We live in the Warrington area in a place with no fibre/cable. My missus years ago got talked in to signing a combined deal with TalkTalk 🙄 During the past three months the internet service has been up, down and everything in between.

Its driving us mad and we have reached the, enough is enough point.Our copper connection goes back about mile to the old BT exchange.Price is not the biggest issue, speed and QoS is, so any advice would be most welcome, thnx Paul

Only two companies provide non-cable broadband back haul connections in most of UK. (Hull being main exception)

So, whoever you choose, they are using BT or Talk Talk wires. If the problem is the wire, it won’t matter who is selling you the service.

Hope that helps? :-/

Rachel

I’ve been with Metronet for years. They were bought out by Plusnet and my account has now been transferred to them. Performance has been/is excellent and on the very rare occasion I’ve had to ask for technical support thier helpline has been very helpful.

Cheers Rachel, so given my utter contempt for TT, whose affiliated to BT ?

Was in a similiar situation to yourself, but further from exchange. Joined with Talk Talk when first moved into house, but discovered that internet speed was dismally slow.
Ended up going to the THREE network’s mifi, limited to 20Gb a month for about £20, but have unlimited data on phone (with 4GB tethering.), not superfast, but certainly much better than TALK TALK speed (also got rid of landline so extra saving).

Talk Talk are notorious for poor speeds so you’re better looking elsewhere despite the back bone being BT.

Zen if price isn’t an issue and service/reliability is.

I’ve been with AAISP on their Home::1 package for a year and a half. £35 a month for 100GB download, including line rental – they seem to care about making sure you get the best out of your line also.

http://aa.net.uk/broadband-home1.html
http://aa.net.uk/broadband-trial.html

Some drivel posted here.

The copper line between your house and the exchange is owned by BT Openreach. The exchange is owned by BT Openreach. If the exchange is unbundled, your ISP will have its own network equipment in there. That kit is then connected – via backhaul (in TalkTalk’s case, all fibre) back through the various network layers and the out into the public internet.

What he said ^^

Go to samknows.com
Put your details into the ADSL availability checker
Pick an LLU provider

Another ringing endorsement for AAISP here. Bit pricy but if you rely on the connection, totally worth it. Read the boss’s blog at rev.uk, it’s nerd comedy genius.

aaisp++

(another very happy customer)

Rachel

Some drivel posted here.

The copper line between your house and the exchange is owned by BT Openreach. The exchange is owned by BT Openreach. If the exchange is unbundled, your ISP will have its own network equipment in there. That kit is then connected – via backhaul (in TalkTalk’s case, all fibre) back through the various network layers and the out into the public internet.

Has anyone posted anything different? No.

Has anyone posted anything different? No.

🙄 Have a re-read.

The OP’s issues can come from three broad factors:

1. His ISP’s network – this is a function of the core & edge network ( and the router
2. The BT Openreach stretch from Exchange to House – a mile in a straight line can often be much longer in copper terms, not including the water filled junction boxes and flaky overhead cables
3. Environmental factors – whether interference coming from household appliances/next door’s house alarm or the cumulative effect of a very wet winter hammering the BT Openreach equipment (and to give BTOR their due, they have been pretty busy this winter)

My assumption is that OP has explored all of this with TalkTalk, got their service management centre (a few miles away from where he lives) to run line checks, ship a new router etc. and concluded that the issue is with the TalkTalk network and not the copper between his house and the exchange. That’s fair enough. But a lot of what was said above about how UK broadband is delivered is just plain wrong.

Yeah you’re assuming that’s the issue.

First get rid of Talk Talk. That rules out the shittiest ISP in Britain. It may solve your speed/quality issues or not, but you’ll be grateful for dumping them anyway. Worst Customer Service.

While BT serve the pipes to the exchange and maybe from there to the nearest fat pipe (unless LLU), the network routing is done by the ISP, complete with their own filtering and QoS.

Have you checked fibre status in your area? http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/

Might not have it at the moment but if it’s on the list of upcoming then might be worth considering options to switch to fibre when it does turn up.

Also, I assume no cable? Not that I’d normally advise Virgin. Terrible CS also, but better than Talk Talk.

