what are my broadband options?

[ik9000]

So, I did some searching and my new house sucks for broadband.

Our options appear to be
ADSL2 2.5Mb/s via BT or repackaged 3rd party
Virgin Fibre 200Mb/s
4G wifi (soon to be merged into BT)


Or we can pay for business ethernet, which is a pinch at ONLY £2k install and £600 pm.

BT have no current plans to roll out fibre.

This does not seem to me to be a choice. Virgin have a virtual monopoly in our area, and openly state in their mailing "over 50% of your street is with virgin". I wonder why! Doesn't bode well for peak time slowdown. I remember being in a flat block with mainly virgin supply and you did notice the slows.

We're currently on 4G but the wifi thing seems to not be very good when more than 1 person is on it. Not sure if there's a firmware update available that would help? Would connecting it into a better router help things?

Is there anyone who this quasi monopoly situation can be raised with? It's a joke that my choice is Virgin, stone age BT or data-capped wifi. It is hardly a choice!

[Dareos]

phone virginmedia, speak to the tech support team and ask them to give you a utilisation breakdown for your postcode on docsis 3, if its below 60% at peak times then you shouldnt notice anything, still very good below 80%, Above 80 then avoid

[ik9000]

any ideas what kind of upload hit VPN into work for a whole day incurs? reading their "fair" usage policy suggests it's uploads that triggers throttling. No point getting something that won't let me work remotely. Ditto gaming - does it need much uploading? I can't see that iplayer and youtube carry much uploading but those other two must have a need for uploading...

[ik9000]

found a useful chart here: http://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-ma...hresholds.html

2250MB per hour upload cap doesn't sound too bad. 2950MB per two hours a bit harsher but is that going to be enough? Must be surely?

[abaxas]

Do virgin now actually throttle?

Instead they used to randomly delete packets and make your life hell.

[ik9000]

Do virgin now actually throttle?

Instead they used to randomly delete packets and make your life hell.

if i understood what that meant I could comment.

[Dareos]

gaming has little in the way of uploading unless you are streaming live to twitch or something else.

above 30Mb Virgin only throttle on uploads, mainly to combat p2p as it kills the network

[ik9000]

phone virginmedia, speak to the tech support team and ask them to give you a utilisation breakdown for your postcode on docsis 3, if its below 60% at peak times then you shouldnt notice anything, still very good below 80%, Above 80 then avoid

asking for a postcode docsis3 breakdown is a comedy pass-the-buck affair. Currently on my 4th person this evening, and no-one wants to talk about utilisation! Am I right in understanding I'm essentially asking how subscribed the line in the street is vs available bandwidth in peak time? They're rather reluctant to share much without an account number. Cracks me up!

edit: so person number 5 did kind of know his stuff, but also couldn't answer this. He wouldn't give information about utilisation on docsis3 "I don't have access to that information to be honest" but he did have a look at nearby supplies on the street and said there were no issues with SNR or utilisation on the lines he looked at over the last month. He couldn't comment on capacity of the main trunk in the road or anything similar.

Am I asking for the moon on a stick?

It's an important question as with a development looming at the end of the road I can see it having an impact when they all sign up.

[Mr_Chris]

You're probably asking too much from a general adviser, as they're probably not trained to answer those questions. You'll need to get through to tech support or something similar. They usually deal with cabinet and exchange issues, so should have the info you need. I think their advisers operate in tiers. E.g. Tier 1 , Tier 2 etc. You'd need to speak to someone higher than the front line basically. In an ideal world the original adviser should put you on hold for a few minutes to get this info from the tech team. However, it sounds like you've just been passed around the same department, stuck in Tier 1, with no real help. (A good sign of their support should you decide to go with them)

On another note. Have you looked into wireless providers in your area? In my area there's a company called Boundless. They're a wireless internet provider and don't operate through a land line. You can get pretty decent speed from them depending on your range. This is mostly for Lancashire but they are expanding. It's worth checking if you have a similar company in your area. http://www.boundlesscomms.com/

If all else fails, it may be worth looking into mobile broadband from the likes of Vodafone, Three etc. Their usage allowance may not be the best, but at least you may be able to get better speeds. Their coverage maps should give an indication of their service.

[EndlessWaves]

Is there anyone who this quasi monopoly situation can be raised with? It's a joke that my choice is Virgin, stone age BT or data-capped wifi. It is hardly a choice!

It's a bit unfair to call the other ISPs utilising the Openreach last mile infrastructure BT resellers.

As for infrastructure upgrades, have you checked Openreach's When and Where website?
http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/

FTTC/VDSL rollout has ramped up in the last few years, I don't know what the current target is but as Virgin found it profitable to install cable there I'd expect you to get on the todo list in the next couple of years. Particularly if your local phone exchange isn't FTTC enabled at all.

[peterb]

There was a segment on R4 today talking about applying the Universal Service Obligation to Broadband.

The Universal Service Obligation for telephony only applies to BT, but requires it provide telephony to anyone in the UK, no matter where. Extending that to Broadband would impose the same obligation.

In practice it means that those users in difficult to reach locations have their installations subsidised by those in densely populated areas where installation costs are relatively low. It also allows VM and Sky to cherry pick profitable areas because they are not obliged to provide a series on demand.

[pwrslave]

I'd rather use the dsl than 4G just to get low latency and as little ploss as possible for gaming reasons... That said, I'd probably get the Virgin 200M because all other "options" really are not options...