Superfast Broadband

Tue 29 Jul 2014, 09:56

Plusnet are offering £7.50 a month + £15.95 line renal for 9 months on an 18 month contract.
They told me they will start taking orders from the beginning of September
Plus net are owned by BT anyway

Sun 27 Jul 2014, 12:31

BT now have the end of September for the provision of BT Infinity to Charlbury -- this info given orally via their upgrade centre, not online -- but who knows!

Mon 2 Jun 2014, 16:27

Thanks Hans . I would expect to see the various suppliers putting competitive offers through our doors. I am currently a customer of BT and would like to remain so, if cost allows, and service is good. It has been fine up to date and we are very close to the cabinet recently installed.

Mon 2 Jun 2014, 10:08

I'm with BT internet now and I pay £ 16 a month for unlimited broadband. BT told me it will cost £ 26 with the highest speed up to 80 Mbps and unlimited usage.

Sat 31 May 2014, 16:39

Having contacted BT , they are unable to advise of any cost of this service until it is live .
Can anyone inform the community of what deals are current from other suppliers .?

Fri 30 May 2014, 18:33

Ok so no virgin tv
but I strongly recommend the NOW TV box from Sky
www.nowtv.com/?referrer=nowtv&DCMP=KNC-Brand-
only £9.99 and it works well on wireless
if you don't want premium services there is nothing more to pay!

Fri 30 May 2014, 13:37

Anthony; The list says FTTC for Charlbury as detailed in Malcolm's post, so in answer to Pete: Sorry to say, no.

Thu 29 May 2014, 21:27

Does this mean Charlbury can now get Virgin TV aswell?

Thu 29 May 2014, 18:27

According to this website www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/super-fastfibreaccess/downloads/sffa_exchange_lists/coming_soon.pdf
Fibre Optic broadband should be available in Charlbury in June
As others have said you can then chose a network provider

Thu 15 May 2014, 10:21

Thanks Hans and Hamish. I wonder why most of the contributors to this post have names starting with "H"? ;-)

Wed 14 May 2014, 18:59

Hannen, you should get the maximum as you are near the exchange. The speed only drops somewhat if you are more than 400 m from cabinet. So you should probably get a max of 80 Mbps.

I posted this link before. www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-bt-fttc-vdsl2-speed-against-distance.

It doesn't matter what ISP you are with, the network is all Openreach (i.e.) BT.

Wed 14 May 2014, 17:47

Hannen, not sure if you've seen this site www.uswitch.com/broadband/speedtest/streetstats/ it would appear to me that the further from the exchange you are the slower the speed with a few exceptions - quite possibly down to local setups e.g. quality of wiring between router and socket? It's quite a staggering difference looking at the map, though there is a limited amount of data so shouldn't read too much into it.

Tue 13 May 2014, 19:20

I help over 50's with their computer problems and with some coaching. I've noticed that Charlbury has a huge variation in broadband speed. And it doesn't seem to be related to the supplier. scratches head I live near Fiveways and use BT. I have no complaints so I would be reluctant to change supplier.

Wed 7 May 2014, 21:23

Out of interest, I live at The Green and am currently with Utility Warehouse. I've just done a speed test which shows current speeds of 13.9 MB download, 0.8 MB upload. The BT site says I could expect 13 MB / 'up to 1 MB' from June 2nd.

Wed 7 May 2014, 14:10

Thanks for the link Christine. Strangely entering my details (Ticknell Piece Road) the available speed in June is no more than I currently get on EE, and have got for over a year (speed measured using various online broadband speed tests). BT website: up to 14.5 Mb/s from June 2014, My current (EE) tested today at 14.8 Mb/s.
Though I wouldn't suggest everyone moves to EE as this might slow my connection :-) And, BT is reassuringly more expensive than EE (or is that the wrong brand slogan)

Wed 7 May 2014, 12:00

Here is the link where you check your individual telephone number: dslchecker.bt.com/adsl

When I check my number it gives my upload & download speeds & nearest cabinet number. It also says there will be further capacity from June 2nd, although I understand this is an estimated date only.

Judging by the BT forum for those in Malmesbury who have been waiting for an upgrade after their cabinets were installed, BT Infinity will not be available to all. It will depend on distance from the cabinet.

If BT does not contact you in June, you may need to write about options to openreach with phone number and cab number and they will reply with a specific answer nga.enquiries@openreach.co.uk.

Tue 6 May 2014, 18:56

I'm flustered! I am a BT customer so I presume that it will contact me when it's all up and running and tell me what to do. Also tell me how much more I have to pay. Am I being naive?

