Right guy's... as you may know I am moving from Sky Broadband to o2 Broadband, not because Sky has been bad (in fact it's been amazing) but due to me almost leaving Sky Digital due to me not using it much, and also because o2 have some feature's which already have become very handy for my buisness, of which I will explain more later!

As the Sky Broadband thread has proved very helpful to some people, and hopefully will to other's in the future, then I thought it was best to run a similar one for o2.

First of all I will take a look into the o2 Broadband service, what it offer's, why I am taking it, and how it is run.

About o2 Broadband
I know many people will be wondering how and why o2 got into the broadband market... well basically, what happened was they bought a company called Be* last year (also known as Be Unlimited or bethere). Be* are a smallish ISP although they have been around for about 4 year's, and were iirc, the very first company to roll out LLU ADSL2+ service's nationwide (Bulldog and Homechoice already offered such a service, but due to BT they were confined to 35 exchange's in London at the time).

Some people may remember it as it was announced on the BBC website, and many people were talking about it at the time, basically because they were offering, what at the time seemed like insane speed's and at stupid pricing (bear in mind the average speed people could get was 512Kbps and I was paying £44.99 per month for Bulldog 2Mbps) like 8Mbps for £14 a month and even speed's right upto 24Mbps!!

Anyway, Be* have grown from stregnth to stregnth, a nice growing customer base and revenue and in 2006, Telefonica o2 (ie. o2) purchased Be* for £50million. So similar to when Sky purchased Easynet (See the Sky Broadband thread for detail's on that) it was almost inevitable that one day, o2 would be offering some sort of broadband service alongside their core product, which is of course mobile phone's.

Anyway, fast forward to 2007, and although the Be* service continue's to gain customer's and is generally successful in a very tough and competitive market, Telefonica are not too happy with o2's performance in the UK (they can't really increase profit's due to the mobile market being mature), they began to look for more way's to gain revenue and increase profit's and realised that they are probably sitting on a gold mine in the fact that their sister company has a massive broadband network, which will cost o2 practically nothing to tap in to, yet will gain tonne's of customer's solely because of the o2 brand, if they could link it up somehow with their mobile network.

So o2 Broadband launched late on last year, around October or November I think, and is basically the Be* service, but with different product's, different pricing, under a different name and with a few o2 perk's.

The main thing to be aware of is that o2 Broadband is currently available to around 75% of the population with Be* having so far enabled over 850 exchanges and o2 Broadband is the first major brand to offer a "general public" (ie. you don't have to be an o2 customer to take their service) ADSL2+ LLU service.

It should also be noted that Be* continue's to operate as a seperate brand from o2 Broadband, at least for the time being, probably because the Be* service has such a strong reputation and a very loyal customer base, and it's going back to the old saying, dont try fixing something that isnt broken.

What o2 Broadband Offer's
o2 Broadband is a bit complex at first glance, but once you understand the basic's its pretty simple. The reason why it first look's a bit complex, is because there is two pricing schemes. One is for contract customers (not Simplicity customers) and one is for non-contract customers (this mean's anyone, not just o2 customers).

Basically though, even if you are not a contract customer, I think you will agree that the plans, at present due to a launch price reduction, offer excellent value, and almost certainly beat any alternative product price wise and speed wise.

With o2 Broadband you get the following included:
- o2 Broadband Box ADSL/ADSL2+ Wireless Router
- 10 Email Accounts
- 1GB Email storage for the first account, then 200MB for all others.
- McAfeee Personal Internet Security
- 100 Web Text's
- 1000 Email's to Text (only to o2 mobiles)
- 100 day money back guarantee
- Free connection/migration
- 24/7 UK Based Freefone Customer Support (free from Landline's and o2 mobiles)
- Static IP Address for £4.99 per month
- Unlimited Data Transfer (subject to the same FUP as Be*, around 300GB per month, no throttling)

Here is the pricing levels:

Download/Upload ------ o2 Contract ------ Std Price
8Mbps/1.3Mbps --------- £7.50 Per Month ----- £12.50 Per Month
16Mbps/1.3Mbps -------- £10.00 Per Month ---- £15.00 Per Month
20Mbps/1.6Mbps -------- £15.00 Per Month ---- £20.00 Per Month

Be* do offer a 24Mbps service, and o2's 20Mbps service is the same, but they have classed it as 20Mbps due to the fact so few customers will actually be able to get over 20Mbps, which I think is quite sensible.

Be* also offer an extreme 2.5Mbps upload service, using part of the downstream frequency however, o2 are not offering this as yet, and probably won't at any time in the future. But it is not a bad thing tbh, o2 offer 1.3Mbps/1.6Mbps upload, which is far in excess of most competitor's, who usually offer 400/448Kbps, or in the case of Sky for instance, 768Kbps on their "Max" service.

Why Am I Moving To o2 Broadband?
I have had nothing but superb service from Sky Broadband during the last year, and did not want to leave to be honest.

However, I was very close to getting rid of Sky, and still may do so in the future, due to lack of use (no point in paying £21 a month for something am not using may as well get a TUTV box for £100 and then pay nothing for the "plus" features). Now with Sky, to take the broadband, landline and talk service, you do need to remain a customer of the Sky Digital TV service to remain eligable. Im not sure why this is tbh, it's all revenue and profitable (especially on their broadband and talk service) but it's the way things are, and if I were to ditch Sky Digital TV, then I would lose the broadband. So I decided it is better to look around and see if there are any alternative's.

Anyway, I noticed o2 Broadband when it first laucnhed, so decided to take a look into it and to be quite honest, it impressed me both feature wise and price wise. And more importantly, some of the feature's will actually help me to run my business better, so it became even more evident that the service was ideal for me, and I decided to move straight away, therefore if in the future I ever decide to ditch Sky Digital, then I have no problems with the broadband aspect of things.

I find the massive upload will be helpful for my business, and the email to text will be an excellent step forward as now I get notified of any support ticket's, new order's, support email's etc within second's of them being sent, and can of course respond to them on my phone. This service alone would cost around £100 per month at the rate of 1000 email's, so is outstanding additional value.

I will now start the review of the service in the next few post's, will review each step as it has already happened post by post, and this will take a while as it has been a couple of week's now.

