BT FTTP vs other ISP FTTP

mcdermott_c

Currently have FTTP 500mb with BT and have not had any problems, other than the renewal price.  Spoke to retention and the offer they gave me isn't competitive to other ISPs (new customer). Thinking about switching FTTP to another supplier like SKY, but wondered what the connection will be like. I know with cheaper ADSL ISP (like TalkTalk) the price was way cheaper, but then you shared your cable with more customers so at peak times you did not get full bandwidth.
Would I have the same issue with FTTP? I assumed since the cable comes directly into my home I am now sharing the bandwidth with other houses (until I get back to the comms box at end of road)? Is this correct, or will I have the same issues I had when leaving BT ADSL?

Peter999_2

I had TalkTalk through City fibre for about 8 years and always got the full 900Mbps both up and down with no contention problems at all.

To be honest, BT in my eyes are the worse FTTP provider as they only offer paltry upload speed (it's something like 100Mbps on their 900Mbps download package.       Even KCOM offer upload speeds of 500MBps on their 500Mbps package.

mcdermott_c

Peter999_2 said:

I had TalkTalk through City fibre for about 8 years and always got the full 900Mbps both up and down with no contention problems at all.

To be honest, BT in my eyes are the worse FTTP provider as they only offer paltry upload speed (it's something like 100Mbps on their 900Mbps download package.       Even KCOM offer upload speeds of 500MBps on their 500Mbps package.

Ok, thanks. On my 500mb I only get 73MB upload. If contention ratio is not a thing with FTTP I might just go for it. Can't see the reason (now) to go with BT at a higher cost?

Peter999_2

I can't either.   However, you need to make sure that you are moving to someone who will use an Alt-Net for you and not just using BT Openreach.        

Go onto Better Internet Dashboard, put in your postcode and it will tell you what alt-nets are available as well as openreach.   If you tell use what you find you can have we can probably tell you which are good and which aren't.

mcdermott_c

Peter999_2 said:

I can't either.   However, you need to make sure that you are moving to someone who will use an Alt-Net for you and not just using BT Openreach.        

Go onto Better Internet Dashboard, put in your postcode and it will tell you what alt-nets are available as well as openreach.   If you tell use what you find you can have we can probably tell you which are good and which aren't.

Thanks for the help.

Here are lists it provides:

Roadwork providers:

Openreach

Unplanned

CityFibre
Jurassic Fibre
Toob
Hey!Broadband
Technological
Swish Fibre
YouFibre
ogi
brsk
Full Fibre Ltd
Airband
Connect Fibre
Zzoomm
Gigaclear
Freedom Fibre
Grain Connect

Not Live

Community Fibre
Trooli
G.Network
KCom
Pine Media
Country Connect
MS3 Networks
Lightning Fibre
Fibrus
B4SH
Lit Fibre
OFNL
Virgin Media
Openreach FTTP local
1310


I assume this means I only have Openreach to choose from lol ?

littleboo

It sounds as if you are happy with your current asymmetric service over Openreach so you have the choice of the many ISP who provide service over. Upload speed is important for some people, but less so for most. As an aside, FTTP is a contended service, all consumer grade services are, but you are unlikely to notice.

mcdermott_c

littleboo said:

It sounds as if you are happy with your current asymmetric service over Openreach so you have the choice of the many ISP who provide service over. Upload speed is important for some people, but less so for most. As an aside, FTTP is a contended service, all consumer grade services are, but you are unlikely to notice.

I had incorrectly assumed FTTP from BT was not contended so my thinking was that if I moved to a new provider (who use BT infrastructure) that I would now be sharing a connection (somewhere up the chain) with a lot more people so at peak times I am going to get much less bandwidth. 

Peter999_2

mcdermott_c said:

Peter999_2 said:

I can't either.   However, you need to make sure that you are moving to someone who will use an Alt-Net for you and not just using BT Openreach.        

Go onto Better Internet Dashboard, put in your postcode and it will tell you what alt-nets are available as well as openreach.   If you tell use what you find you can have we can probably tell you which are good and which aren't.

Thanks for the help.

Here are lists it provides:

Roadwork providers:

Openreach

Unplanned

CityFibre
Jurassic Fibre
Toob
Hey!Broadband
Technological
Swish Fibre
YouFibre
ogi
brsk
Full Fibre Ltd
Airband
Connect Fibre
Zzoomm
Gigaclear
Freedom Fibre
Grain Connect

Not Live

Community Fibre
Trooli
G.Network
KCom
Pine Media
Country Connect
MS3 Networks
Lightning Fibre
Fibrus
B4SH
Lit Fibre
OFNL
Virgin Media
Openreach FTTP local
1310


I assume this means I only have Openreach to choose from lol ?

Yes, it looks like Openreach is all you can get.    It's not a bad thing though - at least you can get FTTP from someone.

I have dealt with a lot of FTTP connections for various people and they all seemed to get the speed they should get at all times.     Don't forget the speed is only really applicable for devices directly wired into the router - with wifi you are at the mercy of the maximum speed the wifi device can cope with.    When our street first got FTTP a lot of people were telling me that they couldn't get more than 400Mbps - every single one of them was using wifi and the people connected directly to the router got the full speed.

I personally don't think BT themselves are any better than other providers and seem to be far more expensive.   I've known people with TalkTalk, Vodafone, Zen etc.  and all of them seemed to be fine until there was an issue and then people like TalkTalk and Vodafone were more difficult to get help - though it seems to be a lot rarer these days to have problems.

