Alternatives to BT, excluding cable

I live in Bristol, UK. Currently I live in a house which cannot get
cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling since
in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
excellent.

We currently have BT and frankly it's dreadful. I should know I did a
stint with Technical Support hotline and I had to leave, I dreaded
going to work so much!

So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives to BT
Broadband?

"lostboy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
>I live in Bristol, UK. Currently I live in a house which cannot get
> cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling since
> in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
> excellent.
>
> We currently have BT and frankly it's dreadful. I should know I did a
> stint with Technical Support hotline and I had to leave, I dreaded
> going to work so much!
>
> So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives to BT
> Broadband?

Do you mean "BT Broadband" or broadband provided by wires from BT?
If the former - yes, there are loads of ISPs other than BT - see
www.thinkbroadband.com
If the latter, the short answer is no. If cable is not available, then your
local loop wiring will have to be provided by BT.
You may well have access to some "halfway-house" services, using LLU (local
loop unbundling) from the exchange onwards but which still use BT wiring
from your local exchange to your home.
That's about it really.
Do some research - check out http://www.samknows.com/broadband/ for local
availability of ISPs / LLU suppliers.
Hope that helps

George

On Aug 29, 9:06 pm, "George Weston" <geowes...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> "lostboy" <nemofairbrot...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
>
> >I live in Bristol, UK. Currently I live in a house which cannot get
> > cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling since
> > in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
> > excellent.
>
> > We currently have BT and frankly it's dreadful. I should know I did a
> > stint with Technical Support hotline and I had to leave, I dreaded
> > going to work so much!
>
> > So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives to BT
> > Broadband?
>
> Do you mean "BT Broadband" or broadband provided by wires from BT?
> If the former - yes, there are loads of ISPs other than BT - seewww.thinkbroadband.com
> If the latter, the short answer is no. If cable is not available, then your
> local loop wiring will have to be provided by BT.
> You may well have access to some "halfway-house" services, using LLU (local
> loop unbundling) from the exchange onwards but which still use BT wiring
> from your local exchange to your home.
> That's about it really.
> Do some research - check outhttp://www.samknows.com/broadband/for local
> availability of ISPs / LLU suppliers.
> Hope that helps
>
> George

I mean specifically 'BT Broadband'. As a lot if ISPs use BTs local
loop, does it mean they are subject I to the same latencies as BT? If
so that would be dreadful news.

What about services like Demon or Nildram? I know that they have
reputations for quality of service? What is wrong with British
Broadband that we cannot escape from BT at all except if we have
cable???

lostboy wrote:
> On Aug 29, 9:06 pm, "George Weston" <geowes...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> "lostboy" <nemofairbrot...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
>>
>>> I live in Bristol, UK. Currently I live in a house which cannot get
>>> cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling
>>> since in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
>>> excellent.
>>
>>> We currently have BT and frankly it's dreadful. I should know I did
>>> a stint with Technical Support hotline and I had to leave, I dreaded
>>> going to work so much!
>>
>>> So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives to BT
>>> Broadband?
>>
>> Do you mean "BT Broadband" or broadband provided by wires from BT?
>> If the former - yes, there are loads of ISPs other than BT -
>> seewww.thinkbroadband.com If the latter, the short answer is no. If
>> cable is not available, then your
>> local loop wiring will have to be provided by BT.
>> You may well have access to some "halfway-house" services, using LLU
>> (local
>> loop unbundling) from the exchange onwards but which still use BT
>> wiring
>> from your local exchange to your home.
>> That's about it really.
>> Do some research - check outhttp://www.samknows.com/broadband/for
>> local
>> availability of ISPs / LLU suppliers.
>> Hope that helps
>>
>> George
>
> I mean specifically 'BT Broadband'. As a lot if ISPs use BTs local
> loop, does it mean they are subject I to the same latencies as BT? If
> so that would be dreadful news.
>
> What about services like Demon or Nildram? I know that they have
> reputations for quality of service? What is wrong with British
> Broadband that we cannot escape from BT at all except if we have
> cable???

Because the fibres under your street and the copper into your house, and all
the local exchanges, belong to BT. Nobody else can afford to compete
nationally in the local loop.

