Fast Broadband when BT Connection is poor

[RabbitRabbit]

We run our small business from a home office.

We are currently using BT Broadband - the connection is terrible and most days we are lucky to get 1mb/s

I have checked BT's site and they have no plans to roll out BT Infinity to this area.

Virgin Media don't cover my address either (for some reason they stopped their roll-out 100m down our road)

Do we have any other options ?

I assume that most other companies would use the BT Network & infrastructure and therefore wouldn't be able offer anything faster.

Any tips or suggestions ?

Thanks
David

 

[lynxus]

You could try Satellite broadband, Or ( for a lot more money ) you could look into getting metro ethernet , or a leased line.

 

[Quest Cloud Solutions Ltd]

We run our small business from a home office.

We are currently using BT Broadband - the connection is terrible and most days we are lucky to get 1mb/s

I have checked BT's site and they have no plans to roll out BT Infinity to this area.

Virgin Media don't cover my address either (for some reason they stopped their roll-out 100m down our road)

Do we have any other options ?

I assume that most other companies would use the BT Network & infrastructure and therefore wouldn't be able offer anything faster.

Any tips or suggestions ?

Thanks
David

Hi David,

If you can't get fibre optic you could look possibly look at bonded DSL but that's generally not too great either. If a solid, reliable connection is essential to your business your best bet may be to look at leased lines and Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM)... they aren't cheap but do provide business-grade Internet connectivity with awesome Service Level Agreements.

PM me your postcode and I'll run a check on what's available to you if you'd like.

Cheers,

Ryan

 

[Quest Cloud Solutions Ltd]

Hi David,

I just replied to your PM but for the sake of putting ideas out there for others to see (as leased lines are expensive)...

You could look at getting another broadband line installed and then using some decent routing equipment (i.e. Cisco) to make use of two lines together. Something like a Cisco 1841 router, but you'll be looking at pushing £1k for the equipment and a bit of engineer time to set it up, but you'll double your speed (or thereabouts).

May be a bit OTT for a home office but is an option...

Cheers

Ryan

 

[KM-Tiger]

Look up your telephone number at Samknows, and see if an LLU supplier like Be or O2, for instance, is available.

I get more than double the speed from O2 as I used to get with re-sold BT wholesale.

 

[cocodude]

Do you know whether you're in a strong 3G area? If you have 3.5G (or even 4G) it might work out better than your DSL but you'll be restricted by lowish caps (and have highish latency).

 

[Amivbridge]

Check if BE provides in your area. Is faster and consistent speed.

 

[serverhouse]

If virgin media stopped 100m from your property, knock on the nearest door in the VM catchment, ask the occupier if they'd let you share / install your own and wireless connect or perhaps even involve the intermediate houses, see if you can club together, buy Virgin's fastest service and run cables from house to house along the sofits.

It may sound complex, but it's far more simple than you think, IP is easier than plumbing and electrics IMHO!

 

[cocodude]

Check if BE provides in your area. Is faster and consistent speed.

If you're only getting 1M, I reckon there'd be some poor quality cabling between the house and the DSLAM so I don't think BE would improve matters here.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Ask your neighbours what speed they get, if it's the same as yours then not a great deal you can do.

If they get better speeds see which ISP they are using, if any are also on BT then as cocodue said it may be your wiring.

Are you using wireless ? If so have you tried plugging your PC directly into the router to see if it's an ISP or wireless issue ?

It may also be if you have multiple BT phone line sockets, that you aren't using the master one so try moving the router to another and ensure you have an ADSL filter on all phone points.

It could also be a faulty ADSL filter, so try replacing that.

 

[serverhouse]

A different provide isn't likely to help.

There are only a two methods for home broadband provision under £100 per month.

