Broadband/Internet options?

[98elise]

I'm trying to ditch Virgin Media for a variety of reasons, and so far Sky and Vodaphone have said they don't supply BB in my area. Looking on Openreach we don't have fibre to the cabinet yet.

Are there any other options? Is ADSL just too slow?

We need capacity to stream a couple of programs at once as we have a 3 streaming services + Sky Q on the way.

[outnumbered]

If you don't have ADSL with FTTC available (the Openreach service that will give up to a max of about 78Mb/s) then I'd stick with Virgin personally.

[98elise]

outnumbered said:

If you don't have ADSL with FTTC available (the Openreach service that will give up to a max of about 78Mb/s) then I'd stick with Virgin personally.

I will only do that if there is truly no other option. I'm paying double what most people do, and they can't even provide a working WiFi router. Their customer service line can do little more then turn it off and on again, then tell you it's your problem.

Do Openreach publish their fibre rollout plans?

[eein]

98elise said:

outnumbered said:

If you don't have ADSL with FTTC available (the Openreach service that will give up to a max of about 78Mb/s) then I'd stick with Virgin personally.

I will only do that if there is truly no other option. I'm paying double what most people do, and they can't even provide a working WiFi router. Their customer service line can do little more then turn it off and on again, then tell you it's your problem.

Do Openreach publish their fibre rollout plans?

Yes they do. Their website has loads of interesting info, although it can be a bit hard to find.

Note that fibre to the cabinet is just part of it, you also need to be fairly near to the cabinet. I don't recall the distance, I think it might be 200m for fastest fibre and 800 for slower fibre. I've been looking at houses which are 2-4 km away so the only hope of good broadband is to run my own fibre from the exchange - this is not as mad or impossible as you might think as you can 'rent' space on the openreach poles (or conduits). Even set up your own local CSP - https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/communit...

All a bit extreme though, and probably not worth it if you can already get VM. Every CSP has complaints of poor customer service, bad routers, etc. VM are expensive though.

[TUS373]

My landline broadband has been pretty shocking. Despite doing everything possible to get a good service (my own Asus router, signal direct from master socket etc), our FTTC gives about 17 Mps, and costs £28/month with phone. Having a teenager who games online, brought the service to its knees. Everyone in the house yelled at me that the internet is 'pants' (insert you own word), like it is my fault.

I decided to try getting 4G broadband from Three. For £22/month (you might even find it for £20 if you look carefully) , and no upfront cost on an 18 month contract (with 14 days cooling off), you get a nice Huawei B535 wireless modem router ad SIM card, and unlimited data. I ordered it online, and it arrived next day.

Now I did not have high expectations, and got the system expecting to send it back. I popped in the SIM card, switched it on, waited for it to come to life, and connected to it. Doing an Ookla test, I got about 35 Mps, with no tinkering. So...double what I was getting on EE broadband.

I moved the router upstairs to a window ledge, lined it up, got 5 bars, and around 45 Mps, with occasional surges to 60 Mps. This was getting good. Cue days playing around with, repositioning and I was sometimes getting 85 Mps. I did some research from the stats in the router, and soon located where my local mast was. 4 km, with only a tree between it and me. I just purchased a Poynting 4G antenna and put that on the window ledge - I get around 10 Mps more than with the internal antenna. I am having a new roof at the moment, and there is scaffolding up to the top, so I took the Poynting antenna outside and mounted on the scaffolding as I high as I dared. Today, I have been getting 50-60 Mps all day long. I woke up in the night for a call of nature, and checked Ookla on my phone, it topped out at 110 Mps at 3.30am, presumably when no one else was using it. I am seriously impressed.

Now, I know someone will say EE 4G is better, but I reckon the likes of them and Vodafone are more like £50/month and with limited data. For £22/month from Three, I am over the moon with it. Fastest internet I have ever had and it makes working from home a breeze with Zoom calls that do not drop, copious amounts of Google Drive, plus access to a VPN network. I recommend it, based on experience, and wish I had done this years ago.

[98elise]

Sounds like 4G might work.

When I had a 20Mbs service from Virgin all was fine.

