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[Kevin Wood]

So when I called sky about it they said I had to complain to BT spoke to BT and they sent me back to my ISP.  After going around in circles for a long time I have bow written to MPs and military magazines to get this more in the spotlight.

It's the same with any broadband issue IME. A total disgrace. Broadband provider blames BT, BT refuses to talk to you because you didn't sign up to their retail product (because it isn't suitable).

This is why I'm with Zen, and paying over the odds. If there's a problem, they take ownership of it and go and beat up BT on your behalf if required... Not that I've had a single issue since moving house 7 years ago, when BT managed to connect and then subsequently disconnect my line again a week later, because they processed the previous residents' disconnection of the phone line after the processed my connection of the same line.

[pscocoa]

Thinking back I also had this with Orange - Orange blamed BT Wholesale and BT wholsale will not talk to the Orange customers so you end up with a massive problem if there is some line/exchange fault which is not immediately obvious to the ISP. At that time we also had to deal with the useless Indian call centre which was then relocated back to UK I think.

On the question of call centres for my company -  Chesterfield is now the new Kuala Lumpur!!!

[tunnie]

i've had no problems, when I got my company account I had a line installed in my bedroom at my parents, got 8mb, only get 2mb on the downstairs bt line.

Customer service is great, but then again I get a staff VIP line which is answered in under 5 seconds 

[pscocoa]

Yes - makles a big difference if you are on VIP service - I now have Orange Premier and little waiting time but my mobile  bills are quite big

[Gaffers]

Contemplating Zen, yes it seems more expensive than most but not overly so [scratches chin]

[Lazydocker]

Contemplating Zen, yes it seems more expensive than most but not overly so [scratches chin]

Indeed... Their prices are more competitive now. I wish I'd gone with them instead of BT

[Martian]

I have been trying to get to the bottom of why inside Aldershot military town boundary you can get a misely 0.5-3mbs whereas once you step outside the boundaries you have access to much better speeds.

I know that your exchange is LLU enabled as it is the same exchange I was on when I had ADSL (ADSL2 actually).
BT didn't offer an ADSL2 service at the time, so they "guesstimated" me at 6mbps on the standard ADSL (which is bang on the money for my line stats).

ADSL2 is slightly different though, and on ADSL2 I had a solid 15mbps downstream on the same line (the "guesstimation" was 14mbps).
Post your router stats up so we can see what's going on, because I'd expect you to get more than what you are getting as well if you are on Sky's LLU service (which you should be).
 



  I think there may be a little bit of under investment in the technology that delivered within mil town as part of what I hope is just an over sight.  So when I called sky about it they said I had to complain to BT spoke to BT and they sent me back to my ISP.  After going around in circles for a long time I have bow written to MPs and military magazines to get this more in the spotlight.

I.called Sky again and despite being told previously that I was getting the max at 1.5mb I was food by someone else that my line was capable of 3, configured for 2.5 yet only getting 1.5.  I got a little bit upset with the operator but I ran out of time.  She said she would call me back during my lunch break the next day.  At 3pm I get the call.  Can you press the reset button on the router for me plewse, she asked.  No I said and then pointed about that I was last at home 90mins previously.  Ok, I will definitely call you back at 1245 tomorrow.  That was supposed to be yesterday but so far no call.
[/quote]

[Gaffers]

I dont use speedtest.net as Sky seems to notice this and in the last seconds opens up the flood gates so whereas everyone else is showing the reality, 1.7 meg, speedtest.net shows 2.3 meg which is not accurate.

If you look at the speed maps where people have shared their results it shows a definite downward bias within Military Town

[Kevin Wood]

Can you post the line stats form the router? Up and down sync. rates, SNR margin, Loop att, etc?

Some routers can syslog this information, so you can enable that and gather a log over a period of time. This'll tell you if the line is marginal, or suffering interference during certain times, or whether the line is actually fine and your ISP are just rubbish.

I think there's also a raw speed test you can do direct to a BT piece of infrastructure somewhere (I was advised by BT to do this once) so that would also eliminate the ISP. Can't remember the details, and they probably aren't for public consumption, TBH.

[tunnie]

ping is tad high, but otherwise my 8Mb Sky line is not far off:

[pscocoa]

This problem will drive you mad if you let it.

When I had the issue with Orange in 2008 I had to focus on them as ISP as the terms of their use of BT lines in that they are the one's responsible. I had to escalate to Exec level with Orange but luckily I had a second BT line into the house and found out that Blackwater Exchange was LLU for o2. Ordered o2 for this second line who gave fantastic service and line went to 3.5mbps from less than 1mbps with Orange on the other BT line I had and Orange agreed to cancel. Once Orange had eventually removed or done whatever they have to do to free up line after losing customer - the line speed test improved.

I went to SKY becuase of other services and they said that line spped wpuld be 3 mbps - it proved to be 1.5mbps and they quoted some small print at me. However, as I had been told by SKY that needed at least 2 mbps for Anytime Plus to work properly they had to concede. This was not until they threatened to relay voice messages etc. Not sure what they did but got a call to say they agreed. Now very happy with BT Infinity as one stop shop.

[Gaffers]

This is from the router:



Is this what you need?

[Gaffers]

Photobucket resized it 

Take 2:

[Kevin Wood]

Photobucket resized it 

Take 2:

Hmm. Line doesn't look great, TBH.

[Gaffers]

Whats annoying is that the exchange is less than 3km away