Moving soon - new house is not in a high speed internet area

Rach87 · 31 Jan 2021 at 12:36

I'm soon to move - hopefully next month. There is no virgin media at the new place. There is Fibre to the cabinet, but that is still limited due to the copper to the property.

I have checked on www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com and found the following line speeds:

Looking at BT and Zen, both claim roughly the same options (unsurprisingly)...

ZEN: - 30mbps estimated download but varies between 25-40

BT:

I have looked online and there doesn't appear to be any plans to upgrade connections.

As I understand it, Zen are very reliable and hugely well rated. Do you believe that the speeds quoted here are reliable or could there still be a risk of internet issues?

Any other research you think I could do?

Thanks all,
Rach

bremen1874 · 31 Jan 2021 at 13:19

Zen are only as reliable (for the most part) as the Openreach equipment you're connecting to.

Zen may give you an improved customer service experience but that's about it. If you're happy to pay the premium (not as much as it used to be) for that then go for it.

Consider Plusnet as a good cheaper alternative.

Hyburnate · 31 Jan 2021 at 13:28

You'll only get what the line is capable of, doesn't really matter what equipment is used (small exclusions on this) or ISP.

Efour · 31 Jan 2021 at 13:50

Don't move

Rach87 · 31 Jan 2021 at 14:20

Efour said:
Don't move

Thanks for the useful advice but I don't think we will be taking it! :rolleyes:

Rach87 · 31 Jan 2021 at 14:31

bremen1874 said:
Zen are only as reliable (for the most part) as the Openreach equipment you're connecting to.

Zen may give you an improved customer service experience but that's about it. If you're happy to pay the premium (not as much as it used to be) for that then go for it.

Consider Plusnet as a good cheaper alternative.

Thanks for the reply, I've read similar online. I'm aware of Plusnet, excellent reputation

Hyburnate said:
You'll only get what the line is capable of, doesn't really matter what equipment is used (small exclusions on this) or ISP.

Thanks for the info and reply, will just have to see what it's like after moving (hopefully in about 6 weeks)

Haze · 31 Jan 2021 at 14:33

Maybe you could have researched Internet speeds in the area, if its that important to you, before you looked at moving there...

Caged · 31 Jan 2021 at 14:34

The speeds you're going to get from BT and Zen will be practically identical. Zen might be a better option if you need Openreach out to fix line faults, and as it's the same price (ignoring any offers that will be sure to exist with BT) then Zen will give you the better chance of getting problems fixed if you run into any.

Randomface74 · 31 Jan 2021 at 14:35

Looks expensive to me. Not a lot you can do about the speed, but surely there are cheaper deals?

demonix · 31 Jan 2021 at 16:31

bremen1874 said:
Consider Plusnet as a good cheaper alternative.

Until they jack up the price where the price you are quoted with zen is the price you'll pay for as long as you are on that specific bundle (also , I left plusnet because they couldn't fix a constant connection drop issue because they just kept sending out OR engineers when the problem wasn't with the line).

Avalon · 31 Jan 2021 at 16:48

Are any alt-net providers likely to be available in the area? WISP’s are also still a thing in some areas, failing that what about 4G/5G or sat? Yes you may end up paying more, but you have options.

Efour · 31 Jan 2021 at 22:25

I never got this worry over the ISP.

99.9% of your reliability and engineer visits, if you need them, will be from whoever is assigned to fix that part of the network contracted locally.

yeah look at 5G. That's exactly what im doing now...... ill be happy with 100mbit. and a ping that at least allows me to compete in games.

Internet access is a big deal to me i wish i had researched more closely before buying this house.

The building 20m across the street has 1gb fibre. I can get 30mbit ADSL... Never crossed my mind it would be an issue.

The local network provider said it'll be about 3k to dig to us, if they can even be bothered, cos its such a small job.

So yeah, ill stick by "dont move" look at a better house.

Rach87 · 1 Feb 2021 at 13:54

Efour said:
I never got this worry over the ISP.

99.9% of your reliability and engineer visits, if you need them, will be from whoever is assigned to fix that part of the network contracted locally.

yeah look at 5G. That's exactly what im doing now...... ill be happy with 100mbit. and a ping that at least allows me to compete in games.

Internet access is a big deal to me i wish i had researched more closely before buying this house.

So yeah, ill stick by "dont move" look at a better house.

Thanks for explaining your previous comment.

I agree with you entirely, I didn't consider internet initially. We viewed around 20 houses and not once did we think about internet, we took it for granted, particularly in the South East, that it wouldn't be an issue. It's also very hard to remember everything as there are many important things going on such as the sale, the mortgage application, we also had legal problems and a large £15k bill because of those. Internet wasn't even a consideration at that point

The area is very strong for 4G but no 5G yet unfortunately. I know others who have got antenna's up and get mobile broadband that way. I will consider that depending on the reliability of whatever connection we end up with

Hopefully we both get nice upgrades in the future