A2H GO
Member
Registered: 14th Sep 04
Location: Stoke
User status: Offline
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The Broadband contract is coming to an end, so many packages to compare.
Currently have:
TV: Freeview+ = Free
Phone: Post Office(No Contract) = £11pm Line Rental for Free Evening/Weekend Calls(0845 included)
BB: O2 8mb Unlimited Download = £7.50 pm(£50 Cash Back at time of taking out and 3 months Free = £17.50 for the year)
Therefore over the year the above costs £150 or £12.50 a month.
May consider a package such as Sky TV/Phone/BB if its not a great deal more over the year.
If nothing comes close, ill stick with what i've got, cancel the BB and take it out again with O2 for the £50 cashback and 3 months free again.
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John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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Cancelling BB then taking it out again could take weeks, it's different from migrating, if that makes a difference to your decision.
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Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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As john said it'll take a few weeks from them cutting you off to you getting reconnected, but if you can live with that then go for it as it's probably the cheapest you're going to get it.
There are a few offers for Sky (http://www.quidco.com/sky/?ac) and Virginmedia (http://www.quidco.com/virgin-media/?ac) if you're looking for a package deal though.
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A2H GO
Member
Registered: 14th Sep 04
Location: Stoke
User status: Offline
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No i didnt realise they couldn't just turn it off and turn it back on again  
But then i suppose a 2 week wait isnt too bad for £50. I know 2 months ago they were offering £100 on Quidco but it was too early and after buying out it wasnt worth the extra.
Ill look into Sky/Virgin especially as we had talktalk knocking at the door saying we now had access to the fibre optic lines or something and do we want to change over. I understand Virgin to fibre optic?
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Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by A2H GO
No i didnt realise they couldn't just turn it off and turn it back on again
But then i suppose a 2 week wait isnt too bad for £50. I know 2 months ago they were offering £100 on Quidco but it was too early and after buying out it wasnt worth the extra.
Ill look into Sky/Virgin especially as we had talktalk knocking at the door saying we now had access to the fibre optic lines or something and do we want to change over. I understand Virgin to fibre optic?
Easiest way to see if your local BT exchange has been upgraded is to have to a look on the SamKnows website, just type in your postcode - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search
However, Virginmedia have their own closed fibre/cable network which is completely separate to BT's 21CN and is an entirely different system all together (BT is xDSL, Virginmedia uses Docsis) so you'll need to check on the Virginmedia’s website to see if you're in a cabled area. Only similarity is that both are Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC, cabinet being the grey or green street cabinet) with the last 100m or so being coax to your property and NOT Fibre To The Home (FTTH) which most believe it is.
And Virginmedia do do xDSL, but being blunt it's shit and i wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.
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A2H GO
Member
Registered: 14th Sep 04
Location: Stoke
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Dom
quote:
Originally posted by A2H GO
No i didnt realise they couldn't just turn it off and turn it back on again
But then i suppose a 2 week wait isnt too bad for £50. I know 2 months ago they were offering £100 on Quidco but it was too early and after buying out it wasnt worth the extra.
Ill look into Sky/Virgin especially as we had talktalk knocking at the door saying we now had access to the fibre optic lines or something and do we want to change over. I understand Virgin to fibre optic?
Easiest way to see if your local BT exchange has been upgraded is to have to a look on the SamKnows website, just type in your postcode - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search
However, Virginmedia have their own closed fibre/cable network which is completely separate to BT's 21CN and is an entirely different system all together (BT is xDSL, Virginmedia uses Docsis) so you'll need to check on the Virginmedia’s website to see if you're in a cabled area. Only similarity is that both are Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC, cabinet being the grey or green street cabinet) with the last 100m or so being coax to your property and NOT Fibre To The Home (FTTH) which most believe it is.
And Virginmedia do do xDSL, but being blunt it's shit and i wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.
Hmm so even though its fibre optic its still coax for part of the line, surely this means its no faster than non fibre optic? Virgin site says im not in a fibre optic area and 'Samknows' wont work at work so ill try then when i get in tonight. 
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dannymccann
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 06
Location: Doddington, Lincolnshire
User status: Offline
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If you can get cable BB, Virgin is the best choice by a mile if you value a fast internet connection - be aware mixed consequences with P2P.
For non-fibre optic, I cant complain at my phone and BB from Talk Talk at £18 a month. I also have freeview as there is nothing but repeats on Sky anyway  (personal opinion)
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Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by A2H GO
quote:
Originally posted by Dom
quote:
Originally posted by A2H GO
No i didnt realise they couldn't just turn it off and turn it back on again
But then i suppose a 2 week wait isnt too bad for £50. I know 2 months ago they were offering £100 on Quidco but it was too early and after buying out it wasnt worth the extra.
Ill look into Sky/Virgin especially as we had talktalk knocking at the door saying we now had access to the fibre optic lines or something and do we want to change over. I understand Virgin to fibre optic?
