Any opinions on o2 broadband?

Freakitchen · 18 Jun 2008 at 19:36

Wanted to search for this, but 'o2' is too short a string to do that!

Basically, am moving house soon and have cancelled my existing broadband with Eclipse. Have been VERY far from my exchange for 4 years now, so could only get a maximum of 800Kbps on ADSL Max, so the predicted 'up to 5.5Mbps' on my new line should be quite nice!

Anyway, I'm looking for the best ISP to go for, but am unsure whether to go for what seems like the bargain price of o2 (£7.50 a month as an o2 mobile customer on their up to 8mb package) with no limits on bandwith, or pay more for what seems like a more 'advanced' package from ADSL24. Am assuming that the o2 service will be throttled at peak times but I only download large files overnight, how likely am I to get good download speeds at this time? ADSL24 on the other hand do things by download limits, which would be fine on the 'Home30' package - would I be right in thinking P2P downloads are less likely to be throttled with them?

Any opinions welcomed.

Freakitchen · 18 Jun 2008 at 20:59

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Seems I was a bit premature with the £7.50 thing, I put my phone number in and it's giving me a price of £17.50 instead...seems my local exchange hasn't been 'unbundled'. Any ideas if the service is the same regardless of this?

Even at this price, it's significantly cheaper than ADSL24 @ £30, so I'll probably still go for it unless there's something I'm missing with this higher price point. RJC, mind if I ask how you got the extra discount? Wondered if they might be able to drop the price further even on my exchange.

Freakitchen · 19 Jun 2008 at 11:02

z0mbi3 said:
If you send me an e-mail (see my trust info) with your name , address, BT land line and mobile number you can get it for ~£10. I work for O2 and we have a friends & family scheme going on at the moment.

That sounds great, cheers, I'll get that email to you soon. Local exchange isn't unbundled, but for this money I'm tempted to give o2 a try anyway. I'm moving from a connection that struggles to sync at 800kbps - anything close to 8mbps will be like lightning for me.

Freakitchen · 20 Jun 2008 at 16:18

For everyone's info, I've ordered 02 (thanks to z0mbi3!). Will post back with my thoughts on it. Whilst it is a 12 month contract, there's a 50 day money-back guarantee promotion at the moment, though from what's been said it doesn't look like I'll have to use it.

Freakitchen · 2 Jul 2008 at 18:14

z0mbi3 said:
Well that's a pain

I could probably find a contact somewhere and ask for you today if you like.

I don't work in retail.

z0mbi3, I realise you probably don't want everyone asking you this, but if you were able to find out whether my exchange is scheduled for an upgrade at any point, I'd appreciate knowing! Don't think it's the kind of info I could find by myself, but if it is, please let me know how. It's the 'BARNBY DUN' exchange outside Doncaster. Am enjoying good speeds with o2 now, but as always, more would be better

Cheers.

Freakitchen · 3 Jul 2008 at 12:31

z0mbi3 said:
Sorry I can't give any more info than what samknows can.

Thanks. Samknows reckons that my exchange HAS been unbundled, and that AOL, TalkTalk, Sky Broadband, Orange etc. are available, but that others, including o2/Be* aren't. Is it the case that individual operators have to make a choice to put their individual equipment in thesee exchanges to make them available?

Freakitchen · 3 Jul 2008 at 13:34

flibby said:
It says that there is "No connection charge Until 31/12/08"... anyone have any idea how much this is? I couldn't find the info. Ta.

I believe connection is free at the minute, that date is probably the end of the promotion. I didn't pay a connection fee, at any rate.

Freakitchen · 3 Jul 2008 at 14:45

I signed up to the cheapest option from BT - £10.50 p/m if you get online billing. If you take out a 12 month deal with them you also get free evening and weekend calls (I think without the agreement, it's only free weekend calls).

Freakitchen · 2 Aug 2008 at 00:27

The BT line doesn't have to be expensive. If the house physically has a line installed, to have it reconnected doesn't cost anything. Then the cheapest line rental is £10.50 a month, between seven that shouldn't be so bad!

Freakitchen · 30 Aug 2008 at 22:32

For what it's worth, I signed up for the IP Stream product and have been nothing but impressed. Syncing at 6mb and getting 600ks, simple as that! Paying £12.50 with discount, on the phone they were a bit 'confused' about whether I was due to a discount, with me being unable to get LLU. Talked them round eventually though!

Freakitchen · 21 Oct 2008 at 12:44

Furton said:
Remember, if your signing up for o2 broadband you can get a free Arsenal shirt from here
http://www.arsenal.com/o2broadband/

Even if you don't support it, you can sell it on later

Nice, but I'm not sure I can bring myself to consciously order an Arse shirt even if it is for money making purposes

Freakitchen · 21 Oct 2008 at 18:16

I'd also appreciate a 'friends and family' email, on behalf of a friend, if any O2 guys are still following this thread, it's done pretty well since I started it!

Email to: steve[at]spwright.co.uk

Cheers.

Freakitchen · 21 Oct 2008 at 22:03

Cheers Wicksta, e-mail on its way.

Freakitchen · 6 Nov 2008 at 22:22

O2 is definitely having DNS issues at the moment. Problems two nights ago and tonight, but none last night. Suggest everyone switch to OpenDNS for a while as a quick fix.

Freakitchen · 13 Jan 2009 at 09:42

Crikey, that's some cheap internetz! Although I'm on the access package at my home, I'm going to be installing broadband at my new business premesis. Is there anything to stop me using 'home' broadband for this? I can't see a reason why I'd need anything more than what I've been used to at home - there'll only be 2 computers in the building and only me working there initially! Also, since I signed up, 2 options have become 4 on the o2 site. I can get o2 LLU at the new address, but the website suggests a max of 8Mb. The unit next door struggles to get half this, but their phonelines are a complete bodge. Any reason for me to get anything other than the cheapest package?

Freakitchen · 21 Jan 2009 at 20:37

Freakitchen said:
Crikey, that's some cheap internetz! Although I'm on the access package at my home, I'm going to be installing broadband at my new business premesis. Is there anything to stop me using 'home' broadband for this? I can't see a reason why I'd need anything more than what I've been used to at home - there'll only be 2 computers in the building and only me working there initially! Also, since I signed up, 2 options have become 4 on the o2 site. I can get o2 LLU at the new address, but the website suggests a max of 8Mb. The unit next door struggles to get half this, but their phonelines are a complete bodge. Any reason for me to get anything other than the cheapest package?

Quoting myself from a few pages back! Any thoughts on this? Need to get the order in next week.

Freakitchen · 25 Jan 2009 at 17:44

Haven't read much of the big thread at the o2 forums, but looks from the last 2 pages to be a pretty widespread slowdown. I normally manage a download speed of between 600-700kBps, at the moment, speedtest has me at more like 50kBps. Hopefully it'll be sorted soon. It's been a while since I had to deal with buffering on Youtube and iPlayer!

Freakitchen · 26 Jan 2009 at 07:46

Davyb said:
All seems back to normal.

Likewise this morning for me

...compared to 500kb/s 100kb/s and 130ms yesterday.

Freakitchen · 29 Jan 2009 at 23:11

lmfy2k said:
LLU not looking good, does the sync speed auto adjust or do i have to keep rebooting the router to see if i can sync higher?

ive read in the DLM stage i shouldnt touch the router for a while,

It took a good 5 days before I started getting 600+ kbps. Before then sync speed/actual speed seemed to have no relation to each other. Now it's spot on (well, apart from at peak times these past couple of weeks!)