31st January 2008 (taken from the Sky Broadband thread):

Well... I have just ordered o2 Broadband! I was going to hang on to Sky as im damned happy with their broadband service, but as o2 will only do the offer of free activation + a 100 day money back guarantee until the end of today, I decided to have a good read around and see what came up.

Some excellent review's about the service, people moving from allsorts of ISP's and getting better speed's, o2 even chasing BT to get a MAC code on behalf of the customer. These things are important to me as im happy with the service from Sky Broadband.

So, the bonus's for me are:

1000 Email - Text per month (handy for my business)
Upto 1.3Mbps upload (again, handy for my business, sometimes I do a lot of uploading, on Sky it's only 448Kbps)
Still upto 8Mbps downstream
Freephone UK customer support (free from my mobile too)

£7.50 per month as opposed to Sky's £5.00 per month.

So got to phone up Sky now for a MAC code... wish me luck!!

31st January 2008 (taken from the Sky Broadband thread):

I have recieved 2 texts and an email from o2 regarding the order. Looking like the stories of them keeping you informed every step of the way are true.

Just phoned Sky for the MAC code... £74p the phonecall lmao one thing I wont miss when I move to o2.

Anyway, they will send it via post within 5 working days and I can phone up again in 3 working days (Tuesday) to obtain it earlier.

Find it a bit weird how Virgin managed to produce it within a few hour's and yet Sky take day's, but still, its within OFCOM regulations so I can't complain.

5th February 2008 (taken from Sky Broadband thread):

Just phoned up Sky... off peak, cheaper you see!

The call was surprisingly under 4 minutes including the menu system, rather impressive tbh... anyway, they gave the MAC code, which I then phoned up o2 for free and gave them.

So the migration is now all set to go!!

Will be interesting to see how it go's... gonna get o2 Mobile Web unlimited if I have any problems during the migration, to ensure I have net access... £7.50 a month and now actually unlimited 3G web not bad imho!

So now I just await an activation date for the broadband etc...

6th February 2008:

o2 have emailed me and text me to inform me that the broadband service will become active on the 14th February.

They will be sending my box and taking the first payment of £3 odd from my card within the next few day's and will confirm the activation date in writing.

9th February 2008:

o2 have text me to inform me they have taken the first payment and will be sending out the box shortly, which I will recieve around the 12th February.

8th February 2008:

o2 sent me a rather weird and unexpected email this morning...


Lol, they have mistakenly sent two boxes to me, and I will need to send one back, so they have sent a jiffy bag for me to send it in.

11th February 2008:

Recieved a text from o2 today... how mint is this:


That is really cool I think!!

12th February 2008:

Got yet another text from o2 this morning saying:


And sure enough it came at 4pm... two broadband boxes and a jiffy bag to return one of them in haha!

Im going to hold on to both of them until it's activated and running fine just incase one of the boxes is faulty lol!

So it's the 14th February today... ACTIVATION DAY!!!

Will see how it goes... o2 have informed me by text, mail and email that they will email and text me when the service is activated and ready for use, so I can plug in the o2 Broadband Box and begin using it.

I await with the patience of a saint lol!

Oh yeah, I should really add, that the o2 Broadband box looks ace, is a fair bit bigger then the Sky Modem, but has a lot more inputs and outputs on the rear, and has extra features like direct VOIP etc...

Loads of different colour lights too, looks colourful lmao!!

I have been using the email-text service since I ordered the broadband and it is excellent, very fast (text's within 2 seconds of an email being recieved), so no I get order's, support ticket's, emails etc for my business sent to my phone and it cost's me nothing!!

Big thumb's up from me it is a quality little feature imho

Well... I am now on o2 Broadband... noticed I lost connectivity, so swapped to the o2 box and it loaded up straight away no fuss!

Wooohoooo gonna test me speeds in a bit will let it settle first though!

Wow fook me, this just get's better and better... just checked on the router, and the speed of the line is as follows:

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,321 / 11,573

That mean's I have the full 1.3Mbps upload... but even better, I have over 11Mbps download, even though I am on the 8Mbps!

They must have been notified by BT that the line can only support 4Mbps (thats what it officially can even though ive always downloaded at ~8Mbps from Sky), so they have advised the Openworld engineed to leave it "uncapped" so to speak, to ensure I get as near to 8Mbps as possible... what they aint realised is that BT are way out with their line estimate and I can get the full 8Mbps anyway... this will be fun haha!

sounds like you made a wise decision to move mate....

Yeah, just doing a load of tests on the speed now... watch this space hehe

Well.... im supposed to be on the 8Mbps service... but I am getting more like 12Mbps with network overhead's taken into account!!!

Everything seem's to be working fine, all the email etc, didnt even need to restart Outlook!

Check these out: (oh yeah and adding photos on this upload is instant)

Just run some pings for any gamer's who may be interested, and it seems o2 are, like Be*, using Fastpath because the ping's a shit low:




And look how few hop's it takes to get to a server hosted in BlueSquare, which is in Berkshire:

That is amazing, just 3 hops in reality, and confirmation that o2 are using the Be* network!

Just tried to send an email and it wasnt working; was recieving them fine, just not sending.

Anyway, I changed the port to 26 and it sent fine, so I am assuming o2 dont allow port 25 to be used for SMTP... nowadays that's pretty much okay, year's ago it would have been dodgy as not many mail server's allowed port 26.

Just got an email and text through to let me know it's now connected... better late then never I suppose lol, ive been using it for over an hour lmao!

Hehe up goes my UK Nova ratio:

Your gonna get a Nice share ratio on UK Nova matty lol

Well... for the last half hour or so, the Internet light on the router has been red... the DSL light green, but the internet light red. Which should mean no connectivity... but it was fine throughout, even restarted the media centre with it on red and no problems reconnecting.

Very weird, but since it never caused any problems I can't moan. Gone back to green now though gutted, cos it looked ded colourful with red, orange and green lights lmao

I'll be jumping on one of these o2 broadband packages soon.

Had to phone customer services last night... more on that later. Nothing to worry about, very positive.

Will keep you updated Pompski!

Made up with o2 customer service

Basically, what had been happening since the changeover, was randomly, every now and again, the connection would drop out and take a few seconds to reconnect. It happened every few hour's, but at peak time's it did happen a bit more regular.

At first I thought oh well it will be the migration, as the connections do tend to need a few days to "train" to the line etc.. So I gave it over the weekend, but it was still doing it on Monday night.

