UK achieves Superfast Broadband coverage goal

[Iota]

Oh, Virgin. Great if you live somewhere that could get it.

Oh I know that feeling very well. It's available less than a mile away from where I live now, buggered if I can get it though. At the time it was the best option, the local BT exchange hadn't been upgraded since the 1990s and "broadband" was essentially 512kb using anything involving that BT exchange. Which is why I bit the bullet and opted for the more expensive Virgin option, it was a decision I never once regretted.

I wistfully miss it. Especially considering it was cheaper than what I pay for now, with my paltry 38/10 connection, moving to a new home was like moving back in time in terms of service availability. BT are so far behind it isn't even amusing when I see their vans with "superfast" broadband plastered all over the side.

[DanceswithUnix]

BT are so far behind it isn't even amusing

and yet for all their many faults, it is OpenReach who have bothered to connect people for this target.

I can't have Virgin, I am in the wrong street. Having said that, the customer service level I had when they were NTL was so bad it ended up in the hands of the regulators who for some reason took a dim view of charging for services that were not provided (and given they equipment had all been collected was impossible for NTL to provide) and then sending in the debt collectors when they cancelled less money than they had charged.

[Ttaskmaster]

typical corrupt British government,

Which includes MPs from places other than London, and even England, surely.........?

[spacein_vader]

when they say the UK they usually mean London, they forget about Scotland, Wales, Ireland,

typical corrupt British government,

Well I can understand them forgetting about Ireland, what with it being an independent country.

[Pob255]

One thing that's been mentioned in passing in this thread but no one has been picking up is Contention.
As more people in your area get on the same package as you your Contention increases and your speed suffers.
On top of this faster speeds have led to more complex websites and content which require more data, which makes things feel slower.

But contention is a big factor which really isn't talked about by anyone, The fact contention rates are not mentioned by isp's anymore makes me wonder what they are these days?

[shaithis]

Contention is highly dependant on ISP.....I suffer zero contention on Zen for instance, where as VM customers can be plagued with the issue.

[Ttaskmaster]

As more people in your area get on the same package as you your Contention increases and your speed suffers.

Must be a lot of sheep round here surfing the [insert appropriate nationality] dating websites, then....!!

[scaryjim]

Contention is highly dependant on ISP.....I suffer zero contention on Zen for instance, where as VM customers can be plagued with the issue.

ISPs used to advertise contention ratios, and one of the big draws of business broadband > a decade ago was you were often promised low/zero contention.

OTOH, I suspect backhaul overload is becoming more of an issue than contention. For instance, I'd be surprised if I was using the most popular ISP on my exchange, but remember this?

... right now - using 2 different speedcheckers - I get at best just over 3mbps down ...

I posted that at around 8.30pm. I redid those checks at about 10.05pm, and both got well over 20mbps. Just contention on my ISP? I find that hard to believe, tbh....

[Xlucine]

when they say the UK they usually mean London, they forget about Scotland, Wales, Ireland,

typical corrupt British government,

The UK has passed a significant Superfast Broadband coverage milestone. Across the nation more than 95 per cent of premises (residential and business) now have access to Superfast Broadband offering 24Mbps download or faster speeds. A report on the news, published by Think Broadband, puts the exact figure at 95.0079 per cent.

The 95 per cent figure isn’t a consistent representation of the broadband speeds in every area of the UK. Some regions such as Epson and Ewell, Tamworth, Worthing and Watford have nearly 99 per cent coverage. Meanwhile, at the sorry end of the table, there are regions that include The City of London (50.3 per cent), the Orkney Islands (66.8 per cent) and Hull (71.7 per cent). You can check the latest rank, coverage, and speeds data for the 650 UK constituencies here.

Err...