TalkTalk Pro (LLU)/New ISP?

Kona*

Kona*

Kona*

Associate
Joined
29 Dec 2003
Posts
2,039
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
I've had Be* Broadband in my flat for 2 years and it's been faultless but I've just bought my first house (hurrah!) and the exchange at the new house only has TalkTalk/CPW as an LLU provider. I've got two options;

1) Go with a BT Wholesale ISP but to get the level of service I got with Be* I'd need to go with Zen or Fast.co.uk - both of which are pretty expensive.

2) Go with TalkTalk and their Pro package which is LLU enabled, I've heard some horror stories about the TalkTalk BT Wholesale service but there are actually some pretty positive reviews about their LLU service.

Have any of you lot got the TalkTalk Pro LLU package? How do you find it? For the rest of you, are there any other BT Wholesale ISP's out there with a decent bandwidth limit who don't grind to a halt at peak times? (I'm looking at you, Entanet)

I don't download loads but I will exceed 20GB per month easily. I play a few online games (on the PS3 and PC) so a decent ping is vital - traffic shaping is a bit of a bummer but I don't mind if it's only on Torrents/P2P networks, if it's on Port 80/443 then thats a big fat NO as I download a fair few demo's/patches/updates.

Cheers,

Craig :)
 
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Talk Talk really pushing the boat out with this Pro package. There has been like 5 threads made in the past week about this service.

I was gonna head onto it but could not justify an 18 month contract. It's allready showing how bad it is on the forums they have with pings in the 100's. Not promising for a service that has been our for what? 3 months. Imagine what it will be like when all the little kiddies suck all the bandwidth up. You also need to post on the forums just to get your line profile changed.
 
Ive taken the plunge to them and signed up after getting fed up of 48Kbps download speeds from Entanet.

I have a go live date of the 2nd December so I can report back then.

Stuff thats not made clear on there website :

Pro customers are unrestricted in any way from Midnight to 3pm everyday.

Traffic Shaping only effects P2P services like torrents and file sharing.

Usenet, Gaming, Iplayer etc are prioritised as GOLD traffic and are never shaped.

The talktalkmembers forum seems a very helpfull place and at least you can ask for you profile to be changed with someone who understands what a profile is rather than a person reading from a script somewhere on the indian subcontinent.
 
Azraeluk said:
The talktalkmembers forum seems a very helpfull place and at least you can ask for you profile to be changed with someone who understands what a profile is rather than a person reading from a script somewhere on the indian subcontinent.
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I'm with TT - not Pro but I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. I speak to mates with Sky etc and they bang on about either having to phone in the dead of night to speak to someone who has a clue or go through 3 lines of support telling lies about things they have already done before they can speak to someone who can actually help.

The TT service is not without its problems but the forums actually work really well and they seem cool with allowing you to experiment with different SNR levels and Interleaved/fast path to find the right balance...can't say fairer than that really.
 
Sounds good :)

Should have the keys at the end of the week - still looking at other options but TT Pro seems the one for now. One thing though, you mention FastPath s-man - I thought FastPath was only used on BT Wholesale services and LLU used a different type of technology?
 
I've been with talktalk for just over a year now and i'm very happy with the service. I'm not on Pro, just the up to 8 meg broadband and its proved very reliable - with an attenuation of 45db i sync at around 7800Kbps with throughput of around 80% of that.

The phone support is foreign based (india?) and can be a bit hit and miss depending on who you get to speak to. The forums are very good and if you're patient a staff member will post on your thread.

With regards interleaved/fastpath if you're on LLU the forum staff can switch you between the two. If you're on non LLU with talktalk i don't think they can put you on fast but i'm not 100% on that...

From what i've read on the tt forums, there are some exchanges that have become conjested recently and are needing upgrades.You can check you own exchange here...

http://www.talktalkmembers.com/content/view/109/149/

Hope this helps :)

Edit...At the moment there is no download limit in place until TT releases a usage monitoring tool lol. P2P is restricted almost 24/7 though

Edit2...You will only get the benefits of the pro package if your attenuation is low enough. http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28773
 
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Very informative post, thanks batsy :)

I've used TalkTalks online checker with the shop at the top of the street's phone and postcode (my new house doesn't have a phone number I can check against) and it says I can get around 7.8Mbps.

Am I right in thinking I can still buy the Pro package if only to use the unlimited bandwidth (as opposed to the 40GB FUP on Essentials) and the off-peak non-traffic-shaping or will TalkTalk only allow me the Essentials package?

(I'm aware buying Turbo Boost or Pro won't make my line faster than 7.8Mbps btw)
 
Think Batsy summed it up better than I could. I don't know a great deal about the pro package or these bolt ons etc as I'm a long standing customer whos on a great deal they don't offer anymore and my line attenuation is 56db so I can only synch at about 3.5Mbps...boo hoo
 
Kona* said:
Very informative post, thanks batsy :)

I've used TalkTalks online checker with the shop at the top of the street's phone and postcode (my new house doesn't have a phone number I can check against) and it says I can get around 7.8Mbps.

Am I right in thinking I can still buy the Pro package if only to use the unlimited bandwidth (as opposed to the 40GB FUP on Essentials) and the off-peak non-traffic-shaping or will TalkTalk only allow me the Essentials package?

