Infinity in area with poor standard broadband

blueberrypie

I'm considering switching to BT Infinity but would like opinions on whether it's likely to be worth it.

We are a long way from our nearest BT exchange, and our current broadband speed is slow - ISP (Plusnet) says we can get 2mb but our download speed is more like 256kb. This isn't just a Plusnet problem - we've only just moved to them, and we had the same problem with Newnet, and before that with Pipex.

There's no cable in the area. The exchange is LLU, but the only providers are Sky, TalkTalk, AOL and O2. O2 wouldn't offer us a broadband service at all, saying we were too far from the exchange to get a good service, and I can't say I'd be keen to deal with any of the other three.

We're now able to get Infinity - but how accurate are the estimations offered before you sign up? It's saying 33mb download and 7mb upload - can we rely on that, or are we likely to see speeds substantially lower than that? I suspect the telephone wiring in the house isn't fabulous - the broadband service does seem to be all-too-easily interfered with by other events (like turning on the garage light - but only occasionally!) and I'm concerned that we'll sign up for 18 months on Infinity and find we're not really getting much for our money.

Or is Infinity completely different and none of the above will matter and we can expect to get that 33mb? (I can't even imagine it! LOL)

Any thoughts?

wacko911

The speed you get with FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) depends on the distance to the green box usually at the end of your street, not your distance to the exchange. With an est. of 33mbps I would say its right outside your door and you will prolly get more like 37-40mbps.

macman

If it's an internal problem that is slowing things down even more, then why don't your sort out your internal wiring-every little helps?
Have you done a speed test (using ethernet not wireless) connected to the BT test socket behind the BT master socket split faceplate? This will isolate your internal wiring and give you a good idea of the actual speed your line can support.
No doubt FTTC can make a huge difference in your situation, but of course it comes at a high price. And if you intend to make use of all that new bandwidth, then the Option 1 cap is going to be pathetically inadequate-you'll need the even more expensive Option 2.

blueberrypie

Thanks for the replies.

To wacko911 - that's very reassuring. It does sound like it's worth us going ahead and ordering. I believe the cabinet is a couple of hundred metres away, but there could, I suppose, be one closer that I haven't noticed.

To macman - we have had a BT engineer here with his own netbook-type-thing plugged into the main socket - he confirmed that on a 2mb connection, it was dropping every few seconds, and it was then throttled to 1mb, on the basis that a steady 1mb was better than a not-working 2mb. We are now on a (theoretical) 2mb connection without that problem (maybe because some of the wiring between the exchange and us has been replaced in the meantime?) So I think most of the problem isn't down to internal wiring. It's not a very old house (15 years) and the garage light (a fluorescent one) is the only thing that seems to interfere on occasion. To be honest, I can live with that - it's a good reminder to turn the light off ;-)

I was thinking we'd go for Option 3, which works out to be the cheapest over 18 months. I don't imagine the 2mb upload speed would feel too slow for us ;-) and until recently we had a 12gb bandwidth allowance, which we often came close to, but never actually passed, so the 40gb allowance would, I think, be fine. Also I suspect that if we got part-way through the 18 months and decided to upgrade, BT might be more willing than if we were on a higher-cost package and wanted to reduce it.

blueberrypie

Just wanted to say another thanks to those who responded on this thread. We're now on FTTC service (with Plusnet, who offered us a vastly better deal than any of the BT options - same price we were paying, and no long contract) and the connection speed when wired directly to the box is 39mb - so wacko911 was right on :-)