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Author Topic: BT Broadband are utter shite, looking for new provider  (Read 22477 times)
pauld
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« on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 11:19:02 »

So, we've been without broadband now for a week and a half, BT just keep lying to us about when it will be fixed, what the problem is, even when/whether they will call us to register a complaint about the poor service (we're now trying to work out if we can complain about their complaints service). But this is just the culmination of an utterly shite and deteriorating service over the past 7 or 8 months. We supposedly have their Infinity fibre connection but never get more than 15Mb downstream and a lot of the time can't watch BT sport on it (which is the main reason we got it). We never get through a half, never mind a full match without it stuttering/buffering etc and usually it just grinds to a halt every 10 mins. Oh, and even on normal internet use (bit of browsing, kids playing Xbox, no streaming or anything heavy), the line drops out all the time. It's bollocks, basically. And bloody expensive to boot.

Now the poor connection is largely down to where we live - too far from the exchange, basically, so switching to another provider probably won't fix that, although I suspect a more competent provider might actually be able to tune things a bit better, but they won't be able to deal with the "last mile" problem as the last bit of connection is always over BT copper, unless you get Fibre to the Door. AFAIK, only Virgin offer FTTD in Swindon and they don't seem to do it in our area.

So any suggestions for any decent alternatives? I'm looking for a 20Mb connection that is stable and reliable. Anyone know anything about the SuperfastSwindon thing that's launched recently? Bit wary of it as
a) The council are involved
b) The providers all look a bit "local comms for local people"

but given my experience of BT, they can't be any worse than that, either from the point of view of actually providing the service I'm paying for or from the customer service/fault handling angle.

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Sippo
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« Reply #1 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 11:25:16 »

https://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

This is a good site to check, but cannot guarantee speed or reliability.
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Samdy Gray
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« Reply #2 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 11:26:37 »

What exchange are you connected to?

And do you know how close you are to the cabinet?
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #3 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 11:30:43 »

Anyone know anything about the SuperfastSwindon thing that's launched recently? Bit wary of it as
a) The council are involved
b) The providers all look a bit "local comms for local people"

but given my experience of BT, they can't be any worse than that, either from the point of view of actually providing the service I'm paying for or from the customer service/fault handling angle.

I had a flyer through the door about this recently....a cursory look made me think SBC/Rikki Hunt wi-fi scam.

 Tory run SBC can't even keep the grass cut in Swindon....because apparently it inconveniently grows a lot in an English summer what with there being a lot of light, slightly warm and damp.   So wouldn't be convinced by anything to do with tech.
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ronnie21

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« Reply #4 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 11:33:35 »

Had the same problems Paul, swopped onto Virgin - in two years only had one problem and they gave us a time they would be there the next day and they arrived on time, fixed in ten mins. Is your area cabled?
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Batch
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« Reply #5 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 11:36:09 »

That's unfortunate, but I wouldn't assume that switching to another provider would be any better - the issue is Openreach deal with local loop copper with everyone - so getting a better service is down to how much your new provider leans on Openreach.

Assuming it is a last mile issue of course - if its a modem/exchange issue you might be OK

FWIW: We were with Sky, switched to BT and had faults (actually the same line fault) with both - we must have got lucky as they were fixed within a day or two in both cases. The actual speed stability was identical in both cases.

We are lucky in that we live close enough to the cabinet to get up to about 75 Mbps  (though I don't pay for that) - so I have no way of telling whether the Sky modem deals with a "long line" any better than the BT Homehub.

So no, no real opinion on who to switch to I'm afraid.

Oh and cost - always haggle or switch at the end of contract.

Shame you don't have an old Sky box/dish for BT sport - saves farting around with the internet for sport

----
"Now the poor connection is largely down to where we live - too far from the exchange"

Its distance to the cabinet not exchange that affects speed for FTTC, though it amounts to the same thing. It should be stable though, if not fast. Assuming you mean synch speed - if its synching a lot higher the exchange may be congested in which case switching may help

If you can only get 15 mbps, how much can you get on standard ADSL - is it even worth paying the extra? my mate got slower fibre speeds than standard ADSL!
---
I guess all this is pretty useless in helping you - other than in saying don't assume switching will help, it only MIGHT.
« Last Edit: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 11:38:54 by Batch » Logged
Arriba

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« Reply #6 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 11:40:46 »

You either opt for one of the companies that will use the same line and all seem equally shite when problems occur or you switch to virgin who also get many complaints. From your issues, Paul I think the latter option maybe for you.

I had problems with my line until I upgraded to fibre. This meant the outreach engineer came out and tested everything, found an issue with the line which was repaired and its been flawless since.
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pauld
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« Reply #7 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 11:46:02 »

What exchange are you connected to?
The one in town, apparently

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And do you know how close you are to the cabinet?
Not close enough to be able to get decent speeds, according to the last engineer who came out to look at why the connection was so slow. Basically, he said 12-15Mb was the best we could expect and that they shouldn't have sold us Infinity as they couldn't provide the services it's supposed to enable (e.g. BT Sport HD) relibably over the connection
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pauld
Aaron Aardvark

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« Reply #8 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 11:49:21 »

Had the same problems Paul, swopped onto Virgin - in two years only had one problem and they gave us a time they would be there the next day and they arrived on time, fixed in ten mins. Is your area cabled?
Nope. If I could switch to Virgin FTTD I'd be off like a shot, believe me.
That's unfortunate, but I wouldn't assume that switching to another provider would be any better - the issue is Openreach deal with local loop copper with everyone - so getting a better service is down to how much your new provider leans on Openreach.
Yeah, that's the dilemma, hence the searching for alternatives such as the SuperfastSwindon and/or alternate FTTD that would circumvent the last mile/Openreach issue
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horlock07

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« Reply #9 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 12:01:22 »


 Tory run SBC can't even keep the grass cut in Swindon....because apparently it inconveniently grows a lot in an English summer what with there being a lot of light, slightly warm and damp.   So wouldn't be convinced by anything to do with tech.

