BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

ChrisD. · 20 Jul 2018 at 09:30

Vanquish-Storm said:
Well I got the email too, no letter maybe they are hoping people won’t read emails.

Torn between switching to NOWTV, TalkTalk and Plus Net.

Guess they are about the same just pricing up.

They are not the same, some TT reviews specifically are horrendous.

DragonQ · 20 Jul 2018 at 09:32

I haven't been with Now TV but Plusnet's support is far better than TalkTalk's in my experience.

Vanquish-Storm · 20 Jul 2018 at 11:29

ChrisD. said:
They are not the same, some TT reviews specifically are horrendous.

Sorry, I meant the same as in its all the same line using the same equipment barring the router which can be changed.

The support would be the only difference which again outside of the usual turn it off and on again they are all at the mercy of Openreach anyway.

Jez · 20 Jul 2018 at 13:37

Vanquish-Storm said:
Sorry, I meant the same as in its all the same line using the same equipment barring the router which can be changed.

The support would be the only difference which again outside of the usual turn it off and on again they are all at the mercy of Openreach anyway.

Yep indeed, just a resale commodity, so buy into it as cheaply as possible.

ChrisD. · 20 Jul 2018 at 13:38

Jez said:
Yep indeed, just a resale commodity, so buy into it as cheaply as possible.

Some providers have internal congestion issues, such as Origin.

Vanquish-Storm · 20 Jul 2018 at 13:53

ChrisD. said:
Some providers have internal congestion issues, such as Origin.

How? Are they only allocated so much resources by Openreach?

On Holiday · 20 Jul 2018 at 13:58

Jez · 20 Jul 2018 at 16:48

ChrisD. said:
Some providers have internal congestion issues, such as Origin.

Some smaller ones might well do, yeah. Talktalk certainly doesnt nor do any of the large players generally. Talktalks network is huge, ive had a line with them for years and it has never failed to produce 80/20 single threaded at any time of day, nor rise above 6ms to London based hosts. Same experience with BT, and Plusnet to be fair.

maj · 21 Jul 2018 at 00:38

So spoke to BT cancellations today and went ahead with their offer of being able to terminate early due to the price increase so I'm now in my notice period.

I could really do with a static IP for my home network. I know Plusnet does this (for a £5 charge) but so does Zen. Anyone have any experience with Zen? They do static IP but are more expensive and don't seem to be on any cashback websites and there's an activation charge but they seem to come highly recommended on here.

MissChief · 21 Jul 2018 at 00:59

maj said:
So spoke to BT cancellations today and went ahead with their offer of being able to terminate early due to the price increase so I'm now in my notice period.

I could really do with a static IP for my home network. I know Plusnet does this (for a £5 charge) but so does Zen. Anyone have any experience with Zen? They do static IP but are more expensive and don't seem to be on any cashback websites and there's an activation charge but they seem to come highly recommended on here.

Zen are a 'techy' ISP in that the phone staff really know their onions and are more like actual technicians rather than call centre staff trained to follow a flow on the screen. That doesn't come cheap though.

bremen1874 · 21 Jul 2018 at 00:59

Nothing wrong with Zen apart from the cost (and that's subjective).

The only real downside with Plusnet is the call waiting times at certain times of the day.

If you have problems you'd probably get better support from Zen, but in my experience the support offered by Plusnet is good enough. Given how reliable broadband connections generally are I couldn't justify spending the extra.

(Apparently even Vodafone will provide you with a static IP if you request one)

maj · 24 Jul 2018 at 19:52

MissChief said:
Zen are a 'techy' ISP in that the phone staff really know their onions and are more like actual technicians rather than call centre staff trained to follow a flow on the screen. That doesn't come cheap though.

bremen1874 said:
Nothing wrong with Zen apart from the cost (and that's subjective).

The only real downside with Plusnet is the call waiting times at certain times of the day.

If you have problems you'd probably get better support from Zen, but in my experience the support offered by Plusnet is good enough. Given how reliable broadband connections generally are I couldn't justify spending the extra.

(Apparently even Vodafone will provide you with a static IP if you request one)

Having worked it out that I'll save £132 a year by going with Plusnet rather than Zen, I'm more swaying towards Plusnet now. I don't think the price difference is worth it just to talk to someone more techy. Both will offer me exactly the same speed and a fixed static IP.

bremen1874 · 24 Jul 2018 at 20:07

I'd have thought the saving would be higher.

Having had a very quick look Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Extra is going to cost £263 for the first 12 months (£28.99 x 12 - £85 cashback).

Unless I'm missing something Zen are going to charge £583 for the equivalent connection (£43.99 x 12 + £55 connection fee). Maybe they have offers available you have to go looking for.

maj · 24 Jul 2018 at 21:15

I've just realised I based those figures on 12 months where as Plusnet was the 18 month pricing.

Zen: Unlimited Fibre 2 + line rental £43.99 for 12month (excluding any fees) = £528

PN: Unlimited Fibre Extra + line rental £28.99 for 12 month (excluding any fees) = £348

Giving me £180 difference if my not so amazing math skills are correct. Either way PN seems to be the winner. The £85 cashback only applies if I take an 18th month contract but at the same £28.99.

b0rn2sk8 · 24 Jul 2018 at 21:20

Just take the 18 month contact, its a no brainier. It's not like Zen is suddenly going to be cheaper over 18 (its not, more like the opposite still)

bremen1874 · 24 Jul 2018 at 21:27

At the moment Plusnet are charging less (£28.99/month) for 12 months than they are for 18 months.

Zen appear to charge a £55 connection fee, at the moment Plusnet charge £0.

You've got a one off £5 charge for a static IP with Plusnet. I don't think Zen charge anything.

If you order via TopCashback you'll get a £85 discount with Plusnet.

With the cashback included it'd cost more than twice as much to get a connection with Zen. It's a difference over over £300!

Have Zen's prices gone up? I'm sure the difference used to be a lot less.

stellasuppa · 24 Jul 2018 at 21:45

My experiences with fttc have been the following.
talk which were brilliant for pings and bqm graph though there customer service was dire when I had problems later on in my contract.

Then EE at a different address which was even better because I had even better stats all round and when I did have queries I found the staff helpful. Unfortunately when I moved they could not distribute over fttp.

I have never been with plusnet but If I were to have fttc I would go with them due to cost and the CS not being terrible and the savings on cash back deals.

maj · 24 Jul 2018 at 21:48

I've gone with PN with the 18 month at £28.99 deal. I went via topcashback but there's no record of it in my account yet. Will see what happens. Thanks for the advice. Don't mind the £5 fee for a static IP.

VaderDSL · 27 Jul 2018 at 21:44

Is it unusual to have both FTTC and FTTP? Estate I live on went from having ADSL2+ (6-7Mb Max) to FTTP (330Mb) and now they have just installed a FTTC cabinet for VDSL.

Caged · 27 Jul 2018 at 22:35

Yes that's really unusual, especially in that order. Usually you might have FTTC first and some lines are too long and the performance is poor, and FTTP is deployed through the various local authority grants.

Best of all worlds there really.