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Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

ed
Grafter
Posts: 191
Registered: ‎15-08-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

I beat you to activation too mines on the 15/10/07  Tongue
shellsong
Grafter
Posts: 2,191
Registered: ‎03-08-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

Don't forget they don't pay a third party iniquitous prices for their centrals. I have reckoned for some years now that Moore's Law ought to have applied to broadband infrastructure technology costs and bandwidth - it's only a false marketplace that has kept bandwidth expensive!
About half a year ago when PlusNet got another BT Central (620 odd Mbps) Be decided they needed a bit more elbowroom and lit up another 10 Gb/s!
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

Especially with O2s product pending at ridiculously unsustainable prices.  It'll be an interesting one to watch.
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

If I were signing up to BeThere/O2 I would be concerned about Network capacity because the usage levels are about to skyrocket.
shellsong
Grafter
Posts: 2,191
Registered: ‎03-08-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

@PJ
Unfortunately for those with smaller exchanges I believe the main Be network rollout is almost complete and anyone else is likely to have to use (spit!) BT Products which I understand O2 is aiming to use where the Be network doesn't reach. All I've seen mention of in near future rollout info is little places like Aldershot, Godalming and some little hamlet called Sheffield!  Tongue Grin
puddy
Grafter
Posts: 1,571
Registered: ‎10-06-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

I too live in a rural area and the exchange is across the road but my exchange goes 21CN in July/august next year so just sit tight things will be a changing for all of us left out in rural areas by LLu isp
I think my exchange could be offering 16-24mg downloads adsl2+ but will plusnet offer me a service when my BT exchange goes 21CN live?
Puddy
shellsong
Grafter
Posts: 2,191
Registered: ‎03-08-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

I wonder whether 21CN will be anything much more than cosmetic in any areas other than exchange management - I can't help thinking it's not much more than a publicity stunt for the stock market when they could be rolling out the 'real deal' in the form of FTTH. They're just picking at the edges of the infrastructure problem!
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

Think the problem is who will pay to install FTTH. it's not just running optical cables in the street but each home/business will need visiting to terminate the fibre cable at the 'mastersocket'.
shellsong
Grafter
Posts: 2,191
Registered: ‎03-08-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

Sure it would be a big project but the whole BT network is like painting the Forth bridge because of the need to troubleshoot and fix decades old wires travelling insane routes from exchange to premises. It's already been estimated that a pukka rollout would only cost a few billion more than the ten billion quid the 21CN project is costed at and Sweden have shown that if you have imagination you can use very accessible pre-existing ducts like the sewers to distribute optical fibre infrastructure.
Maybe they could rollout with a very basic optical fibre termination at the premises and we could fit our own purchased equipment - it wouldn't necessarily take a qualified BT engineer to do that!
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

Have you seen this posting? Think the main problem is who will pay for the infrastructure if they have not got the monoply. Believe the USA had a similar problem and have gone back to a monoply for ftth. Not sure if Sweden have not gone down the same path.
artmo
Aspiring Champion
Posts: 19,524
Thanks: 421
Registered: ‎12-08-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!


O2 are going to offer their phone customers broadband for £10 month so this should attract quite a few customers to them. It remains to be seen if they cope or if it's another talktalk fiasco in the making.
I am with O2 for my phone and am very happy with them but I won't be rushing to change ISPs.
ed
Grafter
Posts: 191
Registered: ‎15-08-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

£18pcm, no download limits, nuff said Tongue

£22pcm, Pro Annex M option (faster upstream)

I can't get anywhere near the advertised "up to 24mbps" and I'm only 300m 15-18db from the exchange.
Can somone make sure my PlusNet account it closed please.
MikeWhitehead
Grafter
Posts: 748
Registered: ‎19-08-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

Keep us up to date please Ed over the next coming months, it will be really interesting to see how this pans out, and whether things stay the same as the current climate. I can only dream of those kinds of speeds - 2 - 2.5Mbps here!
ed
Grafter
Posts: 191
Registered: ‎15-08-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

I'll see what i can do  Wink
Download a 550mb game demo last night at 1.8MB per second not mega bits, mega bytes!
Very cool, makes my old 2mbps broadband feel like 56k Smiley
I've got a couple of old computer with 10mbps network cards in and they can't keep up with the internet! Time for an upgrade to gigabit me thinks as I noticed my other machine with gigabit was getting 15-16ms (old NICs 50-60) pings handy for gaming Smiley
shellsong
Grafter
Posts: 2,191
Registered: ‎03-08-2007

Re: Now is the time to say GOODBYE!

Well folks, an update on my move to Be!
Things have not gone without incident so far - I was quite ready for the odd hiccup or three and I got some.
I was supposed to have had cash extracted from my credit card on the 12th, BeBox despatched on the 13th and line activated on the 16th.
By the evening of the 15th no money had been taken and there was no indication of a BeBox being despatched but suddenly I found I had no internet and my Zoom X5v was telling me it was synching Upstream at 980 odd kbps! BT had done what Be told them to a day early and Be hadn't done their part in full so I phoned the (free) Customer Support line and spoke to a very nice, well spoken Bulgarian who clearly knew his stuff and he passed things on to the department that he thought should be able to sort things out.
The next day I contacted Support again to find out what was happening and was almost immediately talking to another very nice, well spoken Bulgarian - a lady this time - and she enquired and reckoned things needed to be passed to another department.
It seems that because my account registration was ancient and the exchange enablement very recent, the computerised activation had stalled and they were going to have to go through the stages manually - unfortunately, as I write, they still haven't got it sorted and I shall have to chase them.
Still, all that glistens is not necessarily fools gold, because, after a lot of faffing around I have managed to get a Pluscom ADSL2/ADSL2+ wireless router working that we only really got as a cheap (£35) replacement for a wireless router that went the way of all things.
I hope to be able to improve my phone wiring and get things up to about 16Mbps but this is the present state of affairs
Modem Status

Connection Status   Connected
Us Rate (Kbps)   1191
Ds Rate (Kbps)   13391
US Margin   5
DS Margin   6
Trained Modulation   ADSL_2plus
LOS Errors   0
DS Line Attenuation   30
US Line Attenuation   15
Peak Cell Rate   2808 cells per sec
CRC Rx Fast   0
CRC Tx Fast   7
CRC Rx Interleaved   4
CRC Tx Interleaved   0
Path Mode   Interleaved

The best I've had from the same speedtest on PlusNet over the past year with ~8000kbps sync has been about 3500kbps - about a third of the speed!