Bethere broadband

[Jordan3606]

Well my mum and dad mentioned trying to cut the phone, gas and electric bills so I took the chance to try and persuade them to get Be broadband instead of BT. We're currently paying BT £24.99 a month for broadband alone, not including line rental and phone bills (so in reality, its about £40 a month roughly)

www.bethere.co.uk offer Be unlimited for £18, with faster speeds than what we have now and for £5 cheaper. Unmetered downloads etc., which is good, because we'd probably be suspended otherwise, lol. The BT home hub is absolute ****e too, so I'll be glad to get rid of it :rolleyes:

Anyway, is anybody else with Be and are they any good? I've read some reviews, some say its crap some say its absolutely brilliant, dunno what to trust so I need more opinions, hehe.

[N!ck]

It is absolutely brilliant if you live relatively close to your exchange (within about 2 miles or so) visit www.samknows.com to find about about your nearest exchange and work out howfar from it you are.

The free wireless router that you get doesn't have a very far range compared to something like the HomeHub, but it is a generally stable router (more stable than the HomeHub anyways). The downloads are truly unmetered.

[Flisker]

LOLOLOLOLOLOL I live like 30 foot away from my exchange :D
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/NDKNO

but it has false info

[Dentafrice]

It is absolutely brilliant if you live relatively close to your exchange (within about 2 miles or so) visit www.samknows.com (http://www.samknows.com) to find about about your nearest exchange and work out howfar from it you are.

The free wireless router that you get doesn't have a very far range compared to something like the HomeHub, but it is a generally stable router (more stable than the HomeHub anyways). The downloads are truly unmetered.

From what I know, the way it is in the US, you can always upgrade your router/modem, and/or install a separate wireless gateway from the one the telephone company gives you. Without being branded by all their crap.

Are most internet companies in the UK metered? Here in the USA almost all telephone companies are unmetered.

[N!ck]

From what I know, the way it is in the US, you can always upgrade your router/modem, and/or install a separate wireless gateway from the one the telephone company gives you. Without being branded by all their crap.

Are most internet companies in the UK metered? Here in the USA almost all telephone companies are unmetered.

Yes you can get your own router if you wish, it works the same as in the US. People generally tend to keep their "free" router though. A lot of companies in the UK subject you to a fair usage policy on their "unmetered" packages. Most include "excessive usage" in this which defeats the object of an unlimited connection.

[Dentafrice]

Yes you can get your own router if you wish, it works the same as in the US. People generally tend to keep their "free" router though. A lot of companies in the UK subject you to a fair usage policy on their "unmetered" packages. Most include "excessive usage" in this which defeats the object of an unlimited connection.
Well I can see there is probably some conditions in the fine print that can specify how much "excessive usage" is, but you never really hear the terms metered and unmetered when speaking of internet in the USA.

It usually all is, unless you get the cheap $9.00 dialup packages.

[N!ck]

Well I can see there is probably some conditions in the fine print that can specify how much "excessive usage" is, but you never really hear the terms metered and unmetered when speaking of internet in the USA.

It usually all is, unless you get the cheap $9.00 dialup packages.

The US is more advanced as far as telephony is concerned as Britain was one of the first places to have "the internet" so to speak, so the technology in the US is newer, so capable of handling more. The UK is slowly going through some upgrades though and one idea being put into play is installing optical fibers through the sewers. I bet once you start using several hundred GBs per month though in the US ISPs will start getting on your back anyway.

[Dentafrice]

The US is more advanced as far as telephony is concerned as Britain was one of the first places to have "the internet" so to speak, so the technology in the US is newer, so capable of handling more. The UK is slowly going through some upgrades though and one idea being put into play is installing optical fibers through the sewers. I bet once you start using several hundred GBs per month though in the US ISPs will start getting on your back anyway.
You're probably right.

They already have internet in sewer lines! :o

http://www.google.com/tisp/

[N!ck]

You're probably right.

They already have internet in sewer lines! :o

http://www.google.com/tisp/

That was an April fools joke.

[Dentafrice]

That was an April fools joke.
Yeah, just thought I would post it, didn't know if you had seen it :P

Verizon (which I believe has ties to Vodafone in the UK) has began a new nationwide Fiber-Optic installation to provide us with Fiber-Optic internet.

Verizion FiOS.

[N!ck]

Yeah, just thought I would post it, didn't know if you had seen it :P

Verizon (which I believe has ties to Vodafone in the UK) has began a new nationwide Fiber-Optic installation to provide us with Fiber-Optic internet.

Verizion FiOS.

Yeah they've been setting that up for a while now, like a year or something. In the UK the only widespread fiber optic provider is Virgin Media which has fibres down most of the residential streets in the UK. They connect you too the fiber in the street via coaxial cable i think. Max package they do is 20Mbps, but some people are beta testing 50Mbps packages.

[Dentafrice]

Yeah they've been setting that up for a while now, like a year or something. In the UK the only widespread fiber optic provider is Virgin Media which has fibres down most of the residential streets in the UK. They connect you too the fiber in the street via coaxial cable i think. Max package they do is 20Mbps, but some people are beta testing 50Mbps packages.
Really?

Wouldn't coaxial cable downgrade it? Due to it not being able to handle that much load, it is just a solid piece of copper cable wrapped in insulation.

