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Jimjebus

BT BroadBand Finally gets an update in speed !

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BT Broadband is now increasing its speed from a 8 Megabits Pers second to a nice 20 megabits per second and are also increasing the upload capp from 256-300kbps to 1mbps which will be a nice boost in upload videos and photo's , Although it will only be avaliable to 40% of the country at this moment , only city areas will benefit the most where as homes no where near a local exchange will not receive it

 

Have not read much up on the subject just found this :

 

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2009/06/04/bt-offers-free-20-mbps-upgrade/

 

and a few others around on google after some broadband searchs last night but all i have seen through reading a few is that the upgrade will be free.

 

"BT will start offering the upgrade to 20 megabits per second "within weeks" to any customer that contacts it, even those on its cheapest package, which costs £15.60 a month".

 

Although the main catch of doing this is that you have to (if a existing customer) renew to a 12month contract with bt to receive it.

 

Also BT are sticking to its "Throttle Back policy" at peak times for streaming videos for basic package customers

So this should be a good update , if any one has already posted feel free to delete it :)

Edited by Jimjebus

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Sounds good! But I've got a bad impression of BT from their advertising, everything seems very streamlined so that you have to browse the net or use their wireless network their way and no other, they make it look like the new AOL. But that's just the impression I get....

 

On the other hand, I was just about to sign up for Talk Talk for my next flat, might change my mind if the price is right. Is BT's basic package £15.60 including or on top of line rental?

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Kinda awesome, but while my area's infrastructure stays how it is (overhead cables) I'm pretty much limited to about 3.5m.

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Damn BT to Hell. They are awful. A couple weeks ago I cancelled our contract with them 4 months before it ended just to go back to Be Broadband. Be are amazing.

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Yeah i might just pay extra and go Be or O2. I am with O2 for mobile though.

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I'm on it, for mostly conservative reasons. I don't pay it, and if it works reasonably well, don't fix it. Somehow I can't imagine I'll be getting this speed boost, although it would be awesome.

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Damn BT to Hell. They are awful. A couple weeks ago I cancelled our contract with them 4 months before it ended just to go back to Be Broadband. Be are amazing.

We've been with Be for a year, they have great speeds but the service does drop several times a day; I'm moving back to Talk Talk next year I think just because the value for money :)

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i'm assuming this upgrade is solely for urban areas?

 

What'll be interesting is to see how this affects any Communication Providers who buy services from BT Wholesale on your behalf (unless your on, say 02's unbundled Local Loop), your services will still effectively be provided by BT.

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What'll be interesting is to see how this affects any Communication Providers who buy services from BT Wholesale on your behalf (unless your on, say 02's unbundled Local Loop), your services will still effectively be provided by BT.

 

Other providers will be able to use BT Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) to provide the 20mbps service to customers in the WBC areas. I imagine it'll be a similar situation for customers of other providers, if your provider starts offering a 20mbps service through WBC you give them a ring and they'll upgrade you.

 

Or you could have just gone over to O2/Be months ago like I did :yay:

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I live in a city so I should hopefully see an increase, I get speeds of around 3.5 MB at the moment. More speed plz.

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We've been with Be for a year, they have great speeds but the service does drop several times a day; I'm moving back to Talk Talk next year I think just because the value for money :)

 

I've never had speed drops on Be. I wonder why that happens. I guess it's what suits your area. BT throttled traffic at peak times but the speed was crap during non-peak times anyway and their customer service was awful.

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I've been with BT for ages and I'm still only on 0.5 Mb/s, when we signed the contract the speed was for up 2 or 5 meg and we couldn't physically receive it because of the distance to the exchange or shit cables or something. The lowest deal they now offer is up to 8Mb/s and I'm still on 0.5.

 

Our contract period has run out so we could leave, but out of ease for my parents we've stuck with them. I could be tempted to take them up on the offer if they can guarantee my house can get those speeds. We do live on the edge of town but surely a large urban town like Luton can get better net than what I have.

