I was considering going back to sky as they now offer 16mb broadband with tv package. It works out about £42 per month for the TV phoneline and Broadband. I rang up homechoice and said I would like to cancel my subscription.....they then offered me 4 months free homechoice (I get the MAX pack - £47 per month ) so what do I do? I am not sure now I should switch, any suggestions????

Just because Sky offer 16 meg doesnt mean you'll get 16 meg and in all probability you'd still have the same speed connection, it all depends on your phone line.

I'd take the 4 months free and see what happens to Homechoices services once tiscali's takeover takes hold.

With all due that's complete rubbish. Sky use ADSL2+ and Homechoice don't so nearly all users will see a speed benefit using Sky over using Homechoice. The extra 1.1MHz available on ADSL2+ is generally kinda useful to most people.

Also OP can watch TV without it affecting his internet speeds, which it would on HC due to the internet service using the same bandwidth as the TV.

With HC's current deals I fail to see a reason not to take Sky and Sky broadband over Homechoice, only reason to take Homechoice at present is if you can't / don't want to get Sky.
Last edited by BBRealist : 17-09-2006 at 23:39

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1873478,00.html
"BSkyB's newly launched broadband internet service is causing consternation among some customers who have encountered a variety of glitches.
Complaints range from customers who registered weeks ago and have still heard nothing, to those who are connected to the "Max" 16Mb speed package but have a very slow service, and others whose broadband boxes have died after just a few days' use."

Personally, if they're going to offer you 4 months free, I'd take the 4 months - it'll give both Homechoice/Tiscali time to sort out what they're doing, and Sky time to sort out these glitches.

Fail to see the relevance of that to claiming that customers on Sky will see no speed improvement over taking HC but *shrug*

All services see issues, sad part of offering services is that some people won't go to plan. What it has to do with claiming that ADSL delivers the same speeds as ADSL2+ I'm not sure.

My own speeds took a huge jump when I moved from Homechoice to an ADSL2+ service - they more than doubled moving from 930kB/s download to nearly 2.4MB/s download speed from sites that had the bandwidth to deliver.
Last edited by BBRealist : 17-09-2006 at 23:45

>from sites that had the bandwidth to deliver.

Yes, thats the problem isn't it. Very few sites can deliver the data fast enough for a 8mbit service never mind 16Mb. Forget anything outside the UK for a start.

I am currently gettins close to the speed of 8mbit a sec as I download at 800k per sec on my homechoice internet connection, Will sky be faster than this? This is my main concern as I have read some people who say they are only getting 2mbps. I need to know if I am going to get a faster connection with the sky package.
Last edited by bLaZeR666_uk : 18-09-2006 at 13:02

If you can find out the capacitance and length of your line it will help to make your decision - the better the figures, the better the chances of faster speeds.

You really are a Tart aren't you?
Have you for forgotten your comments of
27th July 2006


Or what about the good old days in November 2005


Funny how time no matter how short is a great healer

Any new service has the potential to be problematic to start with. If you have a stable service, stick with it and let things settle down. Don't forget that you may loose ALL ADSL service for up to a month if you try to move from ANY LLU provider, be it Easynet, Sky, HC or Tiscali.

If you get four months free, its a no brainer, take it. HC/Tiscali will be offering a new service package soon-ish apprently. Check that out first.

ADSL2+ will probably be faster on the same line, above a certain distance then it makes little difference although reach is further. Is it worth switching ISP's to go to ADSL2+ a few months quicker? No.

I would disagree with that, it's an excuse that was very commonly used when the cableco's went to 10Mbit and some areas didn't have the capacity. Backbone capacity continues to increase, necessarily, to cope with increased demand for broadband content. Servers are often as not connected via gigabit ethernet. Only very small and very busy servers will be unable to deliver good speeds.

I've found several sites which can deliver considerably over 8Mbit, from work I have found sites that deliver 40+Mbit/s both in Europe and North America.

All the above said if you're that desperate to move, move, however an LLU to LLU migration could leave you without services for a while, and if you are being offered 4 months free there's really no harm in staying there. You can't really save money while on the 4 free months.
Last edited by BBRealist : 20-09-2006 at 17:37

And hopefully by the time the 4 months is up, Ofcom would also have sorted out the LLU to LLU migration problem and that should be as seemless as a normal broadband migration.

