Bulldog Primetime 2000

Can anyone on this service, especially in the Birmingham area, please
give their impressions of it.

I'm considering a switch, but as it would be from cable, it would be a
total replacement of all services with BT/Sky/DSL, so it's not a
decision I want to regret.

Main factors are contention, i.e. how much of the 2meg speed do you
actually get of an evening/night/weekend, and latency for gaming
purposes.

Many thanks.
--
Toby

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Toby Groves said......

> Can anyone on this service, especially in the Birmingham area, please
> give their impressions of it.
>
> I'm considering a switch, but as it would be from cable, it would be a
> total replacement of all services with BT/Sky/DSL, so it's not a
> decision I want to regret.
>
> Main factors are contention, i.e. how much of the 2meg speed do you
> actually get of an evening/night/weekend, and latency for gaming
> purposes.
>
> Many thanks.
>
ADSLguide and their forums are a good place to start to get some idea of
the service etc.
Bulldog uses datastream so they control contention etc. Question is have
they bought enough backhaul from your exchange to give a decent speed
when busy?
--
Mugwump

Reply to 'usenetmail{at}discworld{dot}org{dot}uk

"Toby Groves" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Can anyone on this service, especially in the Birmingham area, please
> give their impressions of it.
>
> I'm considering a switch, but as it would be from cable, it would be a
> total replacement of all services with BT/Sky/DSL, so it's not a
> decision I want to regret.
>
> Main factors are contention, i.e. how much of the 2meg speed do you
> actually get of an evening/night/weekend, and latency for gaming
> purposes.

Hi Toby,

I am currently a Bulldog customer and have had their Primetime 2000 service
for a few months. As its only £5/month more expensive than the Primetime
1000 one I figured it was worth it..

Bulldog supply their service using several different methods for backhaul -
depending on where you are.

If you had been are in the Central London area you get put on Bulldog's own
LLU network with which you get 400K upload. (instead of 256K that the rest
of us
have) and these customers seem to have almost no problems as Bulldog
directly control 100% of that equipment.

Hence, in those cases its really a no brainer - go for Bulldog..

However, like you and me, if you are elsewhere in the country, the Primetime
service is normally provided over a "DataStream" connection - now most
people using these also have no problems but a few do. These problems
however, tend to be "localised" to a particular exchange until Bulldog
upgrade their link to that exchange (which they do appear to actively do)

Personally, I tend to get good speeds most of the time. During the day, when
its supposed to be capped to about 60k (512K), I can actually get up to
90/100k! and in the evenings get 200k + when I am downloading.

However, if you do plan to download 24/7 and are not in Central London
Bulldog may not be for you though

You may also want to look at
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=bulldog - unfortunately,
many of the comments there are negative but thats mainly due to the fact
that those who are happy with the service don't post. It might be difficult
to believe when you read there but the number of "complaints" are a lot less
than there were a few months ago as Bulldog gradually resolve individual
issues.

I think Bulldog have previously said that over 95%+ of their customers have
no problems (and I imagine the figure is higher how as problems are
resolved). It is a 12 month contract but if you have problems and they are
not resolved Bulldog appear to be willing to release you early with no
penalty.

If you have any other questions, just drop me a line..

Also if you do decide to use Bulldog would you mind quoting my referral code
when signing up - just quote bdol 87431 when signing up online or by
telephone.

Regards
Sunil
PS. I finally got hold of Richard, the other day

In article <c0ldgn$18q3es$(E-Mail Removed)>, Sunil Sood
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>However, like you and me, if you are elsewhere in the country, the Primetime
>service is normally provided over a "DataStream" connection - now most
>people using these also have no problems but a few do. These problems
>however, tend to be "localised" to a particular exchange until Bulldog
>upgrade their link to that exchange (which they do appear to actively do)

I'm on the Shirley (in Solihull) exchange, so outside London. The
website says I'm on their "extended" network, whilst some other areas
around here come up as on their "national" network.

I was under the impression that if it said "extended", then it was an
LLU exchange, and thus the Primetime products were available, as they
are not at exchanges listed as "national" network.

I'm getting a tad confused I think

>Personally, I tend to get good speeds most of the time. During the day, when
>its supposed to be capped to about 60k (512K), I can actually get up to
>90/100k! and in the evenings get 200k + when I am downloading.
>
>However, if you do plan to download 24/7 and are not in Central London
>Bulldog may not be for you though

Well I do download a lot, and am currently on 1mb cable. If the nominal
quoted speeds were regularly achievable, then the benefit of all-night
runs at 2mb would outweigh the disadvantage of daily runs at 512k.

