O2 Access (or other non-LLU)

herman2811

No ISPs have an LLU presence on my exchange, and due to continually slow speeds on AOL, I am considering changing to O2 Access.

Is this a good idea or not??? Despite O2's generally excellent reputation, after a bit of googling, I'm now reading that O2 Access has mixed reviews. There also seems to be issues with their "unlimited downloads" not actually being unlimited. FYI, I estimate I download approx 15GB per month (+ 5GB probably)

As I'm reliant on BT Wholesale, am I still likely to experience slow download speeds whoever I change to??

An O2 salesman actaully phoned me the other day to virtually guarantee me a download speed of 7MB (BT say my line is capable of 6.5MB). I'd be happy with half that to be honest, because at the moment, at peak times I'm lucky to get a tenth of that!
When I questioned the salesman further, he said that many other ISPs have a contention ratio of 25:1, whereas if I went to O2 access, I would have my own connection so I shouldn't experience the same slow download speeds I am right now.

Should I trust them and take the plunge?!

My dilemma is that at the moment I'm paying £15/month for unlimited downloads on an old AOL deal (who won't improve on the price, I've tried!). Am happy to pay a bit more to get better download speeds (as long as still unlimited downloads), but don't want to pay more to anyone else if I'm going to experience the same problems - and I won't be able to go back to my AOL deal as they don't offer it anymore.

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

macman

O2 LLU is great, O2 Access is terrrible. Totally different products. Don't do it. AOL or O2 Access, your line will still be on the same BT Wholesale service, the speed is unlikely to be any faster. The salesman is talking complete rubbish-normal residential contention ratios are 25:1, O2 does not offer 1:1!
Very few unlimited deals on non-LLU services, and certainly not at £15.
However, If BT say your line is capable of 6.5Mb and you are getting a tenth of that, it indicates a problem either with your line, router, wireless connection, internal wiring or filters. Changing your ISP will not cure any of that. You need to work through each area and eliminate any faults before blaming AOL.

herman2811

macman wrote: »

However, If BT say your line is capable of 6.5Mb and you are getting a tenth of that, it indicates a problem either with your line, router, wireless connection, internal wiring or filters. Changing your ISP will not cure any of that. You need to work through each area and eliminate any faults before blaming AOL.

Yep, been through all that with AOL - in fact, had several months of trying to sort the issues (including BT engineers etc), but they now say there's nothing more they can do!

Would changing supplier sort the issue? I don't know!

kwikbreaks

Post up your router stats
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

macman

No it wouldn't. As already stated, your new service would run over exactly the same BT lines, both on the local loop and beyond.
Moving from AOL might improve your speed at peak times if the contention problem was reduced. What speed are you getting outside of peak times (i.e. is this just a contention issue or something more than that)?
Have you retested your speed using an ethernet connection from the BT test socket behnd the master socket faceplate?

herman2811

macman wrote: »

No it wouldn't. As already stated, your new service would run over exactly the same BT lines, both on the local loop and beyond.
Moving from AOL might improve your speed at peak times if the contention problem was reduced. What speed are you getting outside of peak times (i.e. is this just a contention issue or something more than that)?
Have you retested your speed using an ethernet connection from the BT test socket behnd the master socket faceplate?

Thanks for the advice.

Not always the case, but I generally get anything between 3MB - 6MB during off-peak times, which is absolutely fine!

Bit confused about contention ratios: if my exchange is BT wholesale, and if AOL's contention ratio is 25:1, is the connection being shared by 25 AOL users, or by 25 users of any ISP?

Yes, have tested the connection at the master socket by bypassing the house wiring, and actually I now have one of those new BT accelerator plates that means I don't need any filters any more.

herman2811

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Post up your router stats
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

Not at home at the moment, so will post the info tonight.

macman

So it does sounds like AOL is throttling your speed at peak hours then.
But still worth posting your stats to eliminate anything else.

herman2811

macman wrote: »

So it does sounds like AOL is throttling your speed at peak hours then.
But still worth posting your stats to eliminate anything else.

Have asked them, and they said they aren't throttling me - of course, they might be lying!

Could you please explain about contention ratios, to aid my understanding?

macman

http://www.chooseisp.co.uk/broadband-guide/faqs/contention-ratio.html

herman2811

macman wrote: »

http://www.chooseisp.co.uk/broadband-guide/faqs/contention-ratio.html

Thanks, thats helpful.

Further to that, on a ratio of eg 25:1 on BT wholesale, would it be 25 AOL users sharing the bandwidth, or 25 users of any ISP sharing it?