Fibre internet questions

**GazCol** · 22 May 2014, 13:48

Originally posted by d000hg View Post

Our package deal with Sky broadband (ADSL) is about to expire and I'm wondering if now is the time to upgrade to fibre. I'm in an area with fibre - in fact the exchange is about 100m away across the street.

I see now people are offering up to 80Mbps but I haven't kept up with the technology. Any recommendations or advice would be welcome.

Is it still the case with fibre you need a landline like with ADSL? Who is good - and is the basic service the same other than usage caps, cost and customer service or do different people offer different products?

I work from home so no internet for days/weeks is simply not an option. Is switching to fibre painless in this regard?

Exchange distance, unlike ADSL makes little to no difference as it's only fibre up to the point it reaches your garden and then it's copper.

If you like your football it might be worth seeing what, if any deals, BT offer over the summer with their sports package included in the price of fibre as they did last year.

The landline depends on provider, most will not offer net only now and want line rental included.

The installation time is done in a day.

**TheFaQQer** · 22 May 2014, 13:48

As with all these things, the speeds are "up to" whatever you pay for. At the moment, Speedtest is giving me a download speed of 125.68 Mbps and upload of 11.51 - which is what I pay for.

However, that's the exception rather than the rule - quite often it will be half that, and occasionally they have problems with things and it gets really slow. Whether Virgin are any better than anyone else at this I don't know.

How quick and reliable is the service that you currently get?

**Bunk** · 22 May 2014, 14:03

Originally posted by TheFaQQer View Post

As with all these things, the speeds are "up to" whatever you pay for. At the moment, Speedtest is giving me a download speed of 1265.68 Mbps

Is that a typo? If not, who is the provider?

**TheFaQQer** · 22 May 2014, 14:08

Originally posted by Bunk View Post

Is that a typo? If not, who is the provider?

Typo. I'd put 125 but obviously caught two keys by mistake.

**d000hg** · 22 May 2014, 14:16

Originally posted by TheFaQQer View Post

How quick and reliable is the service that you currently get?

Pretty good - 17Mbps down, 1Mbps up and I get that whenever I check. We can watch Netflix on two devices at once with no problems for instance.
We've had one, maybe two outages in the year both a few hours at most.

I went through this last time round, do I need fibre or not... I do WFH 100% but 17meg is pretty good however fast uploads would be nice, but I'm not really willing to pay through the nose for it.

It seems everyone charges +£15 for line-rental now? That's annoying because I only have the phone line to receive calls from my mum!

**Bunk** · 22 May 2014, 14:33

Originally posted by TheFaQQer View Post

Typo. I'd put 125 but obviously caught two keys by mistake.

Shame

If you were in South Korea I wouldn't even have questioned it.

**TheFaQQer** · 22 May 2014, 14:47

Originally posted by Bunk View Post

Shame

If you were in South Korea I wouldn't even have questioned it.

I wish I could get speeds like that. When I moved into this house 11 years ago, we had bleeding edge 512Kbps fibre and was overjoyed with that.

I think if it got much quicker, I'd need another NAS just for the porn downloads.

**blacjac** · 22 May 2014, 14:50

Check if fibre is available on your phone line first.

https://www.btwholesale.com/pages/st..._Checker.html#

We are in an area that has had fibre for about 6 years, but we can't get it because the cabinet we are connected to is not commercially viable for upgrade. Pretty miffed about it as we only moved here from a Virgin area 2 months ago and its a brand new house.

From what I have read, if you are connected directly to an exchange (which you could well be if it is so close), you are even less likely to be able to get it.

The checker will also give you an estimate of the speeds you are likely to get.

**redgiant** · 22 May 2014, 15:38

Originally posted by d000hg View Post

It seems everyone charges +£15 for line-rental now? That's annoying because I only have the phone line to receive calls from my mum!

Exactly the same situation ... although she has worked out that called me on my GiffGaff phone doesn't cost anything so perhaps I can get rid of the landline.

The other problem with the landline is that virgin media price their packages with a landline and without it costs more (for broadband and TV) - I would ditch the TV however we don't have a digital aerial or dish and can't fit one as it's a Grade 2 listed building

The slowest broadband speed virgin offer now is 50mbits download and 3mbits upload.

Fibre internet questions