BT Infinity & other fibre broadband in Stafford.

Perrier

Banned
New contract started today .
Virgin media turned up and was surprised that i had everything already done , the only thing he had to do was pass me the new tivo box and a fresh length of coax.

So top tier broadband , both tivo's with all the channels sorted and phone connection that will never be used but tested to be working . all sorted in less than 30 mins.

winner :)
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
New contract started today .
Virgin media turned up and was surprised that i had everything already done , the only thing he had to do was pass me the new tivo box and a fresh length of coax.

So top tier broadband , both tivo's with all the channels sorted and phone connection that will never be used but tested to be working . all sorted in less than 30 mins.

winner :)


They didn’t offer you the quick start kit?
 

Perrier

Banned
They didn’t offer you the quick start kit?

No , but in all fairness I should say part of my bartering the deal and contract included a tech install free of charge.
Had it have not been the case , I would have requested the kit instead.
As I am having problems moving around due to a sore hip I was happy for them to rummage around the floor to do the installation anyway :)
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Casual observation today... while Stone and Stoke are both getting Gigabit Residential FTTP, "Superfast Staffordshire" is still talking about "superfast speeds of over 24Mbps"
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Bit backwards here aren't we!

It seems as though if you were lucky enough to be an area that got 76Mbps OpenReach then you’re at the back of the queue for getting actual proper speeds.

Silly thing being of course, those who would most benefit from FTTP are in the places that are last to get it, as we deliberately didn’t move to an area with a terrible connection
 

c0tt0nt0p

Well-Known Forumite
It seems as though if you were lucky enough to be an area that got 76Mbps OpenReach then you’re at the back of the queue for getting actual proper speeds.
In what way would you say that 76mbps isn't proper?
Other than streaming 4k, ( which I haven't tried) 76mbps covers most bases.
A lot of Stafford have access to Virgin media which is about quicker. I'm somewhat frustrated that Virginia didn't put the fibre optic down when the Crossings was built 13 years ago...
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
In what way would you say that 76mbps isn't proper?
Other than streaming 4k, ( which I haven't tried) 76mbps covers most bases.
A lot of Stafford have access to Virgin media which is about quicker. I'm somewhat frustrated that Virginia didn't put the fibre optic down when the Crossings was built 13 years ago...

Proper by modern standards. 76Mbps is pretty paltry… don’t think I’ve had broadband that slow in almost a decade. If you’re doing any bandwidth heavy small business stuff, have a small office with multiple people in*, have a games console in the house (or just game on a PC/have kids that do), do any photography or anything like that, 76Mbps will be saturated easily. especially as the upload is linked to the download so maxing out your upload will annihilate your download.

When consoles now update on standby, suddenly it isn’t nearly as much to work with. People have so much in their house that can need to pull down a few gig and kill their evening Netflix enjoyment

The amount of times even in fairly admin/clerical-focused offices (ie not folks like us who upload gigabytes at a time, but things like accountants, solicitors, estate agents, etc) I’ve heard people complain about their office’s speeds… and yeah they’re on a standard BT line and 76Mbps is suddenly 10Mbps per head which is what I get at 1 bar 4G on my phone.

*We had the option of a 76Mbps ADSL from BT at the office, or going the whole hog to a leased line for £400/month ex VAT. We backed off our landlord’s connection for a bit and then eventually went in for a gigabit up/down line as it was literally the only viable option for us. Can’t even get Virgin non-leased in the tech park.
 
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c0tt0nt0p

Well-Known Forumite
Proper by modern standards. 76Mbps is pretty paltry… don’t think I’ve had broadband that slow in almost a decade. If you’re doing any bandwidth heavy small business stuff, have a small office with multiple people in*, have a games console in the house (or just game on a PC/have kids that do), do any photography or anything like that, 76Mbps will be saturated easily. especially as the upload is linked to the download so maxing out your upload will annihilate your download.

When consoles now update on standby, suddenly it isn’t nearly as much to work with. People have so much in their house that can need to pull down a few gig and kill their evening Netflix enjoyment

The amount of times even in fairly admin/clerical-focused offices (ie not folks like us who upload gigabytes at a time, but things like accountants, solicitors, estate agents, etc) I’ve heard people complain about their office’s speeds… and yeah they’re on a standard BT line and 76Mbps is suddenly 10Mbps per head which is what I get at 1 bar 4G on my phone.

*We had the option of a 76Mbps ADSL from BT at the office, or going the whole hog to a leased line for £400/month ex VAT. We backed off our landlord’s connection for a bit and then eventually went in for a gigabit up/down line as it was literally the only viable option for us. Can’t even get Virgin non-leased in the tech park.
Sorry I thought we were talking from a residential point of view not a SME...
 

EasMid

Well-Known Forumite
A lot of Stafford have access to Virgin media which is about quicker. I'm somewhat frustrated that Virginia didn't put the fibre optic down when the Crossings was built 13 years ago...
My son has recently bought a 4year old (£400k) house on a small development that doesn't have Virgin connection. His house is about 100 yards from the cables running down the main(ish) road. BT fibre isn't available in the area. Surely with all the government bullshit about getting everyone on fast broadband these things should be included in all planning requirements.
 

c0tt0nt0p

Well-Known Forumite
My son has recently bought a 4year old (£400k) house on a small development that doesn't have Virgin connection. His house is about 100 yards from the cables running down the main(ish) road. BT fibre isn't available in the area. Surely with all the government bullshit about getting everyone on fast broadband these things should be included in all planning requirements.
You'd think that wouldn't you!!
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
My son has recently bought a 4year old (£400k) house on a small development that doesn't have Virgin connection. His house is about 100 yards from the cables running down the main(ish) road. BT fibre isn't available in the area. Surely with all the government bullshit about getting everyone on fast broadband these things should be included in all planning requirements.
But its private industry, you can't make virgin install fibre and open reach do whatever they feel. Houses need gas and electric, there are provisions in place to ensure all have a supply, but broadband has various attributes and they are not specified in planning permission.
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Sorry I thought we were talking from a residential point of view not a SME...

It applies to residential too, I was covering both angles. An Xbox One downloading a CoD patch while in standby will cripple a 76Mbps connection and you won’t even know what’s doing it
 

c0tt0nt0p

Well-Known Forumite
It applies to residential too, I was covering both angles. An Xbox One downloading a CoD patch while in standby will cripple a 76Mbps connection and you won’t even know what’s doing it
I'm with Vodafone and must admit we've never had such things happen (and I have an Xbox one with call of duty Warzone). The work VPN doesn't take up that much bandwidth during the day having said that I don't have the Xbox on standby to download (if needs be I'll leave it on during the evening when we're watching TV)
 
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