BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

Vanhishikha · 25 May 2013 at 21:04

So I came home last week and we had BT Infinity installed here a few weeks prior to that and there's a bit of a problem (speeds wise).

On the BT Infinity website, my area code was estimated speeds of up to 76/20 to which as you could imagine, I was ecstatic about. Anyhow, I did a test on my wireless connection and the highest I've got so far is 35/16 and that is late at night when everyone else is asleep and not using the connection. I also went downstairs and tried the connection via: Ethernet, and I did a test and I was only getting 50/16 - 55/16, which I would be happy with if I had that upstairs.

The problem resides in the speed drops I've been getting, around this time 20:55, I'm getting 5mb? 10mb? screenshot below and I never experienced any of this at University.

I live in Widnes and previously at University I was located at Ormskirk, I had my fair share of problems at Ormskirk but the internet for the most part was high in speeds, even with other users online.

To compare and contrast:

Home: 5-6 users at any given time, currenty: 6 devices are connected to the Internet, 6:30 - 9pm been getting speeds of only 5mb - 10mb.
University: 7 users at any given time, 5-12 pm I'd still be getting 25-35mb.

Now obviously I'm on Wi-Fi here and this could be playing a vital role as it is my mothers house and she would prefer me not routing Ethernet cable everywhere, but these speeds seem a little low if I had the exact same connection in Ormskirk and I was getting better speeds there and that was a bigger house.

Any advice on what could be done to improve these issues?

Figure 1.0:
Preston server.

Figure 2.0:
Manchester Server.

edit: I tried the connection around 2 hours ago on my iPhone 4s and was getting 29-30Mb/s speeds and also, the speed on my computer is back up to a steady 20Mb/s

Skeeter · 26 May 2013 at 12:58

Hmm. Sky Fibre is only 40mb while BT and Plusnet are 80mb (although they predict 66mb max speed). Suddenly being cheaper doesnt seem to be the bargain I thought it was.

Do Sky charge an activation fee for customers upgrading from ADSL to Fibre, and is the router free? Moving to BT for phone and fibre comes with free activation and hub, but is about 8 quid a month more in total...

Naan_H · 26 May 2013 at 14:13

Skeeter said:
Hmm. Sky Fibre is only 40mb while BT and Plusnet are 80mb (although they predict 66mb max speed). Suddenly being cheaper doesnt seem to be the bargain I thought it was.

Do Sky charge an activation fee for customers upgrading from ADSL to Fibre, and is the router free? Moving to BT for phone and fibre comes with free activation and hub, but is about 8 quid a month more in total...

Sky also do an upto 80mb package

Skeeter · 26 May 2013 at 14:18

Naan_H said:
Sky also do an upto 80mb package

Where? Can't find it online. Only 1 option for Fibre Unlimited.

Edit: seems its £30 a month, so more expensive than BT or Plusnet.

R0Z4G · 27 May 2013 at 00:14

well im still waiting for my new house area to get it got this email back from open reach but i dont understand I thought the cabinets go up first then they start running the fibre to the exchange??
Thank you for your reply.

The work to create and build the fibre cabinet (DSLAM) has already begun. In terms of the erection of the DSLAM cabinet, this is scheduled for early August 2013.

Regards

CSA · 27 May 2013 at 10:19

R0Z4G said:
well im still waiting for my new house area to get it got this email back from open reach but i dont understand I thought the cabinets go up first then they start running the fibre to the exchange??
Thank you for your reply.

The work to create and build the fibre cabinet (DSLAM) has already begun. In terms of the erection of the DSLAM cabinet, this is scheduled for early August 2013.

Regards

Hi , whats the email address you used to contact them ?

KIA · 27 May 2013 at 10:39

R0Z4G said:
well im still waiting for my new house area to get it got this email back from open reach but i dont understand I thought the cabinets go up first then they start running the fibre to the exchange??

Not necessarily. Fibre is blown from the exchange out to the cabinets.

Skeeter · 27 May 2013 at 17:03

My brain hurts, and there's only 3 real choices

Am I right in thinking the options are (all Unlimited packages):

Sky 40/10
£20 a month
£14.50 line rental
£50 activation fee

Sky 80/20
£30 a month
£14.50 line rental
£50 activation fee

Plusnet 80/20
£19.99 a month
£14.50 line rental
Free activation (as a new customer)

BT Infinity 2 80/20
£26 a month
£15.45 line rental
Free activation (voucher)

(I've ignored the phone contracts as we don't use it that much and just take the free one that comes with line rental)

Looking at that, Sky looks.... terrible. The only thing going for it is the 12 month contract and the fact I can keep my number.

Why would anyone choose anything other than Plusnet? Am I missing something?

Both the BT and the Plusnet site say my speed will be 66mb, which makes it worth while going for 80/20 over 40/10.

CSA · 27 May 2013 at 17:07

Its gotta be plusnet going off those prices,thanks for posting it

currently im with o2 (adsl) being forcefully switched to sky,fibre should be coming in the next few months so im in limbo,do i switch to plusnet now then get swapped to fibre once it rolls out (is there a charge for this?) or do i get switched over to sky then leave once the rollout begins and sign upto plusnet as a new customer ?

memyselfandi · 27 May 2013 at 17:08

You can get the BT line rental quite a bit lower than that by paying 12 months in advance in one go. Drops it down to the equivalent of a bit less than £11 a month if I remember correctly.

