Superfast broadband

Wed 15 Dec 2010, 22:22

At 1.2mbits you aren't missing much. I'm paying for a theoretical 10 megabits and seldom breach 1.2 mbits in actual fact due to the level of contention that BT is allowing on the line - and I live a good deal less than 1000m from the exchange! We ought to collectively rise up in arms against BT and their treatment of third party Internet Service Suppliers. I chose not to use BT due to their limiting of DNS addresses they will supply and their blocking of sites on pretty shaky ground plus bit throttling. For example try looking for wikileaks mirrors on a BT link and see how they disappear within an hour or so - according to nerdy friends who look into these sorts of things...

Sun 12 Dec 2010, 10:26

We have just moved to Taston which is served via the Charlbury exchange. Because of the distance away our maximum Broadband speed is a dizzy 1.2 MB so I have voted for Charlbury on BT. If you're hesitating to vote please remember the villages like us round Charlbury and vote anyway. There may be no immediate result but all rural areas nationally should be hammering, by every available means, BT and their monopoly.

Fri 10 Dec 2010, 19:03

Concerted is correct - BBC Oxford were showing how they have posters around the villages and door-to-door canvassing. Mind you, Blewbury was shown as having 0.3 Meg speed (or I should have said 0.3 Meg slow!) so there appears to be an incentive

Thu 9 Dec 2010, 21:56

My old stamping ground - all those villages are within a few miles of Didcot, suggesting some sort of concerted campaign methinks.

Thu 9 Dec 2010, 20:04

Others are in front!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-11962434

Wed 17 Nov 2010, 06:16

152 votes have been cast out of a total of 1,527

Mon 15 Nov 2010, 11:33

Just some feed back on broadband speed. On Opal (TalkTalk) I get a 15 Mega bits per second physical link to the exchange (ADSL2 + spectrum) and a maximum download of 11 Mega Bits per second from the Internet. Upload speeds are about 800 kbs. So it looks like download speed is limited by contention ratio, the data pipe into the exchange and/or traffic shaping. Lots of sites and connections on the Internet have 2mbs session limits. So if you have a good connection say 10mbs you could get 5 downloads of 2mbs. Though on TalkTalk in practice maxes out at 5mbs peak times so I think there could be packet shaping going on. I never had this with Zen and got 7mbs all the time. So the motto of the story TalkTalk is a lot cheaper, but not at the max speeds at peak times. It is ok for what I need.

Mon 11 Oct 2010, 20:11

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But we do, of course, have RSS. I'd suggest if you want to discuss this further then the Admin sub-board is the right place to do it rather than clogging up this thread.

Mon 11 Oct 2010, 15:42

Sorry, but whatever the 419 guys in Nigeria might adopt as their own peculiar local brand of best practice, it is actually illegal here in the UK and not something I'm prepared to do. See this PDF for details.

Sun 10 Oct 2010, 21:11

I wouldn't want to embark on any form of mass mailing without getting people's permission on sign-up - one man's worthy cause is another's spam.

There was a news item posted earlier this week.

Sun 10 Oct 2010, 19:07

Or perhaps a blanket email to all signed up to the website? I wouldn't consider that as spam under the circumstances.

Sun 10 Oct 2010, 18:14

I've just voted and the tally is still very low - just over 100 - perhaps whoever has the ear of the webmaster could post a news item to garner more votes?

Sat 9 Oct 2010, 07:36

I think the problem will be that you need a minimum of 1000 votes - so for Charlbury that will be 65.5% - so a goo deal of enthusing needed.

Fri 8 Oct 2010, 16:43

Not sure why you think Charlbury does not stand a chance; I couldn't work it out from the link. It looks like we have about 6.8% voted so far, and the top 5 have 18.9%, 12.61%, 10.89%, 10.6% and 10.07% so far. Loads of other places have less than 1% and as we have from now til 31st December and a fairly small community to enthuse, it seems quite possible - and for those of us who work from home it would be fantastic!

Wed 6 Oct 2010, 13:34

I've voted too - we're up to 78 now.

Tue 5 Oct 2010, 21:55

Just added my vote as well.

Tue 5 Oct 2010, 12:00

47 now.....

Mon 4 Oct 2010, 22:52

Charlbury does not stand a chance of getting it (not that we need it) :-(
forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2010/10/04/bt_fibre_comp/
If you want a speed greater than 8mbs TalkTalk and a ADSL2 router is the only affordable option for the next couple of years. You may even be lucky and get 13mbs if you have a copper line and are close to the exchange.

Mon 4 Oct 2010, 20:41

Just voted but the website was pretty hashed up for Linux (Ubuntu 10.04 with latest Firefox version browser). I suppose we must put up with this sort of thing with BT in MS's pocket... I think my count was 38 so keep them coming in. I'm a Phone Cooperative customer but I think they bulk buy from BT for the final copper mile...

Mon 4 Oct 2010, 20:09

and 32!

Mon 4 Oct 2010, 19:51

31 now...

Thanks Nick

Mon 4 Oct 2010, 15:16

Up to 14 now with my vote!

Mon 4 Oct 2010, 10:48

You may have heard that BT is prioritising the provision of superfast broadband (via optic fibre cables) to those areas where people vote for it first. Charlbury is one of the exchanges which is eligible - but if we want it we have to vote for it! I have just voted. The website to go to is: www.racetoinfinity.bt.com/. There were only two votes for Charlbury, out of a possible 1,527, when I left the site, so suggest we all get voting soon!