FTTP Broadband Question.

[neonplanet40]

I would love that upload. The whole reason I went for the BT 900mb was for the upload. Unfortunately, Openreach wants to monopolize upload speeds.

[MrJim]

I don't even know what to do with all of my new speed.

That's an impressive upload speed! I did a quick check on the Giganet website, & the best they could offer me was 500 down, 70 up, for some reason...

[jimbouk]

Blimey, that's a massive difference between providers of what I thought would be the same product!

Re what to do, my friend moved in London and now has community fibre 150/150 - much better upload than you can get on FTTC but they don't allow port forwarding! So yeah I was back on server duty with 20Mb upload...

[Hoonigan]

Blimey, that's a massive difference between providers of what I thought would be the same product!

My 900/900 is through City Fibre's network but Giganet are the only provider, from 7, that would offer symmetrical speeds.
Very happy with this for £40 a month, first three months are free, and you can cancel the contract whenever you want.

[Iota]

My 900/900 is through City Fibre's network but Giganet are the only provider, from 7, that would offer symmetrical speeds.
Very happy with this for £40 a month, first three months are free, and you can cancel the contract whenever you want.

I was waiting for Giganet to build out their network where I live, but they're taking so long to do so, Openreach have got there first. We'll see how it goes on the 28th of this month, I'm expecting some form of issue to crop up.

[jimbouk]

So different networks are selling the same headline speed but very different behind the scenes (and upload), interesting.

Re pricing, is it flat nationally (regulated?)? I don't know if/when we'll ever get competition against openreach here. A (geographically) smaller outfit could get setup somewhere and undercut someone who's having to keep investing expanding. Not sure how the economics works but ATM for us or seems like more money for the same service which will have a lower run cost going forward, and a shed load more if you do want faster (especially upload).

The switch off date for the old line isn't that far away in the grand scheme of things...

[MrJim]

My 900/900 is through City Fibre's network but Giganet are the only provider, from 7, that would offer symmetrical speeds.
Very happy with this for £40 a month, first three months are free, and you can cancel the contract whenever you want.

That's a bit of a bargain compared to Openreach FTTP prices. And none of the mainstream ISPs offer anything approaching symmetrical upload speeds, either. Do City Fibre & Giganet have a good rep for reliability & service?

[Hoonigan]

Do City Fibre & Giganet have a good rep for reliability & service?

City Fibre seem to have a decent reputation, can't really say about Giganet as their customer base is fairly small but their Trust Pilot score is good. They've been great on the phone the two times I've called. Once to ask "Are you sure that I can leave whenever I want?" and the other time was to get my PPPoE username and password to set up my own router. Wait time was about 5 minutes each time, spoke to someone in the UK who understood my question straight away.

[Saracen999]

In case anyone cares, I mentioned the Truecall call blocker on a Virgin VOIP switchover.

My experience was as follows :-

- it appeared to work.

- on looking a bit more, it didn't. Outgoing calls were fine, but incoming calls just got .... nothing. Didn't get the blocker, and didn't get put through.

So, when I got a moment, I called Truecall. Bear in mind, my Truecall unit is a couple of months short of 10 years old. Tech support answered within about a minute. I had to reconnect te box, which I'd taken out as it killed incoming calls. It was quickly diagnosed as not having updated for age, if ever. Push a button for 3 seonds, wait about 10 minutes and it was updated.

Another 5 minutes chatting, while Truecall checked a few things and, unit now works perfectly.

So, a 10-year old bit of tech, still 100% supported. Calls answered virtually instantly, extremely helpful representative, problem solved.

My evaluation? First rate product. Works beautifully, does what it says with world class support and backup. And now running nicely on VM VOIP line.

[Output]

In case anyone cares, I mentioned the Truecall call blocker on a Virgin VOIP switchover.

My experience was as follows :-

Certainly interesting to hear, so definitely something to keep in mind for anyone who still uses a landline for calls, whether it's VM or not.

Personally, I (non-VM customer) don't even have a phone connected to the phone line, just the router, as it just makes much more sense to me for everyone to reach me using my mobile - but I realise it's a preference thing that others may disagree on for various valid reasons.

Thankfully getting calls or texts from spam/scam numbers is a rarity these days (I can't remember if that has always been the case though), despite having kept the same number for over 15 years.

[Saracen999]

...

Thankfully getting calls or texts from spam/scam numbers is a rarity these days (I can't remember if that has always been the case though), despite having kept the same number for over 15 years.

That's what I thought, having not had one for several years.

To clarify, we bought the Truecall for the Mum-in-law. She was getting on a bit and has never been comfortable on the phone but, as the years progressed, got more and more nervous on it. And she started getting spam/scam calls. It got to the point where she was basically terrified every time the damn phone rang, in case someone bamboozled her. I might not have helped that as, to try to forewarn her, I told her of some of the techniques scammers used. Nonetheless, I think once these oiks realise they have a "live" number, it can go nuts. Presumably, they get added to lists, sold/swapped etc. It got so she was a nervous wreck whenever the phone rang. I mean, it really got her in a state.