Well, depending on the schedule of wire it is.

Verizon FiOS brings the fiber optic under your yard, up into your huse where they install the box with battery backup, and then downgrade it to a phone line

[N!ck]

Really?

Wouldn't coaxial cable downgrade it? Due to it not being able to handle that much load, it is just a solid piece of copper cable wrapped in insulation.

Well, depending on the schedule of wire it is.

Verizon FiOS brings the fiber optic under your yard, up into your huse where they install the box with battery backup, and then downgrade it to a phone line

Yeah, copper coaxial from your house to the street, which is why Verizon is a lot better. A good provider in the UK is ASK4 www.ask4.com but it is only available in specific apartments. They're using fibers in the sewers to get the connection about rather than digging up the streets like Virgin Media have to do.

[Dentafrice]

Yeah, copper coaxial from your house to the street, which is why Verizon is a lot better. A good provider in the UK is ASK4 www.ask4.com but it is only available in specific apartments. They're using fibers in the sewers to get the connection about rather than digging up the streets like Virgin Media have to do.
Most of the USA, except big cities, is grass along the sides of the road, which they run the cable down, or just run them along the telephone line.

Most cities in the USA don't have sewers, except big cities, we have sewer pipes, but nothing you can walk in, and we have septic tanks.

[darkchicken101]

I have BE and it's really not that amazing. You have to live less than a mile from the exchange to really take advantage of their high speeds. I live just over a mile and I only get a 1/3 of what I should. Still, there aren't many websites where you could take advantage of that. Truely umlimted downloads are a big plus though. However, the upload speed is about right. (150KB/s)

[:job2]

I cant get it in my area :( my local exchange is quite far away as well 1.7 miles

[Flisker]

I guess mine is the closest? And O2/BE are planning to get a connection where i am :) So I can get VERY good speeds :D

[iUnknown]

Can we get back on topic please :rolleyes: I just found this and I'm looking into new broadbands too. I considered this but I've been recommended many times to go with well-known ones. Bethere looks really good though, but apparantly too good to be true.

[Firehorse]

I'm told that Be* Broadband isn't as good as it used to be. It got taken over by a company, think it was O2

[Robbie]

Where can I find out how far I am from the exchange? SamKnows only seems to tell me which exchange I'm on (which I already knew, MROLD)

[N!ck]

Can we get back on topic please :rolleyes: I just found this and I'm looking into new broadbands too. I considered this but I've been recommended many times to go with well-known ones. Bethere looks really good though, but apparantly too good to be true.

If tyou live relatively clost to your exchange then go for it.


I'm told that Be* Broadband isn't as good as it used to be. It got taken over by a company, think it was O2

Yeah, the Pro package hasn't been affected as badly by it though. Still one of the best you can get though.

[Firehorse]

If tyou live relatively clost to your exchange then go for it.



Yeah, the Pro package hasn't been affected as badly by it though. Still one of the best you can get though.

some people say it's the worst but through tests ingear found that Virgin Media was the fastest aswell as the cheapest. I'm with them and they've really upped their game in the last few months.

[N!ck]

some people say it's the worst but through tests ingear found that Virgin Media was the fastest aswell as the cheapest. I'm with them and they've really upped their game in the last few months.

It depends. During peak times you can almost guarantee that Be will give you the best results on speedtests. Offpeak, yes VM will probably beat it due to the method that the connection is delivered to your home. Be also has the best upload speed you can get in the UK as a widespread ISP. As far as downloading is concerned, Be is completely unlimited and they don't get grumpy when you use BitTorrent. Th upload speed also comes in handy there ;).

[Firehorse]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/253827847.png

Thats now at peak time. Pretty good wouldn't you think?

[N!ck]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/253827847.png

Thats now at peak time. Pretty good wouldn't you think?

It's not bad, but it depends on the max of your connection. With Be, generally the speed during peak time is the same as off-peak - the fastest the connection will go.

[iUnknown]

I'm just over 1 kilometre away from my nearest exchange in my old house (moved out for refurb) and I'm about 1.5km away from my nearest exchange in my current house. However, it says I can get 2mbps or greater in my old house... and 6.5mbps or greater in my current house.

I'm with AOL and when I move back in to my old house I'm going to move to the best ISP I can find... at the moment it looks like BT.. I'm going to probably create a new thread about it and not steal this guys thread but bethere was an option and I want to hear more about them :D

[bigdavecox90]

Well my mum and dad mentioned trying to cut the phone, gas and electric bills so I took the chance to try and persuade them to get Be broadband instead of BT. We're currently paying BT £24.99 a month for broadband alone, not including line rental and phone bills (so in reality, its about £40 a month roughly)

www.bethere.co.uk (http://www.bethere.co.uk) offer Be unlimited for £18, with faster speeds than what we have now and for £5 cheaper. Unmetered downloads etc., which is good, because we'd probably be suspended otherwise, lol. The BT home hub is absolute ****e too, so I'll be glad to get rid of it :rolleyes:

Anyway, is anybody else with Be and are they any good? I've read some reviews, some say its crap some say its absolutely brilliant, dunno what to trust so I need more opinions, hehe.

Sounds quite good, however like I mentioned in another thread...they seem very under rated, but Talk Talk.

16.39 a month and that gets you free evening and weekend calls on the landline, free broadband and includes line rental?