O2 Broadband

[Clart]

So i've got o2 broadband, had it since June and its been really good, never drops out, approx 3-4 meg. I recently moved house and they told me that all the ports are full at the exchange for that package. So i had to pay an extra £10 a month to be "upgraded" on to something called IP Stream which is upto 8 meg.

Started off ok, getting 5mb, but recently its dropped to approx 300k which is quick frankly, useless. I can't stream anything and downloads take forever, my web n walk is quicker than that.

So i rand O2, and they said tht 300k is the kind of speeds they would expect to see during busy times. wtf, are we living in the dark ages? Brandwide is utilised via a traffic management system spreading it fairly amongst users. So i argued the toss about already paying extra and they just weren't budging. I asked to cancel the contract, they would charge me £97, great. I'm stuck with a shitty broadband for the next 6 months.

 

[PinkoCommie]

I suspect that they are alluding to their contention ratio.

Most ISP's use a contention ratio of either 20:1 or 50:1 (depends on the class of package). This is basically a measure of how many users will be sharing "your" bandwidth. For instance, if an ISP puts 8Mb of bandwidth to an exchange, and they sell a connection advertised as a contention of 20:1, then they will put 20 users onto that exchange before they put another 8mb in.

So in theory, if your exchange is already maxed out, then you are right up againsts your contention ratio. At peaktimes there will be 20 or 50 othter people all fighting for the same 8mb of bandwidth.

300k works out to a contention of 27.3:1

Things to check
1) Check your router out, make sure it is actually connecting to he ADSL line at a decent speed.
2) Are you able to get a faster connection during the middle of the day or veery late at night? / Does the performance get really bad from 5-9pm?

If your router is connecting the the ADSL network at a decnet speed (i.e. not 300k) and you can get a halfway decent speed outside of peak hours, then there's not a lot that you can do.

Might be worth doing some tests on www.speedtest.net at different times, if you are consistently getting 300k then something is wrong and you should take it up again with your ISP.

 

[Tom]

Very odd. Why is it your problem that the ports are full?

 

[treemanx]

I think my internet (sky) is similar its around 500kb - 1mb peak usually, ocassaionally its 3mb. I know Im not going to get 8mb but its not even close! I asked to upgrade to a better one and they said its not possible

 

[Needster]

Can this be effected by your distance from the exchange? We're really close to the telephone exchange for our village, if you've moved away further away from this than your previous house perhaps that's an issue. Especially if it was perfectly fine at your old house.

 

[Ronnie R]

Can this be effected by your distance from the exchange? We're really close to the telephone exchange for our village, if you've moved away further away from this than your previous house perhaps that's an issue. Especially if it was perfectly fine at your old house.

Make's sense she does.

I get around 4-5mb with o2 - I wish I could get cable

 

[Nik]

Very odd. Why is it your problem that the ports are full?

When they unbundle a telephone exchange (LLU), the ISP puts their own equipment in the exchange and you go via that rather than through the BT equipment. Unfortunately they only have so much physical space in each exchange for their hardware so there is a limit to the number of connections they can support at each exchange. If all the ports are full then they cant do much unless they could get hold of some more space off BT for more equipment (which they probably would not want to give up).

They've moved you onto their 'Home Access' product which is a standard BT managed service (IPStream) rather than their LLU unbundled packages. This means it's effectively BT's fault, not O2 that your getting a rubbish speed. This is becoming more common as people move to the LLU providers unfortunately. Technically if someone in your area leaves then they will free up a port, on the 02 / Be hardware, but i dont think they allow you to go on any sort of waiting list.

 

[Tom]

So why do you have to pay £10 more? Bit harsh.

 

[Nik]

BT's wholesale prices that they charge O2 and other ISP's for providing the service are much more than O2 can offer it for using their own hardware basically.

Until LLU, broadband for under £15/£20 was pretty much unheared of. These £5 - £10 deals from O2 and Sky etc are only possible because they are using their own hardware in your local exchange and so dont have to pay BT's over inflated wholesale prices

 

[Tom]

Makes sense.

So its Virgin media (if its available) or stick with non LLU.

