'Outdated' landline charges should be scrapped

System

Further digging and help from here I found out it might be only 11Mbps . Surely there is a better phase than 'up to'

Would you prefer them to say

' This product is capable of providing 38Mb. However the speed that you achieve is dependent upon the quality of your telephone line, the distance from the exchange, the quality and standard of any internal wiring and connections in your house, the make and model of your router, the configuration of your router and the setup of your PC. These are just some of the variables that are outside the control of ISPs that affect your final speed'

I don't think anybody will read that

littleboo

Terry98 wrote: »

Like '11 - 17 Mb' which I only found out after asking the question on here. That is nothing like 'Up to 38mb'

Tha'ts your personal prediction, other people will comfortably get 30+Mb, so calling the product 11-17Mb would be completely inaccurate. The "up to" label is not perfect, but it's the only way of describing a product that will give varying results. As you have seen, you can then get a personalised estimate if you're interested.

Terry98

littleboo wrote: »

Tha'ts your personal prediction, other people will comfortably get 30+Mb, so calling the product 11-17Mb would be completely inaccurate. The "up to" label is not perfect, but it's the only way of describing a product that will give varying results. As you have seen, you can then get a personalised estimate if you're interested.

Instead of 'UP TO' what about 'FROM'?

The ISP's would not like that but it would give the average customer a starting point to work on.

kwikbreaks

Specifying a "from" speed is even worse than an upto because as a general case the "from" would have to be around dialup speeds from the previous century.

BT will not sell FTTC under the "Infinity" branding if they can't provide 15Mbps+ but they still will still sell FTTC under some other name which currently escapes me. All the other FTTC providers I'm aware of just sell it as upto 38Mbps or upto 76Mbps.

Rubidium

Terry98 wrote: »

Instead of 'UP TO' what about 'FROM'?

The ISP's would not like that but it would give the average customer a starting point to work on.

ISP's will give you a predicted speed before you sign up but the actual achievable speed is out of the ISP's control, so your suggestion is no better.

There is nothing wrong with saying "up to" as that is factually correct because each customer has a different line back to the cab or exchange.

Even next door neighbours can be connected to a different exchange or use a different cable which may be new or old.

lee111s

BT call it "faster broadband"

prosaver

Ian011 wrote: »

You will always have to pay for the physical line otherwise there is nothing to deliver the broadband signal over.

What people want is a line which cannot be used for calls and which has no calls element within the monthly price. Currently, BT's most basic deal combines line rental and inclusive weekend calls to 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 numbers. People want and will expect a lower price if the calls element is removed.

The cost for broadband will go on top of this lower reduced line rental.

what if you got virgin optic cable you dont use the land line..do they still charge though ?
virgin have started digging up the pavements here for cable and Im thinking of switching.

andyca

prosaver wrote: »

what if you got virgin optic cable you dont use the land line..do they still charge though ?

I have the Virgin "Broadband Only" option because I needed the landline to be BT for a previous requirement related to my employers working from home networking solution. (Long story and not important)

Anyway, I'm paying more for Broadband Only than I would pay for Virgin Broadband and phone line. Which is dumb and I would stop doing it but BT can't seem to get their acts together! :eek: *grumble grumble*

Paying more for less is a stupid situation and I hope these do get separated.

Spookieuk

prosaver wrote: »

what if you got virgin optic cable you dont use the land line..do they still charge though ?
virgin have started digging up the pavements here for cable and Im thinking of switching.

They bundle the costs in to the price of the broadband. So it maybe slightly cheaper, but only just.

andyca

Spookieuk wrote: »

They bundle the costs in to the price of the broadband. So it maybe slightly cheaper, but only just.

I was curious so I looked it up. On a new package for 12 months...
Broadband Only: £372.99
Broadband&Phone: £393.87 (on Virgin Media Website)
Broadband&Phone: £253.99* (Via uSwitch with line rental saver)

I couldn't find any deals for the broadband only option, so it's considerably cheaper to get Broadband and Phone together.

*New customers only