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Help chosing new broadband. Is there a 2mb option anywhere.

Mac

0
Hi

I have moved out to the sticks and will not be able to get quick broadband. Does anyone offer a maximum 2mb option anymore?

Last time I lived round here I was with Fast4 through all the problems (even accused of being linked with them) as they provided me with a decent service when it worked so may go back to them.

Currently using a service provided by Wifinity but that is shocking so my phoneline gets switched on, on the first.

Basically I play a lot of online gaming and down load a bit so 20gb download limit would be enough.

Goodbye my Xilo broadband you were truely amazing.

Thanks if anyone can offer any advice.
 
Well, I hesitate to recommend this solidly to a gamer, because they have, for some reason, had problems in the past with things like ping times which are important to you gamers which, despite their tech support being generally very good, they seem to have struggled to resolve, but...

I am with Namesco - been with them since I moved home in May 2006, and I'm perfectly happy, no intention of looking for another ISP despite all the cheap deals from LLU people which are available in my area.

I have a 2 Mb line - never seen the need for anything faster with the sort of things I use the net for - and, yes, they do still offer this, it's not a case of me sticking to an old package which has since been withdrawn.

You want about 20GB maximum?

OK, the way their pricing works, you get very little included with the basic price of £12.95 - just 1GB - and if you don't book the extra beforehand you pay £1 (plus VAT) per GB for whatever you use above that.

However, if you know you're going to use more, you can add on a decent chunk on a pre-booked basis for a heck of a lot less.
An extra 5GB is £2.50, an extra 10GB is £5.00, and an extra 25GB is £7.50.

So - £12.95 for the basics, £7.50 for the extra 25GB - for £20.45 in total (including VAT) you have 26GB to play with.

http://www.names.co.uk/broadband-silver.html
 
to be honest l dont see fixed speed services any more, and speed is linked to how far you are from the exchange.. all in all youll get what you can get.
 
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In general, I reckon you're right, timeless.

Admittedly, being happy with Namesco, it's quite a while since I last did anything like a thorough prod around to see what anyone else was offering but, offhand, I can't think of anyone else who does still offer the old-style 2Mb option.
 
They are possible but no real reason for it since all they do is cap you to 2meg on the adslmax network the old fixed line cards have all been removed from the exchanges. BT also charge a lot more for a fixed line speed.
 
...all they do is cap you to 2meg on the adslmax network the old fixed line cards have all been removed from the exchanges.
Interesting.
That being so (I'm assuming that you're correct, because you keep up to date with that sort of thing, and I don't pretened to), I wonder why...

(a) The maximum upload is still the old-fashioned 256, not 448, and...
(b) why, if I save wasting electricity by switching things off when not actually in use, I do not suffer from the "up and down like a *****'s drawers" BT yo-yo effect caused by their clever ADSL-max equipment thinking that if you frequently switch on and off there must be a problem with your line.
 
They are possible but no real reason for it since all they do is cap you to 2meg on the adslmax network the old fixed line cards have all been removed from the exchanges. BT also charge a lot more for a fixed line speed.

It is still possible some to go on a fixed rate 2 meg, its not that the line cards are gone but the sync profiles used are not available to be ordered any more, how ever there are ways even though they are not able to be ordered it is possible of getting some one on to a fixed rate profile depending if they are on 20CN or 21CN.
 
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I don't believe this.

(Well, I do believe it, because it's absolutely typical that five minutes after I post something, the situation changes - not long ago, not on this forum, having made some less than complimentary remarks about a certain company selling something that seems to be a mixture of liquid cardboard and Alka-Selzer as "cider", and using the name of a good old Norfolk company with whom I have family links to market their American owned sludge which is not even produced in Norfolk, the perishers sold the brand name to an Irish outfit the very next day, so I had to hastily rewrite everything!)

I've just checked my e-mail, and find that about 4.30 this afternoon I had an e-mail from Namesco...
FREE Broadband Speed Upgrade
----------------------------

We're pleased to let you know that your Internet experience is about to get better because we're upgrading your Namesco Broadband line speed absolutely free of charge.

With a maximum download speed of up to 8Mb as standard, streaming videos, sending emails and downloading content is about to get faster. We've been able to offer you this free upgrade because we're investing in our Broadband service to make sure you get more for your money.
(etc., with an anticipated latest date of 5 December for completion of the upgrade)

So, I would guess that this is a general thing, not something specific to those on my exchange, and that "Broadband Silver" 2Mb package won't be on offer much longer!
 
Namesco finally moving into the 21st Centuary (not BT) I see, well.. sort of as they still don't offer ADSL2+ services.
 
I agree completely with Timeless, the days of fixed line speeds are behind us, I know from my home broadband I have never gotten even close to the speed I was sold one, but then I was (and still technically am) a Pipex home broadband customer.

Stay Tuned, there's more on the way from the company mentioned in this thread for new and existing customers.
 
Last edited:
there's more on the way from the company mentioned in this thread for new and existing customers.
If you mean Namesco (I see you give your location as Worcester, so I guess it's them you're referring to), I might be able to guess what you're going to say - something that I have only just found out as a result of somebody else's problem.
If you're going to tell us what I think you are, yes, I'm hopping mad, and, no, I will not be staying with them much longer - but I'll let you go first before I do my own update.
 
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However, having just looked at your profile info, I see that you are "Product Manager for Dada (inc Namesco)", so my guess was wrong - you're not about to tell us what I found out, you're doubtless going to give us some more "great news".

In view of that, I won't bother letting you go first.

