Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you can't have failed to see every second advert on tv and in the press encouraging you to join the super super information highway.
Promises of up to 24 meg speeds (most people are probably currently either on 1 or 2 meg) simply by joining up. Bulldog, Be, Wanadoo, even BT.
Well, there's a catch.
Apparently, put simply, the various BT exchanges aren't ready for the onslaught. And so there's a huge backlog of orders from people who signed up with various ISPs and are still waiting to be upgraded. To get greater than 8 meg, it seems Tiscali needs to install some equipment in your exchange. If it hasn't been done - or won't be done due to low demand - you're out of luck. No speeds greater than 8 meg.
And if you are one of the lucky ones who is on an exchange that BT have done something to so it can cope with up to 8 meg (and it is "up to" - 8 meg is not guaranteed) you just have to wait for them to then connect you to it, it seems. Join the queue.
To make matters worse, their bulk upgrade tool has been found to have a bug in it so ISPs can't use it at the moment.
So the promise of super fast speeds is just another example of the marketing guys over hyping something and getting carried away before the technical and customer service guys are certain that it can be delivered. Be warned.
I signed up for Plusnet recently. But it wasn't just for the promise of 8 meg at some point, which I have checked with BT that I can get on my line. It was because Pipex were ripping me off - charging me £33.99 for 2 meg broadband. Now I pay only £21.99 and it will remain the same when I eventually get 8 meg.
Pipex were a decent ISP, no complaints. But their price was ridiculous and they seemed to favour new rather than existing customers. So far Plus Net seem ok - reliable connections and a very good set of forums on their web site.
And one day I'll get 8 meg........ one day.
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