Home Broadband... Options?

[abillybob]

Hi All

 

So BT contract ends soon and I've been looking around to get better deals! Our house is a bit of a strange one living our in the sticks, we're pretty far from the cabinet but we do have fibre enabled at our local cabinet. BT, Talk Talk and Vodafone have all said they can supply us with a fibre connection but here's the catch it's showing an estimate between 0.9mbps and 2.5mbps. Our current ADSL broadband runs at 8mbps so why would I bother!

 

But here's the catch which I was wondering what you guys think would happen. Vodafone are currently offering a 25mbps minimum guarantee speed for homes if you order their fibre package. I spoke with a representative she said within 10 days they'd make it so I had 25mbps minimum. Surely they'd be required to install a new cabinet closer to my home so surely this wouldn't take 10 days and would they even do it, legally do they have to?

 

I was also looking at alternatives like Line-Of-Sight Broadband but that costs a lot more and is slower for example we can get 30Mbps for £48 per month and then we also need to pay a £250 installation fee. EE also have 4G home broadband (We get very good signal can see that mast from my house) but they want £60 for 200GB data. None are really ideal and are all very expensive. Do any of you guys live out in the sticks or can point be to anything else I might not know about to help? The local council won't help us either as apparently us getting Line-Of-Sight at 30mbps is enough to say I'm a "Super fast house" their words even though the cost is ridiculous I don't think it's a viable solution!

 

This was Vodaphone's chat:

 

Bella: Hi

Bella: How are you today?

Me: Hello I have done a speed check on your website and it says I can get Superfast1 although it says my estimated download speed is between 0.9Mbps and 2.3mbps?

Bella: Thank you for showing interest in Vodafone

Bella: I will certainly check availability at your address.

Bella: May I please take your first line of address along with your post code to check availability?

Me: Yes no problem it's $MyAddress

Bella: I have checked and would like to confirm that according to your line at your address currently.

 

However, within first 10 days we will fix your speed and bring your speed to the speeds which we guarantee which is 25Mbps.

Bella: We use the sync speed as it is largely within the control of us and Openreach to identify if there are faults and improvements that can be made to improve the network where you live.

Bella: Sync is the speed from your exchange to your router - the connection into your home. We guarantee this as it is the most accurate measurement and largely within the control of us and the line provider.

 

This means we can try and fix any problems and make improvements. It is a number that both we and the customer can measure.

Me: Thanks. So if I was to order the broadband today you'd ensure that I'd get 25mbps as a minimum?

Bella: That's correct

Me: Even though it says my line is only capable of 2.3mbps?

Bella: Yes please.

Bella: Plus, the best part is we offer 30 days network satisfaction guarantee.

Bella: You get 30 days cooling off period which starts from your serivces start date. In which if you are not satisfied, you can cancel your services free and no questions asked.

Me: Ok. Thanks for that info. I'm not quite finished with my contract with BT broadband just yet so can I get back to you? Would you mind emailing me this chat so I have it for future reference?

Bella: I will certainly assist you with that.

Bella: Alex may I know when your contract with BT is ending?

Bella: So that I can assist you.

Me: September is when it ends

Bella: Do you have a date on which it will end?

Me: Not on me sorry

Bella: Alex we have service start dates in September between 3rd to 14th.

Me: Ok that's great thanks. I don't want to sign up just yet I want to shop around a bit first and come back to you please

Bella: I certainly understand that

Bella: We would be more than glad to assist you with the order process.

Bella: We are available between 8AM to 11PM GMT, 7 days a week on chat.

Me: Thanks have a great day!

 

 

[Sheridan]

I've used Uno for a few years - which seems to work with BT fibre enabled cabinets even though you can opt for a BT or TalkTalk wholesale packages. They offer a minimum speed guarantee as well so worth a look. As a ballpark I pay £31.something a month for up to 80Mbps unlimited and I'm in a tonky little village!I'd recommend them for customer service, especially after the awful experiences I've had in the past with BT and Vodafone.

[smarties11]

One thing to bear in mind is that if no one in your postcode has previously ordered fibre, then the speed estimates are just that - they are not based on real world data.

 

We also live in a tiny village. We are 1.5 miles away from our cabinet which was FTTC enabled a few years ago. Our predicted fibre speed was 6mb, and we were currently getting 3mb on ADSL. No one in our postcode had bothered to upgrade to FTTC and in fact at the time, only TalkTalk would even let us do it as most other providers would only supply a VDSL connection if the predicted speed was 15mb+. Anyway, we risked it and our initial sync speed was 22mb! This settled down to around 18mb during the training phase and has remained so since. Shortly after, the predicted speed for our postcode increased in line with our actual speeds and then all the neighbours upgraded too!

 

I think the Vodafone rep is talking tripe. Online it says they offer 15% discount off your bill if your sync speed drops below 25mb, until they fix it. There's no way on this earth they are going to fund a new cabinet to solve that for you, and I bet there's small print to say that the predicted speed must be greater than 25mb in the first place!

 

Have you tried inputting your details into the openreach checker at https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/adsl.htm?s_cid=ws_furls_adslchecker? Often the broadband companies quote less than openreach to cover themselves. Make sure you use either the phone number or address checker options - postcode search won't give accurate results for fibre.

 

HTH

Edited June 29, 2018 by smarties11

[SpuffMonkey]

There's always DIY

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/27/welsh-village-residents-dig-15-miles-trenches-faster-wifi-michaelston-y-fedw