Just got an email from Be - Line Bonding is a gogo!

[Frapple]

Hello,

You contacted us a while back to express interest in our Line Bonding trial.

I am pleased to inform you that we will be launching the Line Bonding service very soon and are taking limited advanced orders, subject to eligibility and availability. If you are still interested in this service please go to http://blog.bethere.co.uk/2010/01/be-launches-line-bonding-service.html and register.

Thank you for your continued interest in our products and services.

Emailed them back to see if my line is eligible before upgrading to Be Pro. Got a reply while typing this;

If you have a 2nd working phone line, you’ll be eligible. I don’t think it would hurt to still register your interest anyway.
I guess the reason they are prioritising Pro members is because they are more likely to already have multiple phone lines already installed.

Looks like it's going to be around ~£200 setup (connection fee, new BT line) which isn't too bad.

Monthly fee is a little worrying, will have to wait and see how ridiculous it is.

 

[gam3r]

Oohhhh....like you said the monthly fee will be interesting..maybe it will be around the same as VM's 50MB service? Has to be competitive...

 

[gillywibble]

Interesting stuff.

 

[worthingsaxovtr]

look at ZyXel Bonded 4 port routers

 

[kkbigal]

Pricing is yet to be finalised, but it won’t be cheap – it’s taking quite a lot of overhead and resource to bring the product out which is reflected in the price. We think the connection fee will be around £85 and the discounted cost for existing members around £50-55 per month. At the moment, you’ll need to order a second BT line of course too…

To be honest, I think that with the BT FTTC roll-out that's in progress, this might be a bit of a niche product (although I think BE acknowledges that). Even so, good stuff if people really want it, but a tad too pricey for my liking, even before you factor in the price of a second phone line AND rental charge.

 

[Curiosityx]

Ill save you the trouble, DSL bonding on the back of the BT ATM network is a waste of time, on top of that they dont support MLPPP.

Ive seen business grade bonded solutions have mild success but only if you locate you own bonding hardware at both the exchange and at the CPE.

To be quite honest is 20Mb/s not good enough for consumer use, why would you want to shell out the cost for both the line installation and bonded DSL service ...So that you can download a movie in 5mins rather than 10? Perhaps im getting out of touch.

 

[hoppyintheuk]

I've heard that the monthly cost will be around £55. Not sure how this will sit with the existing masses, especially with another bt line required. It looks like a £70 per month figure to me.

 

[AbsenceJam]

Ill save you the trouble, DSL bonding on the back of the BT ATM network is a waste of time, on top of that they dont support MLPPP.

Ive seen business grade bonded solutions have mild success but only if you locate you own bonding hardware at both the exchange and at the CPE.

To be quite honest is 20Mb/s not good enough for consumer use, why would you want to shell out the cost for both the line installation and bonded DSL service ...So that you can download a movie in 5mins rather than 10? Perhaps im getting out of touch.

You are out of touch, Be use their own kit and network.

 

[hoppyintheuk]

Looks like it's going to be around ~£200 setup (connection fee, new BT line) which isn't too bad.

£200 seems a little excessive, mind you they do have to move both lines to a port next to each other at the exchange to make line bonding work. I guess the high cost, is for the manual intervention (by openreach) to do the work.