FTTP - now which ISP?
Discussion
Finally we enter the modern age and have Fibre to the Property and we need to select our ISP in the next 2 months to meet the requirements on the vouchers we've claimed.
As far as I can tell I have the following options available - EE, Zen, Sky & BT...
A little keyboard bashing and it looks like Zen are well regarded when it comes to customer service, which, having dealt with BT in the past I'd quite like to have some of!
Any help and pointers, greatly appreciated.
As far as I can tell I have the following options available - EE, Zen, Sky & BT...
A little keyboard bashing and it looks like Zen are well regarded when it comes to customer service, which, having dealt with BT in the past I'd quite like to have some of!
Any help and pointers, greatly appreciated.
QuartzDad said:
I've been on BT's 900 FTTP service for 18 months. Never had a need to call them, the super hub 2 is fine, no issues when the landline was migrated to Digital Voice a while back.
+2. Same package and the connection has been rock solid (touch wood!). No throttling. SH2 is great but I have got the BT WiFi discs for mesh network.Pay a premium in price, but worth it imo.
Thanks for the replies.
@TCruise - the infrastructure is provided by Openreach. Since we live in the middle of nowhere, the village has pulled together and go enough funding (government vouchers mainly) to have Openreach put the fibre in. A condition of the vouchers we've claimed is that we agree to a contract with an ISP within 2 months of going live - which was yesterday!
I'll take a deeper look at Zen and BT - a key factor will be how easy it is to get the telephone migrated from copper to VOIP.
@TCruise - the infrastructure is provided by Openreach. Since we live in the middle of nowhere, the village has pulled together and go enough funding (government vouchers mainly) to have Openreach put the fibre in. A condition of the vouchers we've claimed is that we agree to a contract with an ISP within 2 months of going live - which was yesterday!
I'll take a deeper look at Zen and BT - a key factor will be how easy it is to get the telephone migrated from copper to VOIP.
BatForcePC said:
Thanks for the replies.
@TCruise - the infrastructure is provided by Openreach. Since we live in the middle of nowhere, the village has pulled together and go enough funding (government vouchers mainly) to have Openreach put the fibre in. A condition of the vouchers we've claimed is that we agree to a contract with an ISP within 2 months of going live - which was yesterday!
I'll take a deeper look at Zen and BT - a key factor will be how easy it is to get the telephone migrated from copper to VOIP.
As mentioned above OpenReach (BT) own the fibre to your house, other providers such as, Sky, Talk Talk, Zen etc are allowed to use that fibre for your home but any faults that are outside your house then Open Reach will fix it. As far as Telephone goes then it will be upgraded to VOIP (very easy) as they wont let you have both Fibre and a separate copper supply unless you pay for 2 different contracts. @TCruise - the infrastructure is provided by Openreach. Since we live in the middle of nowhere, the village has pulled together and go enough funding (government vouchers mainly) to have Openreach put the fibre in. A condition of the vouchers we've claimed is that we agree to a contract with an ISP within 2 months of going live - which was yesterday!
I'll take a deeper look at Zen and BT - a key factor will be how easy it is to get the telephone migrated from copper to VOIP.
Out of interest do you value a home phone line?
anxious_ant said:
QuartzDad said:
I've been on BT's 900 FTTP service for 18 months. Never had a need to call them, the super hub 2 is fine, no issues when the landline was migrated to Digital Voice a while back.
+2. Same package and the connection has been rock solid (touch wood!). No throttling. SH2 is great but I have got the BT WiFi discs for mesh network.Pay a premium in price, but worth it imo.
I would recommend going with a provider who has their own equipment (an LLU presence) in the exchange your fibre terminates at. Note this may or may not be the same exchange your copper service terminated at.
This means the only part of the connection not directly under their control is the physical fibre link to your property which they buy/rent from Openreach. Faults on fibre should be far rarer and easier to fix than they are on copper.
If you choose an ISP who is not present in the exchange they will have to use another wholesale provider who will rent the connection from Openreach and provide the backhaul connection to your ISP’s core network who then provide transit and peering to the Internet. Smaller ISP’s might have the wholesale provider do everything. The issue here is any ISP is only as good as the wholesale provider, and they have no direct route to Openreach for faults on the tail connection.
BT’s first line customer service isn’t great but their network is decent. If you go with Zen in an exchange they are not present in they will be using BT Wholesale anyway. SSE are very good if they’re available and they have an excellent network. Sky are fine as well.
Only about 1 in 5 exchanges is an FTTC/FTTP collector exchange. The other exchanges will be decommissioned eventually. If you want to know which exchange your fibre goes back to PM me your postcode and I’ll tell you.
This means the only part of the connection not directly under their control is the physical fibre link to your property which they buy/rent from Openreach. Faults on fibre should be far rarer and easier to fix than they are on copper.
If you choose an ISP who is not present in the exchange they will have to use another wholesale provider who will rent the connection from Openreach and provide the backhaul connection to your ISP’s core network who then provide transit and peering to the Internet. Smaller ISP’s might have the wholesale provider do everything. The issue here is any ISP is only as good as the wholesale provider, and they have no direct route to Openreach for faults on the tail connection.