So we put the Truecall in. And that ended the problem, right there. The way it works (as I set it up) is that ONLY white-listed numbers went straight through. Everybody else had to leave an announcement and wait for Truecall to "see if anybody is in". So she knew, for a certainty, when she picked up the phone it was either an authorised caller, or she'd be listening to the Truecall message, not an unexpected caller. They couldn't get to her, unless she let them through. All she had to do was push one of two keys on her handset, to either put the caller through or reject and disconnect the call, but they couldn't talk to her until she did. End of her nerves, end of her distress, end of problem.

You're right, output, various good reasons for different users. She hated mobile phones, didn't really understand them and had hers, effectively, just for getting to/from Southampton when she went on a cruise. Otherwise, it sat n a drawer.

She was the poster-girl for a "normal" phone.

Of course, once set up she'd barely know the difference between POTS copper line and VOIP, because to her, it was still her normal phone. Sadly we lost her about 3 years ago, and so, we stuck the Truecall box in here, instead. No scam/spam calls, at least, in that 3-ish years.

But in the week or so since we had to take it out of circuit when VM VOIPed us, we've had TWO. And it another one or two we suspect were, too.

So, I called Truecall expecting to have to buy another, newer and compatible unit. But nope. Quick software refresh, and job done.

My bet is we'll get a few more over the next few weeks but, will never know it. They seem to recognise call blockers, and I assume figure if the line owner has gone to that trouble, they're wasting their time, so move on. I'm hoping we go on a "don't bother" list again.

But given at least two scam-type calls in barely over a week, I'm guessing they're still around. But they won't be a problem here, again. Thanks, Truecall.

[Output]

Completely understandable, I can easily imagine that type of worry (or even just frustration and/or annoyance) can happen to anyone given enough times, regardless of age.

And it certainly speaks well of TrueCall that they would still be supporting a 10 year old product like that, which of course is also a good marketing opportunity for them as a result.

But in the week or so since we had to take it out of circuit when VM VOIPed us, we've had TWO. And it another one or two we suspect were, too.

That does beg the question of whether there is a database somewhere leaking porting information (or new number information if it required a change) like that, as it seems too coincidental that there is nothing for so long and then there suddenly is as soon as it's been ported over.

Also, to comment on the subject of FTTP itself, I'm not optimistic about the chances of getting that any time soon myself (and VM isn't even an option either).

Which is a shame, as a previous address of mine had the full 80Mbps speed of FTTC after I transitioned to that from an Exchange-Only line, and which I'd imagine wouldn't have been hard to transition further to FTTP eventually given the relatively short distances involved overall at that address.

My current address however has me at 35Mbps FTTC (was originally 40, but it seemed to go down after a couple of years or so), and while part of that is probably me choosing the 40Mbps option anyway, the BT/Openreach Broadband Checker suggests that I wouldn't be likely to get much more speed in ideal circumstances anyway.

In theory there's that FTTP on Demand option, but I shudder to think of what that cost would actually be and highly doubt it would be anywhere near a reasonable cost - or at least what I'd personally consider reasonable - given its reputation of being £10k+ even before they changed the rule to no longer cover some of it themselves (if I recall correctly from the times I read the ThinkBroadband forums in the past anyway).

I could be entirely mistaken about its FTTP chances of course, but I'm still not going to be optimistic about it - I'd be pleasantly surprised if it did turn out otherwise though.

[Saracen999]

There ould well be a database of target numbers somewhere, but I'd be surprised to be on it. The switch by VM puttig us on VOIP is new, but the number isn't. Had it few years.

There is another possibility that crosses my mind. The 'beat rate' of calls might not have hanged at all. The Truecall box is pretty configurable according to the use's settings, and I have it locke down fairly tight. Effectively, any numbers that aren't whitelistd either just get rejetd, if blacklisted, or have to record a message and only then does the hous phone ring, and the box plays it. If the scammers are using some kind of hunt-group dialing, they might be on a type o call that gets 'always rejected', or if an actual human is on the line, they may realise that anyone with a unit like that in place is extremely unlikely to give their pitch even half a chance, so they just hang up anf move on. The only way I'd even know how many of that type of call the unit handles entirely unknown to us is if I take the time to lg on to the contol panel to look it up, and I don't.

Or, maybe a list of he VM switches got out? Who knows.

As for your FTTP slowing down, as the number of subscribers goes up, could it be as contention rears it's head?

[Output]

As for your FTTP slowing down, as the number of subscribers goes up, could it be as contention rears it's head?

It's possible I guess.

I never specifically brought it up to my ISP though as it wasn't a huge change, so I can't be sure of the actual cause.

[Iota]

We'll see how it goes on the 28th of this month, I'm expecting some form of issue to crop up.

As with anything OpenReach, I feel I'm fully justified being cynical. Failed to turn up for their scheduled appointment

[Output]

As with anything OpenReach, I feel I'm fully justified being cynical. Failed to turn up for their scheduled appointment

Have you had any actual progress yet in the weeks since, or just more of the same?