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Mr_Odwin

LLU Broadband

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I'm looking into changing my broadband from Nildram's "up to 8Mb" to an LLU provider.

My current company seem to have taken to traffic shaping in the evenings which is really annoying me. Youtube stutters horrendously, p2p apps are unhappy and general surfing has slowed down.

 

Is there as much difference between LLU providers as there was between ADSL providers? I'm trying to decide between ultra cheap O2 and the well recommended, but more expensive, Xilo.

 

What are peeps gaming/surfing/p2p LLU experiences with Be, O2, etc?

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I currently use Be, they've always been very good, gaming online on my xbox, even via wireless through to the next room, has always been smooth. The connection does seem to drop off every now and then for a minute or so, usually after/during excessive usage - not sure if that's the router or the ISP's fault though.

 

I've been using their up to 24MB service for a couple of years now and always been impressed with the general speed. Distance from the exchange means I only get about 11MB but that's just how it goes with DSL.

 

However personally I'm thinking of moving to Virgin for the cable quality and just to get away from BT for my line rental, cos they're rip-off merchants!

 

I know I don't need to remind you of all people but... don't forget quidco ;)

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Yeah, quidco would make O2 mega mega cheap, but I'm put off by the 12 month contract. If I go with Xilo, I could jump ship after a month if I had problems.

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I was desperate to move to LLU - our area suffers horrific congestion on BT IPstream; so we moved to TalkTalk (being the only LLU provider in the area).

 

Our original connection - Orange through IPstream - gave us about 1.5mps. Since moving to TalkTalk we seem to manage 2.7mps (on one occasion we managed 3.1mps!!). The lowest speed is 2.4mps. Upload speeds are slightly up too - 0.5mps (from 0.4 IIRC). We live about 2 miles from the exchange - with aged copper wires too boot, but i'm impressed with the imprvements i've seen.

 

You could try BT Infinity. Other providers are sure to follow with similar products though, as Openrach are wholesaling the fibre connections (but strangely, ISPs have not started to offer this). BT Infinity (and i assume any upcoming wholesaled products too) have greater upload speeds - Virgins upload speed is 'up to' 1.5mps and some LLU providers manage 'up to' 2.5mps, while Infinity manages a truly impressive 'up to' 10mps for upload (photo albums and youtube submissions on the web in a flash!)

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I've been using their up to 24MB service for a couple of years now and always been impressed with the general speed. Distance from the exchange means I only get about 11MB but that's just how it goes with DSL.

 

only?

 

 

*cries at pitiful not even 2mb*

 

:(

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2mb!? How do you survive? I want to upgrade from 20mb (I get 19mb most of the time) to 50mb.

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2mb!? How do you survive? I want to upgrade from 20mb (I get 19mb most of the time) to 50mb.

 

I've never known better... Infrastructure means we'll only over get 3.5mb (overhead phone cables) and that's on a really good day. Averaging 1-2mb normally.

 

I don't really download obscene amounts anyway *cough* :heh:

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Got the same problem as you Rain. Some days I can't even stream YouTube, I have to let the video load first! :blush: I'm eagerly awaiting LTE or WiMAX, it seems like BT have no interest in solving my speed issues so hopefully Vodafone/Orange/O2 will.

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2mb!? How do you survive? I want to upgrade from 20mb (I get 19mb most of the time) to 50mb.

 

Are you serious? You don't currently need any faster than that. What exactly are you doing that requires the extra speed?

 

Jesus christ it was only about 2 years ago I was still on dial up.

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Downloading TV shows in 720p is a good reason to have that kind of speed. I currently get about 12MB with my distance from the exchange so even if I get a constant downstream of my max, which is about 1-1.1mbps, it'll take about 17-20 minutes. So at 50MB cable if I got a constant speed of about 5mbps (I know that's not right but I cba to do the math) I would get it in 3.3 minutes.

only?
I know it's fast, I ain't complaining :heh: just pointing out the significance of the "up to" in my "up to 24MB" service.

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I can understand your frustration.

Paiying for upto 24, and only getting upto 14 (or how ever much is the most youve had).

