New customer - seeking advice

kwikbreaks

You listed O2 as an LLU supplier so they will be able to offer faster than 8Mbps assuming that your line can support it.

Have a read around this forum and also http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/login.php and http://www.dslzoneuk.net/forum/index.php Take particular note of http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

Some O2 comments will be negative but these will almost always turn out to be for the non-LLU Access product - that also pulls down their DSLZone ranking (which does not separate out LLU and non-LLU) for sure because it really is a dog of a product. Some have even said it can be worse than Orange.

Given the choice between Orange and O2 very few with any knowledge of the brodband market would recommend Orange.

If your sole criteria is price then take Orange if it is cheaper for you but you will be buying a vastly inferior product for sure

penrhyn

The speed you will actually get depends on your distance from the exchange, noise on the line and the state of your internal wiring. Unless you can see the exchange through your window you wont get 20Mbps.
You can use samknows to estimate the speed you will get by doing a mapsearch.

Here is a nice speed/reach graph to use when you have found out your distance.

MsRed1

Good chart. I'm 2500m from the exchange and I get between 14-15Mbps with Be.

gemstars

Thanks penrhyn!

I've looked and I think I'm about 320 metres from the exchange, looking at the graph you provided - do you know how I can find out which coloured bar I should be looking at?

macman

gemstars wrote: »

Thanks for your help, I may get my head round this yet.

I haven't got my workings out to hand but I'll check them later.

02
8 meg download speed
£12.50 per month (im not an o2 mobile customer)
first 2 months free
I'm assuming BT landline rental is needed at £11.54 per month
Total £250.98

Orange
20 meg download speed
£6.50 per month (I am an orange customer) or £9.50 without
first 3 months free
Orange line rental £10.50 per month
Total £184.50

Are you stating that 02 are the cheapest mainly because of the Quidco cashback? I haven't factored cashback sites in, maybe that should be my next research point.

Please let me know if I'm missing something, there's so much smallprint!

EDIT: the totals I've put in are for broadband and line rental over a 12 month period, which is what I've been working out to compare packages.

Factor in £75 02 cashback from Quidco and it looks a bit different. And if you get a PAYG 02 mobile it will cost you £40 per year to save £60. It's a no-brainer on cost alone.
Personally I wouldn't have Orange broadband even if it was free.,

gemstars

Thanks again.

Sorry for all the questions but could someone point me in the direction of finding out which providers fit into which of the ASDL services in the graph above for my area? I've googled it so I've got a basic idea of what they mean but I can't find anything which tells me which providers support which speeds.

Thanks again!

macman

gemstars wrote: »

Thanks again.

Sorry for all the questions but could someone point me in the direction of finding out which providers fit into which of the ASDL services in the graph above for my area? I've googled it so I've got a basic idea of what they mean but I can't find anything which tells me which providers support which speeds.

Thanks again!

What exchange are you on?-the speed is exchange determined, not provider determined (i.e. ISP X might give you ADSL2+ on one exchange, but not on another).
But basically ADSL is up to 8 Mbps and ADSL2+ up to 24Mbps.

gemstars

macman wrote: »

What exchange are you on?-the speed is exchange determined, not provider determined (i.e. ISP X might give you ADSL2+ on one exchange, but not on another).
But basically ADSL is up to 8 Mbps and ADSL2+ up to 24Mbps.

The SamKnows search tells me this

Exchange name OLO County Region
Felling NEF Gateshead North East

Does that help?

macman

samknows say that O2/Be and Sky are ADSL2+ on that exchange, and that you have O2/Be, Orange and Sky as your LLU options.
If you use the exchange mapping page on samknows and put in your postcode, that will give you more details.
For my money 02 is by far the best option there.

gemstars

[URL="javascript:toggle_display('adsl_ext_1')"]ADSL available at ~6.5Mbps[/URL]
BT Total broadband
TalkTalk LLU (8M is free)
Sky LLU (2M is free, 8M is £5pm)
AOL broadband (non-LLU)
Pipex broadband
Plusnet broadband
Tiscali broadband
And many more...
[URL="javascript:toggle_display('adsl2p_ext_1')"]ADSL2+ available at ~16Mbps[/URL]
Be Unlimited
O2 broadband
UK Online (incl 20M packages)
Sky Max (LLU) (16M for £10pcm)
[URL="javascript:toggle_display('cable_ext_1')"]Cable services available[/URL]
Virgin Media broadband (20M)
Virgin Media digital TV
Virgin Media phone

Is this what I was looking for?

Does this mean that an 8mbps service will actually give me around a 6.5mbps speed and a 20mbps service will actually give me around a 16mbps service?

I'll compare all the packages available from the ASDL2+ providers now.