[Closed] BT Infinity

We have "normal" BT - it's got quite unreliable (ie service drops out totally) and the WiFi router they provide is rubbish, any major software update type downloads I connect the computer with Ethernet cable.

Got infinity...
Its faster than my computer 😳 never had any drop of service in the 18 months I have had it.
And yes, you could get that sort of speed!

My experience of non-optic BT internet has been very good reliability wise.

There were a few issues at the beginning but since then (last 18 months) it's been down once, they promised 3 working days to fix and was fixed in 1.5 days.

I will be leaving BT next month tho for the simple reason being that they are too dear. Their line rental seems to go up in price every month and the general value of their tariffs are poor imo.

Yes, I've had BT Broadband for years never had any issues, upgraded to Infinity last year which as also been very reliable, and now upgraded to Infinity 2 so getting up to 70 meg. A few on here have had bad experiences so expect some BT bashing soon.

good point, it is infinity 2 i was looking at, not infinity (1)

Sounds like it is much the same as anywhere else - those who have had bad experiences like to shout from the rooftops, and there are plenty of people who get on fine.

I've had no trouble with talktalk (apart from the recent slowdown), but they still get voted worst broadband provider every year 🙂

Now I need to convince her indoors that we should get it. My argument was strengthened a lot last night when she was shouting at iplayer as it stuttered its way through the great british bake off last night 😉

Dave

I've had infinity since Jan, was painless to set up, speedy enough for what I need - nothing to complain about at all. Price wise it's kinda swings and roundabout isn't it. E.g. most people I know who've used Talk Talk have had major problems at some point - and I'm kinda lazy like that, I'd rather it were agro free even if it means paying a tad more.

Interesting topic - I'm just about to quit Virgin (I've been with them since 1996). The service has been superb, but they're simply too expensive. The price doubled a couple of months ago and they've just announced another smaller hike to come in November.

I was about to sign up to Talktalk this coming Friday. They're charging about a third of the price, and our rural exchange has Talktalk as the only LLU operator (whatever that means!) - they've told me I should average 12Mbps downstream compared to my current 4. The other "thing" I've just spotted on Samknows.com, is my exchange is to be "21CN WBC...RFS" on 31-10-12. Does this mean BT awesomeness is due to arrive??

Just speedchecked mine, it says 52.16mb down, 15.35 up so not quite there at the mo, it has been in the past though.

My pc is slower than my net now, normally any issues are me streaming stuff & doing other things

PS I went fot he cheaper version of infinity to start with & blew through the limits for traffic (I have an online backup). The full fat version is much better for only a few more £'s

I've had no trouble with talktalk (apart from the recent slowdown), but they still get voted worst broadband provider every year

Now I need to convince her indoors that we should get it.

TalkTalk sell fibre as well. Just tell them you're thinking of leaving and, hey presto, the retentions team will offer you a deal.

[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bt-infinity-good-or-bad ]I had the same question...[/url]

I was about to sign up to Talktalk this coming Friday. They're charging about a third of the price, and our rural exchange has Talktalk as the only LLU operator (whatever that means!) - they've told me I should average 12Mbps downstream compared to my current 4. The other "thing" I've just spotted on Samknows.com, is my exchange is to be "21CN WBC...RFS" on 31-10-12. Does this mean BT awesomeness is due to arrive??

LLU = local loop unbundling. Means that the you're not compelled to go with BT for phone or normal broadband. TalkTalk wll have it's own equipment in the exchange.

WBC = wholesale broadband connect. This is not the same as fibre (which is what Infinity is). It's the means by which BT allows ADSL2+ (faster normal broadband) to be delivered to exchanges without them having to unbundle the local loop.

"rural exchange" = people like us - and I work for an ISP (TalkTalk) - are unlikely to get fibre broadband any time soon. Why? BT can't/won't enable rural exchanges....

Thanks OMITN. That helps a fair bit. Does that mean that come 31-10, other ISPs will be able to offer ADSL2+ (up to 24mbit) or are my choices Talktalk (LLU) and BT?

TT are looking tempting at the mo - their price seems almost too good to be true. Still concerned about quality of service though - mind you, the complainers always seem to have the loudest voices.

Listen, I work for TT, so you should take everything I say with a pinch of salt. It's only been a separate company for 2 years, and in that time the sole focus is on improving customer experience (rather than growing the size of the customer base, which has remained pretty static).

WBC is a different traffic delivery system between BT and ISPs like TalkTalk. For the end user - consumer, not business - it's unlikely to be a product that's any use to you at your exchange (as it's already unbundled).

Be aware, however, that getting BT to do the transfer of your service from Virgin to TalkTalk - still requires BT to do this work - is taking around 5 times longer than it was. Any customer coming to TalkTalk is going to be mighty pissed off to hear it will take 7 weeks to do the transfer (and I can't blame them*). I'm just currently investigating BT's excuses as to why this is.....

