Openreach and router options

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1 Jul 2009
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252
Hey everyone,

I'm based in Warwickshire and we've finally had openreach FTTP enabled. We've been waiting years for this as adsl was a no go (8 drop outs a day) and virgin media just destroys any connection for gaming (loads of jitter, terrible traceroutes, etc).

Having had such a poor connection for 5 years (when we moved into this house) I want to treat myself with something decent so I can get back into competitive gaming (FC26, Fortnite and others).

I've been doing loads of research with the help of chatgpt just to get a decent foundation (I know it can make mistakes). Hardware wise I've set a budget of £400 and thinking of going for the Mikrotik RB5009UPR with 1, maybe 2 access points on a wired backhaul and powered by POE+. Happy for people to persuade me otherwise on this choice, I know Mikrotik is less user friendly than Ubiquiti.

So where am I with current providers? I'm currently with Virgin Media on their 250mb package. If I give notice today its £74 early termination, or I wait until June and give notice then. Open reach have gone live this month. City fibre say they're going to build here but no idea when. I'm not sure if they're waiting for Openreach to finish our town and then they'll add their bits on? Either way it could be 6-12 months or longer before they come online.

I've narrowed it down to IDnet, Aquiss and Zen as having the best routings and lowest jitter. 500mb will be plenty. I'm reading conflicting information on whether openreach or city fibre is better for gaming. Is it worth waiting until June for the potential that city fibre come online too? I know city fibre can be cheaper but as long as its around the £40/month mark I don't mind if it gets me onto fibre sooner.

Apologies, a lot to unpack there. I'd appreciate any advice!

Cheers
 
Kenilworth

I've just moved away from Abbey End (but still quite local!) and the 00's internet options available there :D .

CityFibre should be up within the next 6 months, so I would stick it out a little bit longer personally.

Zen would be my recommendation.
 
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I've just moved away from Abbey End (but still quite local!) and the 00's internet options available there :D .

CityFibre should be up within the next 6 months, so I would stick it out a little bit longer personally.

Zen would be my recommendation.
Yeah we seem to be about 10 years behind for broadband. What makes you think it’ll be up within 6 months? I’ve asked around a bit and don’t get any meaningful response. It’s had the “we are planning to build in your area” for about 2 or 3 years. Is city fibre that much better?
So are you fussing over latency, but intending to use wifi ? seems counter intuitive.
My pc, consoles and streaming devices will be connected via Ethernet. The wireless will be for phone and IoT devices which I’ll put on separate vlans.
 
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