When I moved to London, one of the things I was looking forward to were all the fringe benefits of living in our nation's capital: being able to go to see plays, concerts, eat out at the finest restaurants, go for a beer and be just a tube stop away from home, see more of the wide network of friends who live here or pass through here on a regular basis, take advantage of superior services, and so on.
What I hadn't counted on was the terrible problems I'd have with domestic infrastructure. Two such examples follow.
Despite living approximately one mile away from BBC Television Centre on Wood Lane, rather ironically I was unable to get a decent television signal. The Freeview website even reported that Hammersmith was not due to get a signal until 2011 or 2012, though it has since been updated to report availability. Fortunately, after complaints to the landlord, the roof aerial was rectified, and TV is now a possibility, though not with portable aerials such as the one on my TV Mini.
The second problem (and the real reason for my thinly-disguised morning rant) was the inability to get a decent broadband connection. I'd been drooling over the prospect of 24 meg broadband, but it turned out that my local exchange was full and the only provider able to offer broadband was, surprise surprise, BT Broadband. It's a bit dubious when the only provider able to offer connectivity over a forcibly derestricted monopoly line is the retail arm of said monopoly.
BT was a less than delightful option: they have been known to cap their bandwidth, to censor web access, and to offer hideous service. I swore many years ago I'd never go back to them, but faced with the option of BT or no internet, I decided to put my principles in a box in the cupboard, next to the BT Home Hub.
It turns out I should have listened to my instincts, and opted for a 3G data card, two yoghurt pots and a piece of string, a yearly subscription to WiFi in the local pub, or some other contraption. Since mid-December I've been fighting with BT over noise on the line, and for the last week I've been fighting to get a workable internet connection. Despite having a line rated for 4mb/s, I'm lucky if I can get 10k/s throughput.
So far I've had four engineers come out. Two have claimed to have "tidied up the wiring in the exchange" (how messy was it??!?), one has been unable to find any fault, and the most recent actually appeared to have done a good job, testing everything thoroughly and working inside and outside the house until the line was clear as a bell - until BT Broadband started running their tests again, once the engineer had left. According to one of the engineers, BT sold off the local exchange (West Kensington), and just before Christmas they moved everyone over to another exchange, a kilometre or so further away, with "big fat cables to try and limit the impact of the increased distance". I wonder if the money made from the sale of the exchange is greater or lesser than the cost of sending four engineers to every house affected by the move?
Meanwhile, I spent the bulk of Saturday morning and Sunday night on the phone acting as liaison between BT Openreach and BT Broadband, since open tickets with one part of BT prevent the other part taking action (even to close the ticket). On Saturday I was in the crazy situation of being asked by a BT support person to unscrew the faceplate on my socket in order to test the line myself before they would close a ticket. Shortly after that, another engineer turned up at the front door unannounced and unexpectedly. The saga continues, with the prospect of me sitting in the office at midnight this week in order to participate in online conference calls if BT are unable to get their act together.
The irony here is that in parochial Norwich, which is located just off the edge of the map of the known world, I was able to get a 10 meg internet connection and cable TV (heck, I was receiving channel 5 from virtually the first day of broadcast, not that it's something to boast about). Moving from the countryside to the city is supposed to result in a better service, no?
Technorati Tags: apartment, failure, house, life, london, norwich, bt, renting, uk
Posted by savs at January 19, 2009 9:27 AMIve just done the opposite, moved back to the country, even further into the back of beyond. Only a BT line is available so it was 120 quid to get a phone line, tie myself to a year of shitty service from BT at 10 a month and then pay another 15 a month to get a decent ISP. My desire to avoid BT was strong, so instead I've gone for a mobile broadband from Vodafone (the only network with 3G where I am). Its actually been working pretty well, its fairly quick, I can use Skype for calls or fall back to my mobile and it doubles as a pretty workable train connection too. Money-wise its a great deal if you use quidco: 12 month contract, 50 for the stick, then 15 a month AND 90 cashback if you signup via quidco. That means 140 for a year vs 420 for a BT line+ISP.
Before you regret your choice however, there are some nasty downsides.
- the mac drivers are shit. i had to winkle out two powerpc programs that it had installed and set to autorun (despite the stick being intel only)
- 3 gig a month is not enough. I can just about get by on it because I can save bandwidth heavy stuff for when im in the office. You can get 5 gig for 25 a month but nothing higher.
- Vodafone are shit. They charge you 10 pound per gig if you go over your 3 gig allowance, but I have no reliable way from them to check my usage. Their online billing hasnt worked since I got it (november) and confused correspondence with india finally revealed that they know its broken and they cant tell me when it will get fixed.
- The stick uses loads of power. The battery life of my macbook halves when the stick is plugged in.
- The 3G connection died on me the other afternoon, forcing me back into the days of waiting 10 minutes to load a web page. To be fair thats the only loss ive seen so far, and you do have the option of moving somewhere else and likely getting another working tower.
Anyway, the moral is whatever you choose it will be worse than it should be.
Posted by: Tom at January 19, 2009 11:11 AMAndrew - Welcome to my world... I had much fun with BT Retail and OpenReach when moving from town to real countryside (not the throbbing metropolis of Norwich).
Tom - couldn't you order your BT line from someone like ThePhoneCoop? Still the same price (100+vat or thereabouts) but better service and the right to buy a share in the company.