Cheap(er) Broadband in The Back of Beyond?

~Chameleon~

emsywoo123 wrote: »

Oh, i thought o2 access was supposed to be quicker, but I guess not? Is Non LLU really worth it or too painfully slow?

Non-LLU often offer better access!


Have a look at https://www.adsl24.co.uk

HH62

Yes, same problem. Don't even get 1.5MB. More like 512kb. No cable here. Mobile broadband is a no-no because the signal isn't strong enough.

Nex0

Fenris wrote: »

Well, I still haven't found a decent ISP, so I might have to go back to an Enta reseller. Really wanted to get something cheaper, but I guess being stuck in The Back of Beyond = being fleeced. Nice.

emsywoo123, seriously, unless you're happy with having your connection drop every few minutes, I'd stay well clear of O2 Home Access. It's only beaten in it's uselessness by Tiscali, and not by a huge margin either.

I live in the middle of nowhere im on currently on O2 home access with no problems at all.

They don't get the best customers ratings in the uk by being rubbish although every isp has there blips although people should bear in mind its not always the isp at fault as there is a bt in the mix which all bar once has always been the problem with my internet.

What I don't understand is why you are going of on about so called being fleeced as there's plenty of people in the same situation as yourself me included about paying extra for slower speeds.

That's life and the price we pay for living in a area that's not feasible for them to upgrade the exchange.

The reality is if more people used broadband on that exchange then they would look at upgrading it but in the mean time if you don't like the prices then don't have broadband as nobody is forcing you to have it.

macman

Nex0 wrote: »

I live in the middle of nowhere im on currently on O2 home access with no problems at all.

They don't get the best customers ratings in the uk by being rubbish although every isp has there blips although people should bear in mind its not always the isp at fault as there is a bt in the mix which all bar once has always been the problem with my internet.

What I don't understand is why you are going of on about so called being fleeced as there's plenty of people in the same situation as yourself me included about paying extra for slower speeds.

That's life and the price we pay for living in a area that's not feasible for them to upgrade the exchange.

The reality is if more people used broadband on that exchange then they would look at upgrading it but in the mean time if you don't like the prices then don't have broadband as nobody is forcing you to have it.

Do you mean O2 Access (which is a non-LLU product), or O2 Home Broadband (which is LLU)? If the former, then you're lucky, as many people have problems with O2 Access because of the lack of capacity from BT. O2 customer service is excellent, but that's not much compensation if you are slowed to a crawl every evening, as many people are reporting.

Nex0

macman wrote: »

Do you mean O2 Access (which is a non-LLU product), or O2 Home Broadband (which is LLU)? If the former, then you're lucky, as many people have problems with O2 Access because of the lack of capacity from BT. O2 customer service is excellent, but that's not much compensation if you are slowed to a crawl every evening, as many people are reporting.

Yer its the non llu product sorry if it sounding confusing it seems to go by a few different names.

http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/findmore.jsp

I'm lucky to get half a meg at best to be honest so I don't really get any speed issues im just grateful for being able to get broadband at all as I really struggled to get it.

As for speed issues that's the usual case of isps over subscribing in that area and then worrying about it later.

Everyone does it although its not right.

macman

You are right, just realised it is slightly ambiguous on the O2 website. If you can only get 512MB then that is probably down to distance from the exchange as the main limiting factor unfortunately.

Nex0

macman wrote: »

You are right, just realised it is slightly ambiguous on the O2 website. If you can only get 512MB then that is probably down to distance from the exchange as the main limiting factor unfortunately.

Oh yes I know that only to well im right on the limit for getting it although I think it has relaxed slightly since 2004 as they did have the up to 8meg packages out then.

My current line at the time wasn't good enough for the job so I had to have a brand new line put in and then before they got chance to say weather or not it was good enough I got my broadband order in.

I have to say for a new line though its reliability has been shocking.

Fenris

Nex0 wrote: »

I live in the middle of nowhere im on currently on O2 home access with no problems at all.

They don't get the best customers ratings in the uk by being rubbish although every isp has there blips although people should bear in mind its not always the isp at fault as there is a bt in the mix which all bar once has always been the problem with my internet.

What I don't understand is why you are going of on about so called being fleeced as there's plenty of people in the same situation as yourself me included about paying extra for slower speeds.

That's life and the price we pay for living in a area that's not feasible for them to upgrade the exchange.

The reality is if more people used broadband on that exchange then they would look at upgrading it but in the mean time if you don't like the prices then don't have broadband as nobody is forcing you to have it.

You try running an online business using dial-up and see how well it goes for you. Uploading a few hundred jpeg's or PNG files over dial-up would take hours, let alone uploading an entire website. So, contrarry to your assumption, I do have to have broadband.

