One way and another I'm getting hacked off with BT and plan to change ISP. At present we have only the ordinary stuff and I quite fancy the superfast fibre broadband.
The issue is that I can only get it with BT and no other supplier. The fibre is under the pavement here so it is definitely available but only with BT.
Is there an exclusivity period after which others can offer it ?
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I guess it depends if your local BT exchange has been released to share with other ISPs.
We have fast fibre BB with TalkTalk - I was alerted to its availability in our area by BT, so I just asked TT, our BB provider to implement it for us.
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>> The fibre is under the pavement here so it is definitely available but only with BT.
Yes because it belongs to BT :-) They paid to put it there.
All the companies offering fibre broadband via the phone line are all reselling BT Openreach's product. Even BT is technically re-selling the Openreach product.
Unlike ADSL where other providers have installed equipment in BT exchanges so your phone line is connected to their equipment, the fibre broadband technology (VSDL) involves your phone line connecting to a street cabinet nearby and then connects to the Exchange via fibre. The cost of installing all these street cabinets is high so don't expect to see anyone else offering this. And I'm sure we don't want even more green boxes on out streets.
So if you go with Talk Talk, Sky, etc. you will be using a BT product I'm afraid. The only alternative is to use Virgin Media if you have that in your area.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 18 Jun 14 at 14:01
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"Yes because it belongs to BT :-) They paid to put it there."
"So if you go with Talk Talk, Sky, etc. you will be using a BT product I'm afraid."
Thanks, I realise that and understand that Sky or whoever effectively rents one fibre strand or whatever ( I know it's more complicated than that ) from wholesale BT and then rents it to me. I have no problem with that and no choice either.
It's just that other suppliers are offering significantly better deals than BT who now have to somehow pay for the football they bought and offer for free !
My contract is at an end and BT refuse to give me a better deal as an existing customer and I have discussed cancellation with their retentions people. Apparently, even if I cancel they won't let me restart as a new customer on a good deal. So stuff 'em, I will go with any of half a dozen others. I was hoping for fast BB but will probably have to settle for the copper connected stuff.
Why am I hacked off ? Rental going up, caller display now charged for, 1571 now charged for just to name a few.
Plus Net (owned by BT) even give a far better all round deal - one of the best in fact.
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>>Why am I hacked off ? Rental going up, caller display now charged for, 1571 now charged for just to name a few.>>
TalkTalk gives a good deal on an annual line rental payment and doesn't charge for Caller Display, Last Caller Blocked, Anonymous Caller Reject etc. That's apart from very good deals on broadband, broadband and phone packages and additional services such as On Demand TV.
Been with TT since April 2006 and been 98 per cent satisfied with the service over that time; any problems minor and sorted out quickly. However, I'm still on a legacy package, Anytime International3 and insist on retaining it at renewal time...:-)
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>> So if you go with Talk Talk, Sky, etc. you will be using a BT
>> product I'm afraid. The only alternative is to use Virgin Media if you have that
>> in your area.
>>
Sort of. The physical connection from your house to the fibre cabinet, and from there back to the exchange is all Openreach. However, the moment you drop onto your ISP's network everything changes, and here there are distinct advantages to choosing carefully.
Going with BT, for example, will result in a slightly faster line profile being applied than Sky, who optimise for stability instead. EE, for example, throttle file sharing aggressively so if you want the newest Game of Thrones, you'll want to try someone else.
Sky seems the best of the bunch - static IP, no throttling or bandwidth shaping etc.
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>> I guess it depends if your local BT exchange has been released to share with other ISPs.
You can check here
www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/
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Curious.
I've checked the site (thanks) and it says AO, meaning accepting orders, but whichever supplier I try tells me that fibre is not available - but it is with BT.
Plus Net say they will advise when it is possible to upgrade, their deal is good and I may well give them a try, even though they are linked to BT.
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Have you checked your green box to see if it's been upgraded to the fibre DSLAM? If so a shiny new one should have appeared close by, looking something like this:
community.bt.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/5169i0490CAF7530F0F68/image-size/original?v=mpbl-1&px=-1
Openreach have a nasty habit of only upgrading the cabinets they think will make the most money, so it's not uncommon for one street to find themselves with fibre and the next without.
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We have a box like that in the village where our local telephone exchange is. It is about half the height of the one in your picture and has a banner on it saying "Superfast Broadband Here - Now.. BT claim to be accepting orders but no timescale is indicated.
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We have it in our street alright:
(1) BT will give me superfast BB - at a price.
(2) I spoke to the guys pulling through the "cables" and building new access chambers when it was done maybe 12 - 15 months ago. They are beneath the footpath less than 1m from my front wall.
(3) But nobody else except BT will give it to me.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate on Wed 18 Jun 14 at 17:08
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Now I know and this might be useful to someone.
Our patch is "wired" up for fibre and it runs in the footpath outside the house. The only fibre broadband that BT will supply is "fibre to the premises", meaning no copper at all from the exchange with a potential 300mega whatsits per second speed.
The other ISPs cannot yet provide it directly to the premises and can only offer fibre to the green box and copper from there to the house. But, here's the rub - not in our patch as it's designated fibre to the premises or nothing.
So, good news - we can have mega fast BB if we want it, but bad news - only from BT and at a price.
It might make the house more saleable, but I think we'll just stick to the copper stuff by A N OTHER.
I'll be getting our MAC code later this week and moving on.
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When you say "at a price", I take it you're aware that this particular price is likely to be in excess of £3000?
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I wasn't really talking about that price even though it's a bit of a shock.
I'm simply saying that 300 mega oodles of thingy is possible, but I can order BT Infinity 1 giving a download speed of around 38 mega oodles of thingy for a price of around £30 per month including a call package but not including line rental.
IMHO that's way too much to pay for simple surfing and emailing.
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BT Fibre Broadband exclusivity ? - Roger.
