i wana switch to o2 broadband from aol... but aol is saying i cant physically get any better connection, including upload (which o2 say is up to DOUBLE what aol give)... my question is... does anyone in the area have O2 broadband 8meg with 1.3meg upload? and how fast is it really for you?

To be honest its hard to compare with other people unless they are in the same street as you.
Quality of the line serving your property, and from the exchange to you will vary from street to street.
Also distance is an important factor too.

I went from BT who told me it got no better than them, to Orange who said they would do similar.
What I ended up with was an identical service.
We have Sky BB also, again identical speed, except when they throttle it back.

At the end of the day in the same property on the same line, its all about the hardware they supply, and if the ISP throttles back connections at peak time.
I would do my reseach on one of the ISP provider websites to see which providers do the throttling back, and which dont. And who provide the best routers etc.

Having terrible service at present from BT. Line down since the 6th August. They have found 3 external faults but still not fixed. Using another connection at present.

People at BT all very nice and polite but problem is not with them but with the local engineers.

I have always found them excellent in the past

I've never had any problem with O2. Thoroughly recommend them. Things went slow once, but they solved the problem quickly. I think it's the cheapest option around, too, especially if you've got a mobile contract

I get my Sky BB for free with the TV package but still pay line rental
and my Orange for ?15 a month inc line rental, thats with an Orange mobile.

O2/Be use ADSL2+ technology for their broadband (Upto 24 Mbps) whereas AOL are only offering upto 8Mbps download (older ADSL Max) according to aolbroadband.com. However Forest Hill is a 21CN enabled exchange, so ISPs other than O2/Be should be able to offer ADSL2+ (Upto 24Mbps) service.

The attached charts show you what hundreds of Be users actually get:
   
Actual Upload sync speeds
   
Actual Download sync speeds

My upload speeds are low because of the product I am on and are not a reflection of O2/Be's limitations.

HTH

thanks so much for the quick responses!!


yeah i found out about AOL not using ADSL2+... so thats a bit of a drawback compared to O2.. im on 8meg and am looking at O2's 8meg package with a faster upload than AOL...

when i've asked and checked online through O2's website they say that the Forest Hill exchange has a max of 18meg.. which is a bit odd as lots of ISPs are advertising 24meg...

AOL and other big ISPs use throttling unfortunately which is a draaag... whereas O2 dont (for now ) while they have less subscribers.


O2 is the one i'm looking at joining at the moment.


anyway thanks for the advice so far

We're in Honor Oak, and are currently looking to change provider (from Tiscali to Orange).

Irrespective of the various packages on offer, they have both said that the fastest speed our "line" can handle is 5.5mb

We're in Honor Oak, and are currently looking to change provider (from Tiscali to Orange).

Irrespective of the various packages on offer, they have both said that the fastest speed our "line" can handle is 5.5mb

Whichever you choose, if you are moving providers, remember to negotiate price. I am on BT and came to the end of my contract. I looked around and saw that o2 were the cheapest (I have an o2 mobile contract which makes it even cheaper). I asked BT to match o2's price if they wanted me to stay with them, and they did, plus threw in the latest router for free. Don't know if you get the same wriggle room on price when going somewhere new, but it's always worth asking.

Am in Honor Oak, just off Forest Hill road. I use Virgin media as my ISP and currently get 3.4mb/s for ?15.00 a month.

There was a whole thread about this on East Dulwich Forum a couple of weeks ago. http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/...msg-328013

Got the same deal with BT when I suggested I would leave for O2, and only a 12 month contract.

I don't have Sky and so considered Virgin Media, but apparently it's not available in my street (St German's Road).

Broadband works by using multiple frequencies (sounds) to transmit the data. If you remember the days of dial up, you heard lots of squeaks and trills when you were connecting; broadband takes those tones much higher. The trouble with this is that the higher notes get quieter quicker, so if you are further from the exchange you will not get 24Mbps. You can find out where your exchange is by entering your number at SamKnows. It looks as though Honor Oak uses Forest Hill while Crofton Park uses Deptford's exchange.

I live quite close to my exchange, so I connect at 18 Mbps, but you are unlikely to get better speeds with ADSL2+ (Upto 24Mbps) over ADSL (Upto 8Mbps) if there is more than 3000m cable between you and the exchange or you currently connect at between 2Mbps and 6Mbps.

This graph     shows you the approximate relationship between cable length and speed. There are many other factors which affect the speed you will achieve, such as quality of cable, number of joins and proximity to power cables, but it is a good starting point.

If you have a Virgin cable connection outside your house, then this uses a different technology altogether. If you get Virgin broadband over you telephone line, then you will get 8 Mbps max like the majority of ISPs.

Although Forest Hill's exchange was upgraded in February, there were only 2 providers offering ADSL2+ services last time I looked. These were Eclipse and O2/Be

A useful site for comparing broadband services is http://www.thinkbroadband.com/