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I live out in the sticks & while I have broadband the speed sucks.
If I was to change provider from my current (plusnet) to someone else am I likely to get different download & upload speeds ?
Depends if you are moving to a different medium eg cable from adsl and if the new provider has there own kit in the local exchange of if they are just reselling the BT wholesale product.
I think there is just BT hardware in the exchange & cable will not reach us for the next millenia.
Think? Use the broadband checker at www.samknows.com and find out for sure.
Pretty much any ADSL [i]not [/i]listed here at your exchange will be the BT Wholesale product resold, so if you change providers the only difference it'll make is who you send the money to.
Samknows isn't necessarily up to date - it lists our exchange as BT only but TalkTalk is actually there as well and gives much better performance. Not sure how you find this sort of thing out though - I only know because we're on TalkTalk so they told us, and there's no way I'm telling the people who've just started a petition to get BT to improve their service; I'm enjoying my 10x increase in peak time speeds too much 🙂
It might be worth contacting some of the other suppliers just to see what they say, if nothing else it lets them know there's a potential demand and may move your exchange up their waiting list.
Samknows isn't necessarily up to date
Really now? That's good to know, I've been using it for years and that's the first time I've known it to be wrong. Dunno how they get their info.
Dunno how they get their info
Neither do I, but looking into this in more detail I see that Samknows shows an RFS date for unbundling still set as Nov 11, so if you do a search for "what's available on my exchange" only BT shows up, but if you look at the exchange detail you see that it may be worth talking to other people. It also shows 21CN for later this year which is good news.
thx for the samknows link.
looks like we are BT only, (no BT Infinity)
& the BT says we can get a wopping 1MBPS which is pretty well what I get.
Stick where you are, or go looking for a cheaper package.
Some providers surcharge (access package) if they dont have their own kit in exchange (O2 & SKY being examples), so check first to make sure that the prices they quote apply to the service you'll actually be getting from them.
Satellite tends to have quite measly download allowances.
Really now? That's good to know, I've been using it for years and that's the first time I've known it to be wrong. Dunno how they get their info.
Hope you're not planning the unbundling strategy at your place..!
OP: try Samknows first. Then call up the various providers (deal with those who sell their own product, rather than those who resell other people's) and see what they say.
Oh, and if you live in a village, don't expect fibre (eg BT Infinity) for a long, long time....
I live in the middle of nowhere and work from home so rely on my internet connection a lot, which is why I have two of them. Both are crap (around 1.2meg on a very good day), but they invariably have different levels of performance at any one time. One is with Zen, the other BT. Predictably, the Zen connection tends to be better on the whole.