Sky vs Zen vs Plusnet for Fibre Broadband

[Ian]

WOW...

I think I know that you're going to go for it

 

[V_R]

Ha, I dunno. My priorities are about to change quite dramatically, otherwise I'd say you're right.

 

[V_R]

I GET INTERNET BACK TOMORROW!!!!!

My God it feels like its been forever. I've had 4G via EE on my phone, but its not the same..

I'm sticking with Zen for now for a couple of reasons, I'm still in contract and as it's a new line that needs activating due to being a new build and they are not charging me for that. So it made the most sense financially. They are also doing my line rental, not that I'll use it as a phone line.

BT engineer is due between 9am and 1pm tomorrow. Should be fairly straight forward as all the hardware is there and I've even got my Asus RT-86U and HG612 set up and waiting, just need the line 'turned on'

 

[Becky]

Woohoo! Hope you're settling in to the new place

 

[Alex Barwick]

Coorr blimey that is expensive, I couldn’t afford that on my pension.

 

[V_R]

Woohoo! Hope you're settling in to the new place

Yes very much so thank you Becky.

Now the dust has settled and things are slowly sorting themselves out, and after much flat packed ikeaness it's starting to take shape.

Still a few issues to resolve mind you... Like trying to get away from Scottish Power and British Gas, who are the suppliers from the developer. Scottish Power are useless and haven't put the details on the national database so I can't switch, just as BG announced they're putting their prices up by 5.5%.

Forgot to say earlier, Zen are planning to offer a G.fast service and are doing internal trials with staff as we speak, so depending on costs I may jump on board when it becomes available.

 

[Becky]

Glad to hear it! That sounds very annoying about the utility providers, I hope you're able to get it sorted soon.

 

[V_R]

Yeah its a pain in the ass, tbh.

Anyway, BT guy was here at 8am! He changed the socket for the latest and greatest NTE5C and fitted a pre filtered faceplate.

He said all good, will conect you at the cab and jobs jobbed.

So I went to work. Got a text about 4pm saying they need to come back. Couldn't get a tone at the cab.

Long story short, after much back and forth to the cab, I now have BB! and its even better than I imagined! We must have a super clean line with almost no noise.

Telnet data:

xdslcmd info --stats
xdslcmd: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason:    0
Last initialization procedure status:    0
Max:    Upstream rate = 37561 Kbps, Downstream rate = 100740 Kbps
Bearer:    0, Upstream rate = 20000 Kbps, Downstream rate = 79987 Kbps

Link Power State:    L0
Mode:            VDSL2 Annex B
VDSL2 Profile:        Profile 17a
TPS-TC:            PTM Mode(0x0)
Trellis:        U:ON /D:ON
Line Status:        No Defect
Training Status:    Showtime
        Down        Up
SNR (dB):     12.0         17.5
Attn(dB):     14.1         0.0
Pwr(dBm):     13.5         4.4
            VDSL2 framing
            Bearer 0
MSGc:        18        20
B:        239        239
M:        1        1
T:        23        64
R:        0        0
S:        0.0955        0.3819
L:        20104        5028
D:        1        1
I:        240        120
N:        240        240
            Counters
            Bearer 0
OHF:        1197192        323939
OHFErr:        0        0
RS:        0        3550836
RSCorr:        0        0
RSUnCorr:    0        0

            Bearer 0
HEC:        0        0
OCD:        0        0
LCD:        0        0
Total Cells:    304389959        0
Data Cells:    25090494        0
Drop Cells:    0
Bit Errors:    0        0

ES:        0        0
SES:        0        0
UAS:        8470        8470
AS:        1980

            Bearer 0
INP:        0.00        0.00
INPRein:    0.00        0.00
delay:        0        0
PER:        1.65        6.13
OR:        116.09        33.91
AgR:        80103.09    20033.74

Bitswap:    390/390        0/0

Total time = 2 hours 54 min 10 sec
FEC:        0        0
CRC:        0        0
ES:        0        0
SES:        0        0
UAS:        8470        8470
LOS:        0        0
LOF:        0        0
LOM:        0        0
Latest 15 minutes time = 9 min 10 sec
FEC:        0        0
CRC:        0        0
ES:        0        0
SES:        0        0
UAS:        0        0
LOS:        0        0
LOF:        0        0
LOM:        0        0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
FEC:        0        0
CRC:        0        0
ES:        0        0
SES:        0        0
UAS:        0        0
LOS:        0        0
LOF:        0        0
LOM:        0        0
Latest 1 day time = 2 hours 54 min 10 sec
FEC:        0        0
CRC:        0        0
ES:        0        0
SES:        0        0
UAS:        8470        8470
LOS:        0        0
LOF:        0        0
LOM:        0        0
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
FEC:        0        0
CRC:        0        0
ES:        0        0
SES:        0        0
UAS:        0        0
LOS:        0        0
LOF:        0        0
LOM:        0        0
Since Link time = 32 min 59 sec
FEC:        0        0
CRC:        0        0
ES:        0        0
SES:        0        0
UAS:        0        0
LOS:        0        0
LOF:        0        0
LOM:        0        0
#

 

[V_R]

Random update...

Zen now do an ultrafast product. But my cab is at capacity (I assume they mean for G.fast). Bugger.

I'm on the wait list with Zen and will let me know if anything changes.

Shame it took them so long but as I am in contract with them I would be bonkers to pay the charges to leave early.

 

[Ian]

Interestingly, I had an e-mail from them about G.Fast too (as it's in my area now)... but I can't seem to get it at my address.

Fingers crossed you can get in on this .

 

[V_R]

Well I've just been doing some digging seems everyone around me is showing as available, typically just me that is amber. Will call Zen in the morning...

 

[Becky]

Meanwhile Jersey apparently now has full fibre broadband...

"it is the first jurisdiction in the world to make fibre-to-the-home available to 100% of broadband users"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45810063

 

[V_R]

Fair play to them. I still find it crazy that fibre connections aren't mandatory in new builds over here.