ADSL BB why pay more 31 October 2021 at 5:46PM in Broadband & internet access 11 replies 482 views

the_gardener_2

My ADSL bb is up for renewal.   I live on the edge between two exchanges.   So right at the very end of the fibre and end of the copper.    The download sppeds are awful. 5 mb
on a good day.   It does most things well enough.    I refuse to use virgin and mobile for lots of reasons.   
Question is it worth paying anymore than the absolute cheapest when I suspect i still will not get any faster.   
btw I live in the outskirts of Guildford 

neilmcl

Put your details into the following and post what you see?

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

littleboo

ADSL is dependant on distance from the exchange, VDSL (FTTC) is dependant on the distance to the cabinet. Full fibre to the premise does not have distance limitations, so as above, see what services and speeds are available to you

The_Groat_Counter

littleboo said:

ADSL is dependant on distance from the exchange, VDSL (FTTC) is dependant on the distance to the cabinet. Full fibre to the premises does not have distance limitations, so as above, see what services and speeds are available to you.

Just to decode a little...

FTTC is fibre to the cabinet (that's a cabinet in the street or road - most of the time these are green.)

To complete the acronyms, fibre to the premises is commonly abbreviated to FTTP (and is also often called "full fibre").

This infographic (from this BBC article) is a good visual summary of the differences between ADSL, FTTC and FTTP:

Most places (though not all) can now get FTTC, whilst the reach of FTTP is much smaller but growing fast.

To the OP - an FTTC connection, as well as being faster, is also generally much more stable and reliable than an ADSL connection.

If you have FTTC available where you live, you will almost certainly get a far better broadband service. Essentially in an FTTC or FTTP set up, the distances are too small for the signals down a fibre optic cable to degrade - longer-distance fibre optic cables meanwhile feature to boost the signal.

For FTTC, the BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker mentioned earlier should show which street cabinet a premesis is served by - the cabinet numbers are actually displayed on the street cabinets, so with a bit of investigation you should be able to work out which cabinet serves you.

The street cabinet will in all liklihood be much closer to you than your distant exchange - meaning the distance the broadband signal has to traverse the copper wires to your abode will be far shorter. The result should be a faster and more reliable connection.

FTTC isn't that much more expensive than ADSL nowadays. I'd suggest giving it a go. (Worth noting that confusingly, FTTC is commonly advertised as being "fibre broadband";  FTTP in contrast is commonly advertised as "full fibre";  Weetabix meanwhile is "high in fibre", but it's internet connectivity properties aren't anything to shout about.)

brewerdave

The_Groat_Counter said:

littleboo said:

ADSL is dependant on distance from the exchange, VDSL (FTTC) is dependant on the distance to the cabinet. Full fibre to the premises does not have distance limitations, so as above, see what services and speeds are available to you.

Just to decode a little...

FTTC is fibre to the cabinet (that's a cabinet in the street or road - most of the time these are green.)

To complete the acronyms, fibre to the premises is commonly abbreviated to FTTP (and is also often called "full fibre").

This infographic (from this BBC article) is a good visual summary of the differences between ADSL, FTTC and FTTP:

Most places (though not all) can now get FTTC, whilst the reach of FTTP is much smaller but growing fast.

To the OP - an FTTC connection, as well as being faster, is also generally much more stable and reliable than an ADSL connection.

If you have FTTC available where you live, you will almost certainly get a far better broadband service. Essentially in an FTTC or FTTP set up, the distances are too small for the signals down a fibre optic cable to degrade - longer-distance fibre optic cables meanwhile feature to boost the signal.

For FTTC, the BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker mentioned earlier should show which street cabinet a premesis is served by - the cabinet numbers are actually displayed on the street cabinets, so with a bit of investigation you should be able to work out which cabinet serves you.

The street cabinet will in all liklihood be much closer to you than your distant exchange - meaning the distance the broadband signal has to traverse the copper wires to your abode will be far shorter. The result should be a faster and more reliable connection.

FTTC isn't that much more expensive than ADSL nowadays. I'd suggest giving it a go. (Worth noting that confusingly, FTTC is commonly advertised as being "fibre broadband";  FTTP in contrast is commonly advertised as "full fibre";  Weetabix meanwhile is "high in fibre", but it's internet connectivity properties aren't anything to should about.)

At renewal, as annual line rental was not available anymore. I upgraded from ADSL to FTTC with Plusnet - and the negotiated price was actually less than my previous deal inc. line rental !

the_gardener_2

Thank you to all. It looks like I am fair way off the BT full fibre roll out.   Also looks like I am also a long way from from the cabinet which I have identified.   

Very informative    links  and so is this   BT Wholesale UK Broadband Checker Adds a Few New Details UPDATE - ISPreview UK

neilmcl

the_gardener_2 said:

Thank you to all. It looks like I am fair way off the BT full fibre roll out.   Also looks like I am also a long way from from the cabinet which I have identified.   

Very informative    links  and so is this   BT Wholesale UK Broadband Checker Adds a Few New Details UPDATE - ISPreview UK

Care to post your results from the checker?

phillw

the_gardener_2 said:

Question is it worth paying anymore than the absolute cheapest when I suspect i still will not get any faster.   
btw I live in the outskirts of Guildford 

In my experience, how much you pay doesn't seem to have any relationship to the broadband speed you get when your line is that bad. It might have some effect on the customer service and billing departments, but not much.

I wouldn't throw money at ADSL in the hope that you'll get faster speeds. Cheapest wins in my book.

I would avoid using your ISP's DNS server however, I've had various cheap ISP and their DNS servers will just stop responding for some reason.

I also have my own cable router which I just plug into the back of whichever ADSL router my ISP has sent. It ends up with a situation called double NAT, sometimes you can avoid it but not always and it's not a big deal for most people & can be beneficial for security. It makes switching providers really easy because nothing ever needs to be reconfigured.

The router cost me £150 (it was top of the line dual band when I got it ten years ago) but it's paid for itself as I never had to worry about how bad the routers were going to be that the cheaper providers used

the_gardener_2

neilmcl said:

the_gardener_2 said:

Thank you to all. It looks like I am fair way off the BT full fibre roll out.   Also looks like I am also a long way from from the cabinet which I have identified.   

Very informative    links  and so is this   BT Wholesale UK Broadband Checker Adds a Few New Details UPDATE - ISPreview UK

Care to post your results from the checker?

hope this helps  any comments appreciated

onomatopoeia99

You can get FTTC.  Why are you talking about ADSL?

neilmcl

As above, you can get FTTC but not the 63mpbs+ service, so look around for providers with the 36-38mbps speeds.