O2 home broadband - a heap of ****e!

[BlackKnight_UK]

If anyone is looking to change to O2 home broadband DON'T!

It is crap, for the first couple of months when it was free and I was still in the "happiness" warranty period is was fine - as soon as I start paying it goes downhill like a lead balloon.

They sent me an email stating "we’ll give first priority to those things most people want to do in the evening – like emailing, looking at websites, watching things on sites like BBC iPlayer" - it goes on to say that online TV could even be better - rubbish, I tried watching online TV tonight for the first time on O2 and its impossible.

Speedtest.net gives me a connection speed of 0.49Mb/s download and 0.27Mb/s upload, my contract is for up to 8Mb/s and I was quoted an average speed of 7Mb/s which is stated on my account page.

I've been on hold to the technical support people for almost an hour now and still I get crap music and no help.

[format]

AFAIK o2 is the same network as BeThere, and I get pretty decent speeds tbh.

[Jay]

Never really had an issue with 02 apart from when some one went through a fiber link and even then they called me to let me know!

What is your modem sync speed at? If the sync is down its a BT fault if the sync is high and the speed is low its an O2 fault







Sync - Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,295 / 13,776

[mrt9888]

Most ISPs have a peak time on Tiscali it was 6PM to 11PM, so they just want you to lower your download usage at peak times as broadband usually has a 50/1 contention ratio. What time is 02's peak time?

[Jay]

LLU doesn't really have contention ratios

[Blitzen]

If anyone is looking to change to O2 home broadband DON'T!

It is crap, for the first couple of months when it was free and I was still in the "happiness" warranty period is was fine - as soon as I start paying it goes downhill like a lead balloon.

They sent me an email stating "we’ll give first priority to those things most people want to do in the evening – like emailing, looking at websites, watching things on sites like BBC iPlayer" - it goes on to say that online TV could even be better - rubbish, I tried watching online TV tonight for the first time on O2 and its impossible.

Speedtest.net gives me a connection speed of 0.49Mb/s download and 0.27Mb/s upload, my contract is for up to 8Mb/s and I was quoted an average speed of 7Mb/s which is stated on my account page.

I've been on hold to the technical support people for almost an hour now and still I get crap music and no help.

Terrible advice and should be ignored.
O2 is one of the best and there is not many at all that think the way you do.

I take it this is connect and not LLU package.

[matty-hodgson]

definitely agree with Blitzen there, i'm with o2 and it's been nothing but reliable, and FAST, since i got it and i would definitely recommend it to EVERYONE!

[shadowmaster]

definitely agree with Blitzen there, i'm with o2 and it's been nothing but reliable, and FAST, since i got it and i would definitely recommend it to EVERYONE!

+1 O2 is great. Are you on their access package?

[arthurleung]

I tried to stream top gear from iplayer this tuesday, and my Be (16Mbps sync) didn't keep up with the stream (which is already blocky as hell, surely can't be that much bandwidth). My friend also had terrible speed in his old flat with ping in the hundreds even when idle.

When an exchange is very close to full capacity Be/O2 can get VERY BAD. And the problem is it takes a couple of months at least, if not over a year, to upgrade an exchange, and meanwhile everyone get **** speed.

[mycarsavw]

o2 Home Access sucks dong.

[abaxas]

As with all things broadband, it depends on your exchange and the pipe from there to the internet/head office etc.

LLU does not guarentee anything better than BT, just take a look at talk talk to see why. It might be fast now, but who knows when then connect another 1000 people.

In terms of contention ratio, of course O2 has one. The difference is, they wont tell you what it is. You could have 10,000 people with 16meg connected down a 14.4 modem. Without the info you'll never know and shouldnt assume it's better.

Also, the most scary thing about 02 is the 'fair usage policy'. It exists but is empty and can be changed at anytime. Who knows when this will change and you are powerless to exit contract becasue of it.

[badass]

Also, the most scary thing about 02 is the 'fair usage policy'. It exists but is empty and can be changed at anytime. Who knows when this will change and you are powerless to exit contract becasue of it.

Rubbish!

[Terbinator]

About time we had a change of scenary from the VM hate.

[DeludedGuy]

Im on a 16mb o2 connection getting 13mb down and 1mb up, and have had no issues, touch wood!

[Lowe]

I'm having serious issues on the LLU connection at the moment. O2 have introduced traffic management at peak times now, and unfortunately they've not got it set up right yet. Post 6pm is a joke now.

[BlackKnight_UK]

Thank you to those who have posted with the same problems, at least I know its not just me - and judging by the fact that I was on hold for 45 mins before I gave up last night when I tried to phone O2 I'm guessing there are a whole lot more with the same problem.

O2 replied to my email today with some tosh about working in the exchange to install the traffic management system - if that were the case would they be doing it at night in the "busiest" time?

My connection this morning is back up to 6.9Mb/s! I guess I'm lucky that I hardly ever use the net in the evening - it was just a pain last night because I wanted to watch something on antoher channel when everyone else was watching crappy ITV.

In the end I managed to catch up on my programme but only by watching it on a Japanese site and spent 4 hours to stream 40 mins of TV in 7min chunks.