So I decided to telephone customer services, especially as it was free.

Phoned them at about 18:30ish, had to wait in a queue, but only for about 15 seconds or so. Got through to an British Paskistani/Indian chap (could tell he was British as he did have a tinge of a Scottish accent, and spoke both clear and fluent English, not like the foreign call centre staff you get). He was very helpful, asked the security details etc, and then asked to explain the problem I was having and to take my time if nessecary (it's a free call, so this doesnt make them money).

Anyway, after listening to my explanation, he asked me a few further questions, and then advised me what he believed to be the problem and explained clearly what it is, what he would be doing to fix it etc... He seemed to be trained very well, knew what he was doing and was very clear.

He advised me that it was likely to be the noise tolerance on the line and that he could fix this by increasing the tolerance slightly, and I would see the router reboot itself any second. Sure enough, it did. He then explained to me that I was likely to see a marginal drop in speed, moreso on the downstream, due to the higher noise tolerance, but that it should resolve the problem and the connection should never drop out.

He also explained the factors that can cause this, such as underground cables being near electic cables (my flats have electic cables right next to the telephone wiring), older wires, older phone lines etc...

He then asked me if I had any further question's or issue's, which I didnt, so he advised me to phone up if it happened again, thanked me for calling and wished me a nice evening and happy internet surfing lol.

Altogether the call lasted just over 4 minutes from when I pressed call until I put it down, it cost me nothing, and I found the customer service representative very polite, easy to understand (beauty of UK call centres), and very clear and precise in explaining about what he believed was the problem and how he would attempt to rectify it.

Sure enough, the connection is 100% now, hasnt dropped since he made the change. The speed is a bit lower, only around 9.5Mbps tops now downstream and 1.1Mbps top upstream, but I am as happy as a pig in shit with them speeds, and it is really refreshing to experience such great customer service!!!

Now I can believe all the reviews that have been posted all over the internet. I dont think a single person on Digital Spy has had a problem with them yet, they are all raving off them, and there are lots making the leap.

Maybe, just maybe, o2 could be the "perfect" broadband supplier. Not only a rock solid connection with fast speeds, but great customer service to back it up!

Well done o2, I have a LOT of faith in these guy's now and trust me, all these excellent review's people are posting on the net, are very much true from my experience so far!!

Oh yeah, I saw the internet light on red again on Monday evening, even though the internet was 100% fine. Will post a photo of it, it's a weird one, but it's not causing problems; should have asked the guy really but forgot!

Nice on
Will keep an eye on this, if not just for me any one else too.

Tryin to sign up for this now online an wont let me through so on the phone to em now.
Scottish bird, sounds fit

Hahaha thats always the way... give her ya mobile number... you gotta anyway

Wooooo they have a technical problem but she called me back on my mobile said someone will call me
within 48 hours.

Getting my coat am going Scotland

Sweet you get her name?

No do'h nevermind i'll reconise that voice.

Lmao... you gonna speak to everyone in scotland till you find her voice? Or... did you swap numbers? I dont think that 0800 number you rang is her mobile

Review:

I decided to join this o2 Broadband package hearing good reviews from others so there I was signing my details until there was a problem that occured so i decided to give them a ring on 0800 230 0202. All good, everything went smooth but they had problems on there side of things aswel and told me I would have a call back. Not long I got a call back saying I will receive a call within 48 hours or a text message and after she hung up within 2 minutes i had a text message and an email!

I can now track my order on my o2 account

Well anyways I thought that because am not a o2 contract customer I would have to pay the £12.50 price but got told that I am also able to pay the £7.50 package!!

This is the Link (Click Me) they gave me on the email.

This explains it all!

An excellent service so far, will keep updated.

That sweet as that matey... PAYG customers wernt originally eligable for the discount... seems loyal ones are now!

Just received a text message and email from o2 stating my activation date and that I will be receiving
my wireless box in a few days.

Heh sweet man, that is very fast tbh! They have done well, the usual lead time for migration's from BT Openworld (the guy's who will change you're phone line over) is 10 - 14 days, so they done well there.

Should recieve you're wireless box on Monday or Tuesday; you will recieve a text the day before it is due to be delivered with the option to change it by text, and recieve another to let you know when it is out for delivery if it is anything like mine.

I really like the way they text you as well as email/mail you; it makes a difference and you know practically straight away of any developments.

Just got an email from them:


I shall see how this goes and report back... its nice of them to email me to let me know, never had an ISP do that before; usually they either don't tell you or have a server status page they expect you to check for things like this.

I just got a letter through the post from o2 confirming my details.
So far I am being kept well up-to-date with things so its a good sign.

Well... so far I havent had any outages on my connection, been doing some heavy uploading too! 1.1Mbps im uploading at most of the time atm, pretty damn good imho.

Im really loving the massive upload... coming in really handy atm for Johnny Rizk's new website, tonne's of new audio to upload, and I am able to upload 1MB in around 7 seconds via FTP which is phenominal!!

On the old Sky connection it would have take around 20+ second per MB, so you can see the difference it is making for me, especially as I have around 2GB worth of stuff to upload.

Still rock solid!

what upload speeds you getting then matty in terms of kb/s?

approx 1.1Mbps since they increase the noise tolerance to ensure connection stability.

Was originally approx 1.2Mbps but wasnt 100% stable so they increased the noise tolerance on the router.

Here's the speed am gettin on a transfer atm, after givin it a good few second to settle down.

Just noticed BitTorrent is running as well although it's only seeding a few KB/s to UK Nova atm, so wont have too much impact.

Okies back onto the reviews...

On Monday I received a text message to say that the package that they are going to send me is going to arrive the next day. I had the choice of choosing another date by texting back but I was in so i left it.

Next day:

I received another text message to say that the package will be arriving between the times of 8am-6pm. I received the package at 11am

So now am just waiting for a confirmation text message to give me the go ahead to set everything up.

All gone smoothly so far

Right I am now connected!!!

Downfalls are they never even confirmed by text today that this is the day that they are changing (they did send me an email, text and mail stating this date last week tho) and when they did change I went offline but!! they said they will text me when the line is active???? did they ???? NO so...

