I used to have an excellent broadband connection provided by O2. I got around
15 megabytes a second all day every day over an old-fashioned copper line. Then earlier this year I was foolishly
tempted by BT’s offer of 40 megabyte broadband over fibre. So it was installed
without too many hitches and it was brilliant, I got 38 megabyte per second
downloads most of the time. But three months on it wouldn’t go over
32 so I asked why. “It’s a contended service they said and you used to be the
only connection on your exchange, now you are sharing it with others.” Fair
enough I thought but it was strange that it wouldn’t go over 32 even in the
early hours of a Sunday morning.
Then the speed dropped to 23 at best, never any higher and occasionally as low as 4;
so I enquired again. Same nonsense story but something else was let slip. My line
has been deliberately speed limited, first to 34 and now 24. Not as the technically
inclined may surmise, to maintain stability on a poor line, but to regulate
bandwidth through the exchange and beyond. So the 40 meg line I am paying for is
now a 24 meg line, and a poor one at that. If I had the time I would report BT
to the advertising standards people but all my spare time is already taken up
with enquiries to this website.
But I will say as someone who spent his entire life working for BT and pays for
this site from a BT pension, that what they are doing with their ‘Infinity’
fibre product is totally dishonest and if you get one of their glossy brochures,
then for goodness sake bin it quick otherwise they will claim you are stuck with
a 18 month contract for a crap product. No one in charge seems able to see that
they sold me a 40 meg line and are providing a 24 meg service on a line
perfectly capable of supporting 40. They have broken the contract big time and
50 years after I started working for them any loyalty I may have once had
towards the company is gone for ever.
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