OK, ADSL inadequate, what options?

Another friend of mine asked..what can he do? can get only 256k/512k DSL
service as remote from exchange. Virgin cable is in the road, but no
street boxes.

Do Virgin still lay cable? for money?


A sensible budget is available for this, but would like to know the options.

Business user.

"The Natural Philosopher" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Another friend of mine asked..what can he do? can get only 256k/512k DSL
> service as remote from exchange. Virgin cable is in the road, but no
> street boxes.
>
> Do Virgin still lay cable? for money?
>
>
> A sensible budget is available for this, but would like to know the
> options.
>
> Business user.

Ask Virgin, they are the only people who can tell you.

When I worked for Telewest the business group were quite happy to even rent
private circuits from BT or C&W to connect out of area customers to the
Telewest telecoms network - if the anticipated customer spend, or salesmans
bonus, was big enough!

Peter

On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:05:49 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

>Another friend of mine asked..what can he do? can get only 256k/512k DSL
>service as remote from exchange. Virgin cable is in the road, but no
>street boxes.
>
>Do Virgin still lay cable? for money?
>
>
>A sensible budget is available for this, but would like to know the options.
>
>Business user.

AAISP are considering offering true ethernet to the building via BT
from April with speeds upwards from 10meg with no limit on the usage
whatsoever, you can run it flat out 24/7 if you want since it's
dedicated to you. Copper installation is cheaper but can only support
the lower speeds while fibre is a bit more expensive to install but
supports up to gigabit speeds. Whether it's possible at all depends on
the location and the state of the exchange. If possible it's expensive.
The example they gave to show ballpark figures was œ3k installation and
œ10k per year for 10meg. I suspect the actual price will be a lot
higher considering the distance involved.

Note - they are only considering this at the moment, see:
http://aaisp.net.uk/news-2009-01-ethernet.html

They also do bonding of multiple lines both ways using their firebrick,
I think they are about œ300 and I think that one can bond up to 4 lines
but don't treat that as any more than a guess. If you only want to bond
the downlink you don't need anything like the Firebrick, they do that
at their end. It depends on what sort of speed they want but if
dedicated ADSL lines are ok AAISP can supply those and manage the
installation. Lines are about œ10 per month and then whatever ADSL
package is suitable and multiply that by the number of lines for the
ongoing costs. You can add the lines together to get the download limit
you want. They would charge installation on the new lines of course.

Prices and limits:
http://aa.nu/broadband-prices.html

Bonding lines:
http://aa.nu/kb-broadband-bonding.html

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail ngpsm4 (at) infohitsystems (dot) ltd (dot) uk

Ato_Zee wrote:
> On 25-Jan-2009, "Peter Andrews" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>> A sensible budget is available for this, but would like to know the
>>> options.
>>>
>>> Business user.
>
> Ask Virgin?

When virgin were Cambridge Cable, you could..then any fibre laying was
totally stopped when NTL took over..


> If he can't get a service from BT there is the satellite
> option used in remote areas of the highlands which is
> independent of copper cabling to an exchange..
> There is 3G.

Now one need is videoconferencing, so satellite is too high latency.

3G is a possibility.


> What is the approx figure for this "sensible" budget?

Well several thousand install, and probably the same annually.

What does a leased line cost these days..?


> There are expensive options for broadband to remote
> parts of the world including disaster zones, and for
> webcam pictures from ocean going yachts in round
> the world races.
> Is there a local public funded body that could usefully
> use BB, school, hospital, clinic, or the like?
> That can add a lot of weight to the case.

Thats going off track...this is a business user that wants reliable
bandwidth, not a charity trying to get a government grant etc.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

>> Is there a local public funded body that could usefully
>> use BB, school, hospital, clinic, or the like?
>> That can add a lot of weight to the case.
>
> Thats going off track...this is a business user that wants reliable
> bandwidth, not a charity trying to get a government grant etc.

Is it though? If your friend can add another business, a school, clinic,
charity etc. to the list of people who would benefit from this
additional fibre then it may well add to the case as suggested above.

Andy Burns wrote:
> Abo wrote:
>
>> Is it though? If your friend can add another business, a school,
>> clinic, charity etc. to the list of people who would benefit from this
>> additional fibre then it may well add to the case as suggested above.
>
> Not likely to make much difference, if e.g. a school has a 10Mb or 100Mb
> fibre installed for internet access, the fibre will be a point to point
> connection from the school to either the LEA or the local school's
> broadband consortium, no way to piggy-back anyone else's connection onto
> it.
>

You might think that..

One of the most cost effective leased lines we ever installed was a
customer who knocked on our door literally, and said 'I want internet
'where are you?' 'office next door'

We drilled a hole through the wall, put a piece of serial cable through,
a serial router and charged him..we had plenty of spare IP addresses ro
route..

Anyway, what doea a 2Mbps or 10Mbps leased line cost these days.

>

The Natural Philosopher <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> When virgin were Cambridge Cable, you could..then any fibre laying was
> totally stopped when NTL took over..

That was the case for residential, certainly, but business might have a bit
more flexibility. Wave a few grand notes in their face and see what happens.
It might also enable you to get through to someone with clue (so no 'I can't
find that address on the computer Sir')

It'll depend on whether the network is set up to attach you... some places
have NTL fibre running through them but no switching kit. Also I heard of a
village that had just been wired when the plug was pulled, so there's no
backhaul to the outside world (is this a true story?). Those would probably
cost serious expenditure to connect just you.

Theo

Theo Markettos wrote:
> The Natural Philosopher <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> When virgin were Cambridge Cable, you could..then any fibre laying was
>> totally stopped when NTL took over..
>
> That was the case for residential, certainly, but business might have a bit
> more flexibility. Wave a few grand notes in their face and see what happens.
> It might also enable you to get through to someone with clue (so no 'I can't
> find that address on the computer Sir')
>
> It'll depend on whether the network is set up to attach you... some places
> have NTL fibre running through them but no switching kit. Also I heard of a
> village that had just been wired when the plug was pulled, so there's no
> backhaul to the outside world (is this a true story?). Those would probably
> cost serious expenditure to connect just you.
>

The problem is, that whilst Cambridge cable used to have a business
division, Virgin appear to be a huge consumer oriented operation.

All of the suppliers of fibre, and backhaul have vanished and/or been
absorbed...

I think the first thing is to get a BT leased line->internet quote as a
benchmark.



> Theo

[snip]
> The problem is, that whilst Cambridge cable used to have a business
> division, Virgin appear to be a huge consumer oriented operation.
>
[snip]

VM is the public view. Business users have NTL-Telewest to look after
them, and they are a <much> better outfit.



--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

Woody wrote:
> [snip]
>> The problem is, that whilst Cambridge cable used to have a business
>> division, Virgin appear to be a huge consumer oriented operation.
>>
> [snip]
>
> VM is the public view. Business users have NTL-Telewest to look after
> them, and they are a <much> better outfit.
>
>

Ah.. that is a hint worth pursuing.

I'll google a site.

>