Super fast broadband

[superfrank]

I just found out that BT are currently upgrading my local exchange (Clerkenwell) and that BT Infinity should be available at the end of the month.

Does anyone here use BT Infinity and, if so, what are your opinions of it?

Also can other ISPs provide 'super fast' broadband when the exchange has been upgraded, or do BT get to keep the fibre optic connections to themselves?

Ps. When I moved here I wanted to get cable but it's not a cabled area. I was told that many of the areas in and around the City Of London did not get cabled because it was too expensive and getting planning permission too difficult (we have nice pavements here, but they're not paved with gold!!).

[dogform]

I upgraded to BT infinity about 3 months ago. It's OK and you do get fast downloads but that is still subject to the server you are downloading from.

The main difference for me was the upload speed increased from around 0.4mbps to 8mbps. The package I got was supposed to be 40mb download/10mb upload when in practice I get 37mb download and 8mb upload.

It's worth doing if you can wangle the price so that it does not cost you any more than your previous package but it's not a drastic change of speed if you were on one of the faster non Infinity packages.

[Groovyelms]

Good question SF..
I too am hoping to change to it as my present virgin media is a complete joke with it being worse than useless about one full day each week... I use a standard BT installation at the familly cottage and it is so much better than my present connection here in Brighton. I am told my exchange will be enabled at xmas this year, so really can't wait.

For me I think it is not the speed on the line BUT the quality, I am looking into a business BT line at the moment where they guarrantee NOT to restrict the bandwith certain hours of the day. haven't finally made the decision but I think BT's much newer fibre optic network might have the edge over Virgin media. It all seems to depend where you are in the country, when I use my G/F virgin media in newcastle it runs faultlessly....
Groovy

[Alpha322]

I upgraded to BT infinity about 3 months ago. It's OK and you do get fast downloads but that is still subject to the server you are downloading from.

The main difference for me was the upload speed increased from around 0.4mbps to 8mbps. The package I got was supposed to be 40mb download/10mb upload when in practice I get 37mb download and 8mb upload.

It's worth doing if you can wangle the price so that it does not cost you any more than your previous package but it's not a drastic change of speed if you were on one of the faster non Infinity packages.

You are well lucky, are you using the hub 3 model modem, if you are then i certainly want my one changed. My Infinity drops out alot from interference, it swiches to becomming a unsecured network then connects again, very doddgy for trading, i use Virgin Media which isnt bad, ok fr the Job, if i trade on my laptop downstairs i use the BT network when it works but switch to my T mobile mobile hub if it go,s T*Ts up

[jimrobo]

Virgin is still the best IMHO although I've heard people have problems with them. Recently though they have been great for me. I am on 50Mb/5mb and it runs at that speed all the time. I was also told yesterday I will get upgraded to 100Mb in July as a free upgrade.

[superfrank]

thanks for the replies.

tbh i'd recommended that people use cable (Virgin) if they can get it. i had no problems with it and it was very fast at my old place (unfortunately my currently place is not cabled up) - the only criticism would be that their customer service is not the best and the fact that if you move house, and cannot get cable at the new place, they still charge you for the remainder of the contract. i told them to get knotted and they passed the debt to a debt collection agency immediately and i had to cough up to prevent a bad credit rating!

the engineer that came to my place this morning (to fix a line problem) said that i might not be able to get BT Infinity because it is only "fibre optic to cab" (street cabinet) and then old copper wire to the property - and my place is not wired thru a cab (maybe that's cos i'm only 100 yards from the exchange). heard lots of bad reports about BTI so will stick with standard Sky broadband for now (and gone back to BA VPS to keep competitive on speed).

[Groovyelms]

Virgin is still the best IMHO although I've heard people have problems with them. Recently though they have been great for me. I am on 50Mb/5mb and it runs at that speed all the time. I was also told yesterday I will get upgraded to 100Mb in July as a free upgrade.

