ISPs

[stevieuk]

Yep, totally totally confused.

If Gatacre is with aol originally, then like me, will probably still have line with BT.   

Who is on offer with a bt line, apart from bt?

Almost any ISP that uses BTW`s network.

Depends on what you want from the service?

[downside]

What about Virgin Media's fibre optic broadband?

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/broadband/fibre-optic.html

[Nick29]

OR is the company that fixes the faults on the network, now I`m a little unsure if they do both phone or only ADSL, I believe its only ADSL faults.

Yes it gets complicated & confusing.

Just to add a bit more confusion...in the case of ALL LLU ISPs the copper cable from the exchange is owned/maintained & therefore fixed by BT/OR.

Openreach own, operate and maintain the entire cabling infrastructure of BT's networks, and that includes the fibre and microwave trunk networks that link exchanges and the copper (and dreaded aluminium !) cables that link the exchanges to our homes.   Openreach "engineers" (and I use that word very loosely) also detect and repair faults on both telephone and ADSL, but they do have people who specialise in ADSL problems.

LLU only means that other comms companies are allowed to interface their infrasructure to BT's customer-facing lines - BT Openreach are still the ones who will maintain the copper pair to your house, no matter who you buy your broadband from.

[Nick29]

What about Virgin Media's fibre optic broadband?

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/broadband/fibre-optic.html

That is an entirely different network - they use their own cabling and it is not available in all of the UK.  We have Virgin cable in this town - it has three customers - the high school, the library, and the council offices.  Everyone else is still waiting to be cabled (10 years now).

[Nick29]

Yep, totally totally confused.

If Gatacre is with aol originally, then like me, will probably still have line with BT.   

Who is on offer with a bt line, apart from bt?

Any ISP that is a reseller of a BT Wholesale product, because there is BT ADSL equipment in all UK exchanges.  To get services offered by LLU companies, they need to have equipment installed in your exchange, and you can find this out by entering the name of your exchange or town into www.samknows.com and you will get a list of the LLU providers in your exchange.

[Gatacre]

I think I will go and bury my head in the sand and hope for the best which is not a responsible statement .  I was with AOL originally before it was bought out.  I spent some time on the Sam Knows site and realized that I cannot get the connections I thought there were.  Most of everything had a cross against them except some thru BT.

Then I came across the DSL and had to lookup that  but I think your explanations are very good.

Being on AOL since late  2004 does that mean that BT was a provider for their set up as they were not strictly an ISP?

[Nick29]

I think AOL supply both LLU and BT Wholesale products - it just depends on what your exchange can supply.  Sky have a similar system where customers who can't get the Sky LLU product can get a BTW product called "Connect" (which is rubbish, by all accounts).

Gatacre, if you'd like to post the name of your exchange or town (or PM me with it), I can double check to see what's available, if you wish 

[mazi]

One more thought from us. If you are with BT and you have problems make them fix it, they cant pass the buck.
Our neighbour had months of problems with her provider blaming BT and Bt saying they had found no fault

 Mazi and OH

[Nick29]

That's par for the course for BT.  They don't like spending money if they can avoid it.  These days they try to scare you off by saying that they'll charge you if they don't find a fault.  I had a fault on my business broadband that went on for months, and in the end BT walked away, alleging that the fault was in my premises.  This was after at least 30 "engineers" had been to my premises, including three technical specialists.  When BT wouldn't have any more to do with the problem, I asked my ISP to move my connection to an LLU one which was a wholesale product supplied by Be.  Strangely, when this happened, all the problems ceased, and I was getting twice the speed.  I can only conclude that BT's equipment is somehow inferior, because I changed absolutely nothing at this end.