5 hours later still doesnt work so i text matty and he told me to try set up the o2 wireless box and what happens? it works!!! after me plugging it in about 5 minutes later they send me a text sayin:

"Great news. Our records show that you have now been connected to O2"

Fantasic!! left me without internet for 5 hours with me waiting for a text message but it never happened untill they seen some activity as soon as i set up the router.

Overall it is a good service at a good price.

Internet speeds have increased than my previous isp.
Things were fine but just been disconnected and am back up again so i'll keep this updated if it keeps disconnecting or not.

Might be the same problem matty was having.

Good Good Pomp

How much you paying for that per month then ?

Nice one Pompus; do you have any idea what speeds you are getting now, particuarly on the upstream?

The best and most reliable way to test this is using FTP (online speedtests are shite especially for upload tests) thus getting a real-world value.

If you are unsure on how to check it, gimme a shout on MSN and I will guide you through it.

With regards the disconnections, give it a few day's to settle down as disconnections/intermittent connectivity can be caused by the line training itself to the new noise tolerance etc...

If its not sorted by tomorrow, give customer services a ring (wooo its free!) and see what they say; it will most likely be the same issue as my line, they seem to be uncapping all new connection's to ensure you get the highest speed possible, hence the reason I was getting 12Mbps when I first connected. But older phone lines/line's near electric cabling can be a bit sketchy running at full whack.

He's paying £7.50 a month for 8Mbps/1.3Mbps I believe... the lucky bugger even got this price as a PAYG customer because o2 recognised his loyalty from the look's of thing's, so its even better lol!

Pomp... you're upload speed is mintage too! 1.15Mbps

Nice one!

Well... its been a whole month today, and no problems so far! So the first milestone is over for me, now to see how it is at the 3 month milestone.

Good to hear

Pomp... has your router ever randomly rebooted itself? Mine has been doing once a day on average, and its starting to piss me off. I might try changing onto the second router that o2 sent me (in error).

Otherwise im going to have phone customer services.

Btw, for anyone interested, o2 Broadband and their sister company Be* Unlimited were announced as the 1st and 2nd fastest ISP's in the country last month (regardless of the bullshit Virgin try to spin).

TOP TEN ISPS FOR SPEED

- O2 - 6.4Mbps
- Be - 5.5Mbps
- Virgin Media - 4.1Mbps
- Sky - 3.8Mbps
- PlusNet - 3.2Mbps
- Post Office - 3.0Mbps
- TalkTalk - 2.9Mbps
- BT - 2.8Mbps
- Demon - 2.8Mbps
- Orange - 2.7Mbps

The price Demon charge their customers for their "uncontended" and "low-contention" services and the bull they spin about other "cheap" ISP's (such as o2 and Sky) being slow and overloaded, I think their performance is abysmal to be quite frank!!

Its a shame they dont rate upstream speeds, or o2 would be miles ahead of the rest (their standard product is 1.3Mbps - 2x faster then anyone else) and Be* would be even higher than o2 what with their 2.5Mbps ADSL2+ Annex M upstream service!!

BBC News Report

Btw Pomp, I found a little backdoor into the router line configuration information; and my line SNR is running at 10dB ffs, so ill be phoning them up to enquire in the next few days as it could well be the reason for the router disconnecting once every 24 hours.

Anyway, to get to the hidden information screen, go to http://192.168.1.254/cgi/b/dsl/dt/?ce=1&be=0&l0=1&l1=0 and use the following details to login:

Username: SuperUser
Password: O2Br0ad64nd

Yeh it has the odd times :S

I still get these random disconnections aswel, like am on a website an then it disconnects me an reconnects but then after that it doesn't happen again or for a long time since the last disconnect.

When I first got it up an running tho it was proper givin me loads of connection problems every 10mins, 15mins or every half n hour and after loads of phone calls to customer service its not done it pretty much but as you said it still disconnects once a day or so.

What happens when you get a random disconnect? Does the router "click" and then all the lights gradually go off, power turns red for a couple of seconds, then back to green, and all the lights gradually come back on, basically like a "warm reboot", or does the router stay fine but the connectivity is lost for some reason?

Do you have the dark blue router, as you connected not long after me id assume so?? Because apparently, it can be prone to overheating which can cause such problems, and the original firmware on the box isnt all that stable, so they released new firmware for it, but I am just trying to find it.

They are now sending out different boxes, basically the same, but without the dedicated VOIP ports, the main noticeable difference is that the new ones are supposedly smaller and white (more attractive looking from what I can gather) and they are said to be vastly more reliable, both hardware and software wise.

Mine only started doing the reboots recently, before that it was as solid as rock, so I am hoping it is the router and BT havent done some work on the line at sometime and screwed it up!!

Yeh the random disconnect loses connectivity for some strange reason an then connects straight back, example is when am on msn an then it logs me off it. I click reconnect an then am straight back on msn so the router doesn't click.

I do get a router reboot sometimes tho but i get more random disconnects than the router reboot.

yeh its the dark blue router i got

Ooo new routers

Weird, go into that screen and post what it says mate, id be interested to seen your line stats and what its been set at by o2.

Sent me them over MSN, they look okay tbh mate, but the SNR is a bit on the low side at 6/3 id phone up and tell them ya probs and see what they say.

The attenuation isnt stellar, but its okay, should see 3-4Mbps downstream with it.

Gah DsHell connections.
So much to mess about with to get them working right.
I not long ago spent 2 weeks back n forth to a friend that started with drops then slow speeds then no connection at all, followed by every time the phone went the connection droped to the phone dieing a death.
I started with a rewire of the phone sockets, then changed the sockets, then the filters. then did it all over again a week later..... It was a answerphone that was pluged in in the end feeding back power into the line.
Also try a phone surge protector that will help filter out noise in the mains for the dsl modem, its amazing what happens when you clean electricty noise up.

Give me cable everytime. but then i do work for telewest/virgin

Sorry, but I like fast uploads (I upload around 150GB per month), and I also like to be able to use my connection, uncapped and unlimited, 24/7. Okay it only runs at around 11.8Mbps/1.3Mbps but anything over 8Mbps, lets be honest, its just a numbers game.

I like the fact I dont suffer from throttling or traffic shaping because my ISP isnt overselling a product to the extreme and have a backbone and infastructure that can easily handle the usage on the network, and I like the fact they are not invading my privacy to target advertisers at me, or handing out my details to the BPI to prosecute me for downloading a music single illegally, I also like the fact my ISP does not monitor my usage, what I am doing etc. I like being able to use around 300GB a month of data transfer and not having to worry about being disconnected or throttled down to silly slow speeds.

