited by Skier; 5th October 2018 at 20:24.
BT: 'so for £5 a month more you could move onto super-fast plus!'
Me: 'But the line already gives me the maximum possible speed. What would be different besides me giving you another £5 a month'.
BT: 'em... Well we guarantee not to increase the price anymore during that period!'
Me: 'but the contract would allow me to cancel if you tried that..'
BT: 'em..'
Me: 'so basically the offer is for an extra fiver a month I can get what I already get...'
BT: 'em...'
As I understand it BT Plus also gives you 24/7 UK support, double data on all your family mobile SIMs, and 4G fallback if your fibre connection has a fault. Not bad for an extra fiver?
I've taken it just for the double data on my iPhone and iPad.
Indeed. For me the offer was an extra £3 a month more and included a free upgrade to the latest Smart Hub, (I was on the old Home Hub 3 Router with a separate ADSL modem.
No brainer. Then they screwed up my order, (which apparently disappeared into the BT ether), so after much arguing I got an upgrade from my current BT Broadband package to BT Plus broadband for less that I was currently paying, free Smart Hub, (this was the sticking point), and a reduction in my BT TV package. I'm now paying way less than I was originally for a much better service and the price is locked for 18 months.
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
1) Never use the support and the scripts they read are the same
2) I have unlimited data Three Sims (with decent US roaming) - BT cannot match either the data or the price
3) never had a fault and if I did I could just hotspot my unlimited data Three Sims...
I'm sure someone would find benefit in that but it's a waste of money for me. Someone else mentioned a new router, I never use an ISP provided router.
Fundamentally I can get the same speed for half the price elsewhere. BT's best offer was to offer to knock £2 off the bill!
I accept the reason the deals are so crap for me is that they want to flog bundles but I've no kids and watch no paid TV (no interest in sports) so they make no sense to me.
Last edited by Alansmithee; 6th October 2018 at 08:08.
I use Virgin, as Zen fibre isn't available here. I get about 100Mbps down and 6Mbps up. I've had problems a couple of times, and they have been pretty good at dealing with them. Both times it involved something happening at the main box (someone cutting the wrong cable), which is down the road. I can see that the box is overflowing, and can't even be closed.
I don't use their modem. I have a Ubiquiti router and and 2 Ubiquiti AC access points. That gives pretty good 5GHz coverage in the house. In the garden and a couple of places in the house, it drops to 2.4GHz. I've been really pleased with the Ubiquiti gear.
Best wishes,
Bob
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