BT’s first line customer service isn’t great but their network is decent. If you go with Zen in an exchange they are not present in they will be using BT Wholesale anyway. SSE are very good if they’re available and they have an excellent network. Sky are fine as well.
Only about 1 in 5 exchanges is an FTTC/FTTP collector exchange. The other exchanges will be decommissioned eventually. If you want to know which exchange your fibre goes back to PM me your postcode and I’ll tell you.
Chuffedmonkey said:
Out of interest do you value a home phone line?
Yes we do, many reasons, the main two being; We live on on the top of a hill with zero mobile reception, the only reliable way to get hold of us, shy of coming to the house, is using the home phone and voicemail
The area we live is heavily wooded, power cuts are pretty common especially during a storm. The copper telephone wire is powered so we can still receive and make calls if there's a powercut. I understand the FTTP system comes with a backup battery to replace this.
I believe the battery backup is optional now you may need to request it if needed.
We moved to zen at both our property’s some years back and whenever I’be had need to contact them it’s been painless and they have been helpful rather than just reading off of a script.
Compared to the horror stories I’ve read about some other isp’s service I’d use them every time.
We moved to zen at both our property’s some years back and whenever I’be had need to contact them it’s been painless and they have been helpful rather than just reading off of a script.
Compared to the horror stories I’ve read about some other isp’s service I’d use them every time.
Mr Pointy said:
Zen all day long.
Another vote for Zen. Been faultless. You get a friztbox router free than comes preconfigured with your account details, so ethernet to the openreach box and you are good to go.You can swap out the fritzbox if you already have a preferred router solution and sell it on if you wish.
ETA the fritxbox is VOIP compatible and you can plug a DECT system into it if you wish. Zen charge £7 month for VOIP.
quinny100 said:
I would recommend going with a provider who has their own equipment (an LLU presence) in the exchange your fibre terminates at. Note this may or may not be the same exchange your copper service terminated at.
Only about 1 in 5 exchanges is an FTTC/FTTP collector exchange. The other exchanges will be decommissioned eventually. If you want to know which exchange your fibre goes back to PM me your postcode and I’ll tell you.
Ahh, interesting. Presumably if you know your exchange (can this not be loosed up online) you can then get a list of who has equipment present.Only about 1 in 5 exchanges is an FTTC/FTTP collector exchange. The other exchanges will be decommissioned eventually. If you want to know which exchange your fibre goes back to PM me your postcode and I’ll tell you.
We have just had openreach put in 'FTTP' up to the pole outside, and our neighbours have now got it, so while actually with currently get FTTC for free due to a billing cockup thats lasted years, and the main issue is patch wifi within the house, definatly interested in due course.
Entanet / Cityfibre if you can get it - all day long.
Otherwise as mentioned above, you can't go wrong with Zen
Otherwise as mentioned above, you can't go wrong with Zen
TCruise said:
Go for BT.
Whilst faults are unlikely, should there ever be any, ZEN/SKY/etc can only put out a call to Openreach. My thinking might be wrong, but, BT seem to be able to get Openreach out much faster.
This simply isn't true. Even with the "yeah right, paper walls" to OR being independent to BT, the challenges are rarely with the engineers. Some companies have better service (response times) to faults than others.Whilst faults are unlikely, should there ever be any, ZEN/SKY/etc can only put out a call to Openreach. My thinking might be wrong, but, BT seem to be able to get Openreach out much faster.
Edited by B9 on Friday 27th August 10:10
TCruise said:
Also, have Virgin not been offering this for years?
I dont think so. They have been offering a fast coax link to homes, using the old cable TV networks which are better suited than an a often not even twisted pair of copper wires, but nothing like a optical link.Although I do understand they are also putting in a competing FTTP network in (urban) areas Openreach are yet to cover in a classically privatised mess of corporate turf wars. Or at least that what the openreach man said as explanation for why openreach are literally throwing in the fibre, stringing it almost literally tree to tree, ignoring most of the underground conduit we have here, because its a race to get there before virgin and they can sort the rest out later (?) when the trees inevitably rub through the cable.
For some odd reason, out entire street, and the adjoining street, all have virgin cable, and there is a near empty cabinet doing only about three house on the corner opposite us about 15m from the house, but our one house (pair of semis) is not attached to in in any way and 3 years of badgering had made no difference. Presumably because they knew we would get FTTP from openreach in a couple of years.
Daniel
Zen aren't what they used to be. They've grown beyond their reputation of 10 years ago, and support just doesn't stack up the way it used to. If you need anything beyond the basics, expect to swear at them a lot. IPv6? Takes ages. Static v4 IPs? Takes ages. They used to be the geek's choice, but it's all gone downhill.
However, there's nobody I'd recommend instead. So, yeah, Zen.
However, there's nobody I'd recommend instead. So, yeah, Zen.
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