Discussion
I have it.
Before you get it you need to question them on the speed you are likely to get. I only get 4.5meg down (but 1 meg up) due to my distance from the exchange. This doesn't bother me as I'm more interested in not having a minimum term contract, and if they can only do 4.5meg so can any other provider.
My understanding of the technology is that you have to be very close to the exchange to get the full 24meg.
As for reliability it's gone down once for about 10mins in 3 months. Usenet occaisionally grinds to a halt for a minute or two but I suspect that is more to do with my provider than Be.
My usage has peaks and troughs but I probably download 20gig a month and haven't had any fair use issues.
Before you get it you need to question them on the speed you are likely to get. I only get 4.5meg down (but 1 meg up) due to my distance from the exchange. This doesn't bother me as I'm more interested in not having a minimum term contract, and if they can only do 4.5meg so can any other provider.
My understanding of the technology is that you have to be very close to the exchange to get the full 24meg.
As for reliability it's gone down once for about 10mins in 3 months. Usenet occaisionally grinds to a halt for a minute or two but I suspect that is more to do with my provider than Be.
My usage has peaks and troughs but I probably download 20gig a month and haven't had any fair use issues.
Better than that, it's £24 a month uncapped!
I have been with Be for just over a week now and, whilst it hasn't been plain sailing, it is hugely better than my old ISP Freeserve/Wanapoo/Orange.
The big problem so far has been BT. I have a fairly decent (32dB attenuation) phone line and am only getting 6Mbit when the average for someone with my line would be 11-14Mbit. It isn't Be's problem, they have plenty of bandwidth into the exchanges, it is just that BT insist the line is ok and won't be told that the buzz that can be heard on the line is anything other than perfectly fine. The line is what limits your speed, and it seems to be a total lottery.
Anyway, I always say it's not how you fall down that matters, it's how you pick yourself up, and Be's support has been pretty good so far. Whilst the support callcentre is in Bulgaria, it is open 24hrs, the people there speak reasonable English, and it is a free call. I got a response to me problem ticket within 8 hours, and when they have a reply they send you an SMS and an email. They seem to be small enough to be flexible and responsive, but backed by O2 which means they are unlikely to disappear overnight.
Oh yes, and if you get referred by a Be user, you get a free month
I have been with Be for just over a week now and, whilst it hasn't been plain sailing, it is hugely better than my old ISP Freeserve/Wanapoo/Orange.
The big problem so far has been BT. I have a fairly decent (32dB attenuation) phone line and am only getting 6Mbit when the average for someone with my line would be 11-14Mbit. It isn't Be's problem, they have plenty of bandwidth into the exchanges, it is just that BT insist the line is ok and won't be told that the buzz that can be heard on the line is anything other than perfectly fine. The line is what limits your speed, and it seems to be a total lottery.
Anyway, I always say it's not how you fall down that matters, it's how you pick yourself up, and Be's support has been pretty good so far. Whilst the support callcentre is in Bulgaria, it is open 24hrs, the people there speak reasonable English, and it is a free call. I got a response to me problem ticket within 8 hours, and when they have a reply they send you an SMS and an email. They seem to be small enough to be flexible and responsive, but backed by O2 which means they are unlikely to disappear overnight.
Oh yes, and if you get referred by a Be user, you get a free month
Zad said:
Better than that, it's £24 a month uncapped!
I have been with Be for just over a week now and, whilst it hasn't been plain sailing, it is hugely better than my old ISP Freeserve/Wanapoo/Orange.
The big problem so far has been BT. I have a fairly decent (32dB attenuation) phone line and am only getting 6Mbit when the average for someone with my line would be 11-14Mbit. It isn't Be's problem, they have plenty of bandwidth into the exchanges, it is just that BT insist the line is ok and won't be told that the buzz that can be heard on the line is anything other than perfectly fine. The line is what limits your speed, and it seems to be a total lottery.
Anyway, I always say it's not how you fall down that matters, it's how you pick yourself up, and Be's support has been pretty good so far. Whilst the support callcentre is in Bulgaria, it is open 24hrs, the people there speak reasonable English, and it is a free call. I got a response to me problem ticket within 8 hours, and when they have a reply they send you an SMS and an email. They seem to be small enough to be flexible and responsive, but backed by O2 which means they are unlikely to disappear overnight.
Oh yes, and if you get referred by a Be user, you get a free month
I have been with Be for just over a week now and, whilst it hasn't been plain sailing, it is hugely better than my old ISP Freeserve/Wanapoo/Orange.
The big problem so far has been BT. I have a fairly decent (32dB attenuation) phone line and am only getting 6Mbit when the average for someone with my line would be 11-14Mbit. It isn't Be's problem, they have plenty of bandwidth into the exchanges, it is just that BT insist the line is ok and won't be told that the buzz that can be heard on the line is anything other than perfectly fine. The line is what limits your speed, and it seems to be a total lottery.
Anyway, I always say it's not how you fall down that matters, it's how you pick yourself up, and Be's support has been pretty good so far. Whilst the support callcentre is in Bulgaria, it is open 24hrs, the people there speak reasonable English, and it is a free call. I got a response to me problem ticket within 8 hours, and when they have a reply they send you an SMS and an email. They seem to be small enough to be flexible and responsive, but backed by O2 which means they are unlikely to disappear overnight.
Oh yes, and if you get referred by a Be user, you get a free month
What he said...
Been with them for 7 months. Reliable, and good speed. I'm not too close to the exchange, but get 17Mb/s shown on the router, with 12 Mb/s on internet speeds test with 1Mb/s upload. Bearing in mind this machine is connected wirelessly to the router, that is impressive. Leading to consistent downloading of 'Linux OS' of around 2.5Mb/s.
I used a piece of software called TCPOptimizer to increase my speed- (it's increased it from 6.5Mb/s to just under 12Mb/s) Has something to do with Packet sizes? or was that something I heard whilst g/f was watching Sex & the city earlier...
And they have an online forum on their website, where you can get help from them, or fellow members.
Go for it...
Ben
Just an addition to say that because Be use ADSL2+ rather than ADSL2, if you live closer than a couple of miles from the exchange, you can usually get "a fair bit" more than all the 8Mbit providers over the same wire pair. How much that is obviously depends on the distance. My prediction was 3.5Mbit from Orange and BT, compared to the 6-8Mbit I am getting now.
If you do a lot of torrenting, the really great thing is Be's 1.3Mbit uplink. Compared to 256, 384 or occasionally 768kbit you get from most ISPs it's much easier to keep your ratio over 1.
If you do a lot of torrenting, the really great thing is Be's 1.3Mbit uplink. Compared to 256, 384 or occasionally 768kbit you get from most ISPs it's much easier to keep your ratio over 1.
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