Zen Internet Support Forum

I live in MK and was on the BT long reach trial as we were so far away from the exchange.  Eventually we were able to get 512k and I was happy to be able to use Zen again for broadband after a few hideous weeks on dialup.
 
Now – the latest tests show that we can get up to 1mb.  Does anyone know of an ISP that can offer a 1mb service?  All we have been told by Zen is that we can move onto "up to 8mb" MAX DSL – but BT engineers tell us that it’s likely that we would end up with a slower speed than our current 512k and it would not be considered a fault because of the upper and lower limits set for acceptable MAX DSL performance from the line tests.  
 
Several friends in the Milton Keynes area are suffering the same problem and I can’t help but think ISP’s are missing out here – if they can run a test on a users line and see that 1mb is the max they can have – why not offer them that service instead of enticing them onto MAX with all the inevitable pain and suffering that is going to bring?  I also don’t think that offering me the choice of a fixed line office product for £70 a month is the best solution either.
 
Anyone got any ideas at all?  Paying £25 a month for 512k hurts in this day and age

Does your router provide line statistics - downstream attenuation and SNR at your current speed for example ?

off the top of my head I seem to remember its 60db and around 11

 the 512k connection is very solid btw - there are 3 of us that use it for gaming so I'm not too keen on suffering interleaving either...
 

If you are right that Zen cannot provide you with a lower speed service and I thought they could then I hope they don't mind me sugesting another provider.

I would not normally do that here but if they have told you they cant take your custom I don't see how they can object.

 www.ukfsn.org that is for unlimited service but you may get cheaper with limited bandwidth.

 

Thank you very much.

 I've tried emailing and phoning and I've been told that its going over to Max or nothing :( even as its acknowledged it won't give me what I want.

 I'll be so sad to say goodbye to Zen - all in all its been a happy 5 years or so
 

AlexandraW:

Thank you very much.

 I've tried emailing and phoning and I've been told that its going over to Max or nothing :( even as its acknowledged it won't give me what I want.

 I'll be so sad to say goodbye to Zen - all in all its been a happy 5 years or so
 

 Hi

If you were in MK and on the trial you'll be just about getting 512k I suspect, if you do move to another provider that does provide 1mb connections you may find you have problems with line drops etc.  When I worked in the BT BOU we were working with a lot of MK customers and despite the checkers stating 1mb was available achieving it was a different matter.

Personally after seeing the grief MK customers suffered I'd prefer to have a stable 512k connection than a flaky 1mb one but that's just me and theres no saying without seenig your line conditions and history that you wont get a decent 1mb but just be careful if you do decide to move.

Regards

Gary

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"The Internet is a global collection of single points of failure"

Your post is very interesting AlexandraW because I am exactly the same situation. I live in North Hampshire and whilst I don't really live in the sticks I am very far away from our exchange. I again only managed to get onto the ADSL ladder thanks to BT's LongReach scheme. I have been thinking long and hard about Max DSL taking into account that £25 is indeed a massive amount to pay for a 500 service but seeing all the grief people have suffered from Max DSL I really would not take the risk and I would urge you to do the same.

I dont know exactly what my line stats are because as people know routers cannot report attenuation higher then 63dB and thats what mine is reading and I have a Noise Margin of 10dB. So whilst my line stats are god-awful its a rock solid connection. 

My advice would be that despite both being in agreement that £25 is bordering on exorbident(sp?) I think its a small price to pay for the fact that we are getting a stable connection, and I hope for our sakes Zen won't be chucking us off this tarif for some time to come. I myself have set up Bi-Annual billing so I just pay Zen for their services twice a year. It seems to soften the blow slightly.