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News Fibre guru blasts UK broadband

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 9 Jun 2010.

  1. gavomatic57

    gavomatic57 Minimodder

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    Chicken & Egg situation here - without the caps the current infrastructure may grind to a halt. You need the capacity in the network to offer limit-free broadband to everyone. The infrastructure has to come first - roads before cars etc.
     
  2. Almightyrastus

    Almightyrastus On the jazz.

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    It doesn't take a guru of anything to see that the UK telecomms network is pathetic beyond a joke. On my BT broadband line I am supposed to be getting 'up to' 8Mb/s (or is it 20 now, i have no idea). Evenings and weekends see that speed drop to quite often less than 1Mb/s or even 500kb/s. Now I am not a million miles from anywhere, out in the sticks, I am 3 miles away from Nottingham City Centre and about half a mile from the exchange.

    The biggest problem is that in general the UK has an attitude of "well it still works, that's good enough for now, no need to fix anything". This just will not work as a policy of mend and make do does not lead to the improvement of anything. Information pipelines should not 'just work', they are the backbone of anything that UK companies do and should be treated as such.

    I agree that the economical situation at the moment is not exactly condusive to a prolonged programme of infrastructure redevelopment but it is something that needs to be done and done sooner rather than later before the rest of the world really does leave us behind (and I am not just talking about places like S. Korea, Sweden and Japan here).
     
  3. steve30x

    steve30x What's a Dremel?

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    I live in Ireland and I have three options for my internet. Theres the lowest of 30MB/s , Middle of 60MB/s and highest of 120MB/s. I dont see the need for 120mB/s. I dont realy think 60mb/s is needed but I opted for the 60MB/s internet anyway.

    The 30mb/s internet would have done just fine if they supplied a decent modem but the modem they supply has a router built into it with terribly bad security , but the modem they supply with the 60mb/s and 120mb/s internet is a good cisco Wireless N router also. I have been with this ISP with seven and a half years and I have no download limits and my internet speed has never been capped.

    The problem I see is all those companies like the RIAA etc. trying to restrict what we do on the internet so its kind of pointless realy having high speed internet with no download cap.
     
  4. TWeaK

    TWeaK Minimodder

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    I feel for you mate. I used to live in Ormskirk which is probably more rural and I got a bit more (~1.5mbps). I would've really thought Warrington would be much better than that.

    Also, you're not, nor anyone else for that matter, stuck with BT - at least not technically. Almost all the other broadband providers use BT's lines and exchanges, but often at lower prices with certain perks depending on the package. It's only LLU providers (of which there are few) who pretty much bypass BT's systems. Also, LLU providers have lower contention ratios (20:1 instead of 50:1).

    Seriously, ditch that business line and get a regular one. Or, you could try my provider: ADSL24. They're a reseller who offers both Be Unlimited and Cable & Wireless LLU where available (really no point going for the Be option, C&W all the way) and regular broadband everywhere else. I'm not sure if they have a direct deal with BT now but they used to resell their regular non-LLU broadband from Entanet (a big business supplier). They also do some business options, if there's anything in there that you actually need.

    Failing that, Plus.net are supposed to be good - they keep getting recommended by CPC and have very cheap prices.

    @edit: Also ADSL24 have no download limit on their LLU packages, while the regular packages have a 30GB a month peak time limit (Mon-Fri 8am-10pm) and unlimited any other time. I imagine Plus.net are probably similar. There are plenty of uncapped connections if you go for smaller companies. You also tend to get much better customer service.
     
    Last edited: 9 Jun 2010
  5. crazyceo

    crazyceo What's a Dremel?

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    I haven't experienced that problem at all. Whenever I've asked it's up there to the max but I've never experienced any throttle over larger longer downloads either.
     
  6. javaman

    javaman May irritate Eyes

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    At best we get 3Mb/s with BT. Last few nights tho Ive been sitting at 1Mb/s. Its fine for gaming and standard quality on TV catchup, but whats the point in paying for "faster" broadband when no company can actually provide it with 100% guarentee?This "upto" **** doesn't help. I'd rather pay for what I can get not what I can get if a blue moon is in the sky. Its like playing the lottery, I have a chance of getting XX million, more likely im gonna get a tenner.

    Did upgrade to get unlimited data and im happy with that. We're not in a free view area so I watch all TV through my PC. Just wish I could get HD quality tho, even higher quality would be nice! Gaming wise I've had no problems. I guess overall 1-3MB/s is fast enough for 90% of the public who do nothing more than sit on facebook, even 3g wouldn't have a chance of an exsistance if it wasn't enough. Its those who want to watch HD that really need it. If cloud computing takes off tho, then Faster speed will definatly be needed by all. Personally I would love to have a powerful home computer than I can do all my work on and use my netbook when Im out to access it sorta like a server client set up. Upload speeds at home would cripple that idea tho rather than download speeds.
     
  7. Sonofalich

    Sonofalich What's a Dremel?

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    Well I'm on Virgin 50 megabit, which is £45 a month. But it's the best internet you can buy, as it has no limits.

    You can download over an hour and still have 50 megabit internet. Which equates to 6.4 MBPS download and roughly 1.6 MBPS upload. Which to be honest is quite nice, it is expensive but again there are no limits. If I so wished I could download all day everyday and never get limited. That is why you are paying a premium for it.

    I still want more though and as soon as Virgin bring out a 100 megabit / 200 megabit, I'll be on that too!
     
