Alternatives to O2 Access

Hi,

I'm currently on O2 Access, which is giving me awful speeds of around <0.5meg most times of the day, plus it often drops off completley. I'm on the 'ARKWRIGHT' exchange in the Nottinghma NG2 area. Could anyone suggest what my other options are?

I don't really need lightning fast broadband, but would appreciate at least 5meg, and also need it to be unlimited really (or big usuage limit).

Thanks alot

[Admin]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi,

I'm currently on O2 Access, which is giving me awful speeds of around <0.5meg most times of the day, plus it often drops off completley. I'm on the 'ARKWRIGHT' exchange in the Nottinghma NG2 area. Could anyone suggest what my other options are?

I don't really need lightning fast broadband, but would appreciate at least 5meg, and also need it to be unlimited really (or big usuage limit).

Thanks alot

Sky and TalkTalk have their own equipment installed at your exchange, allowing them to offer faster and cheaper deals, however without your full postcode I've no way of telling if you'd achieve faster speeds than with ordinary ADSL Max.

However, I do know that much of the NG2 area is covered by Virgin Media who offer up to 50Mbps cable broadband using fibre optics to the street cabinet, so likely to connect at or near the quoted speed. So if you're looking for the best speed and you are covered by Virgin's cable service, they would seem to be the obvious choice.

There's more details on Virgin's cable (ie, not those listed as 'National') deals here:
Virgin Broadband

Hope that helps!

Hi,

I'm looking to get broadband in a property in the lake district at watermillock, ullswater. (ca11 0JS). However o2 tells me I would have use their access package, which is £10 a month more. Is there anyway I could get an unlimited download broadband package for sensible money?

regards

As you have no LLU services at your exchange your choices are fairly limited.
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/LCGLE

You're not going to get anything as cheap as what O2, Sky, Talktalk or any other LLU offer. I think your best bet is to spend that little extra and go for one of the smaller players in ADSL for example - adsl24.co.uk offer a 30GB peak/unlimited off peak download package for £19.20 a month.
You could try looking at other providers such as Xilo, vivaciti, idnet, but personally I think adsl24 are currently offering the best as it's now running under MurphX and not Entanet (it makes sense if you know what I'm on about!)
The main advantages of the smaller providers is that everything is UK based, the support is not someone sitting at a call centre desk reading from a screen, these smaller providers know what the hell they are talking about.
If you're a gamer the ability to change your latency on and off is much easier as they understand the importance of ping times, the bigger broadband players don't really support this as long as you're getting some sort of broadband is generally all they care about.
Another reason is that their packages are usually only one month rolling contracts meaning you can change provider any time you wish, I think it also shows confidence in the service they provide.

But if you wish BT, Post Office and Virgin all do unlimited packages for roughly 25 quid a month.

hope this helps.

the adsl24 package is here --- http://adsl24.co.uk/broadband/?showall=yes

I take it this site isn't exactly impartial.......Either that or it takes mods a year to verify posts.

[Admin]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I take it this site isn't exactly impartial.......Either that or it takes mods a year to verify posts.

Sorry, there were no mods around this weekend, and we moderate all guest posts to prevent spam, hope you can understand!

I did jump the gun a bit.... sorry 'bout that!
(If you check my ip you'll notice I took my own advice :-/ )

Thought I'd just make a post in here too.
I am with O2 access and it is great from about 2AM until midday - which are generally the times myself (and the rest of the U.K.) aren't using their computers - I generally get 6mbps downstream. The times I do use my computer though - the evening like everyone else, my broadband is useless, giving me speeds between 0.3mbps and 0.6mbps and even lower streaming speeds, which means watching TV, and even using VoIP during the evenings absolutely unusable, never mind downloading anything (HTTP/FTP, not P2P which wouldn't work at all).
I am less than 100m away from my exchange - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/EMALREW (I am on Furlong lane).
My router is always connected at 8mbps and while it won't show me any attenuations I am sure all is fine as demonstrated by the fact I get a good speed at certain times. I am fully aware I am limited to non-LLU services and it'll be contention based, but in todays world my internet is completely useless, I'd be happier with a stable 2mbps than what I currently receive.
It also annoys me that others in my village on similar packages aren't getting speeds as bad as myself at peak times, nor are those on the nearby Barton exchange with a similar setup yet more users.
I've been in contact with O2 and had 2 separate tickets open about my speed, both they eventually just ignored and hope I forgot about and neither produced results (except me running around my house like a fool and putting cables everywhere to test things... - YES, I've tried the master socket ).
So basically I can't stand it any more, not being able to watch even a Youtube video or download a file or talk to friends has taken me to my wits end.
In summary, can anyone suggest a reliable alternate?
I chose O2 after weighing options before, but they have been no better than Tiscali.
I need an 80GB package is about the only requirement, and preferably a lax ISP
Thanks.