The competing wiring infrastructure bankrupted the companies which laid it.

--
Hog

lostboy wrote:

> I live in Bristol, UK. Currently I live in a house which cannot get
> cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling since
> in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
> excellent.

I can only assume your needs are very basic in that case.


> We currently have BT and frankly it's dreadful. I should know I did a
> stint with Technical Support hotline and I had to leave, I dreaded
> going to work so much!
>
> So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives to BT
> Broadband?

All the other ISPs. A BT line does not mean you have to use BT the ISP.

Graham

lostboy wrote:

> I mean specifically 'BT Broadband'. As a lot if ISPs use BTs local
> loop, does it mean they are subject I to the same latencies as BT? If
> so that would be dreadful news.

How have you been measuring these 'latencies' ?

But no, a change in ISP can be be totally chalk and cheese. For a top quality service
consider Idnet or Zen. Don't bother with ANY ISP that has TV adverts btw. In fact all the
'big' ISPs tend to be the worst.


> What about services like Demon or Nildram? I know that they have
> reputations for quality of service?

Both have gone totally down the tubes.


> What is wrong with British
> Broadband that we cannot escape from BT at all except if we have
> cable???

Your premise is not based in fact.

Graham

On 29 Aug, 20:56, lostboy <nemofairbrot...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I live in Bristol, UK. Currently I live in a house which cannot get
> cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling since
> in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
> excellent.
>
> We currently have BT and frankly it's dreadful. I should know I did a
> stint with Technical Support hotline and I had to leave, I dreaded
> going to work so much!
>
> So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives to BT
> Broadband?

Other Options are Probally Expensive. You could try wireless options
like satillite but is very expensive, you have to pay a lot for the
equipement and then the monthly fee, the connection speeds vary from
provider to provider, and weather effects your speed. Sky do a package
that lets people connect to them who cannot becuase the exchange is
not enabled. I dont know whether is a satillite connection but you
might want to look into it. Its the Sky Connect Package. Other options
might be HDPA, For laptop it is possible but expensive again. You have
to pay the network data charges and the max you can get is 1.8mbps,
and when your talking about home broadband thats not really great
speed.

"lostboy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...

<snip>

> What is wrong with British Broadband that we cannot escape from BT at all
> except if we have cable???

Tis the way of the world, I'm afraid, as has been explained by others.
Forget satellite - you'll have plenty of ISP options in Bristol using your
BT line to the exchange - and many LLU suppliers also.
As I said earlier, check out your local exchange for options on samknows.
Some Bristol exchanges have access to Be - they are reputed to be faster
than most, if it's speed you're after.

George

On Thu, 30 Aug 2007 02:08:16 +0100, "Hog" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>lostboy wrote:

>> What about services like Demon or Nildram? I know that they have
>> reputations for quality of service? What is wrong with British
>> Broadband that we cannot escape from BT at all except if we have
>> cable???
>
>Because the fibres under your street and the copper into your house, and all
>the local exchanges, belong to BT. Nobody else can afford to compete
>nationally in the local loop.
>
>The competing wiring infrastructure bankrupted the companies which laid it.

....which , given their cherry picking of only cabling built up areas
and with no universal service obligation just shows the level of
incompetence of the cable companies and indicates the level BT had to
'exceed' to stay in business.


--

naza <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in news:1188469690.444175.100950@
19g2000hsx.googlegroups.com:

> On 29 Aug, 20:56, lostboy <nemofairbrot...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I live in Bristol, UK. Currently I live in a house which cannot get
>> cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling since
>> in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
>> excellent.

>> So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives to BT
>> Broadband?

FWIW, and I have no idea whether your criteria will be met by these:

Bristol City Council is a partner in the StreetNet network that is run
by CitySpace, see
http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/conten...ity-Advice/wi-
fi-networks.en
At present, this seems to provide only very restricted coverage in the city
centre and does not cover residential areas. Use of StreetNet is free (but
requires a sign-up).

There appears also to be a completely separate community-run wireless
network in
Bristol, see http://www.bristolwireless.net/ There is a "larger-scale" (I
use quotes advisedly) coverage map than the one one their web page at
http://www.bristolwireless.net/image...rage_large.jpg

Any feedback on these would be appreciated.

HTH