uk Blame Thatcher - The UK's crappy broadband speeds

[Haggis Veteran]

40mb here line can only handle 52mb but i would love to be on 100 or 150mb :(

[game_over]

Yep - Reading and enjoying 60Mbps, can't remember what the increase puts me up to towards the end of this year.

 

You are aware this "free" upgrade comes after they put their prices up right? It's free because they already started charging you earlier. Can't remember when but I know my bill has/will go up by about ?4-5.

 

Nothing is life is free, i know that! 

 

In this instance i was happy to pay an extra ?2.50 for a 40mb upgrade.

[PsYcHoKiLLa]

I'm in the UK. My current broadband speed is 120mbps and shortly going up to 150mbps.  Sure, not everywhere can get that, but it's hardly true that ALL internet speed in the UK sucks.

 

I'm with Virgin Media too but they only provide services in a small minority of places in the UK and BT has taken years to get anywhere with fibre, I'm not surprised Thatcher screwed up something else in the UK, she managed to decimate all our other industries in the name of "competition".

[Midnight Mick]

120mb here. Sure, Thatcher was a bitch! Spend your money & get what you pay for you tight sods!

[FloatingFatMan]

I'm with Virgin Media too but they only provide services in a small minority of places in the UK and BT has taken years to get anywhere with fibre, I'm not surprised Thatcher screwed up something else in the UK, she managed to decimate all our other industries in the name of "competition".

 

I'm curious. Were you even around during the Thatcher years?

 

A large number of people seem to remember a completely different 1980's to the one I remember...

[MikeChipshop Member]

My London speeds on VM were lovely a few years back, now live in the Scottish Highlands and they're dismal but improving slowly. Blaming Thatcher is a bit far fetched, a slight hindrance maybe but BT are getting there.

 

I'm curious. Were you even around during the Thatcher years?

 

A large number of people seem to remember a completely different 1980's to the one I remember...

 

It's ever so fashionable to blame her for everything don't you know? :p

[He's Dead Jim]

Heh, thatcherwitch legacy...

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

I'm happy on 120mbit thanks to Virgin Media, however a friend up the road who cant get Virgin has been stuck on 2mbps ADSL2 for almost the last decade. Just shows the vast difference in broadband speeds here simply living a few streets away can make.

[Dan~]

Broadband speeds have absolutely nothing to do with thatcher, just another left wing extremist who has absolutely nothing else better to do.

 

I had massive issues when moving into my new house. I didn't want to pay ?30+ a month for quoted 0.5mb line, so didn't have a telephone number at all, as we just used our mobile.  I knew the exchange was done, and I knew the property connected to a cabinet which was updated, but when ringing BT (and other suppliers) they said "sorry you cannot get bt infinity" as I live "too far from the exchange" "too far from the cabinet" then "the cabinet hasn't been updated" and then "your exchange hasn't been updated"

 

This kept going round and round, BT not allowed by law to speak to BT Openreach (who do the roll outs) and I was advised to get in contact with my local MP to contact BT Openreach, I mean really wtf?

 

This went on for around 3 months, when I rang BT again mainly for an argument, and after saying I was going to dismantle the cabinet at the end of the road and sell bits for scrap metal value as it's there doing 'nothing'. They then agreed to give me a landline number to test, and the next day I done a BT Wholesale check and guess what? I could get up to 55MB.

 

I then had a long letter for apology from BT, then BT Openreach saying that they've got it wrong for the past 3 months of me trying!

 

It's that reason why I believe Broadband speeds are so low, the fact that BT cannot speak to BT Openreach by law.

 

I can understand Virgin Media's reason for not being able to supply, because they have to dig up roads etc if the infrastructure is not already in place

[MikeChipshop Member]

Broadband speeds have absolutely nothing to do with thatcher, just another left wing extremist who has absolutely nothing else better to do.

 

I had massive issues when moving into my new house. I didn't want to pay ?30+ a month for quoted 0.5mb line, so didn't have a telephone number at all, as we just used our mobile.  I knew the exchange was done, and I knew the property connected to a cabinet which was updated, but when ringing BT (and other suppliers) they said "sorry you cannot get bt infinity" as I live "too far from the exchange" "too far from the cabinet" then "the cabinet hasn't been updated" and then "your exchange hasn't been updated"

 

This kept going round and round, BT not allowed by law to speak to BT Openreach (who do the roll outs) and I was advised to get in contact with my local MP to contact BT Openreach, I mean really wtf?

 

This went on for around 3 months, when I rang BT again mainly for an argument, and after saying I was going to dismantle the cabinet at the end of the road and sell bits for scrap metal value as it's there doing 'nothing'. They then agreed to give me a landline number to test, and the next day I done a BT Wholesale check and guess what? I could get up to 55MB.

