BT Infinity - any good

[nomadd]

OK, so I get the email in my inbox today that BT are now offering their Infinity package in my postcode. Went to their "checker" and typed in my phone number (which they say gives a much more accurate estimate of speed than just a postcode) and it says my line will give 23.8meg up/7.5meg down. And this is for roughly £10/month more than my current O2 package which only gives 4meg. So, seems like a decent upgrade.

Had a flick through a few of the Broadband forums and the feedback on Infinity seems to be pretty good.

So, anyone on here switched to BT Infinity? What's it like? Stable? Fast? BT Support OK? Etc. Etc. I'm not a heavy downloader/streamer (< 50GB / month), but I'm still a little unsure of the "Unlimited" tag BT attach to the product. Again, feedback much appreciated on this. Don't use P2P, but do use Easynews, though (nntp & web), so hopefully that isn't throttled? Feedback, once again, very welcome.

Got my MAC code ordered from O2, so just want to know if it's OK to push ahead and use it!

[vetran]

Went with Plusnet, I have found their support is loads better. Yes I know BT own them but they don't seem to have 'reorganised' them yet, its still a yorkshire voice on the phone and fault calls get reasonable response.

During the day its fantastic 37Mb and it feels like it I go into the office and drum my fingers, during the evening it suffers from contention but still better than the old 8mb. Overnight its slow ~2-10Mb of (course reports as 37mb) for downloads (ISO's etc) to preserve the unlimited portion (40GB monthly limit), I assume everyone has torrents starting at 12:01.

I'm a couple of Km from the exchange over aerial wires, I used to have daily drop outs, now its once a quarter if that.

Was £28 including unlimited local / national calls & phone rental (did a bit of haggling and was on the trial). So its peanuts and I'm not funding Murdoch or enjoying 'world travelling support'.

Oh by the way now BT have your number look forward to loads of pushy calls trying to sell you BTInfinity. I swore at one.

Oh and no Home Hub, its a netgear router you can actually interrogate.

Give me a shout if you go that way, I get referral discounts.

[d000hg]

If you're able to get Infinity, you should be able to get better than 4Mb from O2 since they can use ADSL2 (IIRC). Worth checking, I went from 2Mb to ~12Mb when I switched to O2 a month or two back.

[russell]

I have it and it is excellent. I get 36MBs downloads which translates into downloading a hd movie in @10 mins and an album in seconds.

Also BT removed there insanse 100gb download cap on the top option and it is now truly unlimited

[d000hg]

Went with Plusnet, I have found their support is loads better. Yes I know BT own them but they don't seem to have 'reorganised' them yet, its still a yorkshire voice on the phone and fault calls get reasonable response.

During the day its fantastic 37Mb and it feels like it I go into the office and drum my fingers, during the evening it suffers from contention but still better than the old 8mb. Overnight its slow ~2-10Mb of (course reports as 37mb) for downloads (ISO's etc) to preserve the unlimited portion (40GB monthly limit), I assume everyone has torrents starting at 12:01.

I'm a couple of Km from the exchange over aerial wires, I used to have daily drop outs, now its once a quarter if that.

Was £28 including unlimited local / national calls & phone rental (did a bit of haggling and was on the trial). So its peanuts and I'm not funding Murdoch or enjoying 'world travelling support'.

Oh by the way now BT have your number look forward to loads of pushy calls trying to sell you BTInfinity. I swore at one.

Oh and no Home Hub, its a netgear router you can actually interrogate.

Give me a shout if you go that way, I get referral discounts.

When I was considering fibre, +net didn't offer the highest speed, matching BT's top-price offering. The main difference was upload speed though so mightn't be worth it.

[nomadd]

If you're able to get Infinity, you should be able to get better than 4Mb from O2 since they can use ADSL2 (IIRC). Worth checking, I went from 2Mb to ~12Mb when I switched to O2 a month or two back.

ADSL2 is only as good as the cables carrying it. Problem I have is that although it's FTTC, from the cabinet to my home it's good ole copper cable, hence the 4meg tops. Checked this out many times with both O2 and BT.

The local cable cabinet for Infinity, on the other hand, is just a couple of hundred yards away. I'd assume they run a new cable from that to my home? No idea how they'd offer such a speed jump otherwise? I did lot's of "line checks" before Infinity became available, and it always quoted 2-4meg; now Infinity is available, it's quoting 23.8meg down.

Maybe someone who's had it installed can provide more details as to exactly what BT do? Do I have to wait in for an engineer to re-wire some sockets in the house? Likewise, my computer is actually upstairs in a spare bedroom (office), so I take it there wouldn't be a problem having a cable that runs up the stairs like I have at present?

Any experiences appreciated.

[ChimpMaster]

We only get 8Mb on our exchange, which translates to under 4Mb at my home - only 300 metres from the exchange. It's been like this sine 2006 when BT (finally) enables ADSL MAX.

I would draw blood to achieve anywhere near 12Mb download speeds, let alone anywhere near even 20Mb!!

[Spacecadet]

ADSL2 is only as good as the cables carrying it. Problem I have is that although it's FTTC, from the cabinet to my home it's good ole copper cable, hence the 4meg tops. Checked this out many times with both O2 and BT.

The local cable cabinet for Infinity, on the other hand, is just a couple of hundred yards away. I'd assume they run a new cable from that to my home? No idea how they'd offer such a speed jump otherwise? I did lot's of "line checks" before Infinity became available, and it always quoted 2-4meg; now Infinity is available, it's quoting 23.8meg down.

Maybe someone who's had it installed can provide more details as to exactly what BT do? Do I have to wait in for an engineer to re-wire some sockets in the house? Likewise, my computer is actually upstairs in a spare bedroom (office), so I take it there wouldn't be a problem having a cable that runs up the stairs like I have at present?

Any experiences appreciated.

ADSL speeds depend on the distance you are from the exchange, the new fibre rollouts mean that it is fibre to the cabinet i.e. no speed loss between exchange and cabinet and then it switches to the wire. The shorter distance over copper means less signal degregation and so a higher bit rate is achievable.

[EternalOptimist]

I think the OP has his up and down speed reversed.

I have been trying like mad to get a fiber or wireless to the premises, no luck. BT were supposed to be roling it out from last year, but they have hit technical/cost issues.

We have a lot of downtime here on conventional BT BB, I suspect they are switching resource to infinity customers at the exchange, but I cant prove it.

I am switching to infinity on wednesday(tomorrow) as an interim, between lousy BTBB, and the eventual fibre to the house

[filthy1980]

mrs F works for BT so we've been waiting for her free 2mb employee BB to be upgraded to infinity for over a year, the company line has been "don't call us for a date, you'll get it when it's ready" which is the same time as everyone else as the leaflets have been dropping through the door, apparently we're getting it later this month

having spoken to some guys who are on the infinity pilot and have had it for over a year it's pretty damn good, involves a new router and a 2nd connection box which taps off the master box where the line comes into your house so depending on where you have your existing routed compared to your master box you may have some cable to traverse your house

can't wait though i want to start d/l - ing some 3d films to watch on my new tele )