Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....
 

But the MAXdsl will be provided by BT:)

Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....
 

hmm... so whens the eta on that =-/

also who owns the exchanges? sorry if random question..?

Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....
 

It's all in the link I gave :)

Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....
 

BT owns them (used to be the Post Office years ago ;) )

With LLU (local loop unbundling), the likes of Bulldog and EasyNet are allowed to install their own equipment in BT's exchanges and I think they essentially own the line to your house (though repairs to the line might still involved BT, not sure. I guess LLU companies pay BT for that?). Normally BT owns the line and equipment and ADSL providers buy off BT Wholesale, hence the prices are driven by BT.

LLU often provides higher speeds but mainly due to short distances to the exchange. BT's maxDSL is basically BT opening their speeds up to provide 8Mbps potentially so all providers buying off BT Wholesale can offer this, but it's still subject to line lengths. If you are very close you may get 8Mbps, otherwise could be 4 or 2Mbps. Some people a fair distance or on poor quality lines are still limited to 512kbps. This is different to cable where you can get the full speed wherever you live but poor line quality results in disconnections instead.

Coming up after maxDSL is ADSL2+ which has potential speeds of 24Mbps, but again will vary on line length. Needs a modem supporting ADSL2+ though. BT, the LLU providers and even NTL are looking at ADSL2+ technology.

It won't stop there either, though I still think the dream of 100Mbps fibre to home like some countries is a long way off. Then again, BT are committed to switching POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) to IP by something like 2010 and with Sky buying up the likes of EasyNet there could be a huge drive to get video and phone technology streaming over IP at huge rates and 100Mbps may be necessary ultimately.

Cable have problems keeping up in this area unless they are prepared to do fibre to home. Current coax/fibre hybrid is pretty crappy. It's like old thick-ethernet technology in many ways which was flawed.

Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....
 

there is a bit more to it as well, those using bt wholesale services have to purchase bt central pipes which cost at an level making it unviable to have uncapped or high capped services, this is why plusnet pipex etc. are all changing their polocies, but if you look at bulldog and easynet,telewest they dont have the same restrictions. NTL and wannadoo are the odd one's out in this case.

Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....
 

Then again there are other restrictions, such as EasyNet doesn't allow running of many servers (they block the ports).

There are negative and plus points for all of them and not really any single one ISP that's all round-perfect. Or at least if there is, it won't last long. Consumer broadband is just something that has to be managed in some form as speeds increase.

Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....
 

The restrictions you mention are just their own choice of policy rather then limitation of technology.

Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....
 

A useful link if you're wanting ADSL but your exchange hasn't been enabled.

http://www.thepowerofbroadband.org.uk

Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....
 

I would not jump back to a phone line from a cable one, no way pedro

---------- Post added at 12:53 ---------- Previous post was at 12:42 ----------

I think a lot of it is down to luck, where you live ect: You can get one person who says "Oh yes, blueyonder is great, no problems" then you get another one who says it's unreliable and thev'e had nothing but trouble with it
and they are looking to change ISP's. All I can say is that ever since I started using cable, I would never go back to dsl again.

Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....
 

I'm just in the middle of waiting for my UKOnline 8Mbit ADSL connection when still using my ntl 4Mbit Cable Modem and have one thing to say - I pray to get the new one as soon as possible .. I've been with ntl for almoust 2 years, for the first year it was really ok.. I always knew that they have a really bad support but as long as my connection was working fine I didn't mind ..

5 months ago I've started to loose my connection, lagging out in on-line games, slow connection most of the time etc. I was calling them around 5-7 times (they've refunded only one of these 25 minutes calls!) before one of them told me that I'm connected to the WRONG server... Only God knows for how long and how they did it ..

After switching me to the right one problem was resolved .. for around 1 week :D becasue lags came back, twice worser than before. Especially between 18pm-23pm. I phoned them up and they said I'm connected to the right server this time .. And ofcourse sang me their old well known song about "virus, restarting modem/pc, spyware" .. and after around next 5 calls (hell .. I really paid a lot for these calls) they've send an engineer.. and surprisingly he knew what he was doing but ... he had no bloody idea what is the problem and after few things checked told me that he has no more time for me and I have to call ntl centre to get another appointment ...

Are they kidding me? ... I'm not perfectly sure about that but I think ntl's ratio is 100/1 when even BT has 50/1 and UKOnline is on 33/1, inlcluding hours of the problem it's not hard to see what is the cause of it ...

So conclusion is simple - if NTL will not wake up and start providing a Service (with big S) and not a "service" as they do at the moment then even mariage with Virgin Media won't help them and they will loose us one by another - just like they've lost me and many others already

ADSL2+ for the win ...