ADSL24 acquired by Coms

[Taffycat]

Yes, at least, LLU is what ADSL2 called it, but on my most recent .pdf invoice, it's now called "Coms DSL Unlimited."

I noticed that quite a lot of folk are having problems with transferring their completely un-bundled LLU lines to new ISPs. They are considered as having left BT (if I understand it correctly.) Fortunately(?) we still have BT as our telephone provider, so I guess (hope) that it's not going to cause any probs... lol, probably famous last words!

Thanks for the Xilo link - I actually thought about them, so will have a good browse afterwards.

Wow, that Sky deal sounds good, doesn't it. Hmm... more food for thought. We don't have Sky tv, so we've not had any previous dealings with the company. A relative seems to be pretty happy with her Sky broadband and telephone service... although, she's currently having a problem with a noisy phone line. BT didn't want to know, and tell her it's Sky's responsibility, but it has been going on for a month or so now, and seems to be no closer to being fixed.

Your Asus RT-N66U looks like a very nice piece of kit, so not surprised that you plan to keep it

 

[V_R]

Yes, at least, LLU is what ADSL2 called it, but on my most recent .pdf invoice, it's now called "Coms DSL Unlimited."

I noticed that quite a lot of folk are having problems with transferring their completely un-bundled LLU lines to new ISPs. They are considered as having left BT (if I understand it correctly.) Fortunately(?) we still have BT as our telephone provider, so I guess (hope) that it's not going to cause any probs... lol, probably famous last words!

Yeah I read that too, one of the reasons I'd be hesitant to go fully unbundled...

Thanks for the Xilo link - I actually thought about them, so will have a good browse afterwards.

No worries, Like i said I cant vouch for them or anything, and to be honest I don't even know how they stack up on price, but they seem to be highly regarded on TBB.

Wow, that Sky deal sounds good, doesn't it. Hmm... more food for thought. We don't have Sky tv, so we've not had any previous dealings with the company. A relative seems to be pretty happy with her Sky broadband and telephone service... although, she's currently having a problem with a noisy phone line. BT didn't want to know, and tell her it's Sky's responsibility, but it has been going on for a month or so now, and seems to be no closer to being fixed.

Your Asus RT-N66U looks like a very nice piece of kit, so not surprised that you plan to keep it

It is a good deal, but it means moving BB and phone all to sky. for a year minimum. That worries me! lol

Yeah the router is a fantastic piece of kit. super fast, and the custom FW which is based on the latest Asus build has a good few tweaks that the stock one is missing. In fact some of his features are now in the newer official firmwares...

http://www.lostrealm.ca/tower/node/79



As an aside, this thread seems to have an abnormally high amount of views for its age.... Think there has been a few brought here from Google perhaps?

 

[Taffycat]

I've been casually checking around, just to get a flavour of who is offering what. It's just my humble opinion, but Sky tend to be very "in your face" with their pushy sales pitch.

Unlike their competitors, they "needed" not only the landline number and post-code, but the house-number also. Plus confirmation (tick a box) to indicate that I was the bill payer, before they would list the products available to us. (Lol.. looking forward to the avalanche of advertising hype which will likely be landing on our doormat soon!)

According to TBB (thinkbroadband.com) "Since September 2011, Sky uses fully unbundled connections for new customers." It would mean an 18 month contract too, so no, don't think we'll be signing up with Sky any time soon.

Speaking of contracts - it's still possible to have a monthly contract (probably not for fibre, of course, where I believe the minimum contract with some ISPs, was about 6 months.) Vivaciti offer a monthly contract on some of their products, which was good to see. If memory serves, one of their LLU options was just £3 more than we currently pay. (With no FUP or capping.)

I would agree that Xilo also sound like a very good option - from what I've read so far, that is.

Not sure about PlusNet yet... their prices are certainly low, but... they have "PlusNet Protect, powered by McAfee" which, probably unfairly, I feel a bit "meh" about. lol

Wow! You're right about the high traffic this thread has received, I hadn't noticed that. Probably quite a lot of ADSL24 refugees.

 

[V_R]

You sure Sky isn't a 12 month contract?

I'm still not sure tbh. I actually agreed to the Sky contract yesterday, but the switchi s in two weeks, I can cancel anytime in those two weeks apparently....

Think i need to toss a coin between Sky and Plusnet.....


One thing though, Sky is a good deal if you have TV too, if not then its not all that, imo.

Can you not get FTTC where you are?

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/

 

[Taffycat]

You sure Sky isn't a 12 month contract?

Oops, sorry! My bad... I just re-read their T&Cs and turns out I mis-read a quote about BTs contract term.

I'm still not sure tbh. I actually agreed to the Sky contract yesterday, but the switchi s in two weeks, I can cancel anytime in those two weeks apparently....

Think i need to toss a coin between Sky and Plusnet.....

One thing though, Sky is a good deal if you have TV too, if not then its not all that, imo.

Good luck, but be careful V_R, just for info: Problems cancelling Sky
Quite a lot of comments at the end of the article too. It probably only happens to a small percentage of customers, but I guess if you happen to fall within that percentage, it would be pretty frustrating.

Can you not get FTTC where you are?

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/

Yes we can I've actually been giving that a bit of thought. Most of the ISPs I've checked, give me an estimate of around 38 Mbps downstream. (BT's estimate sounds a tad more generous, but I'm inclined to think 38 Mbps would be about right for this area... Big improvement, compared to our current 4 Mbps-or-so. )

 

[V_R]

Oops, sorry! My bad... I just re-read their T&Cs and turns out I mis-read a quote about BTs contract term.

You had me worried for a second....

Good luck, but be careful V_R, just for info: Problems cancelling Sky
Quite a lot of comments at the end of the article too. It probably only happens to a small percentage of customers, but I guess if you happen to fall within that percentage, it would be pretty frustrating.

