Broadband

Hi Folks,

I read that many in Devauden have had bad experiences with BT and its Broad Band service. Our experience with BT has also on occasion been bad. Many hours of investigation has however eliminated the problem completely as far as we are concerned. At present we have entirely reliable Broad Band and have managed to significantly reduce costs in comparison to BT. The sequence of events is as follows:

1. Hugely unreliable telephone service with snail like response from BT. BT not able to find faults in our line. Experienced dismal service from such as Mercury, BT Internet and so forth.

2. Converted to a Business line and miraculously the intermittent line fault was found in a week. It is not widely known that a private line is NOT a guaranteed service whereas a business line is.

3. Changed to Zen Internet http://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/ZenBroadband.aspx. We have never had a drop out of more than 5 minutes., and then on only a couple of occasions. The invoicing and Technical Support from Zen are second to none. Readers may be interested to know that Zen are introducing a VOIP service including line rental in September. Again this will, I am told, be cheaper than BT.

4. Changed to Morgan Telecom (Tel 078111 55350 and 01495 755555) and achieved a trouble free phone service with a 25% approx. discount on line and service charges.

5. For those interested in more detailed information regarding Telecoms in this or any other locality try visiting http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SWVVW. This link is for Devauden (Exchange code SWVVW) but there is an exchange search which will take you all over the country. Upgrade to 21st Century Broad Band is claimed to be Q4 2009.

6. If anyone would like a really flashy speed test then try http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ Our BB speed is about 2 MBps which is nothing startling but there should be an improvement in September.

7. The single most significant factor in improving computer system and phone system reliability is a very large UPS (eBay £40) powering the whole system. This improves immunity from the frequent lightning strikes in this area. Phone lines are still affected until I find a fibre optic link to install. (Any advice gratefully received)

8. There is the obvious caveat that the above is provided in good faith but is not guaranteed. Readers should check for themselves as to the accuracy of the data and the service offered by Morgan Telecom and Zen.

All the Best,

Geoff Owens,
The Firs,
Devauden.