Virgin (fibre to a street cabinet and then coax to your property)

BT/Openreach this covers 'the rest' there are different ways for providers to buy the service from BT (fully managed, or llu where the provider puts in their own hardware in the exchange) but with all the BT options it's the same bit of cable from the exchange to the customer - which will be the reason you can only get 1Mb

Multiple lines could improve this too, but it would be expensive to get to something usable

One cheap option would be to try these guys out
http://www.aaisp.net/broadband-trial.html

They specialise in iffy cases and beat BT up for you so if there is scope to improve your line they'll do it.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

A different provide isn't likely to help.

There are only a two methods for home broadband provision under £100 per month.

Virgin (fibre to a street cabinet and then coax to your property)

BT/Openreach this covers 'the rest' there are different ways for providers to buy the service from BT (fully managed, or llu where the provider puts in their own hardware in the exchange) but with all the BT options it's the same bit of cable from the exchange to the customer - which will be the reason you can only get 1Mb

Multiple lines could improve this too, but it would be expensive to get to something usable

One cheap option would be to try these guys out
http://www.aaisp.net/broadband-trial.html

They specialise in iffy cases and beat BT up for you so if there is scope to improve your line they'll do it.

BT also offer Infinity which still uses your normal phone cable to the cabinet and then fibre from there onwards.

 

[RabbitRabbit]

Thanks for all the suggestions

Sadly BT Infinity isn't available in our area and seems BT has no plans to implement it in the near fuutre

 

[Paul_Rosser]

If you are in Chelmsford I find that very hard to believe, we have just moved to a little village outside Colchester and had Infinity installed today. It's actually quicker than the connection that the Infinity setup we have in our central london office!

Have you checked the BT rollout plan for your exchange ?

 

[Lucky7CompSolutions]

Have you spoke to BT about the connection, what have they said? have you tried any fault finding to see why you are getting slow speeds? have you done a postcode and telephone check to see what speeds you should be getting?

 

[RabbitRabbit]

If you are in Chelmsford I find that very hard to believe, we have just moved to a little village outside Colchester and had Infinity installed today. It's actually quicker than the connection that the Infinity setup we have in our central london office!

Have you checked the BT rollout plan for your exchange ?

Just to clarify, I live in centre of Chelmsford and have an excellent 50mbps connection with Virgin Media

I was talking about my business partners house which is out near Royston, Cambs

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Just to clarify, I live in centre of Chelmsford and have an excellent 50mbps connection with Virgin Media

I was talking about my business partners house which is out near Royston, Cambs

I know Royston, I went through there last week on the way to Cambs.

According to the BT rollout plan they are taking orders at the Royston Exchange already -

​

EARST
ROYSTON, HERTFORDSHIRE
FTTC
Now
North Hertfordshire District

 

[RabbitRabbit]

I know Royston, I went through there last week on the way to Cambs.

According to the BT rollout plan they are taking orders at the Royston Exchange already -

​

EARST
ROYSTON, HERTFORDSHIRE
FTTC
Now
North Hertfordshire District

I believe his local exchange is Melbourn which isn't included in that Royston roll-out - well that is what it said when we checked the BT Website the other day.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

I believe his local exchange is Melbourn which isn't included in that Royston roll-out - well that is what it said when we checked the BT Website the other day.

It's not even on the future list, so no chance till at least the end of 2014.

As the Wolf said "Move out of the sticks...."

 

[RabbitRabbit]

It's not even on the future list, so no chance till at least the end of 2014.

As the Wolf said "Move out of the sticks...."

Hehe, I keep telling him that

Hopefully at some point in the next 12-18 months we will grow enough that we can afford to move into commercial premises

 

[astutiumRob]

Do we have any other options ?

Move.
Or at least move the "business" elsewhere - what you spend in rent you'll save in leased-line costs.

 

[Sparx]

What's your office's postcode? What exchange are you connected too? How far away from it are you?

 

[ccsleedsltd]

You could look at a multi line solution, where you can add 2/3/4 (up to 8) ADSL services together into an aggregated service. Sharedband are one such provider, or their resellers..