*Sadly, the world or telecoms is complex, but no consumer should have to suffer as a result of this IMO.

I'm now about to upgrade my connection to fibre using Eclipse - who piggyback on the BT lines. They're claiming 40mbps for my line (we live a few miles out of the city) for £29 a month with 50GB download limit.

I thought Eclipse were a KComm reseller? That said, they're probably one of ours too..!

Cheers OMITN. As I said, it's usually the complainers voices who are the loudest; good service goes unannounced.

I'm tempted to give Talktalk a go - I've got one of the sales-types calling me back this coming Friday. I had a great chat with him last week. I had a number of questions and he provided some answers, but not all. We'll see how he gets on 🙂

ive had infinity 1 since april, was previously on orange, had been for years, but they just cant compete with the speed of infinity for what is effectively the same price,
our service started on 29mg/1.5mb as i opted for the capped upload, on orange i was getting 5mb/256k, there was an issue with the firmware on the hub that wouldnt wake the line up after a period of quiet which only effected cabled use, a reset solved it, but bt have updated the firmware and its all sorted now, they've recently upped the speed due to infinity2 being released and i regularly get 39mg/1.5mg, although apparently i could get upto 9mg upload, but not seen it yet,
roughly costs me £34 a month for everything, as i pay the linerental monthly not in one go, but on orange i was paying £29 with my £5 loyal customer discount!

the homehub 3 is fine, range is Okay, nothing exceptional, has a gigE port on the back for gaming computers etc. that require a Faster direct speed than normal computers, (4 ports in total on the back for wired set ups), great for watching iplayer etc on the telly through the computer,

as the others have said, simple to set up, the engineer rang to say were just at the exchange switching your line over, we'll be 20 minutes here, then we'll do the cabinet and be with you approximately half an hour, then rang to say at the cabinet, just switching this end, we'll be with you in 10 minutes, 10 mins later, they were at the door, 20 mins later they were all done and walking back out the door,
i'd cleared the table and telly away from the corner where the main box is to make access easier for them which helped, and one thing i'd suggest, before they leave, Check the wired extensions in the house, i didnt as didnt think about it, 3 months later when the phone died, picked up the bedroom one and was dead, checked them both and were the same, due to it being so long between instalation and me finding out, they were goign to charge me £99 to send an enginer out to fix it, - even though twas them that caused it, but instead went on the infinity forum and explained it, guys were really helpfull - pretty much the phone version of here!! just a case of seeing what wires were connected where in the main box and replicating on the extensions, but worth checking when they are there, - infinity only uses 2 or 3 of the 6 or 8 wires in the cable, the old system used them all.

i've got bt openreach fibre through talktalk. The service is rock solid, i use it for work during the day and since a hardware upgrade to the openreach modem I can remember only 1 blip and non since the router was upgraded a month ago.

However, I stream iplayer through a sony bdp-570 and it used to be good but i can rarely watch anything without it buffering. Once it buffers unless you reset the programme it continues to buffer and the download speed slows to snails pace. I gave up lovefilm because that was worse. I think this is an iplayer implementation issue and not my broadband. seems to get worse as iplayer gets more popular. 2 years ago it was super.

I had infinity installed about a month ago.

I previously had 3mb down (at best) and less than 1 up. Very unreliable service, would cut out during storms etc

I now have 57-61mb down and around about 10 up. So far it hasn't cut out once. I downloaded some things on my PS3 the other night, 1.5 GB in about 30 mins so im very happy!

Just got infinity 2

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as I type, and thats on wireless into my macbook - have had about 51 out of it, they reckon 56 maximum.

Secret tip - if you pay the line rental up front, £129 for the year instead of £14 per month, then you're saving a fair chunk.

We get 3mb down and 0.5 mb up on Talktalk which has been ok but similar to you have noticed things are slowing down and for the same price we could get BT Infinity with a big increase in speed, so about to switch over as seems to be a no brainer.

I have Infinity 2 and am very happy with it. Generally the speeds are between 50-60Mb.

I did have problems with the Home Hub router though, BT have replaced it twice and in the end I brought a Netgear router which has been great.

We have multiple devices on it laptops, pad, mobiles, ps3 etc..

ALfabus - you can get infinity in your street? I'm not enabled yet 🙁

Bushwacked - Member
ALfabus - you can get infinity in your street? I'm not enabled yet

according to the BT postcode checker, yeah.... I don't have a BT line, so I suppose it is possible that when the do the full check I won't be able to have it.

Dave

I used infinity for a year or so but hardly faced any problem with their services. Their tariff plans are something that needs to be reworked.

Did the existing line and now done the postcode checker on mine and its not available - which is bizarre considering I'm nearer bath road than you. Bastard!