  8. Fizzban

    Fizzban Man of Many Typos

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    Fair enough. I didn't look at it like that.

    I've got 50meg and I actually get the rated speed too. It's quick. But I understand the coverage for that is a bit hit and miss as this stage.

    On the 50meg line you don't get throttled. But you do on the others. It says on their website what times of day you will get limited if you go over a certain amount. But like I say..not on 50meg.
     
    Last edited: 9 Jun 2010
  9. Lockon Stratos

    Lockon Stratos I Will Snipe You!

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    Because the UK is not as technologically advanced as China/Japan/Asia. we are still running with old cables n crap that predate World War 2. China & Asia have both been in development for a long time & its because they still are that they can lay all their latest technologies into the ground & get superfast speeds.

    as for the UK - goverment is to blame for not pushing the country forward & making sure we move with the times or at least to a more satisfactory level...Japan/China are hitting or aiming for 1Gb data rates. the UK however are still calling 8mb 'superfast' & its just recently where ISPs are putting fibre optics into the ground that faster speeds can be achieved - but it still depends on how far you are from your nearest BT echange. ISPs advertise 8mb speeds but in reality you only get 4-5mb because your not close enough to the exchange.

    long has providers charged consumers a premium for lies & crap service
     
  10. Teh C

    Teh C Arg

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    Its silly how far the UK is behind. Still see those advertisements for BT for 'superfast!' broadband which is basically 10mb (usually equates to around 5mb unless pigs are flying) and a download limit which means you could never really use all the speed.
     
  11. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

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    My biggest gripe with ISPs isn't so much their download offerings, but their uploads. Usually it's something like a 10:1 ratio (down:up) which is just pathetic.
     
  12. erratum1

    erratum1 What's a Dremel?

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    Im on the 2mb/s broadband. Compared to the old dial up its fast but as the internet evolves the speed is just too slow.

    When videos stop because they have to buffer its a real pain in the ass. The bbc iplayer and such is great but please bring up the minimum speed in the uk to at least 6mb/s.
     
  13. flaming_goat

    flaming_goat What's a Dremel?

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    im still on 300kb/s at best, and that's after we have had our line replaced recently.
     
  14. neocleous

    neocleous Minimodder

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    When I said I am stuck with BT I ment their infrastructure. Even though the exchange I am on is LLU unbundled the only services I can get are down my BT line so the speed is exactly the same from one provider to the next.

    I have just signed up to Plus net it is getting activated tomorrow. They are owned by BT but a seperate subsidury and they have UK technical support. I am hoping the fact that they are seperate to BT means they wont pass you from one department to the next if you have a problem

    I can't ditch the the business line its a feature line that I need to conect to a virtual office and it has other features on it, so I am stick with that.
     
  15. trippingmars

    trippingmars What's a Dremel?

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    Still waiting for adsl+2 let alone fibre.
     
  16. bobwya

    bobwya Custom PC Migrant

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    The big problem with the whole setup in this country is the development of ADSL (I believe it originated in the UK - right). It is just a crutch to keep limping along with gaffer tape over the existing telephony infrastructure. Everyone knows the dropoff in signal quality over any length of copper phone line is just crazy stupid. The government really needs to pump some money into rebuilding the whole BT network (not the current half-hearted roll out) on fibre. I see Cambridge isn't on the list for the BT fibre roll-out this year... So how many years will I have to wait?

    As for Virgin Media - great if you don't mind being locked into one ISP and you are in a Cable-enabled part of the UK (which I am actually)...
     
  17. Fordy

    Fordy Minimodder

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    That too.
     
  18. mrbens

    mrbens What's a Dremel?

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    Get yourself on VMedia fibre optic internet then. You won't regret it. Awesome connection. Especially on 50Mb ;)
     
  19. TSR2

    TSR2 What's a Dremel?

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    Our internet is fairly good (6/pay for 8 Mbits down, 300Kbits up) despite us living in a rural area, as the exchange is only 1/4 mile away. However, I pity those miles away who are at the other end of our phone line. Obviously something needs to be done, I would support the idea (suggested by eddtox) of nationalising important things that provide the best service when not being run at a profit, unfortunately the next government after the nationalisation would probably mess that up, so I would prefer said Government to simply invest in broadband, to speed the 90% penetration achieveable by private enterprise and make the ordinarily loss-making >90% penetration possible. BT's dominance in the current market should be lessened; perhaps the Government could treat cables similarly to the radio spectrum and provide the cables but then make the ISP's compete to be allowed to run signals down them?
     
  20. leexgx

    leexgx CPC hang out zone (i Fix pcs i do )

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    i blame more Ofcom sticking there noises where they should of not this time (be it in the 1990's aprox) BT would of had an fully fiber network but it was anticompetitive so not allowed to do it

    at best with BT we are getting FTTC not FTTH (to the Cab not the Home i may have worded that incorrectly) so most will get 10mb-20mb ADSL2 and some rare peeps may get VDSL that allows 40MB (have to be quite close to the cab) the odd house thats in farm lands will most likely still suffer 512KB-2MB speeds

    any thing more then 5mb i am OK with for remotely Normal broadband as most stuff will come down fairly fast but not good if lots are in home doing lots of streaming related stuff or Big downloads, any thing above 10mb is fast ok for the most part for big downloads, above 20mb most home users will not need for Very long time, but is best for big files like 1-5gb
     
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