The_Hat
join:2004-01-21
UK
| [Cable] Why is the UK so Slow with Broadband
Hi Everyone
I have browsed this forum and read albout the much higher speeds people seem to be able to get overseas. I was talking to a guy in Sweden about the 26mbit connections you can get over there. Why is the speeds here so slow.
I have an NTL 1mb service paying £34.99 per month but it seems this is all they can handle, and are not planning to upgrade this speed for a while. If they can do these things in Sweden and Japan, Usa etc why can't we. I have looked into SDSL but at £350 per month for the 2mb/2mb it's way to expensive.
It's another case of rip off Britain, I thought we were a high tech nation.
The_hat:( |
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x0lliex
join:2001-08-21
San Jose, CA | Yeah, the UK is ridiculous, I hate having to pay 25 pounds a month for .5Mbit ADSL. Things aren't even good in the US, even they don't even fall in the same league as Asia (and Sweden). Both the US and UK are this way because of monopolies. |
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The_Hat
join:2004-01-21
UK
| How come people can get 100mbit fibre connections in Sweden?
NTL spent millions building fibre networks around UK towns as did Telewest. NTL give a max 1mbit service with no plans to go any higher, telewest has 2mbit, surely with cable technology there must be loads of bandwidth available. I don't have cable TV so why can't that bandwidth be used to boost my broadband connection?
BT don't seem able to offer much either. £25 for a 512k service is rubbish. I reckon they want to rip us off for each small increase they can 512k, 1mbit, 2mbit etc
I can't wait to see SDSL roll out properly then see those robbing gits charge the earth for it!!!!! |
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cUnDaLl
join:2003-11-27
UK
| reply to The_Hat
It's also because in the UK we are using the old BT network which was developed back in the day where europe has had a full overhaul in the telcoms market and people over there can get home line of 8mb....
It's not BT's fault....
Jsut wait till we get WiFI you could get 8mb connections any where even on the bus!!!
cUnDaLl |
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Bobex
@na.bluey
| reply to The_Hat
As with everything else in the UK they like to bleed us little and often. Too much 'bloodletting' at once would just finish us off in one go. Far better from a corporate point of view to drip-feed most things eg. modern technology, bandwidth,the latest all doing gizmo (all doing gizmo, that is,until the next all doing gizmo appears usually in about six months) |
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The_Hat
join:2004-01-21
UK
| 8mb wi-fi, that'll come in about 10 years time. They will start at 128k then rip you off for each little increase they can over the few years.
Instead of our government spunking loads of money where they shouldn't ain't it about time they spent it a little more wisely on the infrastructure of this country. You'll see some Swedish farmer getting faster speeds on his tractor before we'll see anything close to 10mbit on the domestic front. |
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mad-inistrator
|  reply to cUnDaLl
BT sux-Let's show them what happens when they fail
And just who was it who is responsible for building and upgrading the telecoms network?
It IS BT's fault and noone can say otherwise.
If European companies can overhaul their obviously larger, more complicated network then I'm damn sure that the country which created the first ever global "internet" can do the same and better in half the time with twice the result and hopefully half the cost. Of course we can. But B.T. won't as long as there's a penny to be made with ADSL.
And about Wi-Fi. Who is to say we have to wait for THEM to roll out a national wi-fi network? The great thing about wi-fi is NO WIRES, meaning minimal infrastructure cost and no big exchanges. Also, did you know that it is possible to link sites up to 20 miles apart by wi-fi using cheap antenna made from scrap parts at a cost of £0? (Look on google for "how to build a wifi antenna") No special equipment and no special skill is required all u need is a soldering iron, a saw to cut metal and a nearby scrapyard or dump. If our companies won't give us the infrastructure we need we'll just have to build it ourselves g'damn it. Im not joking - with enough sites using this line-of-sight networking technology it is theoretically possible to network groups of towns, even huge cities using nothing but wi-fi. And because it's line-of-sight it shouldn't cause as much interference as normal wi-fi base stations meaning it shouldn't have too much impact on existing wireless networks. The hardest part will be managing the traffic and preventing bottlenecks (as well as about 1000 other problems I can think of off the top of my head) but thats a sort of "cross that bridge when u come to it" problem as there's no way to predict how such an unplanned amateur network will grow, but Im damned sure it will if people just start building it. And as long as it is not run for financial profit (expenses only sort of thing) the only licenses one would need would be for certain kinds of big ugly antennae which are probably not necessary anyway (that's how I understand it anyway). It's a fun project anyway and I think it'd be cool in a place like Bristol where there are loads of hills upon which to place transcievers and many small outlying villages which are close together and easy to get to and can probably be seen from the hills. In such a scenario u could link all the towns to one another, and to the internet, using only one internet connection on the hill - the cost of which is contributed to by all the network users (The more users, the faster the connection u can afford, and remember not all of them will be downloading full pelt all day every day) making it so cheap that BT will not be able to compete on a local level.
