Crappy BT 'Infinity'?

krappyrubsnif

I know this is an old chestnut on this forum, but is anyone else in Stroud Green on so-called 'BT Infinity' and experiencing really, really krappy Internet?<div><br></div><div>It's a joke.    <br><div><br></div><div>I am sitting next to the modem (home hub) and even after making adjustments that I had to extract from the BT 'helpline', it still sometimes drops the line unexpectedly and refuses to connect without switching on and off.</div><div><br></div><div>I know one close neighbour who has had similar problems and it improved after he got BT to reconfigure the home hub to connect on one wavelength instead of two (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz),   This seemed to work for me too for a bit.   sometimes . But.....<br></div><div><br></div><div>I might be better in North Korea.</div><div><br></div><div>*Sigh*.   Any recommendations for a better package?<br><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div>

gardener-joe

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krappyrubsnif

Once connected, streaming is no problem and I am sometimes connected through two or three different devices in the house with no interruption.<div><br></div><div>It's the simple task of writing emails and especially filling in online forms or uploading text to distant servers like Wordpress or Wikipedia where it hurts.   The line sometimes just drops and you have to be very careful not to lose your work.   Extremely poor service.  Gah!</div>

MHP

I've been with BT for many years but have had some bad experiences with them recently. Its been sorted now however, but I am surprised to hear you have Infinity as I am always told this is not available in my area!!

krappyrubsnif

Weeks down the line and BT Infinity (hahah) in this street is even worse than ever.   Keen to move to Virgin which uses modern cable and not antiquated BT wires.  No confidence in BT 'technical support'.<div><br></div><div>BT now want to charge me £350 to get out of my contract which has 9 months to run.</div><div><br></div><div>Evil bastards.</div><div><br></div><div>Why should I pay this if they are the ones who are not fulfilling the contract?  It's a typical corporate win-win situation (lose-lose for the customer).   Could I challenge this? Where are the consumer rights here?</div><div><br></div><div>Anyone have any experience of challenging these corporate pirates?</div><div><br><div><br></div><div> </div></div>

helen

You might want to wait a few more weeks - Virgin is really great during the day but is suffering over-demand issues in the evenings at the moment - they tell me we'll have all the new ultra-fast wires up by end of year'/very early new year and at that point we will get 150mb easily. But for the time being, I'm getting 100mb in the day and about 5mb after 6pm every night.<div>But once its done, i'd highly recommend Virgin...its just been a real pain for the last few months...</div><div><br></div>

krappyrubsnif

Thanks Helen. After reading the Internet (when I can access it) I get the impression all these companies are all pretty much as bad as the other - over extended, technically failing and making false promises.

Arkady

TalkTalk's speeds have been declining in the last month or so. I had to get an engineer out last week, who was able to bump my download speeds up from an insipid 1.5mb to about 3mb, but I'm told that this is rubbish for contemporary standards and I should request a fibre package of some kind.

krappyrubsnif

As noted above the real BT problem is not speed - it's usually between 15MBs to 48MBs - but capacity.   Can't get online for 15 minutes at a time.   Line drops unexpectedly and won't reconnect.  (I'm copying this post to avoid having to write it all over again if it doesn't go when I press 'Post Comment')<div><br></div><div>BT told me this morning that TalkTalk, EE, and all the other providers in this area use BT lines (so many others will probably have the same problem).   Virgin is the only one that uses cable.   So it's a no-brainer....until Virgin overextends and their cable infrastructure gets overloaded and stops working.   *Sigh*.   So much for the Information Superhighway.</div><div><br></div><div>My point is, why do we put up with being forced to pay for this crap?  When the revolution comes........</div>

kreuzkav

I'm with Virgin Media.  Generally have no problems but have had more frequent outages (service goes down) over the last few weeks.  Usually this happens for about 30 mins or so, once a week.  However, Virgin Media have put up their prices by about £8 over the last 5 years.  Well over inflation, for what they call their M service.  

krappyrubsnif

I appreciate that new technology doesn't always roll out as you hope and expect, and broadband is very popular. What I can't stand is why these companies are so dishonest about it.    It's their fault - not mine.  But I'm the one who has to pay.  They're all the same.