(I'm aware buying Turbo Boost or Pro won't make my line faster than 7.8Mbps btw)
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Hi Kona*, i'm by no means an expert on talktalk by a long way, but as your requirements are unlimitied b/w and off-peak non-traffic-shaping, not just raw speed, i'd say the Pro package looks the best deal.

TT Pro..(copy/paste)

The package comprises a free D-Link wireless 'N' modem/router, full ADSL2+ speeds of up to 24Mbps (line length is the major controlling factor), unlimited downloads and free anytime calls to 01,02,03 0845 and 0870 numbers. The price is £14.99 for the broadband with £11.25 line rental required, and an 18 month contract.

For comparison i'm on an old contract which isn't offered now but is basically TT Essentials with international calls..

Free calls 24/7 to 01,02 numbers plus free calls to 24 international countrys.
Up to 8MEG BB with 40 gig limit.Upgrade to 80 gig is £4 p/m.Traffic shaping applies :( I pay around £30 p/m for this.

As to whether you can sign up to Pro for the additional non-speed benefits in not sure tbh. If it helps i could post a question on the TTforums tomorrow and link you the thread. The forums can be read by the public but i think to post you need an active TT account.

Hope this helps :)

Damn didn't see in first post you've bought your first house. Congrats!!:cool:
 
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As I like just over 1km from the exchange my expected speed is 22.1kbps which is a massive increase over what Im getting now.

All in all Ive been impressed with TalkTalks attitude so far, less than impressed with the bill for £44 for leaving a BT contract early that I never knowingly renewed.

Roll on next Wednesday when I go live :).
 
Just had a look on the forums and it seems you can sign up for the Pro package even if your line won't go over 8Meg. Seems like a good deal.

If you decide to go for Talktalk, my advice would be to make sure the sales team are able to put you on LLU at your exchange. There have been a few threads (not many though) where people have been told there was LLU capacity at their exchange, only to be placed on BT ADSL.

Hopefully that won't happen to you, but there's always the 30 day cooling off period.
 
Azraeluk said:
As I like just over 1km from the exchange my expected speed is 22.1kbps which is a massive increase over what Im getting now.

All in all Ive been impressed with TalkTalks attitude so far, less than impressed with the bill for £44 for leaving a BT contract early that I never knowingly renewed.

Roll on next Wednesday when I go live :).
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Sorry to go off topic OP, but out of interest what package did you sign up for ?
 
Seems like a good package i might upgrade to it myself.

When you go live i think the default profile they put you on is a 12db. TT offer profiles 15db (slowest but more stable), 12db, 9db and 6db (fastest but can be unstable).

If you find you're syncing lower than expected, pop onto the forum and ask to try the 9db or the 6db.

Some light reading lol http://www.k9.talktalk.net/TT Profiles. A Guide.pdf
 
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So its all good news from TalkTalk then? Looking at signing up with them myself - as I'm not spending that much time at the apartment for the next few months, I'll probably go with the basis package, then move to the Pro once I'm fully established.

I assume the "Essentials" is non-LLU, though? In which case, would there be any issues moving to the "Pro" a few months down the line??
 
Essentials is still an LLU package it's just capped at 8Mbit regardless of what you sync at :) You can also purchase a "Turbo Boost" which removes the 8Mbit cap so you get whatever your line syncs at - it's a good alternative to the Pro package if you just want a speed upgrade without the Wireless N Router and unlimited calls.
 
Well that was fun.

Apparently they can't put new line customers on the Pro package straight away as they have two totally different billing systems, Hades and Trio. New line customers don't get a choice of which billing system you get put on to, if you get put on Hades your limited to TalkTalk Essentials and if you get put on Trio you can get TalkTalk Pro!

Anyway, I've ordered a new line and TalkTalk Essentials and got a free "Mega Download Boost" because I whined about not being able to get TT Pro. Line is being installed on Monday and Broadband up to two weeks later, I'll report back when it's all activated!
 
I went live yesterday on TTPro.

Quite impressed so far initial sync was 11mb and was hitting 1.2mbps on my downloads at 9pm last night which was quite impressive.

Going to try to tweak a little more out of it as after some calculations I recon ill get about 13-14mb sync which would be lovely.
 
Kona* said:
Well that was fun.

Apparently they can't put new line customers on the Pro package straight away as they have two totally different billing systems, Hades and Trio. New line customers don't get a choice of which billing system you get put on to, if you get put on Hades your limited to TalkTalk Essentials and if you get put on Trio you can get TalkTalk Pro!

Anyway, I've ordered a new line and TalkTalk Essentials and got a free "Mega Download Boost" because I whined about not being able to get TT Pro. Line is being installed on Monday and Broadband up to two weeks later, I'll report back when it's all activated!
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But you can switch to Pro later on, yes?
 
Azraeluk said:
I went live yesterday on TTPro.

Quite impressed so far initial sync was 11mb and was hitting 1.2mbps on my downloads at 9pm last night which was quite impressive.

Going to try to tweak a little more out of it as after some calculations I recon ill get about 13-14mb sync which would be lovely.
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What was your estimated speed when you signed up mate?
 
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