BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

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Thinking of moving from VM 350/35 (or more like 350/22... but that’s another story...) to 300/50.

Currently paying about £46 but my main question is how do BT assign IP addresses?

With VM I’ve had the same IP for years, does BT do the same (I regularly VPN in + host a small web server so a static IP is a must - even if I use a dynamic DNS service).

From googling around it looks like every time you reboot the modem you get a new IP?

Zen internet maybe ? I know for sure they have a static IP.
 
Caporegime
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Put my order in to Zen this morning. Within an hour, I got a message from Sky saying my services were ending. After 9 days waiting for PlusNet, it's now obvious they did sweet FA in that time. Glad to be rid really.
 

~cw

~cw

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Zen's a great choice of ISP. Clueful support and solid service, I've used them in the past and you definitely get what you pay for with them.

If you're not on Virgin Media Business ("VOOM", lol) then it's fairly persistent DHCP leases. If you power cycle your kit and leave it off the network long enough (more than a few hours) you'll lose your IP, but generally you'll keep the same IP. Same as connections on dynamic IPs with almost all ADSL ISPs.
 
Soldato
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29 Dec 2012
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4,124
Has anyone on here use Vodafone and how do you find it?

I'm considering vodaphone 63mb for £23 a month 18 months
I'm on VM350 at the moment £35.50 with new discount if I take. I still have 7÷8 months of the contract left

I'm just having a hard time making up my mind.
Both have pros and cons

What I see
VM - pros - 350mb only 8 months left I wont need to mess about
Cons - customer service is awful
Paying about £15 more a month

I
Vodafone or any other
Pros - only £23 hopefully better customer service hopefully higher speeds in the future

Cons - 18 month contract need to pay for a few phone line
In the past bb speed was never stable dont know about fibre
 
Soldato
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14,547
Surely if the goal is to save cash you’ll need to wait 8 months for your contract to end with VM?

have you considered if you’ll notice the drop in ‘speed’. Most normal households won’t but if there is 4 of you all trying to stream 4K then you may run into issues.

FTTC is pretty stable if the copper line to your house is good. I rarely see any changes in speed even during peak times. There isn’t really such a thing as paying for a phone line, there never really was, it was just a way to advertise lower broadband costs when in really you could t have one without the other. Everything is bundled now thankfully.

You should also consider a retentions deal with VM when the contract is up, it’s likely they’ll be able to offer you something in the £2x range.
 
Soldato
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Posts
4,124
Surely if the goal is to save cash you’ll need to wait 8 months for your contract to end with VM?

have you considered if you’ll notice the drop in ‘speed’. Most normal households won’t but if there is 4 of you all trying to stream 4K then you may run into issues.

FTTC is pretty stable if the copper line to your house is good. I rarely see any changes in speed even during peak times. There isn’t really such a thing as paying for a phone line, there never really was, it was just a way to advertise lower broadband costs when in really you could t have one without the other. Everything is bundled now thankfully.

You should also consider a retentions deal with VM when the contract is up, it’s likely they’ll be able to offer you something in the £2x range.
I can cancel now if I want due to the price increase

I did consider the speed issues but not as buts we never really steam on 4k mostly 1080 on 3 - 4 devices nornall use o mist of the time I o game and download large games.i also use plex so need a good upload

I've been told I would need a few phone line because the old one maybe disconnected due to not getting used for 2 years I assume everyone will want to charge for a new line.

I have considered the retentions but lately VM detentions us not offering anything and support is DIY also the renewal this was a lot less then last.
 
Soldato
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‘New phone line’ is standard, in reality it just means someone has to plug it back in. It’s unlikely they’ll need to run new copper unless there is a fault.

Many providers offer ‘free’ installation these days, check their ‘offers’. Otherwise expect to pay £50 to £75 and £5 and £10 for their router.
 
Soldato
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12 Sep 2007
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2,856
BT site says I should be able to get up to 300Mbps via Ultrafast fibre 2 plus at the property I'm moving into in September. Unfortunately I don't have a phone number for more accurate results but I do have the distance from the exchange, which comes in at 1.48km, which is making me think their offer is a lot of ******** as I've read the G.fast thing tops out at 300m or so and I could end up with something like 16Mbps.

Please tell me I'm wrong lol.
 
Soldato
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Manchester
BT site says I should be able to get up to 300Mbps via Ultrafast fibre 2 plus at the property I'm moving into in September. Unfortunately I don't have a phone number for more accurate results but I do have the distance from the exchange, which comes in at 1.48km, which is making me think their offer is a lot of ******** as I've read the G.fast thing tops out at 300m or so and I could end up with something like 16Mbps.

Please tell me I'm wrong lol.

It might be FTTP?
 
Soldato
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Not off the top of my head but that's a good shout. The cottage is quite rural but I'm aware of a business which is probably more or less the same distance from the exchange, so I'll do some googling. :)

Looking up the exchange it only list FTTC, I'm guessing this rules out FTTP?
 
Soldato
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Okay, things are looking good. I used the phone number from that business ( same postcode ) and ran them through dslchecker and seems FTTP is an option. :D

I would have been content with the 16Mbps as the positives of rural living outweigh the cons for me, but this is bonus. Will get that order placed and hopefully I don't get let down, this is BT after all.

Cheers for that
 
Last edited:
Caporegime
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Bear in mind you don't have to order an Ultrafast service on FTTP - you can get 80/20 still if you wanted to save the cash. There's no fun in that though.
 
Caporegime
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Location
Chestershire
I keep checking the Zen customer portal to see how things are progressing. Received an estimated activation date of 3/9/19 about a week ago but yesterday it updated with

Wait for KCI-3 - FAILED - 26/08/2019

Does this mean my order has gone boobs up and they have to start the process all over again?
 
Associate
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BT site says I should be able to get up to 300Mbps via Ultrafast fibre 2 plus at the property I'm moving into in September. Unfortunately I don't have a phone number for more accurate results but I do have the distance from the exchange, which comes in at 1.48km, which is making me think their offer is a lot of ******** as I've read the G.fast thing tops out at 300m or so and I could end up with something like 16Mbps.
Please tell me I'm wrong lol.

It's the distance to the cabinet in the street that is important with G.Fast, not the distance to the exchange. If it says you can get 300Mbps then the cabinet must be very close to the property.
 
Last edited:

TJM

TJM

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The poster replied separately to say that a neighbouring property has FTTP, so cabinets and exchanges don't enter into it.
 
Soldato
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It's the distance to the cabinet in the street that is important with G.Fast, not the distance to the exchange. If it says you can get 300Mbps then the cabinet must be very close to the property.

Yes, fibre underground to the cabinet and then copper to the property for Gfast. FTTC isn't available to me though, only VDSL and FTTP.

Also there is no cabinet near my property just the village exchange ( small grey building ) that's a mile away. BT and the FTTP team have accepted my order and I have an install date of the 11th although I suspect it might get cancelled as I've looked at the existing copper cabling exto the exchange and it's quite around about route.

This being an overhead installation it's going to use the same poles, and require a lot of fibre cabling.I'm not feeling too optimistic. Will wait and see .
 
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