Broadband pricingMonthly Inc VAT. See VAT Exc.
| Tariff | Not more than 8Mb/s | 24Mb/s* | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Std | Prem | ADSL2+ | |
| A | £18.99 | £31.00 | £16.99 |
| C | £26.99 | £39.00 | £25.99 |
| D | £34.99 | £47.00 | £31.99 |
| E | £46.99 | £59.00 | £37.99 |
Setup £59.99 Full tariff list The package Max *ADSL2+ trial Extra charges
Availability
To check availability you can enter your full UK postcode, or the number of a line.
Max is our standard ADSL broadband service. We offer not more than 8Mb/s broadband service and provide ADSL broadband the way it was meant to be - getting the best that is possible from ADSL for each line individually.
The way ADSL broadband was designed was that the routers could make the best use of the actual phone line, getting speeds not more than 8.128Mb/s downstream (download from the internet) and not more than 832Kb/s upstream (sending to the internet). These speeds are available on short good quality cables. Lower speeds are achieved on longer lines to as little as 250Kb/s downstream at many kilometres from the exchange.
The exact speed depends on your line, and can even change over time. The line is constantly monitored, and if there are errors or retrains then the line settings are adjusted which can mean a lower (or higher) speed. If the line is free from errors for some time, then the line is adjusted allowing high speeds. These changes can happen over periods of many days. It is even possible that better internal wiring, better filter/splitters, and keeping wiring away from any electrical noise (including Christmas tree lights) can improve the speed of your service. It is important to realise that the headline speed of 8Mb/s is a theoretical maximum on a perfect and short line, and even then is the ADSL ATM rate, not the IP rate which is likely to be nearer 7Mb/s at most because of protocol overheads.
To give you some concrete stats (Apr 08), over a quarter of our lines sync at full 8.128Mb/s sync rate (7.15Mb/s IP rate), and the average sync rate of all lines is 5.5Mb/s (5Mb/s IP rate).
See ATM/IP rates, and Max magic and myths for more details.
Max comes in two versions, Standard and Premium. There are two main advantages to Premium over Standard.
A fault on a line could mean that instead of the line stopping working, it retrains to a much lower speed and continues to work. This is nice, in that you do not lose your internet connection, but none the less a fault should be fixed so you can resume the higher speed you had to start with. If your line speed drops below a certain level compared to the stable line rate which it started with, then we can report a fault through to BT and Openreach to investigate. However, our constant line quality monitoring will allow us to see many types of fault (not just slow speed) and ensure they are rectified promptly.
Errors are where information is corrupted. Small errors are automatically corrected allowing your service to work with no dropped packets or slow downs. Larger errors cause dropped packets and can affect the speed and reliability of your internet access. A retrain is where your router or modem has decided to reset the line and try a different speed. Often a lower speed can mean that the errors go away. This can take a few seconds during which you have no internet access at all. The constant monitoring of the line is designed to adjust the line profile so as to minimise retrains and errors in the long run. These are most likely during the first few days that you have service after which your line should remain stable.
There is a technique called interleaving which is used on CDs and GSM phones which is designed to stop many types of interference affecting the actual information being transferred. It works well, and can mean a faster speed on your line are possible without errors. It does however have a downside in that it means an extra 15ms or so of delay on your line. For most people, even most gamers, this is not an issue. It will be automatically enabled on your line if there are any noise problems that can be fixed with interleaving. If you are more concerned about the delay (latency) than the speed of your line we can arrange for your line to have no interleaving applied.
There are many factors which can cause your line to retrain to a different speed. If the rate goes down, then BT pick this up within 75 minutes and update their speed controls in their network. If the rate goes up, BT will pick up this new, higher, stable rate and update the rate in their network (this can take anything from a few hours to a few days depending on the size of the increase). The rate within the BT network is set in discrete steps (mostly around 0.5Mb/s steps) and is set to be the highest level under that which your line can achieve.
Max is a usage based tariff, so you will need to be on our new usage based tariff to take the Max service. Customers on our older speed based tariff can upgrade to max and change to usage based tariff at the same time, free of charge. The result is normally cheaper than the old tariff (depending on usage levels).
There are ways to get more than 8Mb/s out of a phone line, including ADSL2+, which allows not more than 24Mb/s. When these services are available we will be offering them. However, we already offer multi-line downlink with no special equipment needed at your end. At present many computer operating systems have settings which make speeds of even 8Mb/s difficult to achieve on a single file transfer over a broadband line (being much higher latency than a direct ethernet connection). You can also find that high speeds for your line are faster than the server you are accessing can handle.