With a new router and 50Mps it was immediately terrible. Virgin told it was because I needed 100Mps (at my cost) because every device needs 10Mps just to connect to the router (bks)

In a recent call to me they said I now have 100Mps. I actually get 14Mps. If I can get 14 on any other service then I'll be happy.

[lampchair]

We use Zen non-fibre.

It copes with a Next cam running at 'high' resolution, me on video calls all day and the wife dicking around on the web.

No complaints here.

[98elise]

4G is looking very promising. It's 50Mps in my area for £30 a month and on a monthly contract. Will pop into the EE store today to have a chat

[NDA]

TUS373 said:

Now, I know someone will say EE 4G is better, but I reckon the likes of them and Vodafone are more like £50/month and with limited data. For £22/month from Three, I am over the moon with it. Fastest internet I have ever had and it makes working from home a breeze with Zoom calls that do not drop, copious amounts of Google Drive, plus access to a VPN network. I recommend it, based on experience, and wish I had done this years ago.

I had an EE SIM in my 4G router - £30 a month, unlimited data, 12 month contract. Approx 25Mbps (Poynting antenna)

I switched to FTTP as it suddenly became available. BT £29 a month unlimited, 2 year contract. 50Mbps.

4G is definitely the way to go if you can't get a decent download from BT - I was very happy with mine.

Also check this out:

https://smarty.co.uk

[Sheepshanks]

98elise said:

Do Openreach publish their fibre rollout plans?

Wonder if it's the case that they don't feel any obligation to provide fibre if VM are already present?

Our rural Cheshire village got FTTC pretty early on and over the lockdown they spent considerable time putting FTTP infrastructure in. We already get 80/20 and I've yet to meet anyone else in the village who even knows what FTTP is let alone wants it.

I did read somewhere that BT intends to get rid of copper cabling by 2027 so perhaps that's the motivation for doing it.

[NDA]

Sheepshanks said:

I did read somewhere that BT intends to get rid of copper cabling by 2027 so perhaps that's the motivation for doing it.

The weird (annoying) aspect of my Fibre connection is that BT then wanted to install a copper cable for a landline. I did everything I could to resist this as I have no need for a landline at all - will never use it. However, BT insisted and I now have a box for a landline connection with a separate copper wire connection to the fibre. Ridiculous.

I assume this leaves the door open for BT to start charging for landline rentals that I don't need.

[98elise]

Sheepshanks said:

98elise said:

Do Openreach publish their fibre rollout plans?

Wonder if it's the case that they don't feel any obligation to provide fibre if VM are already present?

Our rural Cheshire village got FTTC pretty early on and over the lockdown they spent considerable time putting FTTP infrastructure in. We already get 80/20 and I've yet to meet anyone else in the village who even knows what FTTP is let alone wants it.

I did read somewhere that BT intends to get rid of copper cabling by 2027 so perhaps that's the motivation for doing it.

The problem is that Virgin Fibre is a monopoly. My BB and phone is over £50 a month + I get billed for calls. When I rang to cancel they offered to drop it to £44.

They know I don't have many options hence they can just keep putting the price up and give a crap service.

[silentbrown]

Two other options:

1: See if Gigaclear are in your area https://www.gigaclear.com/
2: Look for a local fixed wireless access (FWA) provider. Basically this is line-of-sight wireless with a small dish antenna pointing to a base station
Speed will vary depending on cost/distance, etc, but 40+ Mb/s is common. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/isp_list/ISP_List_Wire...

[Funk]

Sheepshanks said:

98elise said:

Do Openreach publish their fibre rollout plans?

Wonder if it's the case that they don't feel any obligation to provide fibre if VM are already present?

Our rural Cheshire village got FTTC pretty early on and over the lockdown they spent considerable time putting FTTP infrastructure in. We already get 80/20 and I've yet to meet anyone else in the village who even knows what FTTP is let alone wants it.

I did read somewhere that BT intends to get rid of copper cabling by 2027 so perhaps that's the motivation for doing it.

That is the plan (although I heard 2025) but then one has to wonder why bother with fibre at all when 4G and 5G are here. On my 4G phone I currently get around 110mbps down and 64mbps up which thrashes my FTTC connection (50/18). The only downside is slightly higher latency (20ms) but that'd really only be an issue for gaming.

