Alderley gets faster broadband

by Lisa Reeves

Monday 12^th September 2011

Mon 12^th Sep 2011

BT have upgraded the Alderley Edge exchange to ADSL2+ which means that some local residents can now expect considerably faster download speeds.

As a result of the upgrade, anyone on this exchange will be able to get up to 20 Mb broadband, subject to the usual limits on speed - based on factors such as line length and quality.

A BT spokesman said "As with previous versions of ADSL, the headline speed is only available up to approximately 0.8 to 1km from the exchange."

The upgrade is not BT Infinity, which has been rolled out in places like Knutsford where they can achieve download speeds of up to 40Mb, but the maximum speed I can now achieve is 17Mb compared with only 7Mb on the old network.

Use the speed checker on BT's website or Sams Knows to do a personalised