Yeah, and rightly or wrongly its stuff like that which puts me off a bit. I still might cancel it and go Plusnet, (just wish PN wasn't an 18m contract) or even Zen. I know its more but Skys only really that cheap because of the deal they gave me. So its not actually *that* good. I'm just crap at making decisions like this lol...

Yes we can I've actually been giving that a bit of thought. Most of the ISPs I've checked, give me an estimate of around 38 Mbps downstream. (BT's estimate sounds a tad more generous, but I'm inclined to think 38 Mbps would be about right for this area... Big improvement, compared to our current 4 Mbps-or-so. )

What did that link say, You will have two options, upto 40 (38) or upto 80 (76), like ADSL its down to copper length, But with VDSL (Fibre) its the length from the cab not the exchange.

A word of warning though. Once you've had Fibre you wont/can't go back to ADSL.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I've been following this thread closely, which may account for some of the views

I've been with Zen 11 years now and in all honesty I have to say they're not as good as they were, I've been experiencing a great deal of dropouts over the past 12 months or so, maybe longer than that, never used to be a prob.

I'm on ADSL2, Zen charge too much for fibre imo. My speeds are limited as I'm served by a somewhat archaic local BT exchange, apparently, in fact I rather suspect my dropouts are BT's fault rather than Zen but as far as I know I have no way of finding out who's at fault.

But I'm still on a monthly contract and in all other aspects Zen are very good imo. They are independent and don't kow-tow to government demands and nor do they throttle speeds. I also now have a monthly 500Gb bandwidth limit which is more than I'll ever need (most I ever used was a smidge over 200Gb one month).

I wouldn't touch Sky with a bargepole, no matter what deal they offered, slimy bunch of shylocks far as I'm concerned and I don't watch telly and I don't like sports.

Sorry to hear about your probs with your ISP you two, hope you get it sorted.

Young Anthony here, after reading about the Asus RT-N66U, feels compelled to splash out a hundred quid to purchase one

 

[V_R]

The more i think about it the more I'm tempted to go to plusnet. 18 month contract or not, they seem to be doing everything right at the mo... and their pricing is very good. and I can get a static IP off them for a one off fee of a fiver, which is good.

You know when you have a feeling in the back of your mind about something, thats how i feel right now........


It a great router Flops, I did originally look at the newer 'AC' version. but I can see no real point to it at the mo, not until you actually start seeing AC wireless devices more, and at about £150ish its too much.

If your interested, Theres a live demo of the web interface here you can play with.

E: But just FYI, as your on ADSL, you would need the DSL varient of it - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-051-AS

 

[V_R]

Sky cancelled, Plusnet ordered.

The guy from sky was interesting, he was coming out with all sorts of crap to try and get me to not cancel. Quite interesting to hear actually...... Not in a good way.

Plusnet guy was nice (phoned to check a few things first) Feel better now.

Should be live in about a week.

 

[Taffycat]

You know when you have a feeling in the back of your mind about something, thats how i feel right now........

Yeah! That was probably Flopps, breathing down our necks! (Just kidding your Floppsness)

Sky cancelled, Plusnet ordered.

The guy from sky was interesting, he was coming out with all sorts of crap to try and get me to not cancel. Quite interesting to hear actually...... Not in a good way.

Plusnet guy was nice (phoned to check a few things first) Feel better now.

Should be live in about a week.

Oh great - I was getting some uneasy vibes about Sky. Gut feelings..? Female intuition..? Probably more the former, than the latter, 'cause it looks like you had some too!

Hope you'll have a good experience with Plusnet, I'll be interested to hear how it goes with them.

Oh and the line checker result - duh, meant to add that earlier. (I have migraine today, so not very with-it lol.) But anyway, here they are:

 

[V_R]

Yeah, I usually go on instinct, its worked so far!

Ah so you can get the full 80 down if you lucky. The numbers of interest are the ones at the top left. Both clean and impacted. Impacted means basically the more FTTC connections on your cabinet the more 'crosstalk' which can lower your overall sync speeds.

So the option is there if you so desire it.

For an example, this is what mine says...

...and i get max sync easily.

I shall let you know what happens, fingers crossed.

 

[V_R]

So, Plusnet.....


When i ordered with them yesterday, at no point did it ask for my MAC.

Phoned them, guy try to do my order via his system, still no MAC requesting.

Wondering if this is something to do with me ordering and cancelling Sky, They (Sky) said no but who knows.


Been speaking to a PN rep via the TBB forums PM system. He took my MAC and sorted it all out for me.

Switch over date is next Friday. Positive start.

 

[Taffycat]

Grats V_R, glad to hear the MAC has been sorted. It's also good to hear that the PN guy responded so quickly to your PM, which sounds very positive.

It's funny, we don't watch much TV here, but last night, we watched a couple of catch-ups on Channel 5 OD. What should be the ad that appeared during all breaks...? Yup, Plusnet!

'Tis an omen I tell you!!

 

[V_R]

Lets hope its a good omen!

Also...

https://www.google.co.uk/search?num....8.0....0...1c.1.39.hp..1.7.577.0.1_S-hYiEjjQ

This thread isn't far off the top.

 

[V_R]

I am now a Plusnet customer. Migration happened overnight. Quickly changed details on router this morning and opted to pay the £5 one off charge for a static IP. Will do some thorough testing tonight when i get home.

Speedtests before and after...

ADSL24/Coms:

Plusnet:

Its only less than a day, so will give it chance to settle, hopefully my DL will go up to what it was...

Oh and heres my PN BQM...

My Broadband Ping

 

[Taffycat]

Grats V_R, it's all sounding very good so far. Plusnet has certainly handled your change-over efficiently. Have to say, they're sounding better by the minute