5G is apparently 100-200mbps average and 1gbps-capable - this surely makes any FTTP utterly redundant? I haven't had a landline plugged into my line for 15 years and I only have the line to have fibre. Perhaps it's time to look at moving over to a 4/5G router entirely and ditch the FTTC completely...

[deckster]

98elise said:

Sounds like 4G might work.

When I had a 20Mbs service from Virgin all was fine.

With a new router and 50Mps it was immediately terrible. Virgin told it was because I needed 100Mps (at my cost) because every device needs 10Mps just to connect to the router (bks)

In a recent call to me they said I now have 100Mps. I actually get 14Mps. If I can get 14 on any other service then I'll be happy.

Something very wrong there. The technology behind the Virgin network doesn't degrade over distance like BT and the rest, so the 100Mbps should be 100Mbps all day long.

Do you get 14Mbps when connected directly to the SuperHub using a cable?

[Sheepshanks]

Funk said:

5G is apparently 100-200mbps average and 1gbps-capable - this surely makes any FTTP utterly redundant?

5G is short range and doesn't go through walls so will need lots of basestations/repeaters and you'll need an outside aerial and receiver.

Funk said:

I haven't had a landline plugged into my line for 15 years and I only have the line to have fibre. Perhaps it's time to look at moving over to a 4/5G router entirely and ditch the FTTC completely...

Indoor mobile reception is too uncertain - it's iffy at our house. At daughter's house doesn't work at all. Both standard estate built type houses in fairly big villages.

[98elise]

deckster said:

98elise said:

Sounds like 4G might work.

When I had a 20Mbs service from Virgin all was fine.

With a new router and 50Mps it was immediately terrible. Virgin told it was because I needed 100Mps (at my cost) because every device needs 10Mps just to connect to the router (bks)

In a recent call to me they said I now have 100Mps. I actually get 14Mps. If I can get 14 on any other service then I'll be happy.

Something very wrong there. The technology behind the Virgin network doesn't degrade over distance like BT and the rest, so the 100Mbps should be 100Mbps all day long.

Do you get 14Mbps when connected directly to the SuperHub using a cable?

14Mps is through my piggyback Netgear WiFi router. I don't remember what the Superhub was, but it wasn't enough to sustain a single stream for more then a few seconds.

We use tablets and Chromecasts, so hard wiring isn't practical other than to our sky box.

Even with 14Mps everything is fine. Sky downloads fine, and we have multiple people watching stuff on streaming (especially now). I don't remember the last time anyone said it wasn't working.

[Funk]

Sheepshanks said:

Funk said:

5G is apparently 100-200mbps average and 1gbps-capable - this surely makes any FTTP utterly redundant?

5G is short range and doesn't go through walls so will need lots of basestations/repeaters and you'll need an outside aerial and receiver.

Funk said:

I haven't had a landline plugged into my line for 15 years and I only have the line to have fibre. Perhaps it's time to look at moving over to a 4/5G router entirely and ditch the FTTC completely...

Indoor mobile reception is too uncertain - it's iffy at our house. At daughter's house doesn't work at all. Both standard estate built type houses in fairly big villages.

Then perhaps the answer to that is to not continue investing in burying cables in the ground but to invest in increasing the coverage of 4/5G instead...?

[drmotorsport]

I have a single ADSL line at home which is adequate for watching Netflix x2 and light browsing at the same time. You could have multiple ADSL lines and a load balancing router, or try 4G which is probably easier and cheaper in the short term.

[xeny]

Funk said:

That is the plan (although I heard 2025) but then one has to wonder why bother with fibre at all when 4G and 5G are here. On my 4G phone I currently get around 110mbps down and 64mbps up which thrashes my FTTC connection (50/18). The only downside is slightly higher latency (20ms) but that'd really only be an issue for gaming.

5G is apparently 100-200mbps average and 1gbps-capable - this surely makes any FTTP utterly redundant? I haven't had a landline plugged into my line for 15 years and I only have the line to have fibre. Perhaps it's time to look at moving over to a 4/5G router entirely and ditch the FTTC completely...

4G and 5G depend on how much bandwidth there is in the bit of RF spectrum allocated to them. It isn't enough for everyone to get decent speeds. Consider the difference between wifi when you have no neighbours vs living in a block of thin walled flats - one is excellent, the other always gives disappointing performance.