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[c6em]

I'm going to a local meeting near me set up by Gigaclear in the next week or so.
I'd guess it is because they are sounding out this area as a possible site for the expansion of their FTTH service - and it is indeed within reach of their existing fibre spine.
.....and the fact that part of it is not being covered by BDUK might just possibly be a factor.

I've read the website, FAQ's, pricing, options, facilities -help desk availability etc.
I've looked at the Boxcom site who is their partner for doing the house installations.
I've looked at the Vonage site who is their partner for VOIP for those who go the whole way and dump the BT copper voice side as well.

Any ideas for suitable awkward questions to ask?
I suspect the info available will be very much aimed at the 'general public' rather than the level of contributors to this forum.

The only thing I've managed to discover not on the official sites is that the wireless of their ONT/router unit is said to be bad and it appears the whole thing is solidly locked down to Gigaclear.  From what I gather if you say want to change the SSID you log on to your account online and change it there - whereupon the change gets pushed down to your unit via Gigaclear's admin access to your router unit.

[Black Sheep]

Walter may be your best, 'man to go to' with this. Perhaps PM him in case he misses the thread ??

I'm not clued up with FTTH, but as with any product/service I buy into, I'm not so much interested about the here and now, how wonderful the product is, what it can deliver, etc etc.
What I want to know about, is what happens when things go wrong ?? Lead times to repair both minor and major 'outages', what your rental covers, and the cost of replacement equipment if damaged by the EU.

As I say though, Walter will probably have the best questions, due to his knowledge with B4RN ?

[waltergmw]

Thanks BS for the recommendation !

I shall respond via PM with some specific ideas.

In public:-

1.   An obvious question is the viability of the company, and whether there is likely to be any political interference as has been observed in a number of UK locations.

2.   From a practical viewpoint fibre should be far more reliable and isn't affected by noise, line distance and an ageing infrastructure. However you can't prevent our splendid utilities digging up each others' infrastructure with gay and often ignorant abandon !

Kind regards,
Walter

[Black Sheep]

 

[burakkucat]

The only thing I've managed to discover not on the official sites is that the wireless of their ONT/router unit is said to be bad . . .

That would be a concern to me. I would only expect to be provided with an ONT with an RJ45 port able to accept a patch cable . . . the other end of which I would then plug into a device of my choice.

Putting it another way -- my LAN is my LAN and it is not the business of any CP/ISP, whoever they may be. 

[kitz]

I'd also be asking about their backhaul and contention.   I can't check atm, but iirc gigaclear where the ones showing the speedtests and speeds on a brand-new connection with no (or hardly any other) users on the link, and the wording was a wee bit dubious.   Apologies if it wasn't them....   

..  But I seem to recall there was something like a 10gb link for _all_ their users, which could soon be saturated with 100mb users.   Do they have anything in place to prioritise traffic,   How about business over residential preferences.

[c6em]

Thanks for the replies so far
They now appear to have multiple packages aimed at
1. home
2. general business
3. Enterprise business (that's seriously large users)
See
http://www.gigaclear.com/full-price-list/

I've noticed the absence of any SLA in the event of a fault on the home connections also that its office hours only for for the home products phone helpdesk (That's hidden in the FAQ's)
Back haul capacity has worried me too as follows:
Originally the home offering was 10Mbps up/down symmetrical guaranteed minimum speed with bursting up to 1Gbps at quiet times.
Now that they have changed to fixed upper limit packages (50Mbps, 100Mbps) so I'd guess that backhaul is becoming congested and that the burst capacity to 1Gbps does not exist anymore......so they had to change the offering to cap the speeds and for those who want more than 50Mbps have to pay more.
Kitz is right in that their demo speedtest was on a first village connection in Appleton so no other users and I'd imagine a temporary uncontended line for the occasion (me ever a cynic of demos).

(I wonder if they are monitoring this thread!)

[MBuckingham]

Hi

I don't work for Gigaclear but have signed up to their broadband which should arrive in the next 2-3 months.

As far as the speed is concerned it's impossible to say what it will be like in the future but at least you can see what it is like at the moment.

http://www.netindex.com/download/2,4/United-Kingdom/

You need to scroll down the page and select "ALL ISPS". From the results I'm fairly certain I'll get very high speeds once it arrives.

Malcolm

I'd also be asking about their backhaul and contention.   I can't check atm, but iirc gigaclear where the ones showing the speedtests and speeds on a brand-new connection with no (or hardly any other) users on the link, and the wording was a wee bit dubious.   Apologies if it wasn't them....   

..  But I seem to recall there was something like a 10gb link for _all_ their users, which could soon be saturated with 100mb users.   Do they have anything in place to prioritise traffic,   How about business over residential preferences.