I don't even think about contention anymore as it doesn't seem to be the sort of problem that it used to be in the ADSL/VDSL days.   

If I were you, I'd be going to cashback sites like Topcashback, or sites like Uswitch (and of course MSE) to look for the best deals and then look at reviews for that company.

35har1old

Peter999_2 said:

mcdermott_c said:

Peter999_2 said:

I can't either.   However, you need to make sure that you are moving to someone who will use an Alt-Net for you and not just using BT Openreach.        

Go onto Better Internet Dashboard, put in your postcode and it will tell you what alt-nets are available as well as openreach.   If you tell use what you find you can have we can probably tell you which are good and which aren't.

Thanks for the help.

Here are lists it provides:

Roadwork providers:

Openreach

Unplanned

CityFibre
Jurassic Fibre
Toob
Hey!Broadband
Technological
Swish Fibre
YouFibre
ogi
brsk
Full Fibre Ltd
Airband
Connect Fibre
Zzoomm
Gigaclear
Freedom Fibre
Grain Connect

Not Live

Community Fibre
Trooli
G.Network
KCom
Pine Media
Country Connect
MS3 Networks
Lightning Fibre
Fibrus
B4SH
Lit Fibre
OFNL
Virgin Media
Openreach FTTP local
1310


I assume this means I only have Openreach to choose from lol ?

Yes, it looks like Openreach is all you can get.    It's not a bad thing though - at least you can get FTTP from someone.

I have dealt with a lot of FTTP connections for various people and they all seemed to get the speed they should get at all times.     Don't forget the speed is only really applicable for devices directly wired into the router - with wifi you are at the mercy of the maximum speed the wifi device can cope with.    When our street first got FTTP a lot of people were telling me that they couldn't get more than 400Mbps - every single one of them was using wifi and the people connected directly to the router got the full speed.

I personally don't think BT themselves are any better than other providers and seem to be far more expensive.   I've known people with TalkTalk, Vodafone, Zen etc.  and all of them seemed to be fine until there was an issue and then people like TalkTalk and Vodafone were more difficult to get help - though it seems to be a lot rarer these days to have problems.

I don't even think about contention anymore as it doesn't seem to be the sort of problem that it used to be in the ADSL/VDSL days.   

If I were you, I'd be going to cashback sites like Topcashback, or sites like Uswitch (and of course MSE) to look for the best deals and then look at reviews for that company.

Currently out of contract with TalkTalk paying £26.50
Just happen to go into my account today when advert pops up secure a deal today before contract ends for £28 rising to £31 next April and rising again to £34 you have lto laugh 😃 😀 

mcdermott_c

Peter999_2 said:

mcdermott_c said:

Peter999_2 said:

I can't either.   However, you need to make sure that you are moving to someone who will use an Alt-Net for you and not just using BT Openreach.        

Go onto Better Internet Dashboard, put in your postcode and it will tell you what alt-nets are available as well as openreach.   If you tell use what you find you can have we can probably tell you which are good and which aren't.

Thanks for the help.

Here are lists it provides:

Roadwork providers:

Openreach

Unplanned

CityFibre
Jurassic Fibre
Toob
Hey!Broadband
Technological
Swish Fibre
YouFibre
ogi
brsk
Full Fibre Ltd
Airband
Connect Fibre
Zzoomm
Gigaclear
Freedom Fibre
Grain Connect

Not Live

Community Fibre
Trooli
G.Network
KCom
Pine Media
Country Connect
MS3 Networks
Lightning Fibre
Fibrus
B4SH
Lit Fibre
OFNL
Virgin Media
Openreach FTTP local
1310


I assume this means I only have Openreach to choose from lol ?

Yes, it looks like Openreach is all you can get.    It's not a bad thing though - at least you can get FTTP from someone.

I have dealt with a lot of FTTP connections for various people and they all seemed to get the speed they should get at all times.     Don't forget the speed is only really applicable for devices directly wired into the router - with wifi you are at the mercy of the maximum speed the wifi device can cope with.    When our street first got FTTP a lot of people were telling me that they couldn't get more than 400Mbps - every single one of them was using wifi and the people connected directly to the router got the full speed.

I personally don't think BT themselves are any better than other providers and seem to be far more expensive.   I've known people with TalkTalk, Vodafone, Zen etc.  and all of them seemed to be fine until there was an issue and then people like TalkTalk and Vodafone were more difficult to get help - though it seems to be a lot rarer these days to have problems.

I don't even think about contention anymore as it doesn't seem to be the sort of problem that it used to be in the ADSL/VDSL days.   

If I were you, I'd be going to cashback sites like Topcashback, or sites like Uswitch (and of course MSE) to look for the best deals and then look at reviews for that company.

Ok, thanks. If contention is not likely to be a problem I am definitely going to look elsewhere. BT lady said the reason their prices are higher is because it includes engineer support, wheras, with other companies i'd need to pay a £120 engineer fee if something goes wrong - not sure if that is true.

In any case looks like I can 500mb FTTP from the below suppliers so will look at a few reviews, although trust pilot seems a waste of time as they all get 88% 1 star reviews lol I know people generally only leave reviews when things are bad, but doesn't help trying to avoid a bad egg lol

Sky
PlusNet
Vodaphone

Thanks for help