As for ISP though – PlusNet.

Owned by BT, better prices, much better customer service.

we’re on idnet – not cheap but very stable service for several years now

Appreciate your help,heres the info from Samknows.

ADSL is available in your area
Your exchange is also enabled for ADSL Max services
Your exchange is also enabled for ADSL2+ services
According to BT Wholesale, houses at your postcode should be able to support

up to 2Mbps via ADSL
6Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max
11Mbps or greater via ADSL2+

Standard ADSL RAG results
You can receive 2Mbps ADSL
You can receive 1Mbps ADSL
You can receive 512kbps ADSL
You can receive 256kbps ADSL

Origin Broadband is not yet available in your area
Origin Broadband is not yet available in your area
C&W is not yet available in your area
TalkTalk (CPW) is available in your area
Sky Broadband is available in your area
Edge Telecom is not yet available in your area
Entanet is not yet available in your area
Fluency is not yet available in your area
KC (Kingston) is not yet available in your area
Timico Partners is not yet available in your area
Node4 is not yet available in your area
Rutland Telekom is not yet available in your area
Redcentric is not yet available in your area
Spectrum is not yet available in your area
WB Internet is not yet available in your area
Zen is not yet available in your area

Based on the above whats my best choice (ps one of my neighbours has Zen no matter what the above says. ATB Paul

Light at the end of the tunnel 😀 Openreach say

We’re connecting power to the new fibre cabinet and joining the new fibre lines to the existing copper network. You can’t order a fibre service today but typically it’ll be available to your premises within the next four months.
If you’d like to know when you can order fibre, register your details.
Find out more about the fibre journey.

I’d wait then go Fibre.

But captain, the crews going mutiny if we have to wait that long 😮

ps when have BT/Openreach ever done anything on schedule?

Switch to PlusNet and you should get ADSL2+ and point out when ordering that you’re interested in Fibre when it’s available. Should be able to upgrade easily, but just to make sure they don’t lock you in to something. They don’t seem to do that though unlike some. I think they have a monthly rolling contract option too.

Note pricing is based on where you live though. They hand over the discounts from Openreach that apply where exchanges are popular, so popular areas may be cheaper.

ps when have BT/Openreach ever done anything on schedule?

No place in hell hot enough for them

ps when have BT/Openreach ever done anything on schedule

They were early here with upgrade to fibre.

But captain, the crews going mutiny if we have to wait that long

When you call TalkTalk CS keep demanding them put you through to the SMC (service management centre). This is based in the UK (about 5-10 miles away from you) and get them to look into it. They’re the top line of customer support and will be able to do a full analysis to see where the issue lies.

According to BT Wholesale, houses at your postcode should be able to support up to 2Mbps via ADSL

This is the overall issue for you – you’re a long way from the exchange. It seems that, if your service has worsened materially over the winter, that there are really only two likely issues: network congestion (a TalkTalk issue) and environmental impacts – rain, usually – on BT’s copper.

Sky customer service is very good (but that’s what you get for rinsing your loyal TV customer base for so many years). If TalkTalk can’t resolve, then Sky will happily have you.

I’d wait then go Fibre.

Likewise – what you need to know is whether each of Sky and TalkTalk will be ready when BT Openreach is….

Note pricing is based on where you live though. They hand over the discounts from Openreach that apply where exchanges are popular, so popular areas may be cheaper.

It’s behaviour like that from BT which finally forced Ofcom to regulate fibre wholesale pricing.

Thanks one and all. I need to confess something,I can never ever give money to Murdoch or Branson if I have a choice. Whilst they both have very different public persona’s, to me they are one and the same,I do not trust them one bit. Every time I fork out money to travel on the west coast line a little bit of my pride dies and I curse the monopolistic hold the bearded bastard has on my rail travel.

Any way confession/mini rant over and back to ISPs, its looking like Plusnet might be my best choice but thats a guess or assumption based your generous help.

Have a word with EE – always been brilliant for me, CS here in the UK, discounts for existing mobile customers, etc.
More if you pay your line rental in advance too.

Paul I will give you a call tomorrow if my life pans out with some suggestions.