o2 or BE for broadband ?

CSA · 7 Jun 2009 at 17:32

Im thinking of leaving sky as my 12 months are nearly up with them, so im looking at either o2 or BE , now ive had BE before and i was very impressed with the speed but changed to sky as it was nearly half the price , but ive just become a o2 mobile customer so i get a discount when i take their BB package , around 5 quid on the pro package i believe

I know they are sister companies but is there any difference between the two ? i mainly online game so low ping is a must and i download my fair share of stuff so a high DL rate is prefered

currently with sky im usually connected at 6mb, although the last few days have been 4mb but cant download over 200kbps GGrrrr , hence the reason to look else where , ive basically had enough of sky

smids · 7 Jun 2009 at 17:35

I went with O2 for the cheaper broadband. Actually, it is O2 (Telefonica) that owns Be* - so not quite sister companies... but that is just being pedantic.

I signed up before 31st May so I'm getting 3 months free

on O2.

My pings are around 17ms to bbc.co.uk which I find quite good as my line is pretty poor:

Link Information

Uptime: 1 day, 19:00:10
DSL Type: G.992.3 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,209 / 5,901
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 18.5
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 25.5 / 44.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 6.5 / 7.0
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 10 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 20 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 740 / 101,276
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 740 / 693
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 389 / 625

I don't believe there will be a difference between the two. They use the same hardware at the exchange, it will therefore only really be account specifics that are different. O2 have a 30 day money back guarantee which might interest you.

zzzJonny · 7 Jun 2009 at 17:43

Be have the online control panel for disabling interleaving for possible lower pings.

CSA · 7 Jun 2009 at 17:47

30 days uh ? so i could try it out and cancel if im not that impressed

i cant see much difference between the premium and pro package apart from the upload speed, is it worth the extra money getting the pro package ?

also ive been looking around the o2 site looking for some kind of estimate to see how much speed i could expect but i cant find anything

CSA · 7 Jun 2009 at 17:54

CSA said:
also ive been looking around the o2 site looking for some kind of estimate to see how much speed i could expect but i cant find anything

never mind ive found that they reckon a max of 7mb, i was hoping for more tbh

tolien · 7 Jun 2009 at 19:07

You're not going to get much (or any) more than you did with Sky, provided it was through their LLU operation (ergo using ADSL2+).

CSA · 7 Jun 2009 at 19:52

tolien said:
You're not going to get much (or any) more than you did with Sky, provided it was through their LLU operation (ergo using ADSL2+).

so you dont think its worth swapping then ?

in my old house i had BE and was getting 8mb download speeds, when i switched to sky in that house it came down to 6mb, so there was a difference between the companies even though the line was was the same

tbh ive not been happy with sky from the start and swapping to o2 aint gunna cost me anthing infact it will save me 20pence a month lol so i think i'll give em a try all the same

tolien · 7 Jun 2009 at 20:19

It's not worth it if your only reason is to get a higher sync rate, no.

bloodline76 · 8 Jun 2009 at 11:08

gads said:
Be have the online control panel for disabling interleaving for possible lower pings.

Im currently swapping over to Be*

Why do you disable interleaving and how would I request it if it helps lower ping?

CSA · 8 Jun 2009 at 11:29

Is interleaving enabled as default with o2 or are they on fastpath ?

Crilly · 8 Jun 2009 at 11:41

CSA said:
Is interleaving enabled as default with o2 or are they on fastpath ?

Interleaved, supposedly people have had success with late night tech support with getting it turned off but nothing is guaranteed.

CSA · 8 Jun 2009 at 11:50

Crilly said:
Interleaved, supposedly people have had success with late night tech support with getting it turned off but nothing is guaranteed.

ok thanks for that , so its BE that give u the option between interleaved and fastpath via the cotrolpanel ? when you change it vai the control panel is it changed straightaway automatically or does it just send a ticket to support and they change it when they cba ?

kylew · 8 Jun 2009 at 12:12

CSA said:
ok thanks for that , so its BE that give u the option between interleaved and fastpath via the cotrolpanel ? when you change it vai the control panel is it changed straightaway automatically or does it just send a ticket to support and they change it when they cba ?

They're very happy to help out, I just send them webtickets if I want things changing like fast path(interleaving) they get it done pretty quickly.

My last ticket was me asking for a discount and some months free, they actually gave it to me too

.

£21.50 a month on Bepro down to £15 a month, and 3 months free.

Best ISP I've been with to date.

bloodline76 · 8 Jun 2009 at 12:20

kylew said:
They're very happy to help out, I just send them webtickets if I want things changing like fast path(interleaving) they get it done pretty quickly.

My last ticket was me asking for a discount and some months free, they actually gave it to me too .

£21.50 a month on Bepro down to £15 a month, and 3 months free.

Best ISP I've been with to date.

Have you been with them for long? Do you think as a new customer I should be cheeky and ask for the same as I havent signed up with them yet?

kylew · 8 Jun 2009 at 12:36

bloodline76 said:
Have you been with them for long? Do you think as a new customer I should be cheeky and ask for the same as I havent signed up with them yet?

Oh, and yeah, I've been with them for about 2 years now. They seem pretty easy going when it comes to discounts though.

bloodline76 · 8 Jun 2009 at 13:55

I went with 02 as its only £7.34 per month which will do me fine. And should be up and running by next monday (with any luck) which is nice as I have the day off

bloodline76 · 8 Jun 2009 at 18:07

Just an update. Placed the order today 1300.

Got a text back just now to say that the modem and stuff will be here on Wednesday and that the broadband will be activated on Friday.

Now if that all comes off that will be a brilliant start to O2.

CSA · 8 Jun 2009 at 19:50

bloodline76 said:
Just an update. Placed the order today 1300.

Got a text back just now to say that the modem and stuff will be here on Wednesday and that the broadband will be activated on Friday.

Now if that all comes off that will be a brilliant start to O2.

damn thats a fast set up

if o2 do interleaving and BE do fastpath which is the best seup to be on for gaming/download interleaving or fastpath ?

Locke · 8 Jun 2009 at 20:04

You want interleaving off and configured to fastpath for gaming and the opposite for downloading.

smids · 8 Jun 2009 at 20:04

bloodline76 said:
Just an update. Placed the order today 1300.

Got a text back just now to say that the modem and stuff will be here on Wednesday and that the broadband will be activated on Friday.

Now if that all comes off that will be a brilliant start to O2.

Mine was activated in 3 days - set it up last week. O2 do interleaving though it's pretty weak. My pings are still quite good - 16ms average over 1min to bbc.co.uk for example. Sky interleaving was much stronger.