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chrispa's Review for Gigaclear

 Gigaclear (Broadband Fixed Line)
Posted: 27th Aug, 2015    By: chrispa
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Empty Star
Title: 5 months in...
I've been on the Gigaclear service 5 or so months now.

Install: Completed it myself, within the hour. Ran it from the box at the end of my drive no problem. Wasn't helped a week later with it being dug up for no reason, and tarmacced over!!!!! I contacted Gigaclear who apologised and held their hands up about it being their fault and not sub-contractors - refreshing honesty I applaud them for.

Technically: Good service, can't fault it. The bottleneck seems to be other websites / hosts connection not mine, hence I only get my 200Mbit/s package occasionally through no fault of Gigaclear - I must say, I go get the full 200Mbit/s unlike the 'up to' speeds. I also use a SIP adapter and Sipgate for a phone - no phone bills there, I only use it as an emergency measure. I put £10 on when I signed up, and I've still over £9 balance, so saving me money there I guess. As for the router, use it as your 'gateway' and get yourself a wireless AP I suggest. It's pretty basic only offering 802.11a/b/g/n (I use ac everywhere!) so worth forking out another £70 if you need that coverage / speed around the home.

Support: OK, nothing more. Still a small company, so some sticky patches still. They sent me 2x routers (starter / self install kits) and aren't bothered about picking the second one up (still in my study!) even though I offered and their Head Office is less than a mile away! With the issue above too, this is one of their points which I can see improving drastically (hopefully) as they grow.

Value: Here's the worst point - it's not as cheap as BT or Sky, as they advertise so do your research before committing. True it's FTTH not FTTC and it's synchronous service (200Mbit up and down) but even so, you can get BT deals which will be same service as the GC starter package, cheaper. The connection fee of £100 is pretty steep, but understandable for getting off the ground capital wise I guess.

Reliability: As the network grows, more users will be connected to their access points (equivalent of the BT cabinet, but for their fibre network). Each batch that goes on, they schedule an early AM (4-6:30am) outage to carry out this maintenance. This has however never caused me an issue, and the service always comes back up without issues, so good news there.

Overall, I've got around 9-12 months to decide whether to move back or not to FTTC (I question whether I fully utilise FTTH, even though I work from home 2 days a week). It's expensive for what it is, I just suggest really analysing your use before signing up.

Time With Provider:
Package Name:
Value
Full Star Full Star Full Star Empty Star Empty Star
Speed
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
Support
Full Star Full Star Full Star Half Star Empty Star
Services
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
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