O2 broadband on a BT line - will it be faster than BT?

EMcG

Hello all,

I used to be with BT but left as my speeds (0.5Mbps) were unacceptable. I changed to Virgin cable and now get speeds of 8-9Mbps most of the time.

However, my cheap deal (with Quidco cashback, of course) ends in July and my broadband will then cost £25 for a 10Mbps line. This seems a lot.

I was thinking of moving to O2 as I have heard good reports and it seems there are good deals at the moment (£60 Quidco cashback and first 3 months free.) What worries me is that O2 will have to use the BT line that previously offered me such low speeds.

If I move to O2 will I get the same low speeds due to the BT line the service will be delivered through?

Many thanks

P.S. I live in Bedford so any locals with experience of O2 speeds here would be a great help. As would anybody's experiences.

Colin_London

There are two types of O2 service.

• O2 Local Loop Unbundled (LLU - where O2 have installed equipment at your exchange, to which your BT landline is connected)
• O2 Access (where O2 provide you a service via BTs own internet equipment).

If your exchange has LLU equipment you may get faster speeds than BT as it uses 'ADSL2+' technology (up to 24 Meg, although O2 market it as up to 20 Meg). The O2 Access Service is limited to the same as BT (i.e. up to 8 Meg).

Three Bedford exchanges have been enabled for O2 LLU:

Bedford, Cardington & Kempston

Enter your details here to find out if you can get O2 LLU service:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php
(Click on the LLU xDSL tab after the first result comes up)

HOWEVER:

You appear to be a long way from your exchange if you were only getting 0.5Mbps before. This means that it is unlikely that you would get much if any improvement, even with ADSL2+.

Click on the BT ADSL tab on the above results page. If BT reckon you should have been able to get more than 0.5Mbps then maybe there is a problem with your homes internal wiring that was dropping your speed before (extension cabling inside your house can cause lots of problems but there are ways to isolate it from your external line).

Even if you find and fix line problems, I think it unlikely that you would exceed your Virgin speeds - it may not be worth getting any more than the LLU standard package (£7.34 a month if you are an O2 customer). Although it is only 'Up to 8 Meg' as it uses ADSL2+ you should exceed your BT speed unless your line truly is that bad.

Finally, to repeat, if your exchange is NOT LLU (i.e. it is O2 Access only) your line speed will be exactly the same as your BT speeds were before.

ethelb

o2 require a bt line so the speeds will be similar to bt broadband. if you are not happy with the price quoted by virgin media for 10mb broadband, phone phone them on 150 and see what deals they have for 10mb broadband. i think you can get 10mb as a standalone for £20.00 per month, don;t forget to opt for paperless billing otherwise there will be an extra charge of £1.25