HOW TO RUIN A GOOD ISP IN ONE EASY LESSON

As previously stated, I've been with Namesco since I moved home in 2006, and things have been good.
Four friends who were getting fed up with their ISP (BT, Tiscali, the usual "big name" suspects), after speaking to me to see what I thought of Namesco, also joined up and have been delighted with the way things have gone.
Problems few and far between - and usually of BT's making rather than the ISP's - but when you did need to ring tech support, you got a pleasant and helpful person with a brain. All four, being self-confessed technodummies, have commented on how nice it was dealing with people who explained things in plain English, made sure things were properly sorted out and, for example, when they needed to investigate further and said "I'll ring you back in about ten minutes", actually did ring you back, unlike some companies who use that as a means of getting rid of a call that they can't be bothered with.

In August, we had an e-mail with a revised phone number for Broadband Technical Support.
Fair enough, nothing particularly unusual about that, companies do sometimes change their phone set-up for one reason or another, so none of us realised that something sneaky was going on behind our backs.

Since then, until yesterday, none of us had any need to contact support.
Yesterday, a friend who had decided to change her main PC over to the wireless connection that she'd already been using for the laptop, ran into a problem. She's a Windows person, I'm a Linux person, and I do not pretend to know anything about wireless stuff in any case, but apparently there's an installation CD, and it got as far as stage 4 (whatever that is) but then got the hump and refused to complete the installation.

So, she rang Namesco...
[personal details edited out, of course]
"An Indian gentleman answered my call, softly spoken and I'm a bit deaf and I couldn't understand a word he was saying.
So, I had to put XXXX on and he had some difficulty too. The upshot is, after explaining the problem, he told us that he couldn't help us, as he was not allowed to help with wireless connections and we would have to phone Zyzel for help.
When did that change I wonder? Namesco DID help us with the wireless connection for the laptop earlier this year - my old laptop, not the new one which YYYY set up for us last December.
The Zyzel woman put us through to Tech Support for help ....... but XXXX hung up after waiting 20 mins with music blasting down the phone.
Cheesed off, fed up and probably going to resort to my original Plan B. New laptop for me to use for 3 months of the year in the lounge, seeing as XXXX nicked the one I got last December."

Now, that isn't the Namesco I know. I do remember an Indian chap there who was very quietly spoken - but he wasn't someone who had just crawled out of a container at Tilbury Docks, he was a very clued-up and helpful person who, on one occasion, had spent about half an hour patiently talking a friend (who is from Poland, and whose English isn't exactly A1) through the necessary steps to get him up and running again.
Given that the router is the one supplied by Namesco themselves, it seemed a bit off.
Thinking that maybe 3.30 in the afternoon wasn't the best time to ring up with a non-urgent problem and that someone was just having an off day (it happens once in a while, even in a normally good outfit), she rang back this morning, at about 8.45, before things got busy.

"A charming Indian lady answered my call!"
Coincidence? She was a little suspicious, so asked the lady where she was.
"India"
As she says...
"Yep, the good old Indian Call Centre as per BT, so Namesco have sold us down the river (Ganges). When I told her my query, the answer was *nearly* the same as yesterday's, she couldn't help at all with wireless connection problems, no mention of *not allowed to* this time.
I asked if she could connect me, or give me the phone number, of someone in the UK who could help me - her answer was that Namesco no longer support wireless connection queries and she told me to phone Zyxel for help."

The clue is actually on the website if you know what to look for. Namesco's main business is web hosting and domain names, not broadband, and for that they give a tech support number of 0845 363 3634, followed by:
International Customers +44 (0) 1905 342345
...so the "real" number that the usual non-geographic "0845" number gets redirected to is 01905 342345 - a Worcester number.
It also says "UK Based support desk" - yes, you're getting through to Worcester, quite correct.

Next item - broadband tech support, the 0845 259 1235 number that we were given in August.
No separate number for callers from overseas indicating a geographic number that can be traced to Worcester.
No mention of "UK based support desk".

So, since the new phone number came in, back in August, we no longer deal with those helpful people in Worcester, they think that it's a better idea to put people here out of work and let customers phone an overseas call centre who, predictably, are about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

That being so, Namesco can shove their internet service up the Khyber Pass!
Whether it be a bank, an internet service provider, I will not stay with a company who use an overseas call centre. I'll leave it until the line upgrade has gone through, because whoever I switch to it will be an "up to 8Mb" line not the old 2Mb line, so that should avoid possible regrade complications, but once that's happened I will be asking for a MAC.
 
I'll leave it until the line upgrade has gone through, because whoever I switch to it will be an "up to 8Mb" line not the old 2Mb line, so that should avoid possible regrade complications,

...Providing the speed upgrade, doesn't also involve a switch to a LLU wholesale provider.
 
A good point, Mel - thank you. :)

I doubt if it does though, I think they'd be offering something more that the usual "up to 8Mb" if they'd gone LLU.
We did, only a few days ago, have an e-mail about overnight BT upgrade work which, while it would not affect you if you stayed connected, would result in anyone who had disconnected being unable to reconnect until this work was done. The exact nature of it wasn't mentioned in the e-mail, but from their Service Status page it was some sort of upgrade at the BT Interconnect at Stepney Green.
I expect the speed upgrade is connected with whatever they did at Stepney Green - but you never know, so I will see if I can find out, and be ready to jump ship earlier.
 
I agree completely with Timeless, the days of fixed line speeds are behind us, I know from my home broadband I have never gotten even close to the speed I was sold one, but then I was (and still technically am) a Pipex home broadband customer.

Stay Tuned, there's more on the way from the company mentioned in this thread for new and existing customers.
Hi Dainscough,

Please read the rules of this forum, new ISP reps need to inform me before posting so that I can add the correct status to their accounts.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/rules.shtml

You can do this by emailing the editor from an official address:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/contact.shtml
 
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