Limited Broadband provider choice - what to do for non LLU?

Easy_Rider

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I'm currently with BT and I'm constantly going over my limit mainly because I stream radio and tv. Currently pay £19/month have 10gb limit and connect at 1 to 1.5 gb/s and pay an extra £5 for going over limit for each 5gb

Looked at several options, sky looked good and orange. I want to keep my landline as it is so looked at orange simply broadband, 8gb/s unlimited download with no fair usage policy and £12.75 a month plus £5 for non orange customers. I work my way through the sign up process and discover it will actually be £27.50/month!

I called to find out why and they tell me my exchange is part of the 15% of exchanges that have yet to be opened up by BT to competitors, and on top of this my best speed is 1.5gb/s from a theoretical 8gb/s

What a rip off, I have to pay more for a slower connection.

How can I find out when my exchange will open up? It's mickle trafford exchange and I'm 2.5 miles from it.
 
sky/orange and the others all use bt stuff lines/exchanges so you wont get any quicker than bt can provide you with. Virgin or bt fibre optic is the quickest available. We switched from virgin to sky big mistake from 10mbps down to 2+ some times slower.
 
Yeah it's more the fact I have to pay more for a slower connection (as opposed to just a slow connection) because orange (or any other providor i choose from) has to pay BT for the line in the exchange. That's why it's £27.75 for me and not £17.75 for everyone else. My exchange has not been opened up for competition and it hasn't been upgraded for years.

I'm hardly in the sticks, I live in the north west which is the second most densely populated area of the uk!

Here you can see no competitors are in it
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNMT

Ofcom Classification What is this?
Market 1 This exchange has BT Wholesale as the sole provider of broadband services.
 
Might be worth finding out when BT are planning to roll out their infinity service to your exchange as it doesn't look like you'll get anything better until then. Have to say I didn't realise they still had exchanges that hadn't be opened up.
 
Some exchanges just don't have the physical space to accomodate the LLU equipment. Only so much you can do to extend a building and can't just offer facilities to one service provider otherwise fall foul of equivalence rules.
 
Reading around a bit it looks like all exchanges are open to LLU but some are not profitable for other providers to install their equipment so they just rent it off BT and charge customers more. Our exchange has 1600 residents so it looks like I'm stuck with BT forever and I won't ever get BT infinity until the technology is so old that the rest of the country has moved on to the next generation....
This is bollox :(
 
I'd love 8gb/s sadly living in the centre of London and being on cable I can only get 100mb/s. ( I think you may have your giga and mega mixed up!)

In all seriousness without an upgraded exchange you will struggle to get anything faster that would be cost effective. You can still do satellite broadband links but they are relatively pricey and still not as good as a good DSL or cable package. But they are available virtually anywhere.

http://www.toowaybroadband.co.uk/order_now.php
 
We only have the one provider and so have to pay whatever they want.
Pants isn't it.
Saying that the service is pretty good at the moment.


Really though if you are streaming TV and Video, you're going to have to pay for it or move.
 
I struggle watching YouTube videos!

Yeah the giga n mega are mixed up, typing on phone I tend not too proof read :oops:

I had 20mb/s when I lived in Spain in 2006! Now in 2012 I get 1.5 mb/s max, I've seen it connect below 1mb/s quite often.
 
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