[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On 13/11/2013 08:49, Neil Winchurst wrote:
In Holsworthy we are getting fibre to the cabinet set up. It is well on the way, the new cabinets are installed and BT have reached the testing stage. In fact the latest news is that it should be ready next month. So I have been looking it up on Google etc. I am now a bit puzzled. My current ISP does provide it and in fact the monthly payment is less than I pay now. However they have a one off set up fee of £102. The note about it says that this includes 'arranging for an engineer to visit my house to install the service'. I have looked at other ISP's and, while prices and set ups vary, there does not seem to be any mention of sending anyone to the house or any payment for it. Also, a bit annoying, some of them want to set up a 'package' which includes the phone rental, calls etc. And, if I don't want to have this, they will charge extra for my not having it included. So at the moment I am very confused. Can anyone clarify the situation for me please? Thanks Neil
How I understand it at the moment FTTC installs require an engineer visit. They change the phone socket to a filtered one which has a phone socket and a socket for the VDSL modem. They also can install cable upto about 30 metres if you don't want or can't have the VDSL modem next to your phone socket.
When we had FTTC installed at one of our sites (using Zen) the engineer turned up, installed the socket and installed a VDSL modem which we then connected to our existing router (Draytek Vigor 2830 if I remember correctly).
Some ISPs provide a combined VDSL modem/router, others may rely on the BT supplied VDSL modem and supply a separate router (if you use the BT supplied VDSL modem you'll need a 'cable' router which has an ethernet WAN port which connects via a network cable to the modem, and then LAN ports and probably wifi too for your internal network... an ADSL router/modem won't generally work unless it's got a WAN port or a custom firmware such as DD-WRT).
I read recently that BT are doing a wires only trial on FTTC which is similar to installing ADSL, you'd get a couple of filters and a router and install it yourself. This in theory should bring the install costs down a bit.
As for an ISP bundling a telephone service, there's hundreds of ISPs out there that will do broadband separately to a phone service. I'd suggest starting looking at www.thinkbroadband.com at their ISP list and maybe browsing their individual ISP forums to get an idea of what other customers think of the service.
Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq