Broadband advice please

[vento85]

Hi,

I am thinking about changing broadband company for my parents, as the current provider I am not really that happy with, mainly based on their technical and customer support.

Currently with EE ( formally Orange) Been with them for 8 or 9 years.

I pay about £5.11 for unlimited download with a speed of up to 14mb.

The phone line can handle between 4mb and 6mb max.

Average speed is between 2mb and 3mb, but it feels so slow!

I am used to speeds of over 200mb+ as my apartment is serviced with a 1TB line to the server.

My parents are not able to get fibre optic due to the location, even though the exchange is active for FTTC fibre optic broadband. Because the BT line is connect directly to the exchange and not a cabinet in the street.

I have looked at other companies to switch to but not sure of what the best way to compare them.

I was looking at:

1. Sky Unlimited Broadband & Calls


2. BT Unlimited Broadband & Calls

I am worried that even if I swap companies it is very likely the speed will remain the same, this is one reason why I have no switched company for so long.

Does someone who knows more about the internet/isp/broadband offer some advise if possible please?

Thanks

[Piggy]

Thats an amazing price to be honest...

Is that with line rental on top?

I have to pay £26 a month inc line rental for up to 6mb and have a limiting download amount of 15gb I think it is...

And I rarely see 4mb

[vento85]

Thats an amazing price to be honest...

Is that with line rental on top?

I have to pay £26 a month inc line rental for up to 6mb and have a limiting download amount of 15gb I think it is...

And I rarely see 4mb

I think the BT line rental is £14 per month, but its only line and nothing extra.

So if I was the change company I would take the line rental with them that includes anytime calls and 0845/0870.

It is £5.11 because I used to have a orange mobile contract.

Other option would be to stay with Orange @ £5.11 and pay BT the whole years line rental in one as it works out to about £11 per month and add anytime calls to the line.

[Grant]

Where do your parents live?

Chances are their line can handle more than 6mb if they are near FTTC

[ally406]

Yes, likely it's all going to be coming down the same piece of 60 year old copper regardless of which ADSL service you take. Is VM in your area? If so get some cable internet and ditch the phone line altogether, you don't need to be paying £14 a month for something that was invented in 1876. Get a VoIP service which will likely have no monthly line rental and much lower call rates.

[vento85]

Where do your parents live?

Chances are their line can handle more than 6mb if they are near FTTC

They live in Coventry and about 1 mile from the exchange.

This is the exchange information:

Coventry BT Highway Exchange

There is no Virgin Media in the area sadly.

[Grant]

The '60 year old copper' is going to be purer and in better condition than any cat 5 cable you can buy so I wouldn't worry about sticking to ADSL copper services.

Go onto the BT website and see if you are in an infinity area with fiber to the cabinet

[4WayDiablo]

Primus are 14.90 for broadband and phone line :-)

[Nadine]

I work for sky, what ever speed bt give will be the same as sky. I can't remember if it recently changed where you need to have the lone rental with sky to get the calls and bb. Been a while since I was on the phone so could be wrong.

[vento85]

Well the exchange is ready for BT infinity, but we still can't get it as the line is not connected via a cabinet. I have tried to find out if they will be connecting the line to a cabinet but they said it's not on the priority as not many people in the area. I think the closest cabinet is 0.5 miles.

I will check out Primus seems like a good price.

With sky have to take the phone line also, but I don't mind that.

[Fooby]

Depending on how far you are from the exchange, you could have a line fault (which is why it appears slower than needed)

Can you paste your ADSL line stats in here and i'll take a look? you can get them from the router

[vento85]

Depending on how far you are from the exchange, you could have a line fault (which is why it appears slower than needed)

Can you paste your ADSL line stats in here and i'll take a look? you can get them from the router

The house is about 1 mile from the exchange and i have asked BT to do line tests, which come back fine they tell me.

Is this information ok from the router?

Thanks

[Fooby]

Woah, hi2u linefault.

your SNR is WAYYYY to high (10SNR)

It should be 6, but on fastpath it should be 3.

on a 35db signal attenuation, if you have good quality copper i'd say fastpath is ok, but interleaved BRAS profile is probably what you want.

Based on 35db attentuation, you should have at least 10-11meg on ADSL2+

Can you plug your router directly into the BT test socket and leave it there overnight? then post me the stats again.

Might be worth performing a quiet line test too. But we'll get to that later

[306carter]

1 thing to mention about sky is you can only use the router provided. And the sagem router they sent me 12 month ago is shit I'm changing to plus net this month.

[Fooby]

changing ISP's wont get his line fault fixed.

..well, it will if he goes to AAISP, (best ISP out there) but they are expensive.

[vento85]

Woah, hi2u linefault.

your SNR is WAYYYY to high (10SNR)

It should be 6, but on fastpath it should be 3.

on a 35db signal attenuation, if you have good quality copper i'd say fastpath is ok, but interleaved BRAS profile is probably what you want.

Based on 35db attentuation, you should have at least 10-11meg on ADSL2+

Can you plug your router directly into the BT test socket and leave it there overnight? then post me the stats again.

Might be worth performing a quiet line test too. But we'll get to that later

thanks for your help

hi2u line fault? SNR? Sorry im not sure on what this means.

I will plug the router in tomorrow for overnight as there is no power socket near, so will find the extension cable tomorrow.