Is BT Infinity any good?

[PND]

Just wondering if anyone had signed up to BT Infinity broadband, and if so, what their thoughts were?

They're promising some fast speeds, but I'm not sure how convinced I am.. once you're in an 18 month contract, you're stuck!

Any thoughts?

[Ifti]

Personally I went with Virgin Media, since you have a dedicated fibre line run into your house. Im currently on 10MB, and every time I test my speed I get the full 10MB - no matter what the time of day. Very reliable etc as well. I dont think I'd go back to standard broadband over the phone lines TBH.

I know that doesnt answer your initial question, but the one time I tried BT broadband I wasnt very impressed. That was several years back though, so maybe they've improved!

[PND]

I used to be on 'standard' BT broadband a few years back, and lately have been with Sky.  Where I am, I can only get about 3MB download.  BT Infinity is meant to increase this due to BT rolling out fibre optic cabling from the exchange to an additional 'phone cabinet' at the end of your street.  The existing copper cabling from the cabinet to your house stays as it is.  The theory is that the small length of existing cabling doesn't cause too much reduction from the cable speed. 

There is no chance of cabling being run to individual properties on my street so this sounds like a good option.  If I do the 'availability' tests from BT's website, it correctly says I can get 3MB with normal broadband and 19MB with Infinity .  If this is the case, then all would be great.  However, they start blaming the distance of from your house to the cabinet, the internal cabling in your house, etc.. and suddenly 19MB seems a long way off..

Just wondering if anybody had already signed up with Infinity, and what their experiences were so far..

[Hedge]

Don't know much about it to be honest but I have a new cabinet at the end of the street.

Lets hope they do a staff deal.

[PND]

Won't help me much if they do!

[Saint Steve]

Sky's new proposed fully Fibre Optic to your doorstep WILL make even Virgin Media's high speed service look snails pace

I for one cant wait!!

[gazbutS3]

sorry for the hi-jack, but what is sky broadband like in general?, I'm about to switch from orange which I have been fairly happy with, don't want to change and end up with a load of hassle

[PND]

It's been pretty good, albeit only 3MB.  It was originally set slightly higher, but I was getting problems with the connection dropping.  Since they slowed it down slightly, it's been fine.  Very reliable - could just do with it being a bit quicker. 

[PND]

Sky's new proposed fully Fibre Optic to your doorstep WILL make even Virgin Media's high speed service look snails pace

I for one cant wait!!

Do you know when this 'might' be happening?  Can't find much about it anywhere..

[markfive]

I've had a BT-based FTTC service for a few months and it's been great.

Could have had BT Infinity but chose to go with another ISP instead (in the same way that lots of ISPs use BT infrastructure for ADSL broadband, they can also choose to offer an FTTC service - but not many do as yet). There are a number of reasons why I chose to do this, even though it's more expensive than BT Infinity. The two main reasons - no increase in allowance over their standard broadband offering, so if you hit 100Gb in a month you'll get throttled back to something ridiculous like 256kbps (or 1/120th of the theoretical maximum speed) and no guarantee that you won't be as affected by evening slowdowns as someone on a 8Mbs service.

Just ran a speed test - 32Mbs down, 8Mbs up - not bad for this time of night  

[Hedge]

I think it is just BT Infinity with another wrapper.
I can't see Sky laying fibre down all the streets but BT are as part of their 21CN rollout. Look up FTTC.  

What MarkFive said.

[Saint Steve]

Sky have been doing trials in a couple of towns at present.

They were talking about launch start of this year, but due to the financial climate, its been put on hold untill things improove.

Speeds of 200 meg down and 100 Meg up are being rumoured.

Cant see it happening much before 2012.

[PND]

Looks like I might as well stay with Sky for the mo.. out of contract and keep an eye on what comes along next..  Be a shame to sign up to Infinity only for Sky to then offer something better.. You never know!

Cheers for the replies so far.

Paul.

[markfive]

The Sky service will be based on BTs FTTC infrastructure in the same way that Sky's LLU broadband is - so it's BTs fibre to the cabinet (hence FTTC) and BTs copper to your house, but Skys' kit in the exchange directly connected to the SNS network.

And yes, speeds of 100Mb/s are possible on the FTTC network although they are not yet enabled (in the same way that 8Mb/s was possible when BT were only offering 2Mb/s and 24Mb/s was possible when BT were offering 8Mb/s) so Sky's offerings will also be 40Mb/s to start with.

You can register for the trial here - still no word on when it's going to start apart from a couple of locations that are mentioned on the site.

[PND]

You can register for the trial here - still no word on when it's going to start apart from a couple of locations that are mentioned on the site.

Already registered.. just a case of waiting and hoping I suppose!

Cheers!