BT: 'Course it's not just BT its all the others as well, It's just so easy to pick on BT because they're the biggest and hence hold the greatest share of responsibility for the upkeep of our communications network.
I do go on don't I? Anyway I had to say this coz it's the only way I think we'll ever get decent internet access in the UK - wether we plan and build an entire infrastructure ourselves(probably impossible given people's inability to plan anything more than a fart without financial incentive), or wether small network sharing groups can cause a sharp fall in BTs profits that will make them take notice, get off their fat useless overpaid underachieving asses and do something about the problem. |
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Imogen8
join:2001-11-04
UK | reply to cUnDaLl
Re: [Cable] Why is the UK so Slow with Broadband
Its not BTs fault?
whos fault is it then????? they make friggin hundreds of millions a year!!!
THEY COULD UPGRADE!!!
ffs |
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connellyg
Premium
join:2002-04-27
England
clubs:   | The problem with NTL and Telewests networks, its not Fibre to the door, so to speak, its fibre to the street cab, then coax to your door, that is the bottle neck |
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Jerrek
@cgocable.net
| reply to The_Hat
I'm on a 10 Mb/1 Mb cable line for 30 pounds a month. 
And the situation isn't so bad as you make in the U.S. Optimum Online cable is also 10/1. Most other cable companies are 3 Mb. Not at the point of Sweden, but then, I'd be in a pretty shitty mood if I pay 70% tax. Its bad enough with 8% sales tax and 16% income tax. |
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Jerrek
@cgocable.net | reply to The_Hat
Oh, I'm from Toronto, ON I should say. |
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mattclarkie
@co.uk
| reply to The_Hat
I am with fs, and I get 576 kbps and 288kbps streaming for £27.99 per month. OK.
Now the fastest I have seen is Tiscally, they give you 2mbps for about £30 per month, when you can get on.
The reason is our phone lines, most people in this country dont bother to get high speedlines put in because we are a small island close to everywhere, whereas other countries are huge.
Now fs, bt, by, and other ISP will not give us high speeds at a low price if no one in this country has a phoneline that can handle it, uneconomical.
LAN networks only get 1mbps, and that is a fast as you can get without spending £300:00 per month for access |
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GeorgeCr
Funny it worked last time
Premium
join:2003-07-18
Sheffield,UK
clubs:
 ·BlueYonder Interne..
| said by mattclarkie:
Now fs, bt, by, and other ISP will not give us high speeds at a low price if no one in this country has a phoneline that can handle it, uneconomical.
LAN networks only get 1mbps, and that is a fast as you can get without spending £300:00 per month for access
If you're a cable customer, it doesn't need a phone line.
The existing cable technology could easily handle 10mbps,
but then they'd have to upgrade all the servers to handle
the increased load. Telewest is in dire financial straights
so its not surprising they aren't rushing to spend more. NTL
are only in a slightly better position.
--
Team Ecology | Lifemapper | Climate Prediction | SETI |
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Phil476
@aol.com
| Having recently got .5mb AOL with wifi router, and being very happy with it, i don't know what most people would need a 20mb connection for? If you want to watch films etc then get a TV. A bit more speed would be nice when downloading, but it's not exactly slow on normal broadband speeds. |
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34redft
@ac.uk | reply to The_Hat
fsdfsdfsd |
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hurdy
join:2003-03-15
uk | You said it |
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RooDBwoY
join:2004-02-19
England
| yeah, bloody UK is always ripped off. and as for income tax... 16%?? count yourself lucky. it's 24% here! 
as far as i'm aware, read it in some tech review a while back, ntl's infra-structure is capable of seriously high bandwidth from each UBR. but that's tv and internet combined. it's probably theoretically possible to achieve a 10mbit connection via fiber (which would require fiber being dragged from the box at the end of your street through their trunking to your doorstep) quite easily.
anyone correct me? |
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jeffster9007
@69.156.x.x | reply to The_Hat
That does s*ck. I pay $34.99 CANADIAN (what, about 15 pounds?) which includes modem rental, they just upgraded speed again, it goes 3Mb dl and 800 Kb/upload. No complaining. Though one cable company is doing the 10 meg thing..for $69.99/month. |
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Unreal111
join:2004-01-21
Minneapolis, MN | reply to The_Hat
Well I am paying about $25 Canadian for 5 months for Cogeco, and 45$ after that, with the speed 5000/640 |
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IGotThePower
Samsung Sucks
Premium
join:2003-06-07
Japan Inc.
| reply to The_Hat
said by The_Hat  :
It's another case of rip off Britain, I thought we were a high tech nation.
It was, during the Industrial Revolution...
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Want an OC-192 ? All your base are belong to us.‹NŽ€‰ñ¶ |
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