HELLO & WELCOME

[WelshPaul]

I have had Virgin Media stand alone broadband for as long as I can remember, let me explain why...

I live a mile away (as the bird flies) from the main BT exchange in Swansea. BT has not been able to supply me with a working phone line for years! The lines they installed have always suffered from intermittent noise on the line that got worse and worse over time. Every time I complained I was threatened with a £250 charge if the noise wasn't present when an engineer called! When they did send an engineer out, he would fix it only for my line to go dead three days later. What they would do to fix my line was to disconnect another customers line at the cab and connect me to that section of cable as they had no spare working lines! That customer would phone up and report a fault on their line, three days later an engineer would go to the cab and undo what the previous engineer had done, and my line would go dead! I would then call to report a fault and engineer would come back out and reconnect my line to the noisy line and so it would repeat! I'm not joking, this went on for years.

Anyway, my Virgin Media retentions discount of £12.50 ends the beginning of January 2020 and so instead of £37.50 a month, my bill will jump to £50!

BT have finally upgraded my area to FFTP and so I can get the following two offerings from there them:

• ULTRAFAST FIBRE
  • Your download speed 150Mb
  • Your Stay Fast Guarantee 100Mb
  • Upload speed 30Mb
  • £39.99 Δa month
  • Includes BT line rental
  • 24 month contract, then £47.99 a month

• ULTRAFAST FIBRE 2
  • Your download speed 300Mb
  • Your Stay Fast Guarantee 150Mb
  • Upload speed 49Mb
  • £49.99 Δa month
  • Includes BT line rental
  • 24 month contract, then £52.99 a month

So I can save 1p, get 100MB more in download speed, get a higher upload speed and a land line (I won't use it) Compared to Virgin Media's 200MB stand alone offering I currently have. Also, because it's FTTP even if the phone line still has noise on it, it will have no effect on the broadband service (I hope). Anyone here have BT's FFTP? Is it any good?

I have looked at 4G & 5G Home Broadband offerings but I have three children whom play Xbox and Gaming PC's so this type of connection would be no good for us.

[iceburnmarko]

Hi paul, u in same city as me, wonder when morriston exchange going to get "upgrade" :)

Would love it when my shop exchange in Neath get upgrade since right next to exchange and use speed .

Anyway i havent personally used the latest service u asking but have you looked at

https://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/ultrafa ... -broadband

And idnet
https://www.idnet.com/news/free-broadband.php

(Got code for free month but does not applies to FTTP)

If go through BT route i am right in assuming going through TCB like a good welsh jack lad :)

I am currently setting up a grandstream ucm6202 and yeastar s20 system fun :)

[WelshPaul]

Hi paul, u in same city as me, wonder when morriston exchange going to get "upgrade" :)

Probably be a while. You can check the progress of the rollout here: https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-first/

Swansea Bay is next on the list:

FTTP-Swansea.png (650.44 KiB) Viewed 7408 times

Would love it when my shop exchange in Neath get upgrade since right next to exchange and use speed .

Neath? FTTP?? They still use morse code to communicate there! Don't they?

Anyway i havent personally used the latest service u asking but have you looked at

https://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/ultrafa ... -broadband

And idnet
https://www.idnet.com/news/free-broadband.php

(Got code for free month but does not applies to FTTP)

I did take a look at Zen's offerings but their price works out the same as what I would be paying Virgin Media after my discount has ended but instead of 200MB BB, I get 145MB (although I gain 10MB on upload). I would however gain a phone line as they won't let me order FTTP without taking one! Just looked at idnet - It would cost me £11+ more than BT a month although I would gain 10MB on the download. I can't figure out if you get a phone line with their offering? There is no mention of one so I will guess you don't.

If go through BT route i am right in assuming going through TCB like a good welsh jack lad :)

I haven't looked at any of the deals on Quidco or TopCashBack just yet. I figured I would compare the various offerings as they stand here and now, find the best one for my needs and then look for any additional offers via the likes of Quidco or TCB.

Having spent the past week looking, I can say that most of the FTTP deals all appear to be roughly within the same price range. If I can't strike a deal with Virgin Media I will likely go down the BT route as to date their ULTRAFAST FIBRE option at £39.99 a month appears to be the cheapest.

Oh and and keep this top yourself, i'm not a true jack... I was born in Cardiff, raised in Carmarthen and relocated to Swansea in 1998.

I am currently setting up a grandstream ucm6202 and yeastar s20 system fun :)

For work or pleasure?

[VoipIT]

I have had Virgin Media stand alone broadband for as long as I can remember, let me explain why...

I live a mile away (as the bird flies) from the main BT exchange in Swansea. BT has not been able to supply me with a working phone line for years! The lines they installed have always suffered from intermittent noise on the line that got worse and worse over time. Every time I complained I was threatened with a £250 charge if the noise wasn't present when an engineer called! When they did send an engineer out, he would fix it only for my line to go dead three days later. What they would do to fix my line was to disconnect another customers line at the cab and connect me to that section of cable as they had no spare working lines! That customer would phone up and report a fault on their line, three days later an engineer would go to the cab and undo what the previous engineer had done, and my line would go dead! I would then call to report a fault and engineer would come back out and reconnect my line to the noisy line and so it would repeat! I'm not joking, this went on for years.

Anyway, my Virgin Media retentions discount of £12.50 ends the beginning of January 2020 and so instead of £37.50 a month, my bill will jump to £50!

BT have finally upgraded my area to FFTP and so I can get the following two offerings from there them:

• ULTRAFAST FIBRE
  • Your download speed 150Mb
  • Your Stay Fast Guarantee 100Mb
  • Upload speed 30Mb
  • £39.99 Δa month
  • Includes BT line rental
  • 24 month contract, then £47.99 a month

• ULTRAFAST FIBRE 2
  • Your download speed 300Mb
  • Your Stay Fast Guarantee 150Mb
  • Upload speed 49Mb
  • £49.99 Δa month
  • Includes BT line rental
  • 24 month contract, then £52.99 a month

So I can save 1p, get 100MB more in download speed, get a higher upload speed and a land line (I won't use it) Compared to Virgin Media's 200MB stand alone offering I currently have. Also, because it's FTTP even if the phone line still has noise on it, it will have no effect on the broadband service (I hope). Anyone here have BT's FFTP? Is it any good?

I have looked at 4G & 5G Home Broadband offerings but I have three children whom play Xbox and Gaming PC's so this type of connection would be no good for us.

Still with Virgin Media or have you switched suppliers?

[WelshPaul]

@VoipIT I'm still with Virgin Media. They offered me a discount providing I agreed to another 12 month minimum term...

They offered me 200MB BB at £38.50 a month. Not a great deal but I decided to take it and look at my options again in 12 months rather than deal with the hassle of switching providers and having to wait 24 months before I can move again if things ain't so good! I also don't understand why BT would need to offer a Stay Fast Guarantee on FTTP connections? I could end up paying £49.99 a month on a FTTP connection and get slower speeds than I currently get with VM.

I'm also hoping that there will be better offerings on FTTP connections a year down the line. So far in my city I haven't seen a single active FTTP connection at the pole, i'm always looking at the darn things lol