Switch from BT Broadband
Posted by: Calum F on 21 February 2013
I don't think this is exactly off topic, but can somebody answer a possibly stupid question.
Is broadband it bit like the supply of gas and electricity. That is, does it always come down the same wire regardless of who supplies it?
For example, here in York I am lucky enough to be on cable. Supplied by Virgin at 20MB/S standard.
If I change to another cable supplier - is there one? - will it come down the same cable, or would it need the road digging up again?
Sorry to be stupid.
Don overcast downtown, cabled, York.
I don't think there is another cable supplier in the UK - Virgin took over Telewest years ago. I found cable excellent when I lived in town but now only have slowish (4mb/s) ADSL.
Broadband is like electricity - if you switch you just get another supplier of the same product. Price, service, and support are the only real variables unless you change technology, say from ADSL to cable.
I don't think this is exactly off topic, but can somebody answer a possibly stupid question.
Is broadband it bit like the supply of gas and electricity. That is, does it always come down the same wire regardless of who supplies it?
For example, here in York I am lucky enough to be on cable. Supplied by Virgin at 20MB/S standard.
If I change to another cable supplier - is there one? - will it come down the same cable, or would it need the road digging up again?
Sorry to be stupid.
Don overcast downtown, cabled, York.
Not sure how it works all over the UK (& other countries) but this is the way it is in my area
A cable company (I think it was NTL) laid an optic around my village streets in a green pipe with a surface exit nearby each property; This was way back & as far as I can tell its only Virgin who use this.
The other services are via the BT telephone wires, BT, Plus Net, Talk Talk etc
Infinity, the new BT optical service bring an optical cable via existing underground conduits to distribution boxes located around the local areas to supply a number of properties. The service from the dist box to the property is via the existing wire.
Yes Mike as far as I know that's about it. The only things that I would add is that NTL was taken over by Virgin. In my area the original fibre was laid by Diamond Cable and they got taken over by NTL.
As well as the Fibre to cabinet stuff BT are now also doing Fibre to Home. My Daughter has just had this installed in a new build property, it's really fast.
I just found out my village is now off the list for getting Infinity.
Its gone from June 2013 to no listing.
Seems the best we can hope for is sometime after 2016, reasoning is we now have up to 18000/900bps down/up load speeds so are considered satisfactory.
Time for a rethink methinks, slowly & with some scottish bog water
If you have Virgin round your way consider that. We currently have very reliable 60Mb, to be upgraded to 100Mb tomorrow.
Yes Virgin is available, but don't want any of the other stuff that goes with it & for sure am very unhappy about changing e-mail address's as that is a serious upheaval
If it were not for the 2 or 3 times a day drop outs, 18kbps is perfectly OK. I don;t really need any faster as I don't do video & other heavy download traffic.
Register your own domain. Then you can move from provider to provider and keep the same email(s).
I have a .co.uk domain and recently changed my UK host very easily. I use a local Swiss broadband provider but have never used their supplied email address.
So much of today's ownership of software / app licences, music & other files, and passwords to accounts are linked to email addresses. Tell me (for the guys who have switched), how do you guys cope with all that when changing service? Bad enough having to inform all contacts (but manageable), but transferring rights and log-ins must be a nightmare!
I used to be with BT Internet when I lived in the UK. When I moved abroad I kept my BT internet address, they charge a minimal amount per month (less than 2 quid). I’m sure most of the service providers will let you retain your email address, saves loads of hassle changing accounts and contacts etc.