have had it for about 18 months now (in Welling) have had nothing but problems, it's shit - constantly losing service etc.
mind you have been with both BT and Sky previously and neither were much better, must just be a shit area for signal, Vodafone definitely the worst though.
has got steadily worse over the past 2 months or so.
will be changing as soon as we can get our arses in gear to do so.
It really is a lottery. I was on Virgin but had to switch to Sky and Sky has been more reliable. Sky resell BT Superfast Broadband, Virgin largely provide their own fibre service and Vodafone also resell BT but do provide a mobile dongle service I believe. Virgin will be fastest but unless you really need 150mbps, I would argue that reliability and ease of doing business with them is the most important factor (BT were crap at this, which is why I left them years ago) is the key issue as long as you can get 50mbps or thereabouts. My Virgin media broadband was switched off every night, necessitating a re-boot in the morning. Despite umpteen calls to Virgin I got nowhere. Then I lost service on the same day of the month, three months running. The minute I noticed I checked their website and there was already a message up telling me they were fixing a fault in my area and that it could be off all day. I spotted their guys at the local box in a couple of vans all camped out with piles of kit. When this happened again I went up the road within minutes and they were all there again. I complained that if they were doing routine maintenance they should tell us - Virgin denied it point-blank. The third month was the final straw. They have been struggling to cope with demand on their network and have publicly acknowledged that service will be degraded across the network for a long time. Virgin are expensive, too. I have no experience of Vodaphone but my advice would be to avoid unless you have tried all the others in your area and are desperate. Plusnet might be worth a shout - BT service but with better Customer Service and cheap.
In SE18. Switched from BT to Vodafone in November because of price. Service seldom a problem. Vodafone use the BT network. In the seven weeks since the changeover not a single broadband outage.
Got Vodafone when I moved to Sittingbourne in early December (NowTV didn't offer broadband at my new address). No problems at all with the connection. Initial problem getting connected, due to their stupid policy of only being willing to post to the billing address when you order (which was my old house at the time, so that no good), and making you chase their understaffed customer service team to get the address changed to the correct one.
100% they use BT copper or fibre network, (very, very few areas have true E-E fibre networks) issues are when there are network problems, non BT customers always go to back of list despite claims they don't.
My father in laws company now install super fast broadband to its customers doing fibre to the home. Unbelievable speeds and in areas where BT and the like can’t supply fibre. I’m just waiting for them to cover my area so I too can enjoy downloads of up to 1000 mbps. A friend has gone from 2mbps with BT to 300 mbps and is paying less.
I didn't have fibre with them, so can't speak of speeds, but their customer service is utter utter shite. Would not touch them with a bargepole now. Had some problems with the switchover to Plusnet due to issues at the OpenReach end, but they've been a vast improvement in terms of communication and support.
I can't wait for FTTP for the same reasons as @cookierules FTTC is just never going to be as fast.
FTTC is fibre to the cabinet a stream all the way to the cabinet, but then cabinet to property is copper and this just slows everything down. The stream becomes a muddy sludge because copper cannot allow the data to flow through nearly as quickly.
FTTP is that smooth stream all the way to the property and as such maintains smoother speeds all the way.
Most Fibre deals in the UK are FTTC and as such you'll rarely see *actual (not advertised)* speeds actually above 50MBPS to your property.
If you manage to get FTTP you can expect hundreds of MBPS.
Had Vodafone Fibre (76mbps) for a few months now. Found it completely reliable and stable. We live near to the street cabinet so consistently get 74mbps. We also got a free Sonos Play 1 as a joining gift, but I think that offer has finished now.
We had Virgin Media (150mbps) previously. It was dire. One day we'd have speeds of 50mbps, the next it would be 2mbps. It would regularly go down for days at a time, and once we had no internet for well over a week. Their customer service were abysmal and I couldn't wait to be shot of them. Worst company I've ever dealt with, hands down.
I can't wait for FTTP for the same reasons as @cookierules FTTC is just never going to be as fast.
FTTC is fibre to the cabinet a stream all the way to the cabinet, but then cabinet to property is copper and this just slows everything down. The stream becomes a muddy sludge because copper cannot allow the data to flow through nearly as quickly.
FTTP is that smooth stream all the way to the property and as such maintains smoother speeds all the way.
Most Fibre deals in the UK are FTTC and as such you'll rarely see speeds actually above 50MBPS to your property.
If you manage to get FTTP you can expect hundreds of MBPS.
Sorry mate but some of this is not right.
FTTP is a better technology, no doubt about that, but the copper lengths on the BT FTTC network are very short and average under 400 metres (down from about 2500 metres on ADSL).
