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New to Full Fibre - trying to understand what to look for

rn123

Member
Hi everyone.

I am hopefully close to moving house to a location which has full FTTP Fibre connections available, after living with FTTC up until now at my current place. I also have the option of mobile broadband, but would probably prefer FTTP.

I have done some research and it's the open reach infrastructure for FTTP.

I am currently with zen for FTTC, and their options for FTTP are more expensive than others, circa £40 for 300 Mbps or £55 for 900 Mbps. I know Zen support is good based on experience and that they won't up the price mid contract, static IP as standard etc so that's all good.

As a comparison, Vodafone would work out at £36 for FTTP based on 900 Mbps. I assume that as they are both based on openreach, they should be identical into terms of speeds for the same package and it's just the support that would differ? Or are there any other nuances to look out for?

Any other providers recommended, such as Plusnet etc? Not looking for a comparison of providers or help choosing, I'm just trying to work out what sits behind the offerings and if there is anything you consider.

I had Vodafone FTTC previously and noticed some funny things, like severe congestion or throttling at certain times and anything like large games left downloading overnight would cut out, but not sure if thats just FTTC or they do the same on FTTP.

Thanks for your help.
 
The connection is the same from the terminal in your house, through the same fibre cables all the way back to the exchange. But then from there some ISPs like Vodafone, TalkTalk and Sky have their own backhaul rather than using BT's Wholesale system so the experience can differ from there.

Things like latency will vary in this sense as they will all have different routing methods. And as you say congestion is sometimes a worry especially with Vodafone but thankfully they're mostly getting on top of that nowadays so peak time slowdowns should be a thing of the past in most areas.

I'd personally go with the cheapest of BT group (BT/EE/Plusnet) as everything just works, and works well. And the customer service is UK based as well.

If you want the absolute lowest price then it's probably Onestream. Go via a cashback comparison site to get it at the absolute lowest price. They resell Vodafone broadband but provide UK customer service. As long as you provide your own router and remember to opt out of all free trials they offer you once you go live they are fine provided there's no Vodafone congestion in your area.

Zen is a company I wouldn't bother with these days. They're nothing like they used to be imo. If you want to pay a premium for the absolute best you can get through your line, I would be looking at a company like IDNet instead.
 
Vodafone indeed has a poor reputation for support. If you have any issues, expect to be mired in a complete mess. They regularly top the table for Ofcom complaints, along with Shell and Talktalk. And yes, they don't have the best managed network either. You get what you pay for.

Plusnet at £31 for 300M, £41 for 500M and £51 for 900M is a decent choice if you are cost sensitive, and don't mind not having IPv6. You can get a static IPv4 for a one-time £5 charge (or at least you used to, haven't checked recently). But you'll have two price rises within your 24 month contract.

I'm on Aquiss. They are £45 for 300M, £50 for 500M and £55 for 900M which is similar to Zen pricing, but the first six months are half price, the contract is only 12 months, and there are no automatic price rises either within or at end of contract. You also get static IPv4 and IPv6. However you do have to buy your own router.
 
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The connection is the same from the terminal in your house, through the same fibre cables all the way back to the exchange. But then from there some ISPs like Vodafone, TalkTalk and Sky have their own backhaul rather than using BT's Wholesale system so the experience can differ from there.

Things like latency will vary in this sense as they will all have different routing methods. And as you say congestion is sometimes a worry especially with Vodafone but thankfully they're mostly getting on top of that nowadays so peak time slowdowns should be a thing of the past in most areas.

I'd personally go with the cheapest of BT group (BT/EE/Plusnet) as everything just works, and works well. And the customer service is UK based as well.

If you want the absolute lowest price then it's probably Onestream. Go via a cashback comparison site to get it at the absolute lowest price. They resell Vodafone broadband but provide UK customer service. As long as you provide your own router and remember to opt out of all free trials they offer you once you go live they are fine provided there's no Vodafone congestion in your area.

Zen is a company I wouldn't bother with these days. They're nothing like they used to be imo. If you want to pay a premium for the absolute best you can get through your line, I would be looking at a company like IDNet instead.
Thankyou, that's very helpful. Helps to know Zen may not be worth the premium, so will look at some of the BT options and see what they come out with. thanks
 
Vodafone indeed has a poor reputation for support. If you have any issues, expect to be mired in a complete mess. They regularly top the table for Ofcom complaints, along with Shell and Talktalk. And yes, they don't have the best managed network either. You get what you pay for.

Plusnet at £31 for 300M, £41 for 500M and £51 for 900M is a decent choice if you are cost sensitive, and don't mind not having IPv6. You can get a static IPv4 for a one-time £5 charge (or at least you used to, haven't checked recently). But you'll have two price rises within your 24 month contract.

I'm on Aquiss. They are £45 for 300M, £50 for 500M and £55 for 900M which is similar to Zen pricing, but the first six months are half price, the contract is only 12 months, and there are no automatic price rises either within or at end of contract. You also get static IPv4 and IPv6. However you do have to buy your own router.
Thankyou. I'm not as price sensitive as I am sensitive to awful service or problems. I actually left my Vodafone contract early previously due to lower speeds than promised.

I would want to use my own router anyway, so that would be ok. Plusnet seems a safe option, but will look into your suggestion also, especially due to 12 month contract.
 
Vodafone on fibre is generally pretty good. Your previous experience of poor speeds would have most likely been due to your copper line so that shouldn't now be an issue. Their backbone is good.

Things that do sometimes clobber Voda fibre service is if their local backhaul from your Openreach handover exchange is congested and you get allocated a non-optimal Auth point on the voda backbone which can lead to ping times being longer than needed. Both of these things would likely be temporary if they occurred. And if you need to depend on their support it can be a real mess although if you opt for a Pro tier that's different team and ok.

If you're a gamer then many will note that TalkTalk is worth considering as however they have put their backbone together they usually shave a couple of ms off response times compared to other broadband connections, but YMMV. Their support if you need it is shocking.
 
Vodafone on fibre is generally pretty good. Your previous experience of poor speeds would have most likely been due to your copper line so that shouldn't now be an issue. Their backbone is good.

Things that do sometimes clobber Voda fibre service is if their local backhaul from your Openreach handover exchange is congested and you get allocated a non-optimal Auth point on the voda backbone which can lead to ping times being longer than needed. Both of these things would likely be temporary if they occurred. And if you need to depend on their support it can be a real mess although if you opt for a Pro tier that's different team and ok.

If you're a gamer then many will note that TalkTalk is worth considering as however they have put their backbone together they usually shave a couple of ms off response times compared to other broadband connections, but YMMV. Their support if you need it is shocking.

Thankyou, that is helpful. Vodafone are certainly coming out at the lowest monthly cost as i already have a mobile with them. They seem to indicate they include a landline number, which not many offer. Though i expect that means its tied to them and i cant move it to another VOIP service.
 
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Don't forget to go via Quidco or Topcashback, and also check Topcashback compare as you often get different deals in there compared to a click through direct to the retailer.
 
Thankyou, that is helpful. Vodafone are certainly coming out at the lowest monthly cost as i already have a mobile with them. They seem to indicate they include a landline number, which not many offer. Though i expect that means its tied to them and i cant move it to another VOIP service.
The general advice when you move to fibre is to split the phone line and internet service. That's because once you move oyur number to an ISP you might not be able to port it again. In addition to this switching ISPs can result in a loss of phone service. Therefore it's best to move it once to a dedicated VOIP service provider, Andrews & Arnold is usually singled as a great choice, and then simply choose your ISP separately.
 
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