If you're happy with O2, good for you! You're one of the few on Home Access that is. Or are you on LLU and are actually using Be*? Or you're so rural that there's low contention on your line so you have few problems. I don't know, I'm not making assumptions about your usage. :rolleyes:

As for the problems being BT's fault, on a different matter I might agree with you, but for the fact that my problems only started when I left ADSL24 (Enta) to move to O2 as it was a tad cheaper (as I had one of their PAYG SIM's). Now I know why it's cheaper! They wouldn't even send an engineer out to check for problems. I use the same BT line, the same router and the same Laptop. Nothing has changed except my ISP and that's when it all went to hell.

And, why shouldn't I be angry at being charged 4 times as much for a tenth of the service speeds of those who live in London and other large cities? If Sweden can cover their whole country in fibre-optic cable (and, if you've ever seen the country you'll know it's quite spred out) then why can't BT pull their fingers out and cover a fairly large town in Norfolk? I'll tell you why; because they can get a higher return on London customers than they can out here and while that's the case people in rural areas will NEVER get a decent service. All the time there are people like you who roll over and say, "Aww, don't blame BT, it's not their fault, you'll just have to pay through the nose for a terrible service, but it's OK, because I don't mind." they'll keep on thinking it's OK to make those of us living in the sticks pay the most! They haven't even got a decent BB in the suburbs of Norwich for pittys sake! I don't know what it's like in the centre of the city now, but I was talking with someone last year who could bearly manage 512kb. It's Norwich, not Outer Mongolia! There's a large student population in Norwich too, so I'm afraid the argument that there's no demand for BB is flawed.

I can tell you there there IS demand for BB in my area. I was at a buisness meeting last year held in King's Lynn and BB was a hot topic. King's Lynn is actually an overflow for London. The train takes just over an hour and a half to get to King's Cross. There are a host of businesses trading from the town and yet, even in the heart of the town, speeds of over 3mb are a pipe dream for most businesses. When some of us raised the subject with a Council member we were told that there were no immediate plans for upgrades to the exchanges in King's Lynn. When pressed further, he suggested that we'd be lucky to see 8mb in the town before 2010 and in the outlying regions before 2015 at the earliest. This was a business conference, I remind you. We're talking about something that can either save or kill a business; if you don't have an online presence you don't have a business. So yeah, I'm angry because my livelyhood relies on having a decent, reliable broadband connection and it's just not happening. If you're using it for surfing, checking e-mails and downloading music it's not a problem if it dies every half-hour. But it does matter if you're halfway through an update of your entire store and the connection drops! Do you understand why I might be a touch miffed by the state of the BB in my area? O2 have caused me so many problems over the last few months I can't even begin to say how much they've lost me in revenue.

Incidentally, O2 generally get the best rating from people on the LLU, provided (as I've already mentioned) by Be*. Now, I KNOW Be* are an excellent provider and, if I ever escape this hell hole, I will be signing up with them. However, if you dig deeper (suggest you Google for O2 Home Access and include line drops, outages and slow speeds) you will find a wealth of complaints about line drops, outages and slow speeds on O2. These don't happen on LLU, so are not reported.

I'll just say that I'm not trying to start a flame war. I know communications in forums like this can come over as someone raving; I'm not, I'm just putting a point accross. It's not meant to offend and if it does then sorry, but that's life, as Nex0 pointed out! :rotfl:

Nex0

Ok ill be honest and ay its not something I have looked into and to be fair when I don't have any issues why would I?

I have heard about the speed issues and I can understand peoples frustration's there as that's just not acceptable but I cant say I have heard about the other issues.

I usually nose around the think broadband forums as they have a dedicated section for most isps http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/o2.html

I can assure you I understand your frustration's as I applied for broadband way back in 2000 before it actually came out and I had to wait till June 2004 before I saw a glimpse of getting it and even then as posted above it wasn't exactly easy.

When you a gamer and all your m8s are on idsn or adsl with pings in the low 20-50's and your plodding along between 200-250 and your getting your !!!! kicked all the time you cant imagine how much I wanted to rip the modem out of my computer and throw it at bt's head. :rolleyes:

As a serious suggestion as by the sound of it you run a online business from home and yes I know this isnt going to be cheap but perhaps you should look at some of the business packages the isps offer.

I don't know if they still do but bt used to do one when if your connection went down they was on the blower to you straight away and they would get someone out straight away if they couldn't sort it over the phone.

From my personal experience line drops are usually caused by dodgy filters or a crap phone line and its not actually the isp itself.

I'm not trying to patronise you here as you say you have spoke to o2 but I assume you've done all the usual stuff like try other filters and running the router direct from the master socket etc?

~Chameleon~

Fenris wrote: »

As for the problems being BT's fault, on a different matter I might agree with you, but for the fact that my problems only started when I left ADSL24 (Enta) to move to O2 as it was a tad cheaper (as I had one of their PAYG SIM's).

Why on earth did you leave ADSL24??? They are one of the best ISP's in the UK!!!