Broadband problems

[ebenezer]

Anyone experiencing broadband problems in Wick (BT). Lucky if I can get on for more than five minutes before it cuts out

[Kevin Milkins]

Mine is a bit hit and miss at moment.
I know it sounds a bit cynical, but I think BT are deliberately giving a pore service so when you phone up and complain they can sell you the new fibre optic service they have just rolled out.

[Serenity]

Mine is a bit hit and miss at moment.
I know it sounds a bit cynical, but I think BT are deliberately giving a pore service so when you phone up and complain they can sell you the new fibre optic service they have just rolled out.

Do you sell deliberately poor products in your store so people will come back and buy a more expensive version? Of course quality will vary at different price points but I don't think your business model of selling deliberately faulty products would work very well.


OP - have you contacted BT? You can also check for outages online. Also worth checking for loose connections and try swapping your microfilter for intermittent issues.

[Kevin Milkins]

Do you sell deliberately poor products in your store so people will come back and buy a more expensive version? Of course quality will vary at different price points but I don't think your business model of selling deliberately faulty products would work very well.


OP - have you contacted BT? You can also check for outages online. Also worth checking for loose connections and try swapping your microfilter for intermittent issues.

BT have never delivered what I have paid for package wise and every time I have questioned it I have been told that the exchange that I am on is due for an upgrade next month and that should put it right. (this being the case for over a year)

The obvious answer for those that complain that they are not happy with their service if Fibre Optic is available is, "have you considered upgrading to Fibre Optic"

You will try and convince me next that BT don't tell porkeys.

[Shaggy]

the fibre upgrade is a shambles. i swapped out my mate's router which was faulty whilst he was kept hanging by BT for a replacement as he was literally 4 weeks off the end of the contract. Then the "why not upgrade to fibre" offers came in, so he decided to go for it and amazingly enough, the speed rose to nearly 35mb, more than twice his previous speed. I asked him when the engineer came round to swap out the copper cable from the box on the corner to the house with a fibre one and the reply was as expected....They hadn't and he was still on a copper cable to the box. So if the fibre is already laid to the box then what are they charging installation for?

[wavy davy]

the fibre upgrade is a shambles. i swapped out my mate's router which was faulty whilst he was kept hanging by BT for a replacement as he was literally 4 weeks off the end of the contract. Then the "why not upgrade to fibre" offers came in, so he decided to go for it and amazingly enough, the speed rose to nearly 35mb, more than twice his previous speed. I asked him when the engineer came round to swap out the copper cable from the box on the corner to the house with a fibre one and the reply was as expected....They hadn't and he was still on a copper cable to the box. So if the fibre is already laid to the box then what are they charging installation for?

I know I'm probably being thick, but if the fibre to the box and copper to the house hadn't changed, how did he get the speed increase - do BT turn on a 'fibre optic contract' switch?

[Shaggy]

Speed can be varied easily in the exchange. in the older days when you had maybe 1mb data rate for say maybe £10 a month then the offer came in to give you a higher speed for £15 a month for 2mb or 4mb, nothing was changed between the house or the exchange, just the software setting to allow a faster speed. My relative in the US has 150mb data transfer rate, phone calls and TV for which he pays under $50 a month, why can't we have this setup over here? we probably already do have and will see it when BT stop milking the customers and drip feeding them ever increasing speed. But back to the thread, basically if your line is decent quality then it will run a high data transfer reliably but if its an old setup then there may be issues so the software BT use constantly "asks" the router how it's doing, if the response isn't 100% then the line speed lowers accordingly until it gets a 100% reply. This is why you have to leave your router plugged in and switched on all the time otherwise the software thinks you have a crap line and will lower the speed to a minimum threshold. This is also how many older users have a poor broadband speed as they will through habit, switch off all electrical items before going to bed.

[Gronnuck]

[QUOTE=Serenity;1158403]Do you sell deliberately poor products in your store so people will come back and buy a more expensive version? Of course quality will vary at different price points but I don't think your business model of selling deliberately faulty products would work very well.

When you're the only store in town customers have little option.
While BT have the monopoly on the infrastructure and no one else is allowed to touch it, they can do whatever they like and get away with it.

[Kodiak]

Simple answer is to change your ISP. You have plenty of options so find one that will give the service you want.

[Gronnuck]

Simple answer is to change your ISP. You have plenty of options so find one that will give the service you want.

Whatever ISP you use the Broadband still has to travel through the infrastructure owned and maintained exclusively by BT!

