Just days before a new “unbundled” broadband provider is due to launch in Bradley Stoke, the town council is due to discuss residential internet provision.
TalkTalk, part of Carphone Warehouse, will finally roll out its service which will be carried by BT’s lines but will use its own equipment in the exchange.
They will become the second unbundled provider after Orange who started their service in 2008.
Broadband provision will be discussed at the council’s Planning and Amenities meeting on Wednesday after a resident complained.
Bradley Stoke is currently served by two exchanges – Filton and Almondsbury – with many on the latter suffering slow speeds.
ADSL broadband connections become slower the further you are from the exchange and some connected to Almondsbury are up to four miles away.
Other areas of the town are served by Virgin Media who have partially cabled the town with their faster fibre optic network.
How fast or slow is your broadband connection? Are you happy with the service in Bradley Stoke? Let us know via the comments on this story.
24 responses so far ↓
1 Jon // Jan 28, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I’m on the Filton exchange here in Lavender Way and my broadband from BT is awful! 1Mb speed if I’m lucky, and more like 500k in the evenings.
2 Craig // Jan 28, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I too am on the Filton exchange and just about manage 500k tops. I think the line is something like 6km long. We’re on our second line, the first couldn’t maintain a connection.
BT really need to rollout fibre to the street cabinets; I can’t see any other reasonably economical solution for them.
3 Mike // Jan 28, 2009 at 8:18 pm
I have ADSL Sky broadband and Virgin cable. The speed of Sky is appalling, I never bother to use it. Just useful as a backup since Virgin had big problems last summer resulting in a whole week without the internet. Having Sky is also a good bargaining tool when negotiating a deal with Virgin. I cannot see BT investing in fibre optics and digging the roads up, would be far too costly process.
4 Matt Morris // Jan 28, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I’m on the Filton Exchange too – was on Orange BB via BT – it was 1MB, then when Orange went and did whole unbundled thing (without telling us I hasten to add!!!) – then we were lucky if we actually got 256K let along 512K
I gave up and went to Virgin!
I’m actually surprised that Bradley Stoke hasn’t got it’s own exchange – they knew how big the town was going to be – why didn’t they plan for it?
5 Andy // Jan 29, 2009 at 8:41 am
When BS was planned, there was no need to worry about the length of telephone lines which were only to be used for voice. There were two exchanges with capacity nearby. BS was planned as cheap to build, which is why it was built from the north southwards and south northwards, eventually meeting somewhere in the middle. This meant roads did not need to be built in advance. The same principle was used for telephone provision. Of course now our roads and communication facilities are a bit of a mess.
6 Andy // Jan 29, 2009 at 8:43 am
BTW, I get around 6M from a BT ADSL line from the Almondsbury exchange here in Dewfalls Drive. There is no Virgin Media here, they have never laid the cables (which are only fibre optic to the street box – they are coax to the house).
7 Simon // Jan 29, 2009 at 10:59 am
Like Craig said the only thing that is going to happen that will make much of a difference is if they lay fibre to the junction boxes. If the council could push for Bradley Stoke to be one of the first places that happens I would be happy.
8 AndrePrevin // Jan 29, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I live near Willow Brook Centre, am on the Filton exchange, and get 512Mb if I’m lucky.
9 AndrePrevin // Jan 29, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Oops, after checking with BT, I’m actually on the Almonsbury exchange. They reckon I should be able to get between 4 and 5 Gb, which is between 3.5 and 4.5Gb more than I actually do get. Apparently if I only get 512Mb then this is because the telephone line in my house stretches too far . In actual fact, it stretches about 10cm from the point it enters the house to the point it goes into the BT Home Hub.
10 Dave P // Jan 29, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Almondsbury exchange, Orange BB, bottom end of Hawkins Crescent, just under 2Mb.
Nice that the issue is being raised, but can’t actually see anything being done in the short / medium term.
11 Clare // Jan 29, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Used to be on the Filton exchange at <1Mbps. Now on Almondsbury at ~2Mbps. I work from home a couple of days a week, so broadband speed is important. When moving, before I even went for a viewing, I checked the BT website for predicted speeds. I recollect Juniper/Lavender area was worst.