 

[Nik]

Looks like your a bit stuffed mate, nothing really supported at your exchange. Are you out in the middle of nowhere or something :S ?


Exchange name: Hurley Exchange code: EMHURLE Location: Warwickshire, West Midlands

Broadband availability overview
ADSL: Yes
SDSL: No
LLU services: No
Cable: No
Wireless: No

BT Wholesale information

ADSL status: Enabled as of 29/10/2003
ADSL Max status: Enabled as of 30/03/2006
SDSL status: Not available
21CN WBC status: Not available

Wireless broadband availability

LTT Broadband: Not available
Now Wireless: Not available
OnLincolnshire: Not available
Urban Wimax: Not available
Kijoma: Not available
EMNET Notts: Not available
Orbital / VFast: Not available

Cable broadband availability

Virgin Media: Not available
Smallworld Media: Not available

LLU operator presence

AOL: Not available
O2 / Be: Not available
C&W / Bulldog: Not available
Edge Telecom: Not available
Entanet: Not available
Lumison: Not available
NewNet: Not available
Node4: Not available
Orange: Not available
Pipex: Not available
Sky / Easynet: Not available
Smallworld: Not available
TalkTalk (CPW): Not available
Tiscali: Not available
Tiscali TV: Not available
WB Internet: Not available
Zen Internet: Not available

 

[dk]

Makes sense.

So its Virgin media (if its available) or stick with non LLU.

No, you do want to go with llu, llu is the good stuff, they promised me 20mb and I get 21mb, a very fast ping for gaming and the speed never drops below maximum.

O2 llu BB is one of the best.

 

[Tom]

Yo, read the thread.

 

[Clart]

hmmm interesting, does look like i'm a bit stuffed. Its a village but its hardly in the middle of nowhere.

Its fine during the day, but come the evenings and weekends it drops dramatically. I tried to argue that i was paying for a service that they couldn't provide, but apparently i "broke" the contract by moving house and they can't guarantee anything anyway.

 

[Jason_E]

Interesting read Nik! Where abouts did you get such a detailed report on the exchange?

 

[Griff]

Interesting read Nik! Where abouts did you get such a detailed report on the exchange?

SamKnows

 

[sn00p]

hmmm interesting, does look like i'm a bit stuffed. Its a village but its hardly in the middle of nowhere.

Its fine during the day, but come the evenings and weekends it drops dramatically. I tried to argue that i was paying for a service that they couldn't provide, but apparently i "broke" the contract by moving house and they can't guarantee anything anyway.

Whatever you do, don't switch to skys IP Stream service (Sky have oversold this product, not enough bandwidth their end and they massively shape the traffic) because it's absolutely bloody terrible.

I was amazed when I used my dad's broadband how bad it'd actually got, so I've just switched them over the BT's own service which should work much better, hopefully that will stop the "technical support" calls I keep on receiving.

 

[Griff]

Whatever you do, don't switch to skys IP Stream service (Sky have oversold this product, not enough bandwidth their end and they massively shape the traffic) because it's absolutely bloody terrible.

I was amazed when I used my dad's broadband how bad it'd actually got, so I've just switched them over the BT's own service which should work much better, hopefully that will stop the "technical support" calls I keep on receiving.

Their is no such thing as "Skys IPStream" service. IPStream is a BTWholesale product (Datastream being another BTWholesale product) which Sky just resell.

Any problems they experienced would be down to Sky's traffic management policy and/or local congestion. Moving to BT's "own service" just means you're paying BT directly every month. The product, IPStream, is exactly the same as it was before you moved them.

 

[Clart]

hmmm, so basically, which ISP i go for, judging on whats available from the local exchange will be BTs IP stream anyway?

 

[Tom]

Exactly, unless a port becomes free?

 

[Griff]

hmmm, so basically, which ISP i go for, judging on whats available from the local exchange will be BTs IP stream anyway?

Exactly. Regardless of which ISP you choose they will just resell a BTWholesale product to you.

It just doesn't make financial sense for any LLU provider to install their own DSLAM's in your exchange. There's simply not enough residential lines to make it economically viable.

