O2 Access (or other non-LLU)

kwikbreaks

herman2811 wrote: »

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?

Most all-you-can-eat deals are not throttled - that requires hardware which costs money. All that happens is that there are vastly more users than the bandwidth available can support so the slowdown is simple contention. If you take several speedtests and they vary all over the place then that is contention rather than throttling which would simply set a ceiling which you'd reach as often as not (unless there is throttling and big contention problems too of course )

BTw stopped quoting contention ratios several years ago.

jonny115

I have been with O2 with mobile phone and broadband for over a year now and find it brilliant value for money, with excellent customer service as well, I highly recommend them to anyone best ISP by far I have had to date.

herman2811

kwikbreaks wrote: »

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

Can't paste the info very well... what do you need?

ADSL Link Downstream: Upstream
Connection Speed 6944 kbps : 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 32 db : 9.5 db
Noise Margin 11 db : 26 db

kwikbreaks

herman2811 wrote: »

Can't paste the info very well... what do you need?

ADSL Link Downstream: Upstream
Connection Speed 6944 kbps : 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 32 db : 9.5 db
Noise Margin 11 db : 26 db

Yes.
Those stats look fine apart from a higher than default noise margin reducing your speed slightly from what should be a maximum sync.

It may well be possible to improve your internal wiring and get a rock solid maximum sync but even as it stands if you regularly aren't getting downloads in the region of 6Mbps then the reason is your ISP.

Gloomendoom

herman2811 wrote: »

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

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Don't do it. O2 promised me 7 mb when I switched from TalkTalk/Tiscali. This is what I got between 5.00 pm and 1.00 am....



Not much better than dial up. I phoned up to complain and they suggested the fault was at my end. I countered by pointing out that between 1.00 am and 7.00 am (roughly) the speed jumped up to 5 mb. They couldn't explain that, so I asked for a MAC and moved to Plusnet. I now get 6 mb+ in the evenings.

The only good thing about O2 Access is their customer service. TalkTalk could learn a lot from them.