help with broadband please.....

majicmountain

Hi all,

Tried this before but didn't get a good response so I thought I'd try again. Can someone please help with understanding broadband and availability. I received a call from Bulldog sales a couple of weeks ago asking if I was interested in signing up to their current broadband package. After listening to the details it seemed a good offer and the saleswoman took my phone number to check availability. A few seconds later she came back and said "I've checked your exchange and you can currently get 1Mb but we are upgrading the exchange by the end of February and we will then upgrade you to 8Mb".

All sounds great! I didn't sign up as I had already ordered an upgrade from dial-up to ADSL from V21. When I spoke with them they said that because of the distance of my house from the exchange I would only ever be able to get up to 1Mb due to the limitation of copper wire unless of course BT replaced their cables to my house.

Question - Who is correct or are they both? Can I get up to 8Mb using the current technology if BT upgrade their exchange or am I stuck with 1Mb?

Thanks.

hendersonb

You'll probably find bulldog are wrong, they will try and put 8Mb on the line however it will be hit and miss if you recieve it. I've been to a couple of jobs where customers had this problem. At the frquency required for this there is too much loss and noise on the line to realsitically connect at this speed you will probably find that 1 -2Mb will indeed be your maximum. However you could always try with them in the off chance that your particular line is of a high quality to recieve it.

However beware as what I have seen from bulldogs customer service it is almost non-existant

ManAtHome

Subtle difference between Bulldog saying "we will be upgrading the exchange" and BT actually upgrading the exchange. There will be something in the Bulldog T&Cs which says you can't get a refund on 8mb if your line isn't up to scratch. Depends on the difference in price really, but I'd be getting something in writing before I signed up (then off to Trading Standards and/or Small-claims Court if they didn't deliver).

charlieheard

Just because you ca connect to an 8Mb exchange doesn't mean you can get 8Mb into your house. Because of the small(-ish) capacity of your phoneline to the exchange, if you are too far away, you will not be able to run high speeds anyway. I'm currently on a 2Mb exchange, but I can only run 1Mb as I'm too far away

If you think of broadband like water pipes, Bulldog are putting in a bigger mains pipe ino the exchange. Problem is that you are still limited by the pipes and connectors running from the exchange to your house. The phone cable running to your house is in effect like a garden hose: a poor connection is like a kink, and a few of these will slow your max speed right down.

I've heard that Bulldog's CS is getting better, but have a look at http://www.adslguide.org.uk/ to compare the various ISPs...

tigermatt

Bulldog are probably saying it to try and get you to sign up with them, but then when they upgrade the exchange they'll say your line isn't compatible. You may not be able to transfer to them immediately anyway if you have already signed up with another company - check whether your contract has a minimum length of time on it before you can change provider/cancel your service. Some are 1 month but it can go up to 2 or even 24 months.