 

I then had a long letter for apology from BT, then BT Openreach saying that they've got it wrong for the past 3 months of me trying!

 

It's that reason why I believe Broadband speeds are so low, the fact that BT cannot speak to BT Openreach by law.

 

I can understand Virgin Media's reason for not being able to supply, because they have to dig up roads etc if the infrastructure is not already in place

 

Frustrating isn't it?

 

I had a similar ordeal where BT failed on several occasions to even look at an issue with their exchange when i was phoning up to complain. My speed was already terrible at 1.5mb but dropped to 0.3mb all of a sudden. I phoned up and complained and they ran some checks and claimed it was my internal wiring. I obviously kicked up a stink, knowing full well that houses on the same street as me had also suffered the same fate but it was no good.

 

Thankfully i fix the PC of a local MP who phones me to look at his computer as the internet had gone extremely slow. I nipped over and it was exactly the same issue. He phoned BT and within two days they'd been to the exchange, done some thing and all our speeds leapt to (a not so staggering) 2.5mb.

 

Just goes to show.

[theyarecomingforyou]

The UK has the fastest broadband in Europe. To suggest that the UK has "crappy broadband speeds" is wrong, as is the association with Thatcher. People really need to get over their hatred of Thatcher and move on with their lives.

[Anibal P]

I'm curious. Were you even around during the Thatcher years?

 

A large number of people seem to remember a completely different 1980's to the one I remember...

 

Historical revisionism at it's best, happens here in the US also, the Left loves to distort facts to push their agenda, hell I've heard Reagan be compared to Hitler, so yeah just ignore them, they live in a fantasy reality

[xrobwx71]

 

 

 

London will always enjoy the fastest speeds along with VM territories, BT lines will always be very hit or miss.

 

IMO BT should be working on the rural places (which need the speed increases) first and working backwards towards the exchanges.

We have the exact same issues in the US but it does get better every few years.

[reaper1576]

Well I would love to see BT rip out all the old copper in London my old ISP I was on ADSL2+ for a number of years amazing support what I miss something rotten. I had to move to BT Infinity due to the copper wire past the cab outside my house to the exchange was so bad my speeds dropped from 18mbps to under 8mbps so my only option was fibre with BT where I'm extremely lucky as I live approximately 200-250 feet from the cab via cable I get great speeds 80/20mbps and see speeds at times of around 130mbps DL before the DLM kicks in and lowers my speed. I would be more than happy to get FTTP due to the short distance as I know I would have an even better speed or would love to see BT increase the iprofile to 100mbps or 120mbps. Sadly BT lack the ability to provide basic tech support to its customers.

[McKay]

The UK has the fastest broadband in Europe. To suggest that the UK has "crappy broadband speeds" is wrong, as is the association with Thatcher. People really need to get over their hatred of Thatcher and move on with their lives.

 

Still much more needs to be done. The countryside is far too ignored. Rural areas go forgotten about. We may have high speeds in the UK in places but the divide in Broadband speeds is atrocious. I dont trust that article, 75% of homes have access to speeds of "up to 30MB". It simply doesn't actually line up with real life. I'm in an area that BT says gets "up to 25mb/s". Does anynbody get that? No. The decrepit Copper lines and the antique exchange can only handle roughly 5mb/s. BT rate speeds in areas by what they're pouring in at the start, not what their antique networks can support. Same for almost every town in Lincolnshire. You have to go to a city like Lincoln if you want any faster. So I wonder what those 75% are actually reaching? Because that up to nonsense is just marketing. 

[Crisp]

Still much more needs to be done. The countryside is far too ignored. Rural areas go forgotten about. We may have high speeds in the UK in places but the divide in Broadband speeds is atrocious. 

 

I stopped reading that article after I read 75% of UK homes can get 30Mbps or higher.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Still much more needs to be done. The countryside is far too ignored. Rural areas go forgotten about. We may have high speeds in the UK in places but the divide in Broadband speeds is atrocious. I dont trust that article, 75% of homes have access to speeds of "up to 30MB". It simply doesn't actually line up with real life. I'm in an area that BT says gets "up to 25mb/s". Does anynbody get that? No. The decrepit Copper lines and the antique exchange can only handle roughly 5mb/s. Same for almost every town in Lincolnshire. You have to go to a city like Lincoln if you want any faster. So I wonder what those 75% are actually reaching? Because that up to nonsense is just marketing. 

Absolutely. My point was simply that to blame the UK's broadband problems on Thatcher while the UK is actually leading Europe for broadband speeds is ludicrous. But the UK is investing heavily in broadband infrastructure and the majority of people do have access to high speed broadband. With regards to rural areas, it's likely that mobile broadband will be the best direction to go as physical internet connections are extremely expensive to upgrade.

