Broadband speeds

[Luckypants]

Raw ADSL line speed is function of the signal attenuation over the phone line. The greatest impactor on this is distance from the exchange, but the quality of the wire joins, condition of the wires dry joints etc all affect the signal. Finally remember that cable runs are not as the crow flies, but may take a circuitous route from the exchange to your house - it is the length of the cable that counts.

Finally though, to answer the OP - if you get 5Mbps line speed with Tiscali you should get the same line speed from any other provider that uses BT's wholesale ADSL service. If you go with an unbundled supplier (i.e. your line is connected to the ISP's equipment at the exchange) you may well see higher line speeds as this will be ADSL2+ not ADSL. (most routers happily work with either.) However line speed is only part of the story, as what you perceive as 'speed' is actually throughput, the rate at which useful information appears on your screen - a lot of this depends on your ISP's own network, contention at the local exchange for backhaul, contention in the DSLAM(s) and so forth. Tiscali are known to not have the best of internal networks so you may see an improvement in throughput ( or 'speed') from a new ISP even if both use the same bit of BT kit to provide your service.

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Tiger 55

Looking at going with Sky because it's a tenner a month cheaper but I'd hate to swap 'good enough' for 'rubbish'

Be careful going with Sky, make sure that they have an unbundled presence in your exchange. You only get the cheap deal if you are connected to their equipment, if they are forced to use the BT DSLAM (the ADSL equipment in the exchange) then it costs an extra £17 a month to pay for the use of BT kit and so becomes a poor proposition.

You can check which suppliers are unbundled at your exchange here. Look in the table headed 'LLU Operator Presence'

I moved from NTL Virgin to sky same crappy speed but only a fiver a month cos I already have sky, thing I dont undestand is why can you have a HD signal coming from a sateleite 22,000 miles away an get a great picture but we cant use the same technology for t'internet ?

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by stewie

I...., thing I dont undestand is why can you have a HD signal coming from a sateleite 22,000 miles away an get a great picture but we cant use the same technology for t'internet ?

You can get satellite BB stewie, but it is slower and very expensive. OK in the middle of nowhere, not so good when ADSL is less that £10 a month from some suppliers.

Originally Posted by Dave The Rave

£10 cheaper? But the Tiscali in unlimited isn't it? With Sky the basic is 2MB speed with 2GB of download limits (or something like that). Make sure you compare like with like before you swap.

Wise words mate. Makes a change! The Mid package is 8Mb limited to 40Gb for a fiver. Tiscali is unlimited as you say (right again? ) but I don't download movies or anything so 40 Gb should be plenty. Famous last words...

Originally Posted by Luckypants

Be careful going with Sky, make sure that they have an unbundled presence in your exchange. (And a great deal of highly technical stuff filtered out by my analog brain!)

Check. Sky LLU operator presence enabled. (That's good right?)

Originally Posted by timwilky

Last time I called a sweaty sock one. He got all sweaty and stroppy

We're a stroppy people mate, it's the climate.

Anyway, the answer seems to be 'probably not but maybe a little'. Good enough!

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Tiger 55

Check. Sky LLU operator presence enabled. (That's good right?)

Yes. Any others?

Originally Posted by Luckypants

Any others?

AOL, O2/BE, C&W/Bulldog and Talk Talk. (As well as Tiscali and Sky).

Why?

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Tiger 55

AOL, O2/BE, C&W/Bulldog and Talk Talk. (As well as Tiscali and Sky).

Why?

cos that gives you a choice of suppliers and speeds. O2/Be and Bulldog are fast, TalkTalk are cheap if you go for the call package to, etc etc.

however if you already have Sky TV, the full call / Broadband package is hard to beat IMHO.

Originally Posted by Luckypants

cos that gives you a choice of suppliers and speeds.

Aaarrrggghh! I don't want more choice, I want less choice! The only reason I'm even looking into it is because we're bombarded by junk mail from Sky, BT, Virgin, Pizza Hut etc saying we could be getting more for less. I just want it to be over!











Well, not Pizza Hut, but all the others.

[peterco]

Tiger, I have sky max.
Have had no problems with them.
Current speed at 18 19 hrs



pete