Sun 4 May 2014, 14:29 (last edited on Sun 4 May 2014, 14:30)

Ah I see so you need to change to a DSL protocol which is generally used by providers over fiber. I presume this is because the connection is a mixture of copper and fiber connections. As you say there are lots of alternative wireless routers on the market which support DSL besides BT's own hub.
I'm with TalkTalk anyway :)

Sun 4 May 2014, 13:22

Appears you need a router that has an ethernet WAN that can do a PPPoE connection, not just an ADSL modem. https://community.bt.com/t5/Other-Broadband-Queries/Can-you-use-your-own-router-with-BT-infinity/td-p/882716

You will be supplied with a new BT Home Hub that has this capability as indicated in the youtube video you linked to. There is however a lot of dissatisfaction with BT's Home Hub myself included. There are links to routers that work in my link above. Apparently there are plenty of other options for BT Infinity, as you can use any cable router, which are cheap and plentiful

Sun 4 May 2014, 13:10

Malcolm, he was not an engineer, he was a sales person. "Modem" is probably used generically these days for a signal converter. What I asked was if I could keep my existing router and he said yes, but added that the "modem" was needed. I specifically asked if he was referring to FFTP but no, it was for FTTC.

The £ 40 for home visit is probably a charge for line check, which they do remotely anyway.

Sun 4 May 2014, 12:38 (last edited on Sun 4 May 2014, 12:46)

Hans you said you spoke to BT the other day and they said you will need a new modem between the telephone line and your current router.
Dont quite understand this as most people dont use a dial up modem these days. The telephony part is in the router and is connected directly via an RJ45 cable to a junction box/the telephone line.

Who told you this an engineer or a sales person in a call centre. I would be intrigued to know what the £7 box is and what will the engineer do that will cost £40? Most suppliers these days make changes over the network so there is no need to visit the premises. Perhaps the person you spoke to is confusing fibre to premise service with fibre to cabinet which is what we will be able to use. Perhaps they are referring to the BT specific home hub (wireless router)?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-BuBlvmlO0

Sun 4 May 2014, 11:05

Thanks Alison, would you happen to know where the cabinets are?

Sun 4 May 2014, 10:25

There are five cabinets in Charlbury and one in Spelsbury.

Sun 4 May 2014, 09:44

I spoke to BT the other day. You will need a new modem between the telephone line and your current router, but this costs only £ 7 or so. If you are on BT internet it is a good idea to upgrade to unlimited broadband before superfast, as otherwise you will have to pay for an engineer visit at about £ 40.

Malcolm is right, the speed you get is dependent on the distance from the street cabinet. Good info here www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-bt-fttc-vdsl2-speed-against-distance.

I have seen two street cabinets, one at the fiveway junction and one at the southern end of Spelsbury. I suspect there is one at the bottom of Pound Hill as well but I have been unable to find it yet.

Sat 3 May 2014, 21:57

Oops sorry, stand corrected, Hannen, did mean to say June 2014.

Sat 3 May 2014, 14:41 (last edited on Sat 3 May 2014, 14:48)

As I understand it Charlbury will be Fibre to the cabinet

Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) involves running fibre optic cables from the telephone exchange or distribution point to the street cabinets which then connect to a standard phone line to provide broadband.

This is combined with a copper cable from the cabinet to the home or business which uses VDSL or similar technology that can deliver much faster speeds over shorter distances.
The actual speed you will get will depend on how far you are from the telephone street cabinet which servers your house. I believe this will mean no need to change the router unless its a very very old one. If we were going to have a fibre connection right up to the house as per the Virgin network then there would be a need to replace the router.

See www.thinkbroadband.com/guide/fibre-broadband.html which gives an estimate of the types of speed you can expect.

Sat 3 May 2014, 14:09

Does anyone know if we have to buy a new router to take advantage of these super speeds?

Sat 3 May 2014, 14:08

Hi Hans. See this .pdf www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/super-fastfibreaccess/downloads/sffa_exchange_lists/coming_soon.pdf

Sat 3 May 2014, 12:47

Where do you see 14th June? www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/ only says June 2014?

Sat 3 May 2014, 11:04

If you go onto their postcode checker site we are down provisionally for 14th June. So hopefully this work is in preparation. Yay!!!

Fri 2 May 2014, 09:33

There has been a lot of BT activity at Fiveways over the past couple of days. Does anyone know if this heralds the arrival of SB for Charlbury?