[tuckeratlarge]

Margeret Thatcher did more for this country than any Liebour, smarmy, war criminal, lefty, scum blair ever did. Breaking the unions made this country great again. No longer did we have to sit through three day weeks and power cuts. Let's not forget the current financial crisis was started under Blair/Brown and that inbred war mongering scum Bush Jr.

When alls said and done, faster broadband is not a thing we actually need. Speeds above 20meg are just a pissing contest between ISPs.

[McKay]

Absolutely. My point was simply that to blame the UK's broadband problems on Thatcher while the UK is actually leading Europe for broadband speeds is ludicrous. But the UK is investing heavily in broadband infrastructure and the majority of people do have access to high speed broadband. With regards to rural areas, it's likely that mobile broadband will be the best direction to go as physical internet connections are extremely expensive to upgrade.

 

Oh I agree there, thats why I didn't even mention Thatcher at all. I can understand relatives of miners etc who lost their jobs blaming Thatcher. But blaming the sorry state of our mostly 60 year old Copper network on her seems a bit of a stretch. 

[FloatingFatMan]

Oh I agree there, thats why I didn't even mention Thatcher at all. I can understand relatives of miners etc who lost their jobs blaming Thatcher. But blaming the sorry state of our mostly 60 year old Copper network on her seems a bit of a stretch. 

 

Especially when the one they should be blaming is Scargill. :p

[Lovell]

A Tory doing something that would benefit everyone other than themselves, can you imagine? :rofl:

Benefit everyone!? you think giving BT an absolute monopoly over TV, Phone and the Internet would benefit everyone? do we lives in the same country? how old are you mate? I can remember when BT had a monopoly for just Phone and Internet and it was a joke if it wasn't for cable upping the speeds BT would still be charging people ?60 for 1mb.

[He's Dead Jim]

I'm happy on 120mbit thanks to Virgin Media, however a friend up the road who cant get Virgin has been stuck on 2mbps ADSL2 for almost the last decade. Just shows the vast difference in broadband speeds here simply living a few streets away can make.

Yup, my brother has a similar speed,1.5-2mpbs and  he's half a mile from a 250k population centre yet I'm seven miles out, and I get 8mbps, even sky users in this village are limited to 20mbps, and theres no sign of Virginmedia here

Old fashioned exchange...:(

[PsYcHoKiLLa]

I'm curious. Were you even around during the Thatcher years?

 

A large number of people seem to remember a completely different 1980's to the one I remember...

 

I'm 45 so yes and I remember her killing the steel industry, the shipyards, mining industry, selling off British Gas, British Telecom, British Steel, British Rail. I also remember her experimenting on Scotland with the Poll Tax which eventually become Council Tax.

 

Possibly you live down south and remember better days because nothing she did affected you but she was a demon to millions north of London.

Benefit everyone!? you think giving BT an absolute monopoly over TV, Phone and the Internet would benefit everyone? do we lives in the same country? how old are you mate? I can remember when BT had a monopoly for just Phone and Internet and it was a joke if it wasn't for cable upping the speeds BT would still be charging people ?60 for 1mb.

 

BT's network is used by other companies, why would it be any worse to have had a completely fibre network which supported unlimited speeds and for other companies to be able to sell services on that network also?

[FloatingFatMan]

I'm 45 so yes and I remember her killing the steel industry, the shipyards, mining industry, selling off British Gas, British Telecom, British Steel, British Rail. I also remember her experimenting on Scotland with the Poll Tax which eventually become Council Tax.

 

Possibly you live down south and remember better days because nothing she did affected you but she was a demon to millions north of London.

 

Same age, and yes I'm down south.  She didn't just experiment with the poll tax btw, it was introduced to all of the UK.. Then repealed a year later. That was probably her biggest screw up but she was by NO means the demon that people make her out to be. She did a huge amount of good for the UK as well.

 

As for the miners, Scargill was by far the most guilty party for the miners strike mess (I'm actually from Newark originally and my dad's side of the family are still there, and were miners).  Without that militant douche, there wouldn't have been a fraction of the trouble and way less people would have become broke over it.  As for the others, the state doesn't belong in running businesses, it belongs in running the country. Let businesses run business.

[PsYcHoKiLLa]

Nope...I'm Scottish and I remember us being used as a petrie dish.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/modern_scotland/the_poll_tax/

 

 

Replacing the Rates system, the Poll Tax is introduced in Scotland before the rest of the country. Deeply unpopular, it leads to the biggest protests since the Miners' Strike.

 

 

It's thanks to her that the Conservatives have never held power here since and most likely never will, she may not have been demonised down your neck of the woods but she was, and still is, highly despised here, kind of like an abusive mother.