Basically, I had come from NTL/Virgin recently increased to 20Meg service and using http://www.speedtest.net it appeared I was getting around 18Meg.  Bloody good service really and I can say hand on heart “I never had ANY problems!”.  So the day I exchanged contracts I got on to Virgin and enquired about their moving home assistance.  To my immediate horror, my new home was not in their “Cable” catchment.  They would happily offer me their “Up to 8Meg” service as long as I had a BT Line.  This was a complete kick in the chuckies.  I never even bothered with the phone or TV package with Virgin.  All I wanted was their ramming speed broadband!

So I started phoning around and using numerous “Compare Broadband” sites.  This was a complete nightmare.  Not one company was prepared to tell me what “Actual” speed I would get using their service.  I had unfortunately entered the “Up to” Zone!

I got BT to hook up a new telephone line and started to browse the many companies offers and packages.  After many searches, I put my faith in http://www.bethere.co.uk who dazzled me with their “Up to” 24Meg service.  Yes! 24Meg through a BT Line.  This was looking fantastic, moved house outside a Virgin Cable area and I’d be getting even faster ramming speed broadband.

Then came the brick wall.

Due to the distance of my new home to the BT exchange, I sadly had to admit that I wouldn’t be getting the maximum speed advertised.  15Meg would be a bit optimistic, 10Meg would have been a pleasure or even 8Meg would have be entirely exceptable.  Imagine my shock and further horror when the fastest speed I could possibly hope to achieve was be “2.(BLOODY)5Meg!” Yes an “Up to” 24Meg service giving me a MAXIMUM of 2.5Meg!  What in the blue hell was going on!

After a few emails to Bethere and a few telephone calls to, it became clear that they installed their own equipment right up to and in the local BT Exchange.  The bit from the BT Exchange to my new home was unfortunately in the hands of BT’s ancient crappy copper lines.  What this meant was the whole world could reach me at lightening speed up to 2.6 km to my house and then snail pace it to me at home.

Bethere stated they couldn’t do anything about it since they could not do anything with the BT line from the exchange.  Basically, it was in BT’s hands.

I called BT who passed me all over the place.  When they realised that I didn’t want their own broadband service they finally passed me to their faults department.  The faults department then informed me that if I wanted the line checking, it would cost me £125 for an engineer to call.  I told them that I would not be paying anything since it was clearly their own equipment at fault here and their useless copper wires need replacing.

“BT guarantee a telephone line for voice services Only!” was the official line I got from them.  The other ISP can claim whatever the hell they like about “Up to” speeds or average speeds.  I was paying for a 24Meg service but getting 2.5Meg instead, with no one willing to admit any fault for this.

I have been reading up on this matter of line quality and I can say with authority that we (the UK) have a third world communication system.  I spent 2 years in Tokyo Japan and when I left 4 years ago they were offering 20Meg as standard throughout the city.  Now they have 100Meg as standard and 25Meg wireless in certain areas.  The basis of this system is fibre optic.  France, Germany, Denmark and pretty much everyone else on mainland Europe have upgraded communication system using Fibre Optic cabling as the foundation.  All over Europe information and communication is flying around at unbelievable speeds, whilst here in the UK we are being left behind.

Information and how fast we receive that information will be the key for all in the future.  No, not the future.  It’s NOW! We need a faster structure to build on otherwise we will all be squeezing every last ounce on sweat from our old copper BT lines.

The government need to bring BT and every other ISP in to at least discuss this.  As it stands today, BT have no plans to upgrade their old phone lines with fibre optic.  They are sticking to the cheapest option for now and not the best option for the future.

Do you have an awful broadband speed compared with the “Upto” promise?  Why is it that BT are refusing to upgrade the nation with the proper facilities we want?  CustomPC, can you do a report on this matter?