Re: Switching to new Broadband and Phone provider

Apologies if I misunderstood. So are you basically saying you want a Pay As You Go broadband service?

Re: Switching to new Broadband and Phone provider

We are in an area that has both BT and Virgin Media cable services. The highest available speed being from Virgin Media (up to 200Mbps, averaging something less than that but pretty fast nonetheless).

Adding the infrastructure for more competition would mean yet another company digging its own cable trench around the area. Our footpaths and roads already consist of patches and strips of tarmac. Hardly an integrated bit of footpath and road left in some places.

I think I'd be willing to pay to stop any other company from disrupting the area yet again.

Re: Switching to new Broadband and Phone provider

I don't know what the situation in the UK is but it really peeves me that my fibre connection is limited to a maximum of 100Mbps when Singapore offers 1Gbps for nearly half the price.

Re: Switching to new Broadband and Phone provider

[QUOTE=Bruce;874196]I don't know what the situation in the UK is but it really peeves me that my fibre connection is limited to a maximum of 100Mbps when Singapore offers 1Gbps for nearly half the price.

Totally agree Bruce and the UK has been well behind other countries for many years.

It's surely deliberate and just a way to maximise profits with gradual increase in speeds and services. In addition it is tied in with the other technological service advancements such as downloading or streaming films. Those services were previously impossible/impractical with poor broadband speeds. When they are ready to sell us new services they will increase the bandwidth and speeds imo. The situation remains largely crooked as BT still have a monopoly on the UK telecoms infrastructure and Murdock pretty much has the monopoly on satellite services.

Re: Switching to new Broadband and Phone provider

BT throttle back other providers speed to allow them to offer the more attractive deal.

Re: Switching to new Broadband and Phone provider

Because I tend to listen to Martin Lewis, and take in much of what he says,I was of the opinion that when I decided to change ISP last year, as with utilities, you select whoever you want to provide you with the service and ask them to set the wheels in motion. I am also of the opinion, that I have no obligation to inform the out-going providers of my intention to leave.

When we moved house last year, we did just that with gas, electricity and ISP.

Gas & electricity changed smoothly.

From TalkTalk to EE was different due to a multitude of errors.

On the given date, EE failed to provide the phone.
On the given date, EE failed to provide the internet, in fact two dates came and went.

Once on-line, a week or so passed and TalkTalk continued to bill me. It seems EE had either failed to tell TT of my intention to change, or TT denied being told. The outcome being that even though we moved on Nov.19th, I was still paying TT till Jan 9th.

Clearly a negotiation process ensued, which resulted in EE reimbursing me for monies paid out to TT.

I know this has little to do with the O/P's post, but as it is loosely connected, thought it might prove to be a learning curve for someone and it might be useful to ensure that all out-going companies are made aware and accept what is happening.

Re: Switching to new Broadband and Phone provider

The Singapore 1Gbps advert might not be what people actually get. The article linked to below is 4 years old and things could be different now but according to what it says, people aren't (weren't) getting that speed. Maybe it's like anywhere else, just depends on the area/streets lived in, or perhaps OK if the site/server being accessed is located within Singapore.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/asi...-in-singapore/

Speed is largely going to depend on what speed the rest of the World can supply data at. It often doesn't matter what speed any ISP can provide if the Internet backbone is congested, or if running slowly for some reason or other. Same applies to the servers or sites around the World we might want to access.

There are all sorts of statistics to be found regarding World internet connection speeds. UK looks to be above Spain, Italy, France and Germany and 23rd in the World. It does depend what articles are read though.

A connection speed of 5Mbps is reckoned to be adequate for streaming video. That's probably the highest demand the majority of people put on an Internet connection. Maybe many aren't worried about speeds too much so long as the connection is fairly reliable. Faster speeds are good for those who don't want to wait ages while large downloads take place (providing the Internet itself is running up to speed) and for those who might be sharing their Internet connection with other users, their families for instance.

Re: Switching to new Broadband and Phone provider

This is true but you do expect it to approximate what you are paying for. My 100/40Mbps connection is usually about 100Mbps at the box on the wall but after it has gone through my network to my desktop computer it is only about 60Mbps (shared with various switches, a couple of servers, media player, TVs, network printer etc).

Then there is the reduction found at peak times for example I have measured it as low as 40Mbps at times (fortunately not too often).

The upload speed however rarely varies from about 35Mps at my desktop no matter the time of day.

Re: Switching to new Broadband and Phone provider

I have Talk Talk basic broadband with anytime free phone calls, it works well for me and after doing the rounds of the comparison sites it still came out cheaper than any other provider including Plusnet who don't give totally free calls

Re: Switching to new Broadband and Phone provider

I usually spend six months a year in Florida, and have a highspeed data link through Brighthouse.

There is no contract - I can tell them to cease service on a certain date, and arrange in advance to have reconnection.

The support is a genuine 24 hour service, and although the service centres are scattered around the States, they have instant access to my modem. If they can see the fault is local, they arrange for a local Brighthouse engineer the next day with a precise time for his attendance.

I use BT when in the UK. I did try Virgin but fell out with them because of low speeds. With BT, I detest having to ring a Service Centre in India, and to be told it is my fault. On insisting, they seem unable to get an engineer to attend much less than ten days, and threatening me with a £150 callout fee if it transpires there is an internal problem.
There is no facility for contacting a BT engineer - their contact telephone numbers are top secret.