Added to this, the fact that my ISP is statistically the fastest ISP for average downstream, and by far the fastest ISP for upstream capabilities (1.3Mbps as standard, upto 2.5Mbps), and one that has excellent customer services for free (even from my mobile I might add), located in the UK and available 24/7, and I highly doubt I will ever want to move to NTL:Telewest's crap, unless someone like Microsoft takes over them and actually invests in the company lol.

And to think all I pay for my ISP is £7.50 a month!!

I have 20Mbps :)I get my full up n down.
100Mbps soon

£26 pm but i get phone line for free. Plus if you take it that with all dsl and cable as the company grows its user speed slows.

One day it will all be cable or sat.
Copper has had its day plus its far to costly to upgrade in this day n age.

I dont worry about my ISP looking at what i do and if its not the isp its the goverment black boxes sifting all the data.

As the ISP's wont hand over any user details (well none that you dont hand out yourself anyways) the companys are going after the websites and the users Youtube has been told to list all its users and what they watch.

20Mbps.... hmmmm yeah, thats the service that you can max for just 7 minutes before they throttle you down to stupid speeds

Not what I call a good service?? I may only get 11 - 12Mbps downstream, but hey, I can use that 24/7/365 without being throttled!!

As for the 100Mbps shite; considering you work for them, you dont seem to realise, that firstly, there isnt enough capacity on the entire internet (nevermind NTL:Telewests network) to provide 100Mbps services to everyone (the internet is already fast approaching breaking point), and secondly, your connection is only as fast as your source server.

And 20Mbps upstream, dont make me laugh, its DOCSIS for crying out loud, you would kill every other fooker on your UBR if you had that; I seem to recall its actually a miserly 768Kbps upstream... im getting 1.3Mbps on o2 and im paying pennies for it in comparison to that 20Mbps service.

You are correct and incorrect, cable WAS the way forward, unfortunatly, with the crap companies in the UK, they messed the whole industry up (it still makes me piss myself laughing, NTL buying CWC UK Residential for £8.2billion and thinking they were somehow getting value for money ) and as for their customer services, well you may as well talk to trained chimps half the time. And thats before we bring their billing (or should that be mis-billing) practices into it all.

The only saving grace for the cable companies, is that their network, well most of it, is well suited to the future rollout of FTTH, but they seriously need to sort out the underlying issues within the company itself before they go about rolling it out.

I mean come on, some parts of the network are still using the DAVIC standard for crying out loud, you would have thought they had got past that by now!!!

Either way though, you should know as well as me, 20Mbps/24Mbps/50Mbps/100Mbps etc is all just a numbers game, and you know what, I know the VM propoganda machine has been spouting its shit about the fastest in the UK... ahem, Be* had 24Mbps services 3 years ago, 24 months before VM even announced their 20Mbps service iirc, and yes, I know of at least one person on a somewhat personal level who gets in excess of 21Mbps when he downloads from my LeaseWeb servers... okay hes literally down the road from the exchange, but still, it shows exactly how valid VM's bullshit claims really are. Oh and did I mention he gets almost 2.5Mbps upstream?? Numbers you DOCSIS guys can only dream of!!

As for the £26.00 per month, you are obviously getting a staff discount, or did you threaten to leave like most VM customers do, and so desperate as they are to hang on to the little custom they have (lets face it, their net retention rates are abysmal), did you hold them to ransom and save £5.00 a month, as the last time I checked, it was £31.00 per month for the 20Mbps service with a phone line?

I think im paying a grand total of £17.50 per month, £10.00 for Sky Talk line rental, and hell, my calls are exceedingly cheap, something which cable has NEVER been, they dont even seem to compete with BT on price, and as for calls to mobiles, well cable pricing should be illegal its so high!!

Its just a shame the UK cable industry is sooooo fooked up, by companies and people like Barclay Knapp who are both wreckless with money and make stupid decisions with regards investment (or lack of) and the massive problem is, they never learn from their mistakes!!

I used to be a big believer in cable... but it got a bit tedious after half a decade of waiting and watching them fail time and time again... CR3 lmao, when did NTL eventually release that, 2003 or summit, CWC had planned rollout in 2000 ffs, and as for their "Interactive TV" we were all promised in 1998 when digital came along, well it was still showing the same "Coming Soon" screen in 2002 lol.

Whilst satellite and copper may lag behind cable, technically at least, they are proven technologies that simply "work" here in the UK, without the need for spin and desperation manouvres to retain disgruntled customers and have clever and reliable companies running them, who carefully and strategically invest billions of pounds in long-term projects and arnt likely to file for Chapter 11 or sell out to a PE group the moment the going gets tough...

LOL i found your button
Im just saying after 18 years of internet usage you soon get to know that all good things turn sour

Yeah you sure did, sorry, I used have a weridly (in a geek kinda way) strong and unhealthy im sure, interest in the telecoms market... I still track it but nowhere near as much as I used to!

Out of interest, do you remember nthellworld.com... hehe I was a mod on there for a short while prior to its demise, havent spoke to Frank or Craig in some years though, NTL rudely shut it down with no good reason, to be replaced by the as usual "Coming Soon" but never arriving "NTL Community" website lmao!!

I see the "other side" ntlhell.co.uk and the backstabbers over at nthellworld.co.uk/cableforum are still going, its a real shame NTL didnt keep .com open as it was a massive resource for customers to refer to, full of people who knew the industry and network inside out, people even more geeky than myself haha!

Damn that would make you 5ish the first time i logged on Did you ever use wireplay BT's first UK online gaming service in them good old dial up days? We created the first internet online game services. that needed adsl but it ran happy for a few years on 56k so ive seen it evolve change and fail in manyways.

dunno haven't actualy been in to the office for 4 years or so(yes they still pay me :P) :)I just get feedback from the m8s who are still daft and want to work for them.

Heh no I never used Wireplay, me mum would restrict me online access till about 1997, then we got CWC in 1998, trialled the 64Kbps then increased to 128Kbps cable modem service from early 1999 onwards, think it got boosted to 512Kbps in 2000 when the launch became official, it was basically when we got the CM service that I got into the world wide web big time.

