I live in a small rural village and I use BT internet. Over the years, the service has become slower and less reliable. The BT service people are very polite, but pretty useless when it comes to providing a reliable service…
So, does the internet service ultimately depend on the reliability of the BT exchange, lines etc… or is it independant of this. If I change ISP, could I get a faster more reliable service?
There is not a hope in hell of getting a fast fibre connection in a little place like this, so ASDL is the only option.
Julie, I’ve just got a new laptop too, and the internet on it is marginally slower than my old desktop PC. The real problem here seems to be our local exchange that was installed by Alexander Graham Bell and not updated since!
Hello George BT is not my service provider but as the owners of my cables they came out to replace a broken cable between house and pole and an engineer told me that no matter what services provider I have the speed won’t improve because our hamlet is the end of the line and a long way from the exchange.
My speed is around 2.5 Mbps.
Well, if I lived in the nearest town I could get that speed too. If I lived in an area with cable internet, I could get even more. But I don’t so it’s no use knowing what I can’t have.
The question remains, is the download speed dependant on the BT exclange and lines or is it down to the ISP?
Short answer is yes it is down to the BT exchange and your distance from it. However there can me fairly small but noticeable variations between different ISPs.
Thanks all for making me depressed with the trillion + Mbps download speeds that everyone else gets. A carrier pigeon could give me better speed than I currently get.
It’s all my fault. It’s what I get for deciding to live in a small,friendly village in a beautiful part of the country. I’m just grateful that we have electricity (but no gas) and proper roads.
Exactly come and move into my noisy flat with the neighbour from hell upstairs and you get really quick broadband , water flooding through the ceiling everytime they have a bath and loud goth music from 3pm -1am and they throw cigarette ends out the windows which have set fire to my curtain twice now. Bet you are tempted
I have applied for fibre with the NBN and my application is pending because this dopey government wants to go to fibre to the node (FTTC) rather than the previous government’s fibre to the home (FTTP). On my side is the fact that the cabinets that have been installed are too small for fibre to the node.
It is all the fault of that monster Murdoch protecting his TV interests.
At the end of the day, I will just have to put up with slow speed. I’m not interested in streaming videos etc… and it’s just about fast enough to watch iPlayer. At least TV and phone coverage is very good.
This is a nice place to live, but over the years everything has closed - school, pub, shop, garage etc) as people have moved and resources are directed at the bigger towns. It then becomes more important to have a reliable internet for online banking, shopping, keeping in touch with family etc…
According to SKY - my provider - the local BT Exchange is at fault Grumblewagon.
I’m getting 10.67mbps at the moment - a bit down on what I normally get again but SKY checked everything and said I should be getting around 16mbps but the the old BT Exchange up the road isn’t up to it.
Some time ago BT themselves told me exactly the same thing but the annoying thing is now they’ve set up a high-speed internet “box” at the bottom of our road, right next to where our 'phone & Broadband is connected but ours isn’t getting updated.
Strange thing is a neighbour up the road is a BT Customer but he’s still on the same box as we are.
Perhaps they’ve upgraded him at the exchange, which is at the top of our street?
It all seems so unfair that no matter who your provider is, you’re still stuck with ancient BT Exchanges that they won’t update unless there’s something in it for them.
The new high-speed do-dah’s for the new houses across the road from me, so I assume BT thinks they’re all going to be potential BT Customers.stevmk2
…mine is hardly fast and I have trouble watching I player.
I don’t download videos or films and just want a reasonable speed.
Because I live in a small hamlet in the field I doubt we will ever achieve a good speed here, BT will not see us as a priority.
One of the comparison sites has a map which shows the ISP in an area and the speeds achieved, I can see all my neighbours have a similar speed to myself.
I think you’re stuck with the bad speeds George, unless they come up with some new way of speeding them up in areas like yours. I see the satellite broadband speeds can get up to 20mbps. but it’s more expensive. I won’t boast about the great fibre cable speeds we have here in the city since the cables went in two years ago.
Meg, I dream of getting your mega super fast 2.5 Mbps. I go out and make a sacrifice to the great internet god if I get half of that! I might as well have dial up - that’s how bad it is.
I know what high speed is like - I used to live in an area with cable.
My mate uses his mobile phone for his internet now. As far as I know he plugs his comp or laptop into it. Apparently you can get damn good unlimited deals and fast speeds too. Might be worth a shot if you can get a good signal. Try and borrow a good mobile phone to try?
BT is not my service provider but as the owners of my cables they came out to replace a broken cable between house and pole and an engineer told me that no matter what services provider I have the speed won’t improve because our hamlet is the end of the line and a long way from the exchange.
not sure if you read my post George … 
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