So, what I think everyone is saying is you might as well just take the 4 months free and then look again and what's available.

BBBS, If you can point me to US sites that can offer over 8mb download to the Uk I'd like to test them. Any UK sites that can do the same to my West Coast host site?

Much as I hate to dignify people calling me 'BBBS' a swift look at http://www.dslreports.com/archive?c=uk shows speedtests that are over 8Mbit.

Sadly as I don't have access to a West Coast box to test speeds to UK sites I have no idea of your second point.

I didn't even consider that download managers and Usenet will allow you to hugely go over those single stream speeds.

A lot depends on the TCP window size, window scaling, etc, that are used.

If your machine is set up suboptimally and is being RWIN limited perhaps you should consider a little tweaking: http://www.dslreports.com/drtcp

I was asking for actual, real, working websites than can provide downloads that approach 8mbit downloads in practice. Not speedtests.

The reason is, run a a speed test from a Westcoast hosted PC with a 100mbit/1 Gbit burst to ADSLguide speed test (for example) and you will get a download speed of 800kbit. Do it the other way and you will get a similar result. The local loop isn't the bottleneck.
There are very few web sites that have the capability of giving the data out at more than 1-2mbit, unless you can show me an example.

Peter We / BBRealist - what the hell is this, some kind of big girly love in, get back to flinging sh*t at each other!

Let me help out here. Peter We, never mind who BBRealist works for, who do you work for? I once asked you if you worked for HC and you were very indignant about it, but you accuse those who criticise HC as being employees of competitors. You've used bullying tactics, dug up their irrelevant former posts and used some p*ss poor name calling (BBBS?). You have used every opportunity to big-up HC services, and even after the embarressment of HCs capitulation to Tiscali due to the cash flow problems that you said didn't exist, now you try to make out that its a great strategic move. So come on Peter We, who do YOU work for?

I work for a web development company, I have nothing to do with any media type company and never have, I don't even know anybody who has ever worked in a ISP. I don't have any financial interest in the industry.
I'm quite happy to state that in front of a lawyer under oath.

I just sick to death of the bullshit posted by anonymous mudslingers in this forum, so I like to counter the NTL FUD. If you don't like it, post in the forum for your ISP instead.

Incidentally BT Vision will be launching soon with less channel choice than HC and several disadvantages (Freeview reception). How come BT can see a viable business in IPTV?

As far as I can tell, people have been using this forum quite responsibly - you are suffering from major paranoia if you think all the criticism of HC here is "bullshit posted by anonymous mudslingers" from masked NTL spies.

The only mudslinging done in the locked thread was by you. I posted opinions which you had no answer for. Considering it's alledgedly bullshit the fact you had no response beyond attacking the poster was disappointing. I'm sure we've been there before.

This is an open forum, anyone can post here. You clearly have a problem with freedom of speech when it disagrees wtih you, perhaps open your own forum. Am sure I've already suggested that too.

I seriously doubt that ntl have ever considered Homechoice as being a great rival to them. When I worked for them Homechoice weren't even considered, and why should they be? Zen Internet aren't considered a 'threat' to BT Broadband, Homechoice wouldn't be on the radar to Sky and Cable. It's like Tesco being concerned by the threat of the local corner shop - doesn't happen.


You also appear to have problems seperating HC from IPTV. I see nothing wrong with IPTV, HC are a user of that technology, one that burned through phenomenal amounts of money and never really delivered on the promise of the technology, ending up hundreds of millions later being bought by Tiscali for 50 million quid with less than 50 thousand customers.

Can't be bothered with this either really. Been here before, anyone posts something negative you jump down their throat. You are incapable of any debate, and are either incredibly biased, a liar, or get off on causing grief in forums.

Either way I'll leave this to you. All this from me mentioning that HC didn't offer ADSL2+ (which they don't), have a limited channel line up (which they do), and that they were offering 4 months free to give themselves a chance to get their house in order as they know the products aren't competitive, which in your world is 'bullshit'.