I do remember playing Colony City with Blaxun3D over AOL though!! Thats probably my earliest online gaming memory! Id hazard a guess that was around 1997ish??

Argh retricted acces.... thats evil:)

Okay... had an issue whereby the connection was dropping every few minutes the other night. Phoned customer services about 11pm. The guy was so polite and friendly, it was almost like talking to a mate on the phone, a proper geek haha!

He went out of his way to try everything to stop the issue from happening, took his time about it (so obviously the call centre isnt target driven) and deffo wasnt reading from a script. He knew what he was talking about, and gave some good advice. He also said that if the problem wasnt resolved, that a new router would be issued.

I actually had a nice chat to him about it, all in all the call lasted about 20 minutes or so, it was free from my mobile phone of course, the problem is now resolved, and best of all, my upload does seem to be running about 0.1Mbps faster than before I phoned up!!

Rhea has moved to o2 last month, and being only 1.6Km away from the exchange, has insane speeds both down and up, and one of my other mates moved from Zen to o2 after being with Zen for 10 years, and he is loving it. He is getting around 10Mbps downstream and 1.4Mbps upstream, even though he too is only paying for 8Mbps down and 1.3Mbps up!!

They supposedly had a network wide issue last week thanks to some unrelated contractors cutting their some fibre in London, which lowered their network capacity by upto 40%, I didnt actually notice it personally, but on Digital Spy they are being given credit by many users for admitting to a fault on their network instead of trying to pretend nothing is wrong...

So still loving my time with o2 and I can say at this point, I wont be moving away anytime soon, and if people were to ask for a Broadband provider, based on quality of service all-round, id recommend o2.

Here is the amount of bandwidth I push each month, and have had no problems from o2 with it, so their unlimited claim seems to be true. And this is just my laptop, it doesnt include bandwidth used by my media centre and gf's laptop!

Been with O2 for around 3 months now, and have nothing but praise for them.

Currently on the 8 MBps service so paying £7.50 a month because i have my phone with them

Download: 6.514 MBps
Upload: 1.183 MPps

These are true figures as of today.

They have tweaked my connection due to a connection issue in the first month, but everything has been running fine since.

Can't complains as its constantly connected 24/7

Did have to phone customer services twice though due to a network error. Wireless phone interfering with wireless router signal, they replaced the router (dont know why), then i had to phone them to reconfigure the new one because of the same issue.
Turned out to be the wireless channel on the router

Totalled about 15 mins on the phone the 2nd time. Technician was very knowledgable, even included him taking control of my laptop to do certain things.

Its definately unlimited usage too. I hammer it at night but not the extent that Matt does, and have had no problems because of it.

Overall an excellent service. And well recommended

Also referring to Matt and Pomp's posts earlier in the thread. I have never had a rebooting problem with the router

But apparently i have the very latest model of router

Do you have the white router? I have the old blue one, not quite as stable or good looking as the new one, but it has a bit more functionality in terms of hardware and software.

I had to use mine as a reference point to obtain the URL for my missus to switch the NAT firewall off on hers the other night. For some bizarre reason, o2 have removed the configuration links for a few things in the latest router. Although the configuration pages still remain and are pefectly usable once you access them lol.

yeah, i have the new spanky white one

i have found some of these hiddens pages on mine, but can remember how to get back to them

not that i need any of them

Sweet man, they look very nice I must say; I have two of the old routers (don't ask) but I wouldnt mind getting a white one, so may phone them up and say one of the blue ones wont switch on and see if I can get a new one out of them.

They did say they would send a new router if I had any further connection problems, but since they retrained the line and adjusted the noise tolerance, ive had no problems lol.

ha ha

they will probably try and get you to turn the old one on so they can test it

you will be required to send the blue one back to them too as its thier property - another big jiffy bag

I know; but they don't seem to know I have two. When I got it, they sent out two routers by accident. They knew about it and sent a jiffy bag for me to return one of them (interestingly, the jiffy bag arrived before the routers did lmao). I never sent it (kept forgetting) and when I tried to send it at a post office, they could not scan the barcode.

So I telephoned o2 and they said there was no record of a second router on my account now. And I have never heard anything since. So I just keep it as a spare now incase my main one goes down. And if they were ever to contact me about it, id happily give it back lol.

I guess it just disappeared off their system or summit.

Just lucky i suppose mate

Bet they will soon realise thier mistake when you plug the spare in

Ive plugged it in a few times, the last time I phoned up I plugged in the spare and forgot and they never got onto it haha!!

oh right. they must of been a bit slow that day

you probably got the trainee

Nah I just doubt they will ever get onto it. I got o2 when it was pretty new, so I guess their systems may have had a changeover/upgrade at some point, and they neglected to take care of the data transfer regarding outstanding routers.

All they gotta do is ask though haha!!

Yeah true

Probably new software since they realised the new routers

Maybe they just dont want the old ones back now? The new ones do look better, but the old ones are better for VOIP etc...

Which nobody gives a shit about!!

its very possible

might come a point where they stop allowing these older ones to use the network

but obviously as technology advances

Well if they do, they better swap the old ones for the new ones, I dont wanna be left hanging lol.

Tbh there is no technical difference between them, just a few cutbacks and better styling on the new ones.

Ive been considering hacking my Sky router for use with it...

probably not worth the hassle

o2 Disconnection

I've been having quite abit of disconnects lately so I gave o2 a call for a couple of times with no good solutions to the problem, as I have a 10m adsl extension cable they said it could be that causing the problem but last night one of the guys sugested if I was comfortable unscrewing the master socket so I did and tried plugging the filter into the main socket and it resulted from a 2mb connection to a 6mb! but because I can't leave it like that due to having other connections in the house the guy told me about the "Bt iplate" so I went online to read about it and all it seems to do is block the bell wire/ring wire so I looked for instructions to remove this bell wire/ring wire which is not needed any more as the bell wire/ring wire is used for the old analogue phones so that they would ring but moden phones use dial tones.

Removing Bell Wire/Ring Wire

Do not remove the bell wire/ring wire if your still in use of an analogue phone.

The information provided from these websites helped me remove the bell wire/ring wire, click here and Here if you do experience problems after removing the wire you can simply reconnect it as it was before.

Warning: Do this at your own risk, I will not be held responsible for any phone connection problems you may have due to following the instruction from other websites.