[Kirdon]

[QUOTE=Shaggy;1158411]the fibre upgrade is a shambles. i swapped out my mate's router which was faulty whilst he was kept hanging by BT for a replacement as he was literally 4 weeks off the end of the contract. Then the "why not upgrade to fibre" offers came in, so he decided to go for it and amazingly enough, the speed rose to nearly 35mb, more than twice his previous speed. I asked him when the engineer came round to swap out the copper cable from the box on the corner to the house with a fibre one and the reply was as expected....They hadn't and he was still on a copper cable to the box

To the best of my knowledge Fibre to premises is not yet available in Caithness only Fibre to cabinet hence no engineer came out to replace the copper with Fibre! Reading between the lines your mate has been connected to "fibre to the cabinet" hence the higher speed. It's not rocket science nor BT conning anyone.

[Shaggy]

[QUOTE=Shaggy;1158411]the fibre upgrade is a shambles. i swapped out my mate's router which was faulty whilst he was kept hanging by BT for a replacement as he was literally 4 weeks off the end of the contract. Then the "why not upgrade to fibre" offers came in, so he decided to go for it and amazingly enough, the speed rose to nearly 35mb, more than twice his previous speed. I asked him when the engineer came round to swap out the copper cable from the box on the corner to the house with a fibre one and the reply was as expected....They hadn't and he was still on a copper cable to the box

To the best of my knowledge Fibre to premises is not yet available in Caithness only Fibre to cabinet hence no engineer came out to replace the copper with Fibre! Reading between the lines your mate has been connected to "fibre to the cabinet" hence the higher speed. It's not rocket science nor BT conning anyone.

My mate lives in Birmingham, i posted the router to him. As for the fibre fiasco, fibre was installed to his cabinet more than 3 years ago so he has been on FTTC for that time with a slow speed and as i said, all they did was change a few settings so tell me how is it not conning anyone when the equipment has been installed for 3 years and they wanted more money to upgrade when it was already upgraded?

[Kirdon]

[QUOTE=Kirdon;1158836]

My mate lives in Birmingham, i posted the router to him. As for the fibre fiasco, fibre was installed to his cabinet more than 3 years ago so he has been on FTTC for that time with a slow speed and as i said, all they did was change a few settings so tell me how is it not conning anyone when the equipment has been installed for 3 years and they wanted more money to upgrade when it was already upgraded?

Although his cabinet had fibre installed more than 3 years ago it does not mean he was connected on it. Nobody gets automatically connected they have to request it and Openreach then connect the customer when instructed by the service provider on an individual basis and mostly without a visit to the house/business. Lots of people are working on FFTC cabinets but still work on their original broadband from the exchange through choice,financial reasons or incompatibilities'.

[Mackerel]

I get half a meg on a good day, and I am appalled by BT customer service. But I really don't understand the choice of service providers, and neighbours keep telling me that BT is the only option. Could some telecoms-savvy orger please list the current alternatives in Caithness?
Cheers....

[Shaggy]

I'm on Plusnet in Wick, there's Sky and Talk Talk enabled in my local exchange too but it really depends on your local exchange as to whether other companies have their kit installed in it. Check https://www.samknows.com and use the broadband availability checker. Also just because a company doesn't show up in the list, it may still have equipment installed so check the broadband company for availability too. Vodafone were offering broadband with no line rental recently (requires you to also have a vodafone mobile contract to take advantage of the offer) But i was curious as my own mobie contract was due for renewal and when i checked myself, it was available in Wick according to their website.

[r.rackstraw]

I get half a meg on a good day, and I am appalled by BT customer service. But I really don't understand the choice of service providers, and neighbours keep telling me that BT is the only option. Could some telecoms-savvy orger please list the current alternatives in Caithness?
Cheers....

BT is not the only option.
I was with talktalk and speed was very variable - often down to 0.5mb. Talktalk insisted on many occasions that speed was limited by the BT line and nothing could be done about it. 2 years ago I changed to Andrews and Arnold and have had steady 1.9 mb ever since - still with the same BT line. Not great speed but I can live with it. So talktalk was not being straight with me.
A&A costs more - but on the few occasions I have phoned them I got through right away to a tech person who was an english speaker - unlike talktalk call centre.

[Mackerel]

Thanks very much folks! The lack of transparency from the ISPs is scandalous. Now I understand (samknows.com) that BT has no competitors enabled at my exchange, and, with 0.2MB last night, perhaps a mobile service is the way to go...