12 Owen // Jan 29, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Just under 3mb, via Virgin Media ADSL and Almondsbury exchange, on Dewfalls Drive. It can be very variable though.
13 Eddy // Jan 30, 2009 at 9:59 am
I went with a local Bristol ISP after getting a leaflet through my door a while back. I used to get speeds of about 200-300k on an upto 8mb from Pipex, I now get regular 2.5-3mb. The service seems much better although I have had one or two slow days, the company is sovision.com. I’m in Dewfalls Drive so I belive I’m on the Almondsbury exchange.
14 Tim // Jan 30, 2009 at 2:20 pm
I’m moving from Rosemary Close in a couple of months. I have 2 lines here from the main trunk that support over 2.5mb up for grabs… Filton exchange.
Problem is BT just don’t know what cables they have, there are two trunk cables that use a wider diameter core cable that were installed 3 years ago, I had to find this out for myself. Attenuation was 72.5dB and is now 58dB.
15 Moe // Jan 31, 2009 at 11:27 am
I live at Woodlands Park and am served by the Almondsbury exchange. My ISP is Orange. My speed checked on 31/1/09 was 5.07 Mbps.
16 Mark // Feb 1, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Living off Kemperley Way and getting 1.5meg so I must be losing 3 meg fora distance of 3 miles from Moe. How bad is that?
17 Andy // Feb 5, 2009 at 7:08 am
I wrote a nice essay about my connection… only for it to be eaten when I didnt’ supply my e-mail address. Sigh.
In an nutshell… 2mbit/s in Juniper way, connected to almondsbury.
18 Chris // Feb 7, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I moved into Juniper Way last year and after loads of hunting around was told by BT that because we’re so far from Almondsbury the best they could guarantee was 256kbps !! Orange couldn’t guarantee anything better either. So didn’t bother, went with Three Mobile Broadband which isn’t great but is ok for between 512k & 1Mbit depending on time of day. Would be interested in more comments from Andy on whereabouts he is if he gets 2Mbits in the same road.
19 Chris (editor) // Feb 7, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Chris – I’m also in Juniper Way and I’m connected with a sync rate of 3meg+ and thruput of about 2meg, the same as Andy. Ignore what BT say, their line estimations are very unrealistic.
My advice would be to go for one of the providers using ADSL 2+ which will give you a faster connection. Those are BT Broadband, Orange, TalkTalk and Entanet.
Drop me an email on news@sadlybroke.com if you want more advice.
20 Ian // Feb 9, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I’m in Ellan Hay on the Filton exchange and get ~1.7m constantly with Sky BB and very few disconnects
21 Matt // Feb 11, 2009 at 1:50 pm
One thought – has anyone tried netbandit – they were very good when I used them – don’t know if they’re still operating – but their speeds and reliability were good – locally run too.
22 Giles // Feb 12, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Live in Juniper Way (low end numbers) and connect to Filton >500K. With Madasafish and their line checker shows 256K!
How about someone on the other side of Webbs Wood road gets 10Mb+ Virgin and wifi it to a house in Juniper and we can then share it?
Does anyone know if Virgin Media are looking to “expand” their network by adding more cabled areas? With the release of the interim Digital Britain report, they and others should be looking into expanding their networks. BT have delayed the upgrade to the Filton exchange for ADSL2+ (does that give users >6km a speed increase?) until Sept 09.
23 Mike // Feb 16, 2009 at 11:47 am
I get 2mb max during the day and <512k during peak times. I’m with Sky C0nnect on the Almondsbury exchange. I’m really unhappy with the service and am thinking of changin to BT, but when I called them , the lady was unable to guarantee it would be any better!
24 Greg // Mar 6, 2009 at 11:07 am
I’m on the Almondsbury exchange in Juniper Way (High Numbers) and am lucky to get 1mb. TalkTalk say there is nothing they can do. As Virgin doesn’t stretch this far down my road I’m basically scr***d.
Used Netbandit some time ago and other than a few regular disconnects weren’t too bad. Not sure if they are still going though.
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