Coming back to Idnet for FTTC - spring 2011?

[jonathancox]

Should I come back to Idnet (and BT....) in the spring when my exchange (Oxford) is enabled for FTTC?

I left Idnet for Be in Sept 09 after suffering WBC problems, and have been pretty happy with Be, apart from the last few weeks (peak time capacity).

I have a reasonable line (atten of 38db, syncing at 11 meg or so with a 3db margin) and use a Draytek 2820n. I understand the VDSL technology requires a modem, which I can plug into the WAN2 port.

BT Infinity checker tells me FTTC should give me 27Mb/6Mb up/down.

So....

1) Are early experiences with Idnet and FTTC good?
2) Will my Draytek work with the supplied modem OK?

The only other option I'm considering is AAISP.

many thanks

Jon

[Doh! Just realised there is a dedicated FTTC board...mods, can you move this post?

[zappaDPJ]

Done

My experience of FTTC is mixed and is perhaps not typical so I'll leave it for others to rate. I think it's fair to say most people on it have seen lower latency and a vast increase in throughput on both streams.

[Anton]

I think it depends on what you're doing and what you're likely to be doing.

I joined from B2 (well O2) a couple of months back and have seen more interruptions in those 2 months than in 2 years with Be. To be fair they're not IDNet problems, all WBC but none the less to go from zero downtime to something that at times has been a little flaky hasn't been great, but I suspect on performance over the last month that I was unlucky and saw the service as it's worst.

That said, Zap's right, the throughput is of biblical proportions and when BT aren't sulking is reliable and brisk. My only observation would be that Be were unable to give me an idea of my real life bandwidth usage, so I had to take a punt and estimate the cap I'd need. Needless to say my calculations were badly out and that means the cost is a lot higher than I'd imagined and that's been another trade off.

On balance I'm glad I moved, but then being a fair way from the exchange I wasn't getting even half of 11mbps with Be.

--
Anton.

[CMEdinburgh]

I moved from Be six weeks ago (a painless migration, everything went like clockwork).

I liked Be and always had good support when I had issues, and felt comforted that IDNet support was so approachable, if not offering a 24x7 service.

My Be rates were 13DL / 1UL (to the desktop, my router reported 16 DL which was good. I now get 37DL / 9UL at times, though it varies. I do notice the variability as on Be the speed tests never varied by more than a few percent, but on FTTC it does vary thanks to using BT's infrastructure for more of the route.

Overall, I am a very happy bunny, and so are the rest of the family as they use the internet!

[Glenn]

  CMEdinburgh hope you enjoy your stay

[Rik]

Welcome to happy land, CM. I hope the dreaded Celtic Disconnections don't get you.

[Simon]

[Ray]

  CM.

[Steve]

 

[CMEdinburgh]

What lovely people!

Thanks for the welcome.

I have had an interesting few days, as my son (31 yrs old!) bought an XBox 360 and downloaded a ton of trial games for it. Since then I have had to watch usage every day as his "download fest" when he got it set up burned up nearly 6GB of peak data in just over a day!

However, a little common sense since has seen me (probably) scrape through using just under the data ceiling for my tariff. When data comes piling in at wonderful speeds it is far too easy to exceed limits.

The effect when I told him he was paying any excess seems to have dramatically curtailed his usage 

[Rik]

Smart move. 

[jonathancox]

Thanks for input, all.

The BT checker seems to have pushed back my exchange date to 31 March, so I'll have to wait a little longer.

Jon

[Rik]

BT knows not what it doest.

[Bill]

The BT checker seems to have pushed back my exchange date to 31 March

Judging by the number of similar posts over on tbb, you and just about everybody else... something's going on, there has to be

[Rik]

I wonder whether they have realised their limitations, Bill, and have slowed down until they can meet demand.

[Bill]

I doubt we'll ever know for sure, but there's lots of theories... lack of backhaul, lack of labour, the cold weather, modems still on the ship, you name it.

There seems to be several cases where the new cabinet has (apparently} been installed but the checkers say it's still n/a, which (if true) would indicate a network problem, I think? Not necessarily backhaul capacity, but I must admit that's my favourite!

[Rik]

Backhaul is an issue we've seen with Max and ADSL2+, Bill. Given the significant leap in speed, and therefore demand, from fibre, I am wondering if BT have finally learnt their lesson?

[Bill]

Strange that it happened at the same time a "technical fault" chopped a lot, if not all, of their Infinity users down to 2Mbps at peak time... but then I'm naturally a suspicious sod

[Rik]

  You Bill, never.

[Bill]

I'm not the only one...

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/t/3945999-dec-10-mar-11-theory.html

[Rik]

Er, yes.