The speeds on the VDSL technology are fine for most applications - they must be since BT are running a HD pay TV platform on there to millions of homes!
What’s more the new G.fast technology BT is now deploying will deliver 330Mbps downstream on those same copper lines that a few years back were delivering only 2Mbps - and do it for a fraction of the time and cost of FTTP.
BT can do G.fast for about £50 per line compared to about £700 per FTTP line.
Bottom line is that FTTP will serve only a small fraction of premises in the UK for a long while to come, probably only 10% by 2025, because it’s so expensive to deliver and takes so long to build.
Openreach are open to building more FTTP but the other players like Sky, Vodafone and Talk, Talk dont want to pay higher wholesale access charges for FTTP so very hard to make it happen given you are talking about a £20 billion investment to run FTTP everywhere.
FTTP is not really needed for the mass market anyway given BT will have 10 million premises on 300Mbps G.fast from FTTC by 2020 and Virgin will have 15 million on similar speeds around the same time.
Other key point to remember is that the last mile access tech does not guarantee speeds at all, if you have a shithouse provider that has not set up their own network properly (backhaul networks etc) then you will get a crap experience anyway.
The FTTP currently being rolled out seems to be really good so far in Kings Hill. Their biggest issues had been the cables laid by open reach for the FTTC services. Had examples where it’s not copper cables but aluminium lines instead. Also have to remember the speed to the property can be fine but if you then beam it round the house with a poor wireless router etc those high mbps are always going to tumble down. The kit you use plays a big part in download speeds.
@Ormiston Addick I suppose that's what happens when I try to explain something as it was explained to me by the BT guy when I moved house (and also from FTTP to FTTC) over a year ago mind!
Well at least it's interesting to know that faster speeds may return one day!
Haven't got Internet but do have a Vodafone phone and as it's played up a lot I've had the misfortune to deal with their appalling customer services teams.
Can't wait for the contract to end and wouldn't go near them for anything else.
Comments
Im fairly confident that both Sky and Vodafone use BT fibrelines.
mind you have been with both BT and Sky previously and neither were much better, must just be a shit area for signal, Vodafone definitely the worst though.
has got steadily worse over the past 2 months or so.
will be changing as soon as we can get our arses in gear to do so.
In SE18. Switched from BT to Vodafone in November because of price. Service seldom a problem. Vodafone use the BT network. In the seven weeks since the changeover not a single broadband outage.
FTTC is fibre to the cabinet a stream all the way to the cabinet, but then cabinet to property is copper and this just slows everything down. The stream becomes a muddy sludge because copper cannot allow the data to flow through nearly as quickly.
FTTP is that smooth stream all the way to the property and as such maintains smoother speeds all the way.
Most Fibre deals in the UK are FTTC and as such you'll rarely see *actual (not advertised)* speeds actually above 50MBPS to your property.
If you manage to get FTTP you can expect hundreds of MBPS.
We had Virgin Media (150mbps) previously. It was dire. One day we'd have speeds of 50mbps, the next it would be 2mbps. It would regularly go down for days at a time, and once we had no internet for well over a week. Their customer service were abysmal and I couldn't wait to be shot of them. Worst company I've ever dealt with, hands down.
FTTP is a better technology, no doubt about that, but the copper lengths on the BT FTTC network are very short and average under 400 metres (down from about 2500 metres on ADSL).
The speeds on the VDSL technology are fine for most applications - they must be since BT are running a HD pay TV platform on there to millions of homes!
What’s more the new G.fast technology BT is now deploying will deliver 330Mbps downstream on those same copper lines that a few years back were delivering only 2Mbps - and do it for a fraction of the time and cost of FTTP.
BT can do G.fast for about £50 per line compared to about £700 per FTTP line.
Bottom line is that FTTP will serve only a small fraction of premises in the UK for a long while to come, probably only 10% by 2025, because it’s so expensive to deliver and takes so long to build.
Openreach are open to building more FTTP but the other players like Sky, Vodafone and Talk, Talk dont want to pay higher wholesale access charges for FTTP so very hard to make it happen given you are talking about a £20 billion investment to run FTTP everywhere.
FTTP is not really needed for the mass market anyway given BT will have 10 million premises on 300Mbps G.fast from FTTC by 2020 and Virgin will have 15 million on similar speeds around the same time.
Other key point to remember is that the last mile access tech does not guarantee speeds at all, if you have a shithouse provider that has not set up their own network properly (backhaul networks etc) then you will get a crap experience anyway.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/09/vodafone-cityfibre-wholesale-broadband-deal/
This means potential 1000mbps speeds.
Well at least it's interesting to know that faster speeds may return one day!
Can't wait for the contract to end and wouldn't go near them for anything else.