 

[Griff]

Exactly, unless a port becomes free?

If Nik is correct about Clarts exchange no LLU providers cover it at all. O2 included. So all this talk of no "free ports" is irrelevant.

 

[Clart]

they did say they were in the process of upgrading a lot of exchanges. I guess i'll just have to keep ringing them to check availability.

 

[Tom]

Ouch

http://www.tariam.co.uk/products/homenet/

 

[Griff]

they did say they were in the process of upgrading a lot of exchanges. I guess i'll just have to keep ringing them to check availability.

I wouldn't hold your breath. Your exchange serves 3000 residential lines and LLU providers target exchanges with 10 times that number. That's not to say they won't invest in smaller exchanges but I'll be amazed if anyone touches your exchange anytime soon. It's not even got a 21CN date assigned to it yet.

Unfortunately that's the price you pay for living in certain parts of the UK.

 

[sn00p]

Their is no such thing as "Skys IPStream" service. IPStream is a BTWholesale product (Datastream being another BTWholesale product) which Sky just resell.

Any problems they experienced would be down to Sky's traffic management policy and/or local congestion. Moving to BT's "own service" just means you're paying BT directly every month. The product, IPStream, is exactly the same as it was before you moved them.

Yes, I know it's the same product, bad phrasing on my part, I was meaning "as opposed to skys LLU service".

The problems are certainly down to skys traffic management and that's what I was alluding to, it's utterly useless at peak times, it's like dial up.

 

[Griff]

Yes, I know it's the same product, bad phrasing on my part, I was meaning "as opposed to skys LLU service".

The problems are certainly down to skys traffic management and that's what I was alluding to, it's utterly useless at peak times, it's like dial up.

Aah fair enough.

 

[Clart]

Ouch

http://www.tariam.co.uk/products/homenet/

lol fantastic, sign me up.

Its been perfectly usable since the weekend, but sunday night i was tearing my hair out.

as long as i can play cod

 

[Keydogg]

I had the same problem when I was with O2 on our non-LLU exchange. Since then I have changed to eclipse which were much better and I am now on Plusnet's Pro package which is FAR better.

Even though they are all going through BT's IPStream Eclipse and Plusnet were much much better.

Average pings I got when online gaming:

O2 - 120-150ms
Eclipse - 40-50ms
Plusnet Pro - 40-50ms (30-40ms with interleaving now turned off)

Average peak download speeds:

O2 - 1mb
Eclipse - 2.5mb
Plusnet Pro - 3-4mb with interleaving turned off.

You can get out of your contract early with O2 if you complain to the ISPA but beware O2 will ask you for your router back or they charge a £50 fee if you don't send it. I got out of mine after 3 months by just emailing the ISPA and O2 caved in straight away.

 

[Griff]

lol fantastic, sign me up.

Its been perfectly usable since the weekend, but sunday night i was tearing my hair out.

as long as i can play cod

Sunday nights are traditionally the worst for internet traffic. Must be something to do with everyone jumping online before they have to return to work the next day or avoiding Songs of Praise on the TV downstairs..

 

[sn00p]

Ouch

http://www.tariam.co.uk/products/homenet/

I had satellite broadband back in the day! lol At the time it was awesome, upstream packets went over my ISP (via the satellite providers proxy) and the return packets came back over satellite.

They even had a scheduled download service, you could add a file to a queue and you kept your pc on (no need for modem to be connected) and it would catch you file when it was sent.

Think the service was called starspeeder or something.

Amusing thing was, that because of the way it worked, if you ran a sniffer you could see packet fragments for everybody else using the service.

 

[Jason_E]

Ouch

http://www.tariam.co.uk/products/homenet/

JAYSUS! A guy who's a great friend of the family (And rolling in it) want's a faster internet connection to watch his p**n. If I sent him that link he'd probably happily pay for it.

And my exchange is no better than the OP's, got fook all services here. BT Works but apparently I can't get anything else?

EDIT: I drive passed that "Tariam Homenet's" Office every day! LOL

 

[Aluco]

Lol aren't BT great.
I feel privileged to work for them.

/wrists