>You may also want to look at
>http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=bulldog - unfortunately,
>many of the comments there are negative but thats mainly due to the fact
>that those who are happy with the service don't post. It might be difficult
>to believe when you read there but the number of "complaints" are a lot less
>than there were a few months ago as Bulldog gradually resolve individual
>issues.

I did have a look on the forums, and the posts there were a bit
discouraging to be honest.

>I think Bulldog have previously said that over 95%+ of their customers have
>no problems (and I imagine the figure is higher how as problems are
>resolved). It is a 12 month contract but if you have problems and they are
>not resolved Bulldog appear to be willing to release you early with no
>penalty.

Well 95% may be very good, but it's not much consolation if you're in
the other 5%.

The main problem with service levels from broadband providers is
contention. All domestic broadband services are contended to some
degree, but in practise virtually all customers achieve the full nominal
speed at all times. For this reason the issue of contention is not
often discussed, and the vast majority of customers are totally unaware
of it.

The providers, however, retain the option of using the quoted contention
ratios as a "get-out" clause, absolving them of any responsibility when
users don't receive the stated maximum bandwidth.

Telewest are getting on my nerves lately, but I have to give them credit
for maintaining the network capacity. When the local UBRs get over-
subscribed, and contention starts to bite, they usually react and
upgrade the bandwidth within a reasonable time period. I've been lucky
enough not to be affected as yet, but the though of getting stuck with a
sub-standard connection from an uncooperative provider fills me with
apprehension.

>If you have any other questions, just drop me a line..
>
>Also if you do decide to use Bulldog would you mind quoting my referral code
>when signing up - just quote bdol 87431 when signing up online or by
>telephone.

To be honest I think I'm going to leave it for the moment.

I currently take all services from Telewest. Although the thought of
getting the Primetime 2000 service for a fiver less than I currently pay
for 1mb is attractive, in order to switch to ADSL I'd have to install a
BT line. I currently pay £18.50 for both my TV and phone together, and
if I were to switch to BT & Sky I'd be paying another £9.50 for an
equivalent service, thus making an overall increase of £4.50.

>PS. I finally got hold of Richard, the other day

Excellent, must get hold of him myself sometime, tell him to drop me a
line when you next speak to him.
--
Toby

"Toby Groves" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I was under the impression that if it said "extended", then it was an
> LLU exchange, and thus the Primetime products were available, as they
> are not at exchanges listed as "national" network.

Unfortunately, Bulldog only have 35 LLU exchanges all in London and those
are the ones that they describe as their "advanced central London Network"
on thei web site.

I believe "extended" means that they supply that exchange using DataStream -
there are about 450 of these exchanges - with the Primetime services
available on both LLU and DataStream services.

The "national" exchanges are the rest, where they provide services just like
any other ISP via BT Wholesale - with Primetime not avalable

> Well I do download a lot, and am currently on 1mb cable.

So do I

> The main problem with service levels from broadband providers is
> contention. All domestic broadband services are contended to some
> degree, but in practise virtually all customers achieve the full nominal
> speed at all times. For this reason the issue of contention is not
> often discussed, and the vast majority of customers are totally unaware
> of it.

Yes, you are more likely to experience the affects of contention on
exchanges provided by DataStream rather than IPStream - however, again due
to the way it works, your actual contention ratios with DataStream will be a
lot less then the quoted maximum - it is confusing I know!

> I currently take all services from Telewest. Although the thought of
> getting the Primetime 2000 service for a fiver less than I currently pay
> for 1mb is attractive, in order to switch to ADSL I'd have to install a
> BT line. I currently pay £18.50 for both my TV and phone together, and
> if I were to switch to BT & Sky I'd be paying another £9.50 for an
> equivalent service, thus making an overall increase of £4.50.

Yes, it all depends on ones usage - I would change from Telewest just to
avoid their connection fee and for the ability to use companies like
Call18866 which only work on BT but each ones one.

> >PS. I finally got hold of Richard, the other day
>
> Excellent, must get hold of him myself sometime, tell him to drop me a
> line when you next speak to him.

Will do.. - I gather he is off to SA in a couple of weeks..

Regards
Sunil