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Old 29-08-2008, 22:47   #14
m419
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: London
Services: BT Broadband,BT Anytime calls,Sky entertainment extra HD,Vodafone pay monthly
Posts: 1,512
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Re: fibre optic is ist worth it?

After where the fibre optic cable ends, coaxial cable takes over. However,I must say that at the moment Cable internet may seem expensive, but it is getting cheaper as time is passing and eventually 20MB will be as cheap as 4MB. In 2002 512K Cable Internet was £25 per month and 128K was about £17. In 2004 it was upgraded to the following:

128K upgraded to 512K in 2004 £17 per month
512K upgraded to 4MB in 2004 £25 per month
512K upgraded to 2MB in 2005 £17 per month
512K upgraded to 4MB in 2005 £25 per month
4MB upgraded to 10MB in 2008 £25 per month
20MB planned to be upgraded to 50MB 2009 £37 per month
50MB would probably go up to 100MB in some areas by 2011 probably £37 per month

All above prices are the standard prices and do not include retentional offers or bundle offers.

Also, Cable dial up internet has also been faster than any other too! The speeds I have experienced between 1997 and now:

Nynex Telephone line (ex-C&W/NTL): Minimum speed: 49K Maximum: 58K
Videotron Telephone line (Ex-C&W/NTL): Minimum speed: 47K Maximum: 54K
Cable London Telephone line(Ex-North London Telewest):min speed:47K Maximum:58K
BT Telephone line accessing Freeserve: minimum speed: 27K Maximum speed: 39K
BT Telephone line accessing BT openworld/BT yahoo: Min Speed: 36K Max speed: 41K

The speeds experienced down BT lines where on lines off the Euston telephone exchange accessed after 6PM Monday to Friday and all weekends.

Here are the speeds I've experienced on peoples ADSL Broadband:

Bulldog's Guarenteed 16MB: Minimum speed 14MB Maximum speed: 15.8MB
Tiscali 16MB: Minimum speed 13MB Maximum speed: 15.6MB * This was in an internet cafe and Tiscali also shares Cable and Wireless LLU network-For some users.
Sky Broadband 8MB promised-Portsmouth: Min speed 1.5MB Max Speed: 2MB

Here are the speeds i've experienced with Cable Internet:

Blueyonder Broadband 2MB Min speed: 1.8MB Max speed: 2.5MB
NTL World Broadband 2MB Min speed: 1.5MB Max Speed: 2MB
NTL World Broadband 2MB Min Speed: 1.9MB Max speed: 2MB

The Blueyonder is mine and is in the Cable London franchise covering North London. The second was at a friends house in Byfleet,Surrey on Cable Tel franchise. And the third was at a friends house in the Solent on the Nynex/Ex-C&W franchise.

So from my experience Cable Internet seems to stick to its advertised promise most of the time-well nearly. ADSL just seems slow,outdated and backward!

And dont be fooled by AOL's free laptop scheme, AOL is now part of Carphone warehouse which means its no longer supported by NTL's network but is now supported by TalkTalk and everyone knows how unreliable they are! Furthermore, with that AOL braodband offer, the highest speed they give you is 2MB and it costs around £19.99 and you may well end up in a 24 Month contract. And the worst thing about AOL, Download and Upload limits are applied to this offer. So becareful!

AOL UK was sold to Carphone Warehouse in 2007 by Time Warner because it had fallen behind due to the tripple and duo play providers and even quad play Virgin Media. The deal was to go on as long as Carphone Warehouse keep and lease the AOL brand from Time Warner. Carphone Warehouse have there own infrastructure due to owning Opal Telecom and this what AOL is being merged into. Previously, the internet provided by Videotron,Telewest,AOL and Nynex in the UK was from one network known as 'Cable Internet' and this was the very reliable dial up that was around. However, it would cost Carphone Warehouse too much money to continue using it for its Broadband users especially if they are throwing in a laptop and a wireless router worth £40 to £50.

The other internet supplied to Cable customers was by NTL formerly Cable Tel and also supplied Virgin.Net and Tesco.Net users, I also heard that AOL's internet was also supplied by this after when NTL and Telewest gobbled up all of the Cable franchises. And thats exactly why AOL dial up was the only alternative dial up internet down Cable lines via short code 120.

The by far worst internet i've experienced is Freeserve-wandoo-Orange or whatever they want to call themselves! The dial up was slow and there broadband is just as slow and I wouldnt touch them with a barge pole!

And as for the current 2MB Virgin Media Cable broadband, when the 4MB to 10MB rollout is complete, then I reckon 2MB customers will be upgraded to 4MB at no extra monthly cost.

So hope the above facts give you a better idea of why people pay that little bit extra to use Cable fibre optic-Coaxial internet.

Furthermore, nearly forgot to mention! Smallworld Media is the second largest Cable provider to Virgin Media and covers Morecobe,Carisle,Southern Glasgow and ayshire. And offers the same speed packages as Virgin Media but slightly cheaper, so if you live in that area, dont think that you cant get Cable internet because it is but just from Smallworld instead. For Cable on the Isle of Wight there is Wight Cable South Ltd.
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