For the safer option if you are not comfortable with messing with wires you could buy a Bt iplate as suggested by o2 which is easy to fit..

Fitting Bt iplate

[youtube]JbHbOJIsTPw[/youtube]

As the bell wire is no longer connected to my connection I am getting a 4mb speed from a 2mb I was having and a very stable connection with the 10m adsl extension.

Cheers Pomp. I'm having problems with O2 myself recently, so I think I will try this iplate

Not going to touch the cables as, like it says in the video, they are BT property

and that extension lead might be another cause.
try putting the router close to the phone line on a short adsl (rj11) cable, and running a longer ethernet cable from router to pc instead

Let us know if it fixes your problem, think you can get them in maplin but not too sure.

Can get them all over the internet mate

Look here:
http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&q=bt+iplate&scoring=p

o2 certainly do know how to communicate...

Yeah i got the same email earlier today.

Still not impressed at the moment though. The router keeps dropping the internet connection.

Ring O2 and they say all services are running fine

Had an email through today from o2...

If I renew my home broadband contract with them for a further 12 months prior to the 30th November 2009, they will give me it for...

- 3 months free
- and then £5.60 per month

As I will be moving house over the next 12 months, I checked the terms and conditions, and they are basically the same, o2 still allow you to move house once every 12 months for free (most ISP's charge approx £50 reconnection fee), basically the terms and conditions are the same, just the price that is lower. It will work out at £50 over the next 12 months.

Nice one, ive signed up without question, o2 are the best ISP I have been with by far!!

Nice to see them rewarding customer loyalty, there isnt a lot of that about nowadays... and without having to phone up complaining or telling them you intend to leave.

I just did it direct on the O2 site.

I wont use the links they send in emails for security reasons

Matty I have the 02 home Broadband Takeaway. can you advise on this before I Finnish off my BT broadband and go with them? my DL UPL are crap at the moment

I have to say I have o2 broadband, and we have never had a problem! We dont plan on switching either.

can I come round and play with yours? lol mines gone poo

Yep, the takeaway deal will work - but if you go via the call centre atm, you supposedly get 4 months free as a new customer.

As for speeds - well o2 should give you much better speeds and reliability than BT. It is statistically the fastest ADSL ISP in the country, and until only recently was the fastest overall (until Virgin narrowly took the lead on average speed).

I would take that speedtest with a pinch of salt (internet speed tests are crap), but I know Pomp saw an increase of about 35% in download speed when he moved to o2.

As for upstream speeds, well o2's standard speed beats most other ISP's top-end speed, it is 1.3Mbps as standard or a phenominal 2.5Mbps on the top package - so bargain for around 800Kbps+, as the upstream is not generally so adversley affected by distance from the exchange etc.

It's hard to say exactly how fast you will go, especially without knowing your SNR etc, but it's almost certain you "will" see better speeds than BT. For starters, if nothing else, o2 have a better, more connected network, with less overselling and more capacity per user, and ZERO restrictions on usage (no traffic shaping, no throttling, complete neutrality etc). If BT have not changed you to ADSL2+ yet, you will also see an immediate improvement in speed of around 30% over ADSL Max.

The woman on the phone said I'd get about 11mbps were I live and I would get it for £30 for the whole year

I will ring them tonight just to confirm that tho. I was canceling my Iphone when I was told about this deal. They also gave me the Iphone 3Gs 32GB (18month contract)and kept me on the same £35 per month tariff BONUS! I was told by another 02 rep that I would have to pay £90 up front for a 16GB 3Gs and a 24month contract So I was made up when they sorted a deal out when I went to cancel.

Yer, well thats much better than what the speed test suggests you are getting now.

I have heard of retentions giving broadband completely free to keep people on contracts, sounds like they have offered you the £2.50 per month retention deal, which itself is amazing value-for-money.

Always worth going through retentions and making sure they understand you will be happy to cancel - good to see you playing them at their own game Richard!!

Tips on dealing with retentions should you need them.

Tar lar

I have been with O2 for about 1 month now, and i can safely say it is far better than sky. The wireless router is much more reliable as is the connection to the internet, I often found problems with the Sky DNS servers resolving certain URL's.

I am now reguarly chosen as a host on XBox live games and always have full signal when i am not the host. O2 makes sky look like a bag of toss.

It seems like o2 may use fastpath now then, I know Be* do but I remember when o2 Broadband launched, it was supposed to be one of the disadvantages against Be*

Btw, I found that o2's DNS was shit when I first got it - I teminalled the router and changed the DNS to OpenDNS anyway, but there was masses of threads on Digitalspy and the Beforum with people moaning about it. When I used it, I did have problems resolving some of my clients US located servers, so it seems they may have finally got their asses into gear and fixed it? If so, bravo to o2.

Come to think about it, not had a problem on o2 mobile broadband for many moons with DNS resolution, so im betting they must have. Sounds like your winning all-round.

rang up BT for my MAC addy today and passed it onto 02. Let's see how long it takes to set up

I'm looking forward to doing a speed test and ping.

You won't be disappointed. The service is far better than any other broadband i have used. It is even better than the "business" broadband i have in my work that costs 3 - 4 times as much.

Yeah, they do seem to be "getting it right" with their service - I just hope it lasts forever lol.

It's also very nice to know that you can phone customer services whenever you have a problem or query, and not have to wait long for someone to answer, speak to a British operator, and spend as long as you want on the phone because the call is free.

Exactly right. And it's not as if you have to phone them up that often either

well still nothing. did a speed test to check once it does change over.

Speedtests are useless mate, they are all biased towards certain carriers and therefore certain ISP's.

The only accurate way to test speed is by using a direct connection to a proven and neutral open-peering network via a protocol such as FTP or SSH etc...

I would agree with the above, speedtest reports that my conncetion is only 4mbps with o2 and my connection was 7mbps with sky. My actual connection with O2 is alot faster than Sky, i would guess that i get about 17mbps download and just over 1mbps upload in reality.

well I have just switched over and here is the result



An extra 2.8Mbps Download
An Extra 60% increase in upload (1Mbps)

Good times

more importantly, does it feel much faster?

too early to tell yet.

Just tride it again and got a better speed again lol, reason for trying again was to see if it slowed down during peak hours.



I have defiantly noticed the speed change even more so on my iphone 3Gs.

