FTTC - Will I need to change ISP to get fastest connection?

[nannynick]

FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) is coming to my village. The Green Boxes have started to appear and Openreach has Sept 2010 listed as the delivery date.

Currently my ISP is O2/BeUnlimited and I have the upto 8 meg package, though today my download tested at 0.73Mbps.

Once FTTC is available, will my router automatically set itself to support the highest speed it can get - or will I need to do something to make it retest the line?

I know a number of people give AAISP a lot of praise - they have in the past detected problems on a line, sent customer an SMS, and even had BT fix the problem before customer gets home.

They take no BS from Openreach and were in a news item on ThinkBroadband for having a low cost 'transfer in' fee and a guarantee to get poor lines 'sorted out'.

AFAIK, they don't lock you in to a long contract, so you could see if they get your (copper) line sorted out and after a while decide whether you need to go on to FTTC.

Sorry I didn't think of them before. I'd consider using them except I am locked into a 12 month contract with Plusnet.

If your usage is relatively low in a month, Plusnet Value at 6.49 would give unlimited traffic from 0000 to 0800 if you need to download a TV show using iPlayer and won't hit the 10 GB monthly allowance (for 0800-0000).

AAISP say that I need to keep checking using the availability checker and once FTTC is mentioned then they start the ball rolling as it were.
The Postcode Check using the checker on the AAISP site is saying FTTC is available... but SamKnows says it isn't. Checking using line number results in both systems saying no FTTC. So I guess checking every week or so is going to be necessary to see when the systems give FTTC as a result for my line number, rather than just the postcode.

Plusnet Value I think is via ADSL, not FTTC. So still be stuck with low line speed. Having a system running doing downloads overnight is not practical for me, as alas I sleep in the same room as the equipment and don't sleep well - one of the problems of having a studio flat... sleeping near the fridge is bad enough, trying to avoid adding anything else that makes noise.

Have you seen the BT ads about them providing a new filtered socket. I know other supplies of those exist, and will try to find one for you. One friend said it added 1 Mbps to his download speed. Another has disconnected an extension to the first floor (they have a cordless phone now) and also saw a big speed increase (sometimes there's a third wire in extensions, called the 'bell wire' for old fashioned phones which needed it for a ring to occur - no longer needed, and now sometimes a source of noise, badly affecting the ADSL signal-to-noise and cutting speeds).

There may well be some wiring problem which might get over your low speeds. Do neighbours all get the same ?

Sorry if I didn't make it clear - AAISP may well be able to help you get an improvement on the existing line using ADSL without the need to consider FTTC.

If you consider FTTC rather expensive as I do, let's hope that there can be some pressure put to bear on BT in due course, to allow for speeds below 15 Mbps to be allowed rather than failing the line.

If someone gets say 4 or 8 Mbps they should pay less, but have a reliable speed comparable with those on ADSL who have been getting those 'luxury' (!) speeds for years now.

Checked the AAISP prices today. A bit more expensive than BT but they don't count uploads at all...

AAISP is charging 50 quid for FTTC install (Home or Business) and if you had
low (1 GB /month) daytime [0900-1800 Mon-Fri] usage and 150 GB 'off peak'
the fee would be 27.98 inc VAT. Would allow for a lot of downloading of shows on iPlayer, while watching streaming video from 4oD or Demand Five, if you ever miss a TV show...

It seems a rather good deal to me, and
once FTTC reaches this area, would be high on my list of ISPs to consider.

Ah, sorry, had only seen page 1 of 2 and didn't spot you mentioning AAISP too.

Incidentally, Eclipse and Zen currently only offering business services.

Eclipse charging 75 quid setup fee, and then 40 or 50 quid/month (2 different options) and Zen 65 quid a month.

Have to admit have not been searching too much for FTTC services so far - not expecting to see any change in (lack) of services for at least a year or two, here.

Thanks for looking though

I think I've ruled out AAISP for now, as the 1GB a month daytime limit could be a problem as I've looked at when I'm likely to use on-demand services and that would be during the on a weekday daytime.