 Pint
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horlock07

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« Reply #10 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 12:03:13 »

So, we've been without broadband now for a week and a half, BT just keep lying to us about when it will be fixed, what the problem is, even when/whether they will call us to register a complaint about the poor service (we're now trying to work out if we can complain about their complaints service).


Since we have moved our BT broadband is somewhat temperamental, the fact that you have actually managed to speak to a human being at BT is going better than we have managed.
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« Reply #11 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 12:15:01 »

So, we've been without broadband now for a week and a half, BT just keep lying to us about when it will be fixed, what the problem is, even when/whether they will call us to register a complaint about the poor service (we're now trying to work out if we can complain about their complaints service). But this is just the culmination of an utterly shite and deteriorating service over the past 7 or 8 months. We supposedly have their Infinity fibre connection but never get more than 15Mb downstream and a lot of the time can't watch BT sport on it (which is the main reason we got it). We never get through a half, never mind a full match without it stuttering/buffering etc and usually it just grinds to a halt every 10 mins. Oh, and even on normal internet use (bit of browsing, kids playing Xbox, no streaming or anything heavy), the line drops out all the time. It's bollocks, basically. And bloody expensive to boot.

Now the poor connection is largely down to where we live - too far from the exchange, basically, so switching to another provider probably won't fix that, although I suspect a more competent provider might actually be able to tune things a bit better, but they won't be able to deal with the "last mile" problem as the last bit of connection is always over BT copper, unless you get Fibre to the Door. AFAIK, only Virgin offer FTTD in Swindon and they don't seem to do it in our area.

So any suggestions for any decent alternatives? I'm looking for a 20Mb connection that is stable and reliable. Anyone know anything about the SuperfastSwindon thing that's launched recently? Bit wary of it as
a) The council are involved
b) The providers all look a bit "local comms for local people"

but given my experience of BT, they can't be any worse than that, either from the point of view of actually providing the service I'm paying for or from the customer service/fault handling angle.



The Superfast Swindon thing there was a lot of opposition to this over in N Swindon as BT are rolling out FTTD in parts and residents didn't want this hindered (it is starting to happen in a few streets now) and the wireless antennas they wanted to put all over the place were in ridiculous places especially next to schools and ended up having the planning permission refused due to all the complaints etc. I believe it is in a stage of appeal.

I believe that it was suggested it was a better bet for rural areas though, I know your not exactly rural but you never know it may be ok for you if it goes ahead, it has to be done as apparently the council have some sort of deal with them where if I remember right the council will have to pay them regardless (typical SBC) and they didn't expect the complaints.

Could you not pop over the road and lay some cable to your place from one of those shiny new houses  Smiley
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Barry Scott

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« Reply #12 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 12:18:00 »

Don't fall into the trap of thinking all providers are the same.

They generally install their own hardware at the exchange (they just use the same lines) and some providers (Sky and TalkTalk are most known for this) flood the pipes and hardware to breaking point with massive contention ratios, thereby destroying your through-put.

Some providers also use "traffic shaping" as well, which is where they restrict your line if, darwin forbid, you try to use it fully.

BT never seemed that bad to me, unless you have a problem, then their service is diabolical. If you want a good line, you'll often have to pay for it. Either through someone who provides a low contention ratio, or perhaps even a business line, which will often guarantee low contention.

Idnet have been exemplorary with my Dad's line and when I've dealt with them they've been a pleasure.
http://www.idnet.net/

I've been with Plusnet a while now and I think they've now started playing silly cunts with the contention ratio, or a load of porn downloaders have moved into the area, as I've gone from a fairly consistent 58-65mb to as low as sub 1mb lately.

stfcnbmth had a friend who was an ISP and he gave me a blinding line, albeit at about twice the price of the major shite.
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pauld
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« Reply #13 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 12:32:31 »

I believe that it was suggested it was a better bet for rural areas though, I know your not exactly rural but you never know it may be ok for you if it goes ahead
Yeah, that's why I thought of them as it seems we're exactly the kind of case it's made for - shit infrastructure and with no plans for BT or anyone to upgrade it
Could you not pop over the road and lay some cable to your place from one of those shiny new houses  Smiley
They haven't got it either and you've misspelled shitty Smiley
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ronnie21

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« Reply #14 on: Thursday, June 16, 2016, 14:00:58 »

Since we have moved our BT broadband is somewhat temperamental, the fact that you have actually managed to speak to a human being at BT is going better than we have managed.
One of my main problems with BT was that person you managed to speak to was usually from a totally different continent and could not understand him - he probably couldn't understand me in all fairness!
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