Difference between Be and o2

hiroko

This has probably been asked a million times before, forgive me if it has, but is there any difference in the services Be and o2 offer?

I know they're owned by same company, but do o2 cap the services any time or throttle it or anything? Their deal seems too good to be true if it's really the same service.

I'm not going to be able to get the full 24mb from be or even reach the 20mb from o2, they predict 10, so should i just go with o2?

macman

No, O2 LLU services are not capped or throttled, just the standard FUP.
Some people reckon that Be's tech support is better, but unless you think you're going to need that on a regular basis, I wouldn't pay any extra for Be. The Be half price offer has made them more competitive now, so just compare the 2 and go for the best deal you can get.
Don't forget to use Quidco if you do sign up for O2.
I'm assuming you are on an LLU exchange, don't sign up for O2 Access under any circumstances.

spike7451

I've been active on O2 basic LLU service for a month now.Aside from the teething problems in the first 10 day's while the line is bedding in,I've had no other problems.I've downloaded about 25gig of files I had backed up online to a new external hard drive.

kwikbreaks

hiroko wrote: »

Their deal seems too good to be true if it's really the same service.

So long as you are talking O2 LLU then it is indeed pretty much the same as Be.

There is a FUP but no record of it ever having been used.
Downloads pretty much in line with sync 24x7.

There have been DNS issues reported recently and earlier in the year the network was a-humming to the extent that a single fibre break could slow down a wide area so naturally sods law was invoked and for 3 or 4 weekends on the trot there were fibre breaks.

O2 are still on a mad rush for market share with Quidco/TopCashBack cashback and often free months on offer. My first year (to Jan 2010) will have cost me ~ £18 + £120 (less cashback naturally) of sim only contract that I would have bought anyway (but maybe not from O2). That could have been 4 x £10 on PAYG instead to get the £5pm discount.

Now they are offering those with expired or expiring contracts another 3 months free in return for accepting another 12 months contract. I could have been churlish as I'm moving in January and cancelled and reordered for another wedge of cashback but they've been so good I decided to take the free months instead and actually pay something to them.

Where O2 have fallen down is in offering a BTw based product where they have no LLU presence. Like any all-you-can-eat IPstream product massive contention makes (made?) it virtually unusable at any time normal folks wanted to use it. They have recently introduced a much firmer FUP coupled with shaping and/or throttling to stop those 24x7 "Linux distro" downloaders from crippling the service.

hiroko

kwikbreaks wrote: »

So long as you are talking O2 LLU then it is indeed pretty much the same as Be.

There is a FUP but no record of it ever having been used.
Downloads pretty much in line with sync 24x7.

There have been DNS issues reported recently and earlier in the year the network was a-humming to the extent that a single fibre break could slow down a wide area so naturally sods law was invoked and for 3 or 4 weekends on the trot there were fibre breaks.

O2 are still on a mad rush for market share with Quidco/TopCashBack cashback and often free months on offer. My first year (to Jan 2010) will have cost me ~ £18 + £120 (less cashback naturally) of sim only contract that I would have bought anyway (but maybe not from O2). That could have been 4 x £10 on PAYG instead to get the £5pm discount.

Now they are offering those with expired or expiring contracts another 3 months free in return for accepting another 12 months contract. I could have been churlish as I'm moving in January and cancelled and reordered for another wedge of cashback but they've been so good I decided to take the free months instead and actually pay something to them.

Where O2 have fallen down is in offering a BTw based product where they have no LLU presence. Like any all-you-can-eat IPstream product massive contention makes (made?) it virtually unusable at any time normal folks wanted to use it. They have recently introduced a much firmer FUP coupled with shaping and/or throttling to stop those 24x7 "Linux distro" downloaders from crippling the service.

is that a fair use policy only on the access package?

i am a fairly heavy user but nothing to get upset about, i just want a fast and consistent service all through the day without it being throttled at peak time, i take it from everyone's replies o2 offer this?

also another point, my line is being installed on the 30th, by the looks of it the offer for 3 months free runs out at midnight on sunday unless i've got my maths wrong. i did see on the site they will give you the free months free to people who aren't ready to switch, does anyone know how this works?

will i be able to register for that and just sign up on the 30th with the 3 months free deal?

macman

I can understand the massive discounting to attract new business, but I'm amazed that they are actually offering 3 months free to expiring customers as well. As long as you're on LLU, the vast majority of O2 customers are happy bunnies, and likely to stay with them. So why throw away a quarter of the next year's income by offering this discount, unless their churn rate is much higher than most of us would have thought likely?
The problem with that offer is that they are going to find people will expect to get it every year come renewal time. If that was TalkTalk, they would want an 18 month renewal to give you any discount.

macman

hiroko wrote: »

is that a fair use policy only on the access package?

i am a fairly heavy user but nothing to get upset about, i just want a fast and consistent service all through the day without it being throttled at peak time, i take it from everyone's replies o2 offer this?

also another point, my line is being installed on the 30th, by the looks of it the offer for 3 months free runs out at midnight on sunday unless i've got my maths wrong. i did see on the site they will give you the free months free to people who aren't ready to switch, does anyone know how this works?

will i be able to register for that and just sign up on the 30th with the 3 months free deal?

They used to say that if you pre-register, they will hold the offer open for a month. Not sure if that still applies, the website should explain.
The odds are that the offer will be extended again anyway, it already has been twice before.
FUP applies to all LLU packages, just as it does on every other 'unlimited' package. Can't imagine anyone on Access would ever be able to breach FUP anyway, they have enough problems just getting their emails to download

kwikbreaks

Yes there is a FUP on all products but as I said it has never been invoked for LLU that I'm aware of (it may have been on Access).

Far more important than a few months free is that you sign up through a cashback site

Quidco...
O2 Home Broadband Cashback rates

£25for access home broadband
£75for standard home broadband
£100for premium home broadband
£125for pro home broadband




Doubtless TopCashBack and others are the same or similar.


Don't throw free money away by signing direct with O2

hiroko

macman wrote: »

They used to say that if you pre-register, they will hold the offer open for a month. Not sure if that still applies, the website should explain.
The odds are that the offer will be extended again anyway, it already has been twice before.
FUP applies to all LLU packages, just as it does on every other 'unlimited' package. Can't imagine anyone on Access would ever be able to breach FUP anyway, they have enough problems just getting their emails to download

bt already gave me the number that the line will have, can i just sign up on sunday night?

it's not like they'll actually do anything before the line has been connected on monday morning anyway is it?

kwikbreaks

macman wrote: »

As long as you're on LLU, the vast majority of O2 customers are happy bunnies, and likely to stay with them.

Don't bank on it - plenty of people have no clue how fast or slow their connection runs (how else would the likes of BT be the biggest ISP in the country) and could be tempted away by the likes of a bundled calls package or some other irrelevant tat that works out 5p a fortnight cheaper in exchange for a 2 year contract signed in blood.

macman

You can sign up now if you have the number. By the sound of you don't need to wait for a MAC.