Easiest way to see if your local BT exchange has been upgraded is to have to a look on the SamKnows website, just type in your postcode - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search
However, Virginmedia have their own closed fibre/cable network which is completely separate to BT's 21CN and is an entirely different system all together (BT is xDSL, Virginmedia uses Docsis) so you'll need to check on the Virginmedia’s website to see if you're in a cabled area. Only similarity is that both are Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC, cabinet being the grey or green street cabinet) with the last 100m or so being coax to your property and NOT Fibre To The Home (FTTH) which most believe it is.
And Virginmedia do do xDSL, but being blunt it's shit and i wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.
Hmm so even though its fibre optic its still coax for part of the line, surely this means its no faster than non fibre optic? Virgin site says im not in a fibre optic area and 'Samknows' wont work at work so ill try then when i get in tonight.
With xDSL (what you typically get with a BT network) you're restricted by the length of your line (that's the basic, there are more variables than this) back to your local exchange - so closer to the exchange you usually sync at a quicker speed, further away you generally sync a lot lower. With BT's 21CN network they've extended the fibre from the local exchange to the street cabinets (FTTC) which has made your line length a lot shorter, typically 100m give or take 10m or so and in turn gives users a quicker connection.
But your internet is still ran over a telephone line.
Virgin Media is a completely different system, which doesn't run over telephone lines, and isn't comparable to xDSL (BT's network) apart from the exception that their fibre runs (always has) to the street cabinets. Plus point to VM network (or Docsis which is the system they use) is that it is a fair bit easier to increase connection speeds compared to xDSL, hence why VM are rolling out 100mb BB at the end of the year. However, VM's network as a whole is pretty shabby and their backhaul (the bit that connects their network to the internet) isn't the best.
In either case it's a bit misleading to advertise consumer BB as "Fibre" as it isn't a true fibre connection to the property, but it's the same with ISPs advertising Unlimited internet access when it's restricted to a fair usage policy.
Long story short - don't confuse xDSL to Virgin Media's cabled network, don't read into this fibre BB crud as it isn't true FTTH and go for VM cabled Broadband where ever you can as you're likely to reach the advertised speeds. But as your not then you're limited to xDSL, but check SamKnows and see what you can/can't get.
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A2H GO
Member
Registered: 14th Sep 04
Location: Stoke
User status: Offline
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Samknows dont work for me, my postcode is ST3 6FD and nothing comes up when i put that in 
Ill have a look round in terms of deals, when i took out o2 BB they said i wouldnt get more than 3mb in my area, and speedtest.net shows about 2.5mb dl speed, thats with LLU or something. Do this mean i wont get more than that speed with any provider?
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John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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Works for me.
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ed
Member
Registered: 10th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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They'll say you can get 3mb as a rough estimate. They'll then have spent about 20 mins telling you that line quality e.t.c... will reduce that so you might see less than the quoted figure. If you're getting 2.5 at the moment then it's not all that likely you'll get a better speed with a different provider.
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A2H GO
Member
Registered: 14th Sep 04
Location: Stoke
User status: Offline
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Had a look round, think ill stick with what i've got. Ill phone o2 and tell them to cancel it and see what they can offer me.
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Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by A2H GO
Samknows dont work for me, my postcode is ST3 6FD and nothing comes up when i put that in
Ill have a look round in terms of deals, when i took out o2 BB they said i wouldnt get more than 3mb in my area, and speedtest.net shows about 2.5mb dl speed, thats with LLU or something. Do this mean i wont get more than that speed with any provider?
Longton is your exchange i would have thought - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WMLON
Says you are in a cabled area though, might be worth have a look on your street for little boxes in the footpaths with NTL/Telewest/Blueyonder/CableTel etc. Although i suspect that it's cabled in Longton and not on the outskirts.
Sam Knows states that you won't get 21CN until 31/03/2011 and as Ed said, it's unlikely you'd get more than 3MB especially if you're on LLU.
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A2H GO
Member
Registered: 14th Sep 04
Location: Stoke
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Dom
quote:
Originally posted by A2H GO
Samknows dont work for me, my postcode is ST3 6FD and nothing comes up when i put that in
Ill have a look round in terms of deals, when i took out o2 BB they said i wouldnt get more than 3mb in my area, and speedtest.net shows about 2.5mb dl speed, thats with LLU or something. Do this mean i wont get more than that speed with any provider?
Longton is your exchange i would have thought - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WMLON
Says you are in a cabled area though, might be worth have a look on your street for little boxes in the footpaths with NTL/Telewest/Blueyonder/CableTel etc. Although i suspect that it's cabled in Longton and not on the outskirts.
Sam Knows states that you won't get 21CN until 31/03/2011 and as Ed said, it's unlikely you'd get more than 3MB especially if you're on LLU.
Don't know how you got that to work, wasnt coming up with nothing for me So no matter who i go with i wont get more than 3mb anyway? At least until March next year...
[Edited on 24-08-2010 by A2H GO]
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A2H GO
Member
Registered: 14th Sep 04
Location: Stoke
User status: Offline
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Called them today and they have done us phone for £9.50pm with BB free for the year. 
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