Skeeter · 27 May 2013 at 17:11

memyselfandi said:
You can get the BT line rental quite a bit lower than that by paying 12 months in advance in one go. Drops it down to the equivalent of a bit less than £11 a month if I remember correctly.

Good point, but it still doesn't offset Plusnet being £6 a month cheaper for Fibre BB. Plusnet is still cheapest.

What does an engineer need to do at the house? my master socket is by the front door, nowhere near any power sockets so isn't used. Theres an extension running upstairs to the spare room and the router is plugged in there. Will they be able to use this, or will they need to run new wiring?

No-One · 27 May 2013 at 17:15

It's getting more confusing in Oakham now. For the past 2 weeks they've been installing cabinets and they look to be finished. I had a close look when I was walking the dog last week and our cabinet had definitely had a power connection. No sound (i.e fans) from inside though. None of the checkers even say that it's coming soon when I enter phone numbers. Postcodes did say March 2014 but now that doesn't even come up either.

Skeeter · 27 May 2013 at 17:19

I've recently moved house. At my old place the Fibre cabinet has been at the end of the street for almost 12 months now, yet its still got the 3 month rolling holding dates showing up on the BT site.

I wouldn't expect anything soon

Wynthorpe · 27 May 2013 at 17:31

Just checked http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/ and it says my exchange is accepting orders, yet its only just shown this over past few days, I have tried to order via sky but its not available yet, we have the new cabinet just down the road, anyone any idea when it will be available?

Skeeter · 27 May 2013 at 17:36

Haha! Lol @ Sky.

"Hi, I'd like my MAC code to move my broadband and phone line please"
"It will be in the post and with you in 5 days, is there anything else I can help you with?"

Nice to see they want to keep their customers :rolleyes:

.

memyselfandi · 27 May 2013 at 17:48

Skeeter said:
Good point, but it still doesn't offset Plusnet being £6 a month cheaper for Fibre BB. Plusnet is still cheapest.

What does an engineer need to do at the house? my master socket is by the front door, nowhere near any power sockets so isn't used. Theres an extension running upstairs to the spare room and the router is plugged in there. Will they be able to use this, or will they need to run new wiring?

Well it knocks out most of it and then quite often BT have deals with X months at a reduced rate (of £20 instead of £26) so it can be even closer still ... when I did mine it came out to a few quid difference but BT were also giving a away a £100 Sainsburys gift card for new Customers so that made it a bit of a no brainer.

As for your second point your setup sounds very similar to what I used to have. For me the Engineer fitted a new master socket and wired in a data extension cable to it which was then run to where I wanted in the lounge and the modem and HH3 installed there. Alternatively my colleague at work had FTTC from Plusnet put in a couple of weeks ago and the Engineer checked the cabling and was then happy to use the existing extension upstairs ... so your mileage may vary dependent on the Engineer.

What I would add is if they touch your master socket (in fact even if they don't) make sure that you check that your phone still works for incoming/outgoing calls whilst he is still there (my Engineer managed to screw up reconnecting the extensions in the back of the master socket so I firstly lost dial tone and then when he "fixed it" had the phone ringing constantly ... he fixed it properly after that ...)

Skeeter · 27 May 2013 at 17:54

Plusnet are doing 3 months half price too, and there's £100 cashback at Quidco for Unlimted Fibre, so Plusnet still wins. Ordering now. Its just a pain they need to visit to install it and only do it week days

Edit: or not. The only day I can do the install is 1st July and they won't let me book more than 4 weeks ahead. Gonna need to sit tight for a few more days.

~Mike~ · 27 May 2013 at 20:42

Skeeter said:
Plusnet are doing 3 months half price too, and there's £100 cashback at Quidco for Unlimted Fibre, so Plusnet still wins. Ordering now. Its just a pain they need to visit to install it and only do it week days

Edit: or not. The only day I can do the install is 1st July and they won't let me book more than 4 weeks ahead. Gonna need to sit tight for a few more days.

I got Plusnet a few weeks back, very impressed so far.

Allnamestaken · 27 May 2013 at 22:11

Nice living in ipswich with a 2mb internet connection. BT Group Guess this is how BT runs? "Hi i'm BT, I dont upgrade exchanges much but when I do I upgrade an exchange I also do all the cabinets except yours right in the of town so you are stuck with 1990's internet for the next 10 years then I charge you the same price as everyone else

" Way to bend over the customers not like I have much else for choice though is there? Scrubs Lords.

My cab serves a huge area and its the only one they have not wired to the exchange which was done over a year ago. I have 2mb if that most often under 1mb.

Theres nothing I can do because if i get through to them i speak to some stupid indian guy in Mumbai who reads his stupid script like he knows what the hell is going on.

Im tired of this ive had to deal with it for years, there is plenty of reason to run the line to the new cab that's been outside my house for a year now....

If I could leave and go to another provider I would but there is nothing faster or better then the crap I already have.

MY PHONES Internet is faster...

OllyM · 27 May 2013 at 22:22

BT aren't a charity, they are a business and their primary objective is to make a profit - not give everybody super fast broadband. They upgrade cabinets that are commercially viable but there must be a reason why your cabinet is not viable - perhaps there are too few premises connected to it so takeup will be too low for them to generate a return on their investment, or perhaps getting power to it would cost too much?