| Moving to an LLU Area - ISP Recommendation Please Hi there, we are about to move to a new office in Maidenhead and would like some advice.
We are currently with Zen, and are happy to stay with them, but we have been informed by an 'expert' friend that Maidenhead exchange now has LLU.
Checking with SamKnows we find the following list of providers...
BT Wholesale ADSL
BT Wholesale ADSL Max
BT Wholesale WBC (21CN)
BT Wholesale SDSL
AOL LLU
O2 / Be LLU
Bulldog LLU
TalkTalk (CPW) LLU
Sky Broadband / Easynet LLU
Pipex LLU
Tiscali LLU
Tiscali TV (via Tiscali LLU)
Orange LLU (Formerly Wanadoo)
I have no idea what LLU even is, or what the benefits might be, and most importantly, if it is more expensive?
As said, our needs are not extravagant, standard Zen broadband on a BT line has served us fine previously.
Any guidance from someone with more knowledge would be very much appreciated. |
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| **********NB. O2 Pay as you go phone required*******
I am with O2 on a 20 meg package. O2 supply a Router/modem which is lent to the user, it must be returned if and when the user leaves O2.
O2 have the best 24/7 help line.( I have used ISPs all over the World and will say without any hesitation that is so).
No download limits and NO throttling.
LLU speed: Your line speed is limited by distance and line quality.
i.e. I live 1.78 kilometers from the exchange and my line is very good. I sync at 15700Kbps and get 85% throughput.( which is the max that can be attained, I use a Netgear router/modem and a software prog called DMT tool which lets me drop my SNR down from 6.0 to 1.0 therefore giving me speed).
O2 contracts are for 12 months. If you go to »www.thinkbroadband.com/ look on the left hand side for Forums.
It is possible ( or was last time I looked ) to get O2 free for 12 months and get a cash back as well.
My 20 meg package costs £9.98 ( from memory ) plus the £10.00 pm payg charge.
NB 20 meg is the max, depending on your line quality and how good or bad your house wiring is.
To get 20 meg you would have to have your computer inside the exchange. |
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| The £10.00 payg charge is for three months. My apologies. |
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| reply to eddiebbb
To save you looking for it, I found this.
Offers for new subscribers/re-graders:
o2 lived up to their countdown and there is currently no free months for new subscriptions (was 3m for ages to 30 Nov 09). In the past they have started it again after 1-2 weeks without an offer, but who knows (NB: 31st December is Telefonica's financial year end so one might expect an attempt to grab subscribers by then).
Cashbacks for new online subscribers: the Quidco & TopCashback's for Std/Prem/Pro have only dropped by £25 back to their previous high-levels of £50/£75/£100 respectively. Other cashbacks stayed the same.
Meanwhile Be have extended their 12m at half-price on Be Value (ie the same technically as o2 Standard but without the email/SMSs/McAfee) so that it is now cheaper IF you wouldn't use the o2 PAYG top-ups - first time Be have been cheaper for quite a long while!
So Be -v- o2 net costs over first year:
Annex A capped 8Mbps: o2 is between a third cheaper and 40% dearer (if PAYG not used)
Annex A uncapped: o2 is 75% cheaper (half cost if PAYG not used)
Annex M: o2 is 50% cheaper (third cheaper if PAYG not used)
My net-cost summary for all the 14 different LLU packages/costs is updated - see link in footer below.
MKD
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25m+ v.happy o2 Broadband LLU Standard ADSL2+ 29/10/07+ using o2 box @4.1/0.9Mbps down/up on 60dB Attn; 35% above ADSLmax! (Consistent c84% throughput, with 5 outages (7.5hrs) & 5 'go-slow' evenings since). Don't forget sign-up cashback (eg upto £100 Quidco/TopCashBack @01/12/09).
Happy VoIP calls too via Betamax InternetCalls on the o2 box ST780WL SIP
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See my features & cost comparison docs giving the lowdown on the 17x o2/Be Broadband ADSL offerings at »tinyurl.com/5mzmrs (250KB of PDFs) updated 01/12/09 or later |
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