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I've never had speed drops on Be. I wonder why that happens. I guess it's what suits your area. BT throttled traffic at peak times but the speed was crap during non-peak times anyway and their customer service was awful.
The speed doesn't drop, the service drops completely, just for a minute or two. It might be the router though.

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I've been with BT for ages and I'm still only on 0.5 Mb/s, when we signed the contract the speed was for up 2 or 5 meg and we couldn't physically receive it because of the distance to the exchange or shit cables or something. The lowest deal they now offer is up to 8Mb/s and I'm still on 0.5.

 

Our contract period has run out so we could leave, but out of ease for my parents we've stuck with them. I could be tempted to take them up on the offer if they can guarantee my house can get those speeds. We do live on the edge of town but surely a large urban town like Luton can get better net than what I have.

 

Youll probably find that the majority will be the same tbh. The exchange hosts all of the internet services as such, if you live far away from them you are pretty buggered (sadly)

 

Check this site: if you can get an LLU operator presence on your exchange, they usually provided better speeds. We were on pipex internet which didnt have LLU operator presence, and we moved to sky (which does) and the speed change was pretty dramatic. (or pipex were just shit when then got bought over by tiscali, who knows :heh:)

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The speed doesn't drop, the service drops completely, just for a minute or two. It might be the router though.

 

If it's the same router that BT (who now own Be) give you its more than likely the router. Our router is awful. Had to get it changed once because the wireless dropped so often. The next one did the same thing, sometimes goes off for hours at a time yet the ethernet will still work. Occaisionally the whole thing just stops.

 

Awful, awful router.

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"BT Broadband is now increasing its speed from a 8 Megabits Pers second to a nice 20 megabits per second and are also increasing the upload capp from 256-300kbps to 1mbps which will be a nice boost in upload videos and photo's , Although it will only be avaliable to 40% of the country at this moment , only city areas will benefit the most where as homes no where near a local exchange will not receive it"

 

So not everybody can get it then? I am with virgin and have 10mbps, its a bit annoying though as the speed is really random. Some times I can just get 200kbps and last night I got this:

 

46mbps.jpg

 

:o 46Mbps! It only lasted for about a minute and then went back to a steady 11.2Mbps

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Its not just dependant on your internet speed, downloads can be slow if the source server (ie where you are getting the file from) is busy.

 

Most people can't get super high speeds. Depends on wether the telephone exchange you are attached to supports it, and the distance you are from said telephone exchange. (and also the telephone infrastructure itself can affect speeds)

 

When companies quote "up to <insert speed>" its very rare that you actually get said speed tbh.

 

And @ the screenshot - chances are if it didnt last long it was just a fluke. I've had them a few times before, it soon crashes down :heh:

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... BT (who now own Be)...

 

Typo? O2 owns Be.

 

And yes, if it's the little white box then you should get a different router. I, along with quite a few other people, found that the O2 router would restart itself when watching anything on iPlayer about 1 minute into the program.

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so how do these updates work?

 

Will it just happen or will I be notified?

 

I am on 8Mb at the moment but max speed I can get is about 6.5Mb.

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so how do these updates work?

 

Will it just happen or will I be notified?

 

I am on 8Mb at the moment but max speed I can get is about 6.5Mb.

 

They'll probably notify you because your modem will have to disconnect for a minute or two then reconnect to the ADSL2+ service.

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so how do these updates work?

 

Will it just happen or will I be notified?

 

I am on 8Mb at the moment but max speed I can get is about 6.5Mb.

 

You have to phone them (and your 12-month contract will start again):

 

BT will start offering the upgrade to 20 megabits per second "within weeks" to any customer that contacts it, even those on its cheapest package, which costs £15.60 a month".

 

Although the main catch of doing this is that you have to (if a existing customer) renew to a 12month contract with bt to receive it.

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