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Downloading TV shows in 720p is a good reason to have that kind of speed. I currently get about 12MB with my distance from the exchange so even if I get a constant downstream of my max, which is about 1-1.1mbps, it'll take about 17-20 minutes. So at 50MB cable if I got a constant speed of about 5mbps (I know that's not right but I cba to do the math) I would get it in 3.3 minutes.I know it's fast, I ain't complaining :heh: just pointing out the significance of the "up to" in my "up to 24MB" service.

 

I'm just joshin ya duude =P

 

I'd love to have half yer current speed!

 

@kirkatronics - its not all the service providers fault so you can't really point blame at them for providing "up to" service. A lot of it is distance from your exchange and what your infrastructure can handle.

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I'm with O2 and pay 7 odd quid a month due to being an O2 mobile customer.

 

O2 are my 3rd broadband provider and the best I've ever had. I have up to 8mb with them but generally hit around 6mb, no limited on download traffic and very rarely have any issues with connection. I can only think of once when it went down but they txt me to let me know and it was working a few hours later.

 

I have a computer and xbox plugged in directly to the router, a laptop, wii and phone hitting up wireless and never suffer speed issues.

 

They also have great customer service all based in Britain and whenever I've spoken to them they don't treat you like computer idiots.

 

I reckon they are one of the best around for service and cheapness.

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I have made my decision on this. I'm waiting until next month when O2 will start to offer home phone packages and then I'll switch my line rental and calls over at the same time. In the first month you can cancel if you want to so if it's shoddy I'll just do that.

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I have made my decision on this. I'm waiting until next month when O2 will start to offer home phone packages and then I'll switch my line rental and calls over at the same time. In the first month you can cancel if you want to so if it's shoddy I'll just do that.

 

Don't use O2's router - it's absolutely awful. When I had it last year the connection would drop all the time, half the time the wireless wouldn't even work. We thought ours was faulty so got a replacement and it was exactly the same.

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Don't use O2's router - it's absolutely awful. When I had it last year the connection would drop all the time, half the time the wireless wouldn't even work. We thought ours was faulty so got a replacement and it was exactly the same.

 

Depends what router you get. The new ones are fine. (little white ones)

 

The old ones like I have (bigger grey thomson one) did lose connection at first but you simply needed to do a firmware update, The file of which I have or is easily available on the o2 forums. I think I had that issue for one day then done the update and it's been fine ever since.

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They're the same as the beboxes, and mine's always been fine. If you get their most expensive you get the "III" version which is an N class router.

 

Just as a side note, what's the process of changing ISP like? I haven't done it for a long time, what sort of down time do you expect? Do you cancel the old ISP first, then order the new one straight away? I'm thinking of moving over to o2 to save a bit of money.

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Depends what way you want to do it. You can cancel first but then you would be without internet for maybe 2 weeks.

 

When I changed to O2 I phoned up my previous provider and said I'm going to change and can they give me my MAC code and migration code. They asked why and I more or less said your service is crap so they said how about you stay with us and we match what O2 are going to offer. I said £7.50 a month, unlimited usage and British customer services. They went ohhhh erm well we can't match that but we can give you a laptop.

 

I said no thanks just give me the codes please. So they did.

 

Then I went to O2, picked my package, gave them the codes then they sorted everything and sent me txt updates of each stage.

 

If you do it this way, your previous broadband does not get cut off until the day O2 make the switch over at the telephone exchange. I think I was without internet for like no more than 2 hours and I was at work anyway.

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Can you put in the migration codes online? I only want to move services if I can take advantage of the quidco cashback! :heh:

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Just moved over to O2 myself, very painless, £50 quidco cashback and got the mid-way package for £10 a month. So effectively, once that cashback comes through, I'll have gotten the first 5 months for free :D Plus before I signed up there was a mention of £50 off your mobile phone bill ltd edition offer, not sure if/when I'll get that though.

 

I was previously paying £21 for Be's best service, now I've moved down to an ever so slightly worse service, same down speed but slower up and no static IP... feels like a winning move to me!

 

Plus, as Odwin said, O2 are doing home phone soon, I'm going to want to move over to that ASAP. As long as my BT line rental contract is 12 months and not 18 months, it should be pretty painless.

 

£9.50/mo for free evenings and weekends (£11.50 on BT) or £12.50 for anytime, which is awesome. Plus just not being with BT is worth paying extra for.

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£12.50 for anytime is incredible, so as soon as that badboy becomes available I'll jump ship.

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