Good times ahead wheels
Fast uncapped broadband that doesn't throttle you if you leave the pc on for a week downloading/sharing a large amount of free non-copyrighted files

Now an O2 Customer for Broadband.

Being kept informed of change over 10/10
Equipment arrived on time 10/10
Hidden qwerks not aware of 9/10
ease of setup 10/10
min downtime 10/10

http://www.quidco.com/

Summary 1 day on O2 Broadband.

Moveing from Sky was simple enough, i requested the mac code, and it arrived in 5 days.
With that i was able use the online buy Broadband.

Discounts £100 + £50

By using a website www.quidco.com i could get £100 after ive been online for 60 days.
Its not guarnateed but its all looking good.

O2 offer for signing up to there Broadband £50 off my mobile bill after 30days of Broadband.

I have had to sign up to the "Medium" package but it still works out that if it all comes good then im getting free broadband for 12 months.

My Current package will cost £10 per month, and after 12 months i can then down grade to the £7.50 plan, and hopefully get it alot cheaper again or maybe an offer to stay.
Ive heard that i could get it for £5 a month, but that's now.

So i was wellinformed about my change over day via text messages with O2.
True to there word on the day my sky router went off.
And by the time i had swopped over the routers i was online.
And an hour after i had been online i got the confirmation text saying i was online.

Ive noticed the speed already, not to mention as i left sky they were automatically upgrading my package as i was over quota to the £10 per month package.

Qwerk
you will have to update your smtp settings if your using relay.o2bradband.co.uk
and you also have to open port 25 on the router, and your directed to portforward.com for help to do this. Tech support would not help no more with this, how ever there was a tech support level 2 if that's a way of saying it, but that was a one off fee of £15 which i wasnt happy about at all, but a sleep later and think i managed to sort it by making a custom port 25

So now i have all that sorted and i understand that qwerk but got past it.

So 1 day in i'm happy

Makes sense



I think the people that require this are likely to either
a. Know how to do it themselves
b. Pay someone to do it

Can imagine the latter qwerk will affect many normal users. The only issue i have had is that sometimes on XBox live it reports that my NAT is set to strict and wont allow me to join any games, a reboot of the router fixes the problem. It has only done it twice so far so i can put up with it.

Looks like its settled at 1.3 up an 9mb down.
I cant come off the middle package as i will loose my discounts (see my above post).

There is some noise on my line, which is effecting the speed.
But i'm not a speed freak, the reason for change for me was
simply to remove the download limit quota sky were imposing
for the same price.

Happy with the customer service its never rang more than 2 rings at the broadband end

Happy day 3 or what ever it is.

I had noise on my line and it turned out to be a damaged cable to my house. BT Fixed for free

Just a Heads up that O2 have now re-done there packages,
so its more expensive for Unlimited now.

Think twice before you change providers if you were on there old packages.

Just recieved an email today, informing me the price of the broadband is increasing by roughly £2.00 per month from March 31st (I say roughly as it already increased when the VAT went up, so its a little bit less than £2.00 per month).

They blame it on excessive internet usage, which being involved within the IP transit industry for many years, I can understand in all honesty, still a pretty good price, for an all-round good internet package with 24/7 British customer support.

But nevertheless, something to be aware of!

Noticed a bit of slow down recently

I thought it was just me, also mine drops connection twice a day (annoying when on the xbox )

Strange, no such problems on my connection?? Why don't you ring them up, o2 customer service, as said by Monica in the Three shop the other day "is the best in the business" lol.

O2 have done some upgrades to there webmail service.
As a consequence the e-mail to text service is not working correctly.

Its now being looked at by level2 support now.

My last e-mail to text was on the 18th March.

You may not be effected by this, but there are some issues
about the upgrade that are being looked at.

Please bare with me as i do depend upon the e-mail to text
service to get to your Notified post that bit quicker.

I even received a call from 02 saying that we have not forgot about you we are moving this to level 2 support.
Nice one O2 for keeping me in the loop.

Mark

O2 is best, Orange worst in broadband speeds, finds Ofcom study.

http://telecoms.cbronline.com/news/...roadband-speeds-finds-ofcom-study-270511

Just left o2 for sky, o2 was great, much better than sky, but they don't offer a tv service.

Did you leave for Anytime+ mate?

I have that.

Been with Sky for as long as I can remember, from the original to the Sky+, and now with Sky+ HD which we're looking to go 3D on as soon as I get round to buying a TV.

With the unlimited broadband and the free calls etc, it's pretty good.

The reason I left Sky BB and phone was the BB service became a bit lame, they were uncompetitive with o2 broadband (Be*) in virtually every respect. As for the phone service, well I was a trialist on Sky Landline all them years ago, but I only really use the landline for DSL and 08 numbers. Madasafish were not only cheaper in line-rental, but significantly cheaper for 08 numbers.

The other issue I had, was Sky used to tie you in to having the TV service to get the phone and/or broadband service (iirc, this has now changed), and I wasnt happy with that attitude.

So when my Sky BB contract was up, I ditched them for phone and BB.

I think I should update this thread... for me, o2 broadband is still phenomenal, ultra-fast speeds, fantastic value for money, and extremely reliable (cannot recall any time during the past 2 years when I have suffered an outage).

However, I have a plea to existing customers...

DO NOT UPGRADE/DOWNGRADE YOU TARIFF. OR ACCEPT A DISCOUNT FROM THEM ON YOUR SERVICE.

and a plea to those looking for broadband...

DO NOT TOUCH O2 BROADBAND WITH A BARGEPOLE.

Basically, the new tariffs and service are utter shite, and I do mean that. It is not even a shadow of what it was once was. Existing customers will remain unaffected by the changes, but those who upgrade/downgrade and new customers, will be on the new service.

Without wanting to go too technical, they are restricting just about everything you can do online.

I can agree with this completely

The packs they are selling at the moment are utter crap. The deals have changed so much since I first signed up to the service.

So glad I haven't upgraded/downgraded my package in the last 3 years of service.

Although, whilst being a customer with them, I still have NO complaints about the speed or reliability of my current connection.

I've been with them for about 5yrs and still have my original box and have no complaints at all about the service from O2. Listening to some friends who are with other ISP's, I'm glad I chose O2 as they have had nothing but trouble with their connections and service.