BT Infinity in Marple

[amazon]

Quick update
The last section of fibre will be blown in tomorrow in Marple Bridge,that means the "spine" will be in place.

So it won't be long before it will be available, still waiting for Cab 11 on Hollins Lane to go up though.

They were cabling corner Glossop road today facing Widsor castle . Near there new box .

[amazon]

Quick update
The last section of fibre will be blown in tomorrow in Marple Bridge,that means the "spine" will be in place.

So it won't be long before it will be available, still waiting for Cab 11 on Hollins Lane to go up though.

          virgin media upgrading all there speeds as well .

[jogger]

Quick update
The last section of fibre will be blown in tomorrow in Marple Bridge,that means the "spine" will be in place.

So it won't be long before it will be available, still waiting for Cab 11 on Hollins Lane to go up though.

[sgk]

For comparison, here's the speed I'm getting on my Virgin 100mbit package, in Marple Bridge.

[tonyjones]

At first I though Capt B.H.Smith was having a laugh, but he is correct.  BT do plan to offer 300Mb/s  but this will entail installing fibre optic cable to the house, for which I assume there will be a cost.

Most modern PCs have a wired network connection from their home hub which has a speed of 100Mb/s, with the wireless connection being somewhat slower.

My own view is that unless you are doing a lot of downloading the standard link of upto 8Mb/s is adequate.  Some serious users and game players may benefit from the 30Mb/s infinity but you must be a REALLY serious user to want a 300Mb/s link.

Also bear in mind that while the 'speed' of the link between your house and the exchange (or whatever) may be 300Mb/s the 'transfer rate' will be significantly lower.

[Smithy166]

It seems BT are "kicking it up a notch" and are planning to offer 300Mb/s broadband, which they will role out in spring next year.
I'm on a virgin media "medium" package, which I belive is 2mb/s? I wouldn't recommend virgin though, there support is lousy, and the internet and TV have a disturbing habit of shutting down even when the word rain is mentioned, let alone when it actually rains!

[Howard]

Do I assume Howard that your Virgin system comes via the cable network?

I am rather suspicious about VOIP. Do VOIP users get all the services a fixed line gets? For instance incoming calls from both fixed and mobile networks, 1471 and 1571  services,  086 numbers etc. Also how do these calls affect the broadband speed they must have an effect on bandwidth?

Anyway its all "pie in the sky"n for me because we only have a bog-standard phone line here. The cable network stops about 500 yards short of our house. So I am stuck with my 3.5 Meg download speed at the moment.

I am seriously considering "cutting the cord" and going with a VOIP connection instead of my voice line which I get through Virgin media. Several people I know do have Vonage and have no complaints about it. My biggest concern is every having to dial 999 and finding out that my broadband has gone off even though my Virgin broadband has only ever gone off twice in 11 years so there is no reason to think why the reliability wouldn't be great.

There are other VOIP providers but Vonage seem to be the one that most domestic users have. As far as I can see from all the FAQs on the Vonage site (http://www.vonage.co.uk/how-vonage-works/faqs/) all the standard stuff like 1471 and voicemail is included.

I also see that it does work over ADSL although there's no minimum speed stipulated. However, considering that voice services such as Skype run perfectly over fairly low bandwidth connections there's no reason to think that even a 1Mb ADSL connection would not be OK. If you're technical then you could even set up something called QoS (Quality of Service) if you have a decent router which guarantees priority to VOIP traffic.

[admin]

I have Vonage VOIP service using a 10Mb Virgin Cable Connection. 1471 works but I never use it because the Vonage unit logs all calls and you can just scroll through the missed, made etc.

Incoming calls from landlines or mobiles are just the same as normal.

I don't know what the 1571 service is (it doesn't appear to do anything on the Vonage phone) and I don't know if it will ring 086 numbers (what are they for? ).

When Mrs Admin is on the phone (a lot) and me on t'Internet (a lot) there appears to be no bandwidth issues whatsoever.

[alfred]

Do I assume Howard that your Virgin system comes via the cable network?

I am rather suspicious about VOIP. Do VOIP users get all the services a fixed line gets? For instance incoming calls from both fixed and mobile networks, 1471 and 1571  services,  086 numbers etc. Also how do these calls affect the broadband speed they must have an effect on bandwidth?

Anyway its all "pie in the sky"n for me because we only have a bog-standard phone line here. The cable network stops about 500 yards short of our house. So I am stuck with my 3.5 Meg download speed at the moment.

[Howard]

I don't know whether you still need you copper line for your voice line; I suspect so. However, if you have a decent enough broadband connection (say 10Mb or above) you could use a VOIP (voice over IP) service such as Vonage. You get a box which plugs into your router and then your phones plug into that box. All calls are routed overt the Internet. The basic price is £5.99 per month, around half that of BT or Virginmedia.

[alfred]

So from what you are all saying Plusnet and Cable.co.uk are both pemature, fibre is not yet available in our area.

Presumably if they are putting cable in on Compstall Road and Lower Fold they are on their way from Woodley Exchange towards Marple Exchange. I assume that when the Exchange is connected they will start distributing from there.

This might sound a nieve question but can I assume that if and when I am connected to fibre I will also get the phone down the fibre?

[amazon]

Quick update, not been on here for a while.

The main spine which comes from Woodley exchange to Marple exchange and ends at New Mills and onto Hayfield is more or less in, waiting on civils in a couple of places(but no big deal)

You mentined Church rd, the fibre is into the Cabinets near the college and the one near the Pineapple pub.

You will start noticing new "D slams" (green cabinets) springing up near existing ones, these are the fibre feeds.

Won't make any rash statements as to when it will be all up and running, but watch this space..

Any questions I will gladly answer if I can.

 

       one just gone in top Compstall road .near Glossop road

[Howard]

I tested mine and it came out to:


I'm on the Virgin 50Mb service.

[sgk]

The speed of the link may be 40meg but I doubt that anyone will get any great improvement in transfer speeds, much of which is limited by the information provider.

It's a bit like increasing the speed limit on the road between Stockport and Marple to 70 mph. You are limited by how many cars can actually travel along the road and how fast they can get on and off the road.

A friend in Hyde went for BT Infinity, he posted the resulting speed summary, as below

By comparison, I'm on Virgin(NTL) cable modem, "Broadband size: L" package, Marple Bridge.

Test your own connection using http://www.speedtest.net/.  See what packages are available on your postcode at http://www.cable.co.uk or http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker.  Both indicate that Virgin 100Mb/s package is available in Marple + Marple Bridge.

[tonyjones]

The speed of the link may be 40meg but I doubt that anyone will get any great improvement in transfer speeds, much of which is limited by the information provider.

It's a bit like increasing the speed limit on the road between Stockport and Marple to 70 mph. You are limited by how many cars can actually travel along the road and how fast they can get on and off the road.