176 replies to this topic 1 votes

[jakem1]

Detection, on 11 April 2012 - 15:25, said:

Why not, I'm not going with any other ISP while BT are providing these sorts of speeds, quite happy to renew

That's fine if you're happy with BT but not everyone wants to be stuck on a contract for internet. To be honest, I don't even know why there is such a thing as a contract for internet access - what exactly are you paying off?

I was a BT Broadband customer years ago when they offered unlimited ADSL. I wasn't effected but I saw a lot of people stuck when BT changed their terms of service and introduced download limits - all the people on contracts were stuck with nowhere to go. I've been considering BT Infinity because the speeds look so good but I really don't want to end up stuck with BT because they're dodgy, unreliable, overpriced and their customer service is the worst I've ever had to deal with. Seeing them force users to extend their contracts just to take advantage of network improvements is not the sort of thing that makes me want to switch.

I've been with Be* for the last few years. They don't have contracts (you just have to give them a month's notice I think), they offer things like static IP addresses as standard and their customer service is top notch. The only problem is, they don't have any clear plan to migrate to fibre-optic any time soon

[Detection]

jakem1, on 11 April 2012 - 17:17, said:

That's fine if you're happy with BT but not everyone wants to be stuck on a contract for internet. To be honest, I don't even know why there is such a thing as a contract for internet access - what exactly are you paying off?

I was a BT Broadband customer years ago when they offered unlimited ADSL. I wasn't effected but I saw a lot of people stuck when BT changed their terms of service and introduced download limits - all the people on contracts were stuck with nowhere to go. I've been considering BT Infinity because the speeds look so good but I really don't want to end up stuck with BT because they're dodgy, unreliable, overpriced and their customer service is the worst I've ever had to deal with. Seeing them force users to extend their contracts just to take advantage of network improvements is not the sort of thing that makes me want to switch.

I've been with Be* for the last few years. They don't have contracts (you just have to give them a month's notice I think), they offer things like static IP addresses as standard and their customer service is top notch. The only problem is, they don't have any clear plan to migrate to fibre-optic any time soon

Yea contracts suck in general, but I'm not planning on moving house any time soon and not planning on leaving BT so it really doesn't make much difference to me atm

But I get where you are coming from, the only reason I can think of contracts is for when they actually have to install equipment your end or they could spend millions doing that every day only for the customer to leave them 1 month later and keep all the gear

[jakem1]

Detection, on 11 April 2012 - 17:28, said:

Yea contracts suck in general, but I'm not planning on moving house any time soon and not planning on leaving BT so it really doesn't make much difference to me atm

But I get where you are coming from, the only reason I can think of contracts is for when they actually have to install equipment your end or they could spend millions doing that every day only for the customer to leave them 1 month later and keep all the gear

Yes, I presume BT argue that the contract covers the cost of the modem/router. Of course, nobody actually wants these and I can't think of the last time I ever used an ISPs hardware. Be* expect you to give them the router back when you leave them (or charge you for it if you don't return it) which I think is fair and much better than being stuck on a contract.

BT also make you sign contracts for landlines despite the fact that they're not supplying any hardware and they force you to renew the contract if you ever try to switch packages. I think they're just taking the p*ss to be honest and I know they use it as an excuse to lock you in and charge you extra if you ever want to change anything.

Anyway, hopefully everything will work out for you with BT In the meantime, I need to make a list of pros and cons to see whether I can stomach returning to BT.

[Detection]

jakem1, on 11 April 2012 - 17:42, said:

Anyway, hopefully everything will work out for you with BT In the meantime, I need to make a list of pros and cons to see whether I can stomach returning to BT.

Thanks, well I have to say since getting FTTC I haven't had an ounce of bother with them, their ADSL package is a joke though, constantly resetting routers and emailing and calling them to try get something working, but the lines are old, so no wonder FTTC is more or less problem free, it has removed 95% of the copper line from the equation

[jakem1]

Detection, on 11 April 2012 - 18:01, said:

Thanks, well I have to say since getting FTTC I haven't had an ounce of bother with them, their ADSL package is a joke though, constantly resetting routers and emailing and calling them to try get something working, but the lines are old, so no wonder FTTC is more or less problem free, it has removed 95% of the copper line from the equation

That's good to know. My ADSL connection gets really unstable in Autumn and Spring as the temperature shifts (weird, I know ) and it would be nice to have a stable connection. I just wish BT offered static IP addresses on their consumer packages because I could accept the customer service problems if I didn't have to find workarounds and alternatives to the things I do now. BT Business plan prices are steep when all you want is a static IP address.

[Detection]

jakem1, on 11 April 2012 - 18:49, said:

That's good to know. My ADSL connection gets really unstable in Autumn and Spring as the temperature shifts (weird, I know ) and it would be nice to have a stable connection. I just wish BT offered static IP addresses on their consumer packages because I could accept the customer service problems if I didn't have to find workarounds and alternatives to the things I do now. BT Business plan prices are steep when all you want is a static IP address.

I was losing the will to live, I was with Orange BB and they sold their lines to BT which dropped me from ADSL2+ to ADSL and I lost about 3 meg from an already crappy 5-6meg connection, then went with BT BB and the exchange kept dropping my profile from FAST to Interleaved error correction and losing me even more speed, you can get the line reset and all the trimmings but by that time I was already in line for FTTC so I just put up with it for a few more weeks and it was worth the wait

Yea business prices are hefty, I'm going to assume you already looked into things like DynDNS to solve the dynamic IP issue ?

[Inertia]

Jub Fequois, on 11 April 2012 - 14:46, said:

It's tempting to ditch Virgin for this. But well, contracts and all that crap...

I fail to see how.

[Phemo]

I ditched Virgin for it. Virgin varies depending on area - in some places it's spot on, like yours, but in others it's a disgrace and they don't seem to care about fixing it. Cable is hit and miss but if you're in a good area then it's excellent.

[jakem1]

Detection, on 11 April 2012 - 18:54, said:

I'm going to assume you already looked into things like DynDNS to solve the dynamic IP issue ?

Yes, that's the workaround I referred to

[TogaForComfort]

Whilst is't good that BT are doing this, I don't understand why they dont offer at least what Virgin can do. my 100MB is going up to 120 in June. Are BT going to ramp the speeds up quickly to compete?

[Detection]

TogaForComfort, on 11 April 2012 - 22:39, said:

Whilst is't good that BT are doing this, I don't understand why they dont offer at least what Virgin can do. my 100MB is going up to 120 in June. Are BT going to ramp the speeds up quickly to compete?

BT have only just started rolling out FTTC, they will overtake VIrgin in no time, I might be wrong, but since Blueyonder > Telewest > Virgin Media, they have not layed any extra cable and are only using what is already there since the beginning

I might be wrong about that but thats what I have heard every time I asked about it, BT are way ahead of Virgin and will continue to take the lead imo

[Detection]

Infinity Upgrade Link is up

http://www.productsa...o?topicId=29280

[+ShMaunder]

Now we await and see if we get this upgrade. We ordered infinity earlier in the day before I saw the announcement.

[Detection]

ShMaunder, on 12 April 2012 - 00:43, said:

Now we await and see if we get this upgrade. We ordered infinity earlier in the day before I saw the announcement.

Yea you`ll get it, its a free upgrade anyway, and the only rule it to renew your contract, so as yours hasn't even started yet, you`ll automatically get it

[+ShMaunder]

Quote system on Neowin is broken.

^^ Cool cheers. I just looked up the speed and we will get 50 down and 13 up with the infinity 2 package. Hopefully we won't get the issues that some report on the BT forums.