BT Infinity (fibre to the home)

[cubicgarden]

There's quite a few of us which love our internet connection and I've been thinking how slow the connection speeds have been in this area. So wouldn't it be fantastic to get fibre to the home via BT's Infinity race.

The whole thing works by registering enough interest around one phone exchange, so BT will come out and upgrade that exchange.

It looks like you only need about 700 votes to get into the top 10 right now.

So if we can all vote then get our neighbours in Chips, Milliners Wharf, etc to vote too, then maybe we could get BT out to sort out our exchange.

[cubicgarden]

Following the BT Race to Infinity...

I'm also wondering if enough of us get together, we might be able to get Virgin Cable out to wire up the development with there own Fibre Optic???

[Steve]

Done already:

http://twitter.com/#!/neyo/status/29509424364

As a Web Designer myself, I'd love to see a better connection to the internet here - I cannot believe living here, you're best connection is a meagre 8Mb or so, with no cable options what-so-ever. Not sure how you could convince Virgin, but it'd be interesting, given the amount of 20/30 somethings live in the developments here and nearby!

[cubicgarden]

I looked on the Virgin site and can't seem to find the page which use to be on the NTL site which allows you to request cable. This might have to be done manually then...

The other alternative is getting a better/upgraded phone exchange. In my old place, the old exchange was Manchester Central and it was enabled with Cable & Wireless (C&W LLU services). With that enabled, my ISP (UKFSN) could offer totally unlimited (not restricted by any fair usage) and super fast ADSL broadband over the C&W backbone instead of the BT one.

If your a webdesigner (like myself and James), you will really benefit from this greatly.

[cubicgarden]

Oh by the way Steve did you see this -

This is perfect for web designer's, specially if you work from home a lot but don't want to miss out on the social side of working with others.

[Steve]

I keep an eye out on SamKnows to see if any proposed changes are due to the Ardwick exchange, but no such luck in the 3 years i've lived here. I find it a little odd we're so close to Piccadilly, and yet the data speeds are so low.

I would definitely support any opportunity for faster service coverage - just not sure how you even begin looking at it.

I did see the post on co-working, but for me, I work most of the time out of our office in Stockport, so probably wouldn't make worthwhile use out of an office downstairs. It's definitely a nice idea for freelancers, though!

[cubicgarden]

Yeah I got to say its so strange that we are only 5mins from Piccadilly but the speeds are quite slow. But then again I do also find it odd that our exchange is Ardwick not Piccadilly or even Ancoats.

I'm interested to hear what speeds people are getting.

I'm getting currently on the best of days,

4128 download rate (Kbps)
1020 upload rate (Kbps)
Using a ADSL2 modem with only one other DECT phone on the line.

[uza]

The issue as far as I understand it is due to the large amount of apartment blocks the exchanges are over subscribed. Which in Peak hours results in poor speeds. It's not that the exchange can't offer the speed, it's just not ment to support that many households. Bt infastucture is ancient after all, with little investment put back in till recently.

[blueacid]

Bit of advice here, which worked for me

Go to the master socket (The one labelled openreach in your utility cupboard.) Unscrew the two screws, and pull off the bottom half of the socket.

That'll reveal the BT Test socket. Plug just one filter into that, and connect your modem/router. See how fast your connection is there. If the speed difference between that and "Normal" is quite a bit (a meg or more) then there's scope to improve your internal wiring... says he with a 10.5mbit connection. Not the best, but certainly better than the 4mbit posted earlier!

[blueacid]