I'm off to go invade some other forums seeing as I'm some sort of forum secret agent apparently, anonymously slinging mud, as of course is everyone else with a bad word to say against HC.

When you read your statement back I hope you'll realise how ridiculous what you said really is. Those of us in the real world don't have time for this.
Last edited by BBRealist : 21-09-2006 at 18:03

You opinons are worthless beacause they are tainted by biase. You are involved in the industry and you have come to this forum to anonymusly cast doubt of HC future. I telling you to shut up and go away. I have every right to say posative agood things about HC. You have NO RIGHTS to critisise HC. It is not a 'freedom of speech' issue. Post your real name and employer and then post derogatory remarks, I will not object.

BT Vision offer an even more limited line up than HC, does that mean they will fail? why would HC's line have to be compared to anything else, other than Freeview?
HC has its place, he same as does BT Vision, Freeview and TUTV. Sky fans like to Poo-Poo Freeview, but its vastly outselling Sky.

Yours aren't of course. The ridiculous statements you've made in the past are totally untainted by bias. All industry information must have pointed to Homechoice having 100,000 customers by the start of this year, growing them at 600 / day or 5,000 a week depending which post of yours we read.


I seriously doubt that any postings on Digital Spy will in any way affect the long term future of Tiscali. If you consider that to be the case it's just more evidence of paranoia.

On another matter Homechoice weren't far from bankruptcy prior to the Tiscali deal and they indicated themselves they were having a cash crisis, which you conveniently ignore.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1843895,00.html


I actually suspect that the Guardian are involved in the industry and wrote the above in collaboration with me and my 'handlers' in an attempt to bring Homechoice down as well. It's all total misreporting. Homechoice actually have 200,000 customers, never had any money issues, and are gaining 50,000 customers a month.

I think Tiscali are against Homechoice as well. They implied Homechoice lost 3500 customers between end of Q1 and the time of takeover in a 3 month period. We controlled Tiscali's press release as well. We are everywhere.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/n...kFululNXEMivCG

I'm quite surprised actually, in the midst of my anti-HC ranting that I'm apparenrtly being paid to post I actually said:


I was wrong on the downside. Guess that was just my anti-HC side showing again.


Reread the above and you'll see what a ridiculous statement, again, you've made. I don't see your real name and employer on here just a reference to their industry. It is my absolute right on a public forum to retain my privacy. I am not in the habit of advertising exactly who I am and what I do, the internet is full of idiots, as evidenced by your postings on this thread. I have visions of you turning up at my place of work with a Homechoice sandwich board and picketing it.

I have every right to say whatever I please in this forum within the rules of the forum. I have every right to post facts regarding the Homechoice service, and I have every right to post my personal opinion of them. You do not have the right to keep making these accusations regarding me personally, nor do you have the right to keep on with these personal attacks because you don't like what I have to say.

This is so pathetic. Again you can't offer any kind of response to the points made because you know they are true, so you instead go back to this paranoid garbage about how anyone saying anything negative is an industry spy trying to make Homechoice bankrupt. I hate to break it to you but Homechoice had a history of being quite able to do that themselves.


Until you know exactly what and how BT Vision's business model will run, no-one can comment. It may be Freeview with paid for VoD / premium content only, no monthly fee.

Freeview outselling Sky? No really? One off payment service in outselling premium subscription service shock!!!

I really can't be bothered with this. I did say I wasn't going to come back but made the mistake of reading this thread again.

On the off chance you can get your head out of your lower intestinal tract, and escape from your Homechoice branded Faraday cage long enough to pay attention I have no professional interest in anything Homechoice do.

At the end of the day, even if I did have a professional interest and were some sort of industry super-spy, the fact you have done nothing but attack me rather than attack what was said in the post which kicked all of this off speaks volumes more than I could.

If what I said were really that inaccurate you wouldn't be needing to try and tell me to, in your own words, 'shut up and go away' you'd be able to shoot me down with facts. You've consistently failed to do that so I'll treat your insults, accusations and innuendo with the disrespect they deserve. As far as I'm concerned from now your posts on this forum don't exist. It's not worth my reading and certainly not replying to such nonsense.

Long post, Summary?

why don't you 2 just have a fight and be done with it?

sums up joe pedantic