If I were my neighbour, I might have a word with BT. They advertise an 8Mbps DSL connection for about £27 per month. I decided to order Tiscali, so that we have the advantage of different service providers should something go wrong - we can always share if the other party has a problem.

We’re still using their BT connection as Tiscali couldn’t install our broadband yet: there was a problem with our BT line. I decided to test te BT connection, and the results are below:

As you can see, it’s not quite 8Mbps, and I can promise you it’s not totally DSL (more likely ADSL).

I can hear my South African readers ripping their hair out in envious frustration. To make it even worse, I need to remind you that the “real” exchange rate is not 1:14, but rather about 1:4 or 1:5. In other words, if you earn a UK salary, then this package would cost you about R120 or R130.

My point is actually that BT is nearly as effective as Telkom. In the first 2 days with them I already had a problem: our line wasn’t working.

The upside is that we have a choice - I moved all our broadband as well as our calls away from them. Tiscali is now handling our calls as well. There are other providers as well that allow this, so at least we have the option of moving our calls as well as our Internet connections. It is also cheaper, yes. So we end up still having to pay BT for line rental, but nothing else.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 17th, 2006 at 12:26 @476 and is filed under Media, Broadband. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.