If you thought you could escape

Ignoring the spam above, every UK internet company other than Virgin will be using Open Reach-around to provide their network unless they have physically dug up the ground themselves.

Their cabinets are inside BT telephone exchanges. They are charged by BT/ Open Reach for power and space. These cabinets are standard 19 inch racks with the servers stacked up. There are no real independent companies unless they are very small and use their own network either via microwave or satellite or their own fibre.

Virgin came from NTL which came from multiple independents that dug up the country in the early 1990's laying down a fibre network. Those cabled areas have a huge advantage over BT networks as they have been fibre-to-the-door for nearly a quarter of a century.

Until fibre was sent to our 'local' exchange, we were getting around 1.2meg at best, years behind those barely 3 miles away where fibre had been laid years ago who were getting 30+ as long ago as 2011.

You cant escape BT or Open Reach unless you gave a fibre-to-the-door network.
 
We got so pissed off waiting for the local equivalent of BT to get us on fibre, we did our own.
So we are linked directly into the infrastructure provider (an independant company over here) and have no reliance on any of the actual telecoms providers. Well worth the £1000 per house to get the whole thing put in.

(Helps that they ran the main fibre service between two fairly major cities straight across our road (in the middle of nowhere), AND needed somewhere nearby to put a repeater box. So one of the neighbours has the repeater box behind his garage. And we can all get up to 1000/1000 fibre internet to the door from anyone we want.)
 
legrandefromage":igqn1ct9 said:
Ignoring the spam above, every UK internet company other than Virgin will be using Open Reach-around to provide their network unless they have physically dug up the ground themselves.

Their cabinets are inside BT telephone exchanges. They are charged by BT/ Open Reach for power and space. These cabinets are standard 19 inch racks with the servers stacked up. There are no real independent companies unless they are very small and use their own network either via microwave or satellite or their own fibre.

Virgin came from NTL which came from multiple independents that dug up the country in the early 1990's laying down a fibre network. Those cabled areas have a huge advantage over BT networks as they have been fibre-to-the-door for nearly a quarter of a century.

Until fibre was sent to our 'local' exchange, we were getting around 1.2meg at best, years behind those barely 3 miles away where fibre had been laid years ago who were getting 30+ as long ago as 2011.

You cant escape BT or Open Reach unless you gave a fibre-to-the-door network.
Not true, we have Fibre to the House and almost all do in the city and surrounding area a few still have the copper for ADSL in the meantime or haven't made the move over, (and everyone for the phone line but that's due to be deprecated at some point, I assume for VoIP)
Not BT, nor Vigin.
Not cheap either.
Only other alternative here is Mobile Internet or one of the few Wireless providers.

(Note EE is BT too so avoid them if you go mobile internet ;-) as are anyone that uses EE as their lines)
 
FluffyChicken":1hfdstst said:
legrandefromage":1hfdstst said:
Ignoring the spam above, every UK internet company other than Virgin will be using Open Reach-around to provide their network unless they have physically dug up the ground themselves.

Their cabinets are inside BT telephone exchanges. They are charged by BT/ Open Reach for power and space. These cabinets are standard 19 inch racks with the servers stacked up. There are no real independent companies unless they are very small and use their own network either via microwave or satellite or their own fibre.

Virgin came from NTL which came from multiple independents that dug up the country in the early 1990's laying down a fibre network. Those cabled areas have a huge advantage over BT networks as they have been fibre-to-the-door for nearly a quarter of a century.

Until fibre was sent to our 'local' exchange, we were getting around 1.2meg at best, years behind those barely 3 miles away where fibre had been laid years ago who were getting 30+ as long ago as 2011.

You cant escape BT or Open Reach unless you gave a fibre-to-the-door network.
Not true, we have Fibre to the House and almost all do in the city and surrounding area a few still have the copper for ADSL in the meantime or haven't made the move over, (and everyone for the phone line but that's due to be deprecated at some point, I assume for VoIP)
Not BT, nor Vigin.
Not cheap either.
Only other alternative here is Mobile Internet or one of the few Wireless providers.

(Note EE is BT too so avoid them if you go mobile internet ;-) as are anyone that uses EE as their lines)

Are you in a KCOM area?
 
I think its all about setting expectation. What can you honestly expect for the money? It's an industry I know well and it never ceases to amaze me how many people expect super fast broadband for £15/20 and for it to be always available. You can have anything you want at a price.
 
Yes, they need to charge us that much to pay for it all and keep the locals in jobs in reality. They are a major employer in the city, if KCOM collapsed, the city could go tits up, well more so than it is already.

Still can't grumble, the fibre works. The metal wire didn't.
 
Re: virgin media

I wouldn't bother with virgin - horrible company to deal with.

Continually putting up their prices by small amounts - things that were free suddenly cost.

Trying to leave - very aggresive. Made all sort of accusations about other providers. Threatened massive cost (£60)if i didn't return router. Took 3 months to collect - man had a pick up truck - he threw it in the back along with hundreds of others - told me they go to a tip.
had a dispute about a bill - only about £15 odd. gave me 14 days to pay - set the debt collectors on me after a week ( i was in written dispute with them about this) took many phonecalls before they agreed i was right - then took another 2 weeks to cancel debt collectors.

Plus they are very keen on throttling.

Utterly vile company.
 
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