BT Wholesale WBC - Sam Knows

David333

Hi there,

I am about to move house in a couple of weeks and am checking out the broadband situation in my new flat. I will be renting so I imagine that I'll have to wait until I actually move in before I can concretely sort anything out.

I have checked the postcode on Sam Knows and the summary says that the following services are available:-

BT Wholesale ADSL
BT Wholesale ADSL Max
BT Wholesale WBC (21CN)
TalkTalk (CPW) LLU

Can anyone give me any idea of what any of these means? It seems that BT Wholesale means that the exchange has been unbundled in a way that will give relatively high speeds.

I am currently with O2 and would like to stay with them (the service for the price has always been really good). However, I can't seem to get one of the better packages at my new flat. Virgin seem to provide it as do TalkTalk. Virgin unfortunately is more than twice what I'm paying at the moment (£12.50 a month) and TalkTalk seems reasonable. Does anyone have any suggestions?

penrhyn

The only LLU operator at the exchange is Talk Talk so they will have the cheapest offering. All other broadband services are supplied by BT.
The speed you'll get is dependent on your distance from the exchange.
There is a mapping feature on Samknows that would help there

David333

penrhyn wrote: »

The only LLU operator at the exchange is Talk Talk so they will have the cheapest offering. All other broadband services are supplied by BT.
The speed you'll get is dependent on your distance from the exchange.
There is a mapping feature on Samknows that would help there

Thanks for the reply.

Does that mean that I have two options: a) use TalkTalk's lines for phone and broadband? b) use BT's lines which haven't been unbundled for other broadband companies?

There isn't a third option of cheaper line rental with BT and broadband with TalkTalk for example?

Also, am I right in assuming that O2, etc need the BT lines to be unbundled before you can get the cheapest services through them?

Just to clarify, if BT's lines haven't been unbundled, how come I can get Virgin at my new place? Thanks!

David333

And secondly (sixthly?!), under BT Wholesale information it claims that the 21CN WBC status is enabled. That sounds like good news to me! Are there any providers which actually make use of this...? Any recommendations?

danpk

Other providers will be able to re-sell you the BT Wholesale service but you will normally find that the offering isn't cheap.

Sky call their re-sell package Broadband Connect and they'll charge you £17.50 a month for it and to be honest the usage limits aren't good and if you exceed them you'll find your connection traffic managed.

O2 call their offering Connect also I believe and think it's similarly priced.

As said previously your cheapest option will be TalkTalk but ultimately it's up to you to decide. If I were you I'd be avoiding any BT wholesale offering regardless of who it's supplied by.

danpk

Oh and we'll Virgin also provide two services, the first it provided over Thie own fiber network so doesn't rely upon the exchange being unbundled.

The second is again a re-sell of the BT wholesale service, if you do an availability check on the virgin website it should tell you whether you are in a virgin network area or whether it is the BT product you are being offered.

David333

Thanks for the help. Looks like TalkTalk is the way to go. They seem to have unlimited downloads which is what I need. I don't do any gaming so speed isn't that important, as long as it's possible to watch iplayer and a few films online...

danpk

Then check out your estimated speed for the new address with TalkTalk.

The ultimately limiting factor is the location of your home in relation to the telephone exchange, the longer the line the slower the speed.

David333

Estimated speed by TalkTalk is 12Mb (highest is 14.9; lowest is 6.5). That's reasonable for films and general browsing, isn't it?

eljmayes

David333 wrote: »

Estimated speed by TalkTalk is 12Mb (highest is 14.9; lowest is 6.5). That's reasonable for films and general browsing, isn't it?

That is a very good speed for an ADSL line- quick enough to everything online.

David333

eljmayes wrote: »

That is a very good speed for an ADSL line- quick enough to everything online.

That's good news. Let's hope we actually get that sort of speed!