Ali

<p>Virgins "modern" cables are quite last century  and were laid during mid 1990s by Cable London who was then taken over by Telewest who was then merged with NTL and then rebranded Virgin then taken over by Liberty Cable from  the US.  Liberty is currently thinking of taking over Vodafone. What wa esentailly a "failed" cable TV business has turned itself into a broad ban service becasue it can use the coxial. </p><p>BT copper cables are probably  very old and there are 75 milion miles of them which  will be very expensive to change into fibre to the home.  It is supposed to worth a lot of cash if you can get it out economically </p><p>It is misleading to decribe the services as Optic Fibre for both BT and Virgin.  Both  use fibre to the green cabinets you see in the street.  From the green box  BT then use twisted pair copper wires ie the old telephone lines while Virgin use Coaxial as the networks are originally  for cable TV.   Coaxial is faster but I am not surprised about Virgins unrelaiblity as you can see its "last mile" part of the network  hanging all over the place. The BT one tends to be underground in ducts.</p><p>Vigin will not be putting in any "ultra fast lines"  as the last mile part of the netwok  is where  all the cost is but more likely upgrading software on its routers in the exchange and green boxes. </p><p>This is not a bad  description about how it all works</p><p><a href="http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/ask-our-expert/cable-vs-fibre">http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/ask-our-expert/cable-vs-fibre</a></p><p>Bt dropping out seems quite a common problem. </p><p> </p>

ADGS

I only learned yesterday that, like so many things wrong with the nation, shoddy UK Internet infrastructure can be blamed on Thatcher: http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/how-the-uk-lost-the-broadband-race-in-1990-1224784

kreuzkav

virigin media went down for a whole day last week.  I think it was Wednesday.  I did all the usual, turned it off for ten minutes, then on, rebooted my computer.  I was working and spent the evening reading.  I don't have tv so I missed out on catch-up that but not a big deal.  It seems to be happening more frequently, despite virgin putting their prices up a lot over the last few years.

marko

<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;">I'm not at all surprised about the reliability of Virgin Media, if the state of the street-side cabinet on the Corner of Charteris Road and Lennox Road is anything to go by:  Fairly flimsily built, door frequently not closed and propped up against the cabinet and it's badly positioned, being at the kerb-side rather than up against the wall of the property on the other edge of the pavement.  It's taken a good few vehicle collisions over the years which have left the cabinet leaning precariously. </span></font><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;">BT's cabinets are much more substantial.</span></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;">The architecture of BT's network is actually pretty smart in that most of it is an entirely passive optical system up until the last-mile copper.  If you get Fibre-to-the-premises, the whole thing is passive.  The only thing stopping BT rolling this out more widely is the state of ducting under the streets between the cabinet and your home.   They will charge you a figure in the £1000's for this if you're an early adopter. </span></font></div>

marko

@<;a href="/profile/180/krappyrubsnif" class="Username" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 100, 150) !important; background-position: 0px 0px;">krappyrubsnif</a>: The reason so many ISPs are thoroughly dishonest is that the majority of them are bottom-feeders, competing on price rather than quality of service.<div><br></div><div>The final-mile speed is only half of the battle:  Many ISPs can't deliver the speeds because their networks of built on the principle of contention - in other words, if 50 customers Have a 20MB connection each, the ISP hasn't provided 1GB of network capacity further back in their network.  Consumer ADSL used to operate on the basis of 50:1 contention, although it's probably a lot less these days.  You pay serious £££ for a uncontended connection.</div>

Ali

The other reason why it is not fibre to the premis is teh sheer amount of access network thast will need replacing  is 76 millions miles of it

krappyrubsnif

In view of everything I've read and heard, I don't think I'm going to buy myself out of BT at this point, as it sounds like Virgin and most of the other providers are much the same - not that great. I'd just be wasting my money. (Add to that I have 50 movies stored on the BT box that I would lose). So I'll make the best of a poor service for now.......but I will be checking very carefully when the time comes for renewal in nine months time. If I need reliable professional Internet, I'll have to go and use a connection elsewhere - i know several - I just wish BT would pick up the bill. Sigh. *Why 'home office' is not a real option.*

Ali

I see that Virgin Media  are putting up their prices by 5% early next year  apparently to reflect their speed boost !