I am green with envy, internet, virgin completely unusable all f.... day. You are as they a lucky guy!!! I am using this eve standard off the shelf BT domestic line... and it is just so good compared with my Brighton V M install. It was so bad this am it was impossible to stream anything, constantly stopping. BA was if i was lucky running at 10 and the other figures well pick any number you like between 0 and a 1000...... 50 Mb; 100 Mb i dream of speed and reliability like that.

Groovy

[superfrank]

when i was having line problems (thankfully fixed by the engineer yesterday), Sky first advised me to get new microfilters.

i did a bit of research and it seems that decent microfilters can make a difference to ADSL performance (most are very cheap especially the one you get given with routers).

my problem was a line fault but i ordered a couple of new filters anyway and they just arrived. after running several speed tests it seems i have now a performance improvement of about 5-10% depending on the measure.

these are the ones i bought based on the stuff i read...
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/Sh ... uctID=1652

The XF-1e professional quality microfilter is designed for maximum compatibility & performance.

The XF-1e contains four high quality ferrite cores to ensure that accurate frequency separation is achieved.

Accurate separation ensures that overspill is minimised. Overspill is where the ADSL signal leaks in to the voice frequency range or speech interferes with the ADSL signal. The high quality, low tolerance components used in the XF-1e ensure that your ADSL service will run at maximum performance and that your telephone calls will be free of interference.

Designed to exceed the the BT SIN 346 v2.2 guidelines for UK microfilters the XF-1e offers complete compatibility with BT services such as CLI (Caller ID). The XF-1e is designed for maximum compatibility with even the most complex telephone equipment. Fully compatible with DECT cordless phones and PABX systems.

worth a try for those with not so perfect connections

[jimrobo]

Virgin is still the best IMHO although I've heard people have problems with them. Recently though they have been great for me. I am on 50Mb/5mb and it runs at that speed all the time. I was also told yesterday I will get upgraded to 100Mb in July as a free upgrade.

I am green with envy, internet, virgin completely unusable all f.... day. You are as they a lucky guy!!! I am using this eve standard off the shelf BT domestic line... and it is just so good compared with my Brighton V M install. It was so bad this am it was impossible to stream anything, constantly stopping. BA was if i was lucky running at 10 and the other figures well pick any number you like between 0 and a 1000...... 50 Mb; 100 Mb i dream of speed and reliability like that.

Groovy

Are you on their adsl package or fibre optic???

mine runs like this all day....

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1727334494.png

http://www.pingtest.net/result/55261874.png

Although I've not been upgraded to 100 yet I am fully expecting it to run at 100% too. They are also trialling 200 I believe.

[superfrank]

BT to offer 300 Mbps fibre optic broadband 'on demand' in 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16870464

[jimrobo]

Nice, its becoming an arms race!

Virgin already do 1Gb/s to businesses so I am assuming they can just put one up bt every time they announce a faster speed with minimal cost to their infrastructure versus huge cost to bt

http://www.broadbandchoice.co.uk/news/v ... 800088339/

[Mr Undercover]

Infinity is coming to my home town in March so I'm hopeful switching over from my standard BT home hub 3.0 will resolve band width throttling issues I get almost daily, usually around peak times 4pm onwards.

I've spend a frustrating amount of time on to their very polite customer service in Bangalore but nothing ever seems to resolve the underlyling issue. If this sounds sadly familar to anyone I've leant that switching the hub off and back on if the only temporary remedy.

I agree with ealier responses, quality of continuity of service is key, these enormous down load speeds are worthless if you keep experiencing throttling as I do.

[PeterLe]

[quote="If this sounds sadly familar to anyone I've leant that switching the hub off and back on if the only temporary remedy.
.[/quote]

Hi
It's worth flushing the cache by power cycling periodically even when all seems to be ok
regards
Peter

[Ethanol]

It's worth flushing the cache by power cycling periodically even when all seems to be ok

You can make this even easier by attaching one of those 24-hour timers, and setting it to be off for a minute at about 04:00.

[PeterLe]

It's worth flushing the cache by power cycling periodically even when all seems to be ok

You can make this even easier by attaching one of those 24-hour timers, and setting it to be off for a minute at about 04:00.

hey good idea! never thought of that!