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[pintosal]

I just received a letter from BT telling me that I can now get Infinity Broadband, as the fibre and new cabinets are in place in Maidenhead.

BT's on-line checker reckons I will get 32Mb/s download and 4Mb/s upload, and the package offers 40Gb data, and all for £17.99 per month.

Now, I'm tempted as my Zen Lite costs £17.99, my max synch speed is 4.5 Mb/s and I get 10Gb data.

My reasons for staying with Zen so far are the good tech support and no packet shaping.

But for a 7-fold speed increase and 4-fold data increase, I'm tempted.

Are there any forum members currently on BT Infinity, and what are their experiences?

[roseway]

You don't have to use Infinity. That's just BT's name for their service, but other ISPs can offer services using the same new hardware.

[Zoe]

Hi  


You'd have to check this out!
Don't just take my word for it  

the package offers 40Gb data,

But I'm sure there's another slightly more expensive BT Infinity product .. That is Now 300 GB per month  

Note!
The 300 GB ones ...
Are probably the ones BT call - Unlimited
And the 300 GB is probably part of the Fair Usage Policy  

BT Infinity Packages : http://tinyurl.com/23rrv3g


Zoe

[waltergmw]

Hi Pintosal,

It might be prudent to establish which PCP green cabinet serves your house and then guestimate the cable distance.
If the distance is small (say under 1 km) and your lines don't have a bad history, the BT estimate might be valid.
If you can find a local BT Openreach engineer it would be worth asking if he knows of much trouble with your cabinet xx.

Just to remind everyone Infinity is based upon existing, sometimes poor, D side cables to the houses using 1950s technology as illustrated below.
Virgin Media is using their 1980s coaxial technology, but their coverage - even in an equipped area - is probably far from complete.
Note also that Virgin's phone lines at the top of the picture are quite separate from their Co-ax for broadband and TV.
If you are a lucky Virgin, you should shortly be able to get 50 Mbps.

BT PCP green cabinet http://www.scribd.com/doc/42050356

Virgin cabinet http://www.scribd.com/doc/42050368

Kind regards,
Walter

[pintosal]

Thanks Walter

I'm quite close to the new cabinets - about 200 metres one way, and 400 metres the other way. My line is not too bad as I can hold synch at 4500kb/s at 3.8 km from the exchange.

So I might believe BT's optimistic estimates. Although my experience with their ADSL and ADSL2+ suggests that BT's speed estimates are conservative.

Talking to an engineer is a good suggestion.

What I was after was some 'real world' experience. Not so much the synch speed but what it feels like in terms of opening web pages, or downloading BBC podcasts.

[waltergmw]

Sorry Pintosal,

I realised that's what you really wanted but I'm on Virgin Media.
Your question is absolutely right. The actual continuous throughput speed from any web site is likely to be very much lower than a speedtest throughput speed.
Given that fact and that these speeds are probably an order of magnitude better that your current ones, attempting to get the up to 40 mbps is probably an overkill.

The new FTTC must be within 100 m of the old PCPs so your distance sounds fine.

Also note if you wanted to stay with Zen they are offering their infinity type fibre-broadband services, but probably at higher prices.
Their web site does describe their offerings in more detail including the higher upload speeds as well.

http://www.zen.co.uk/home-office/broadband/fibre-broadband.aspx

and

http://www.zen.co.uk/business/broadband/fibre-broadband.aspx

I would be very surprised if Zen had not trialled their FTTC services using their own staff and if so perhaps azzaka might provide some more detail of his experiences ?

Kind regards,
Walter

[renluop]

BT's on-line checker reckons I will get 32Mb/s download and 4Mb/s upload, and the package offers 40Gb data, and all for £17.99 per month.

Is that the introductory price or the or the regular one?

[pintosal]

Hi renluop. Apparently it is an intro price. Their website says £19.99

Yes Walter, Zen do offer FTTC, but it's a bit pricey at £30 per month.

In the many years I've been with Zen I've found their support and service to excellent. But at almost twice the price ... then I'm tempted by the BT offering.

I'll await comments from azzaka.

[leeboy22001]

Speeds BT quote are very conservative, My estimated speed was 29.8Mb/s, but I get easily 40Mb/s download :-), when BT guy installed the kit he said my sync speed was 47Mb/s.

[pintosal]

That sounds good leeboy2201. A couple of questions if I may:

How close are you to the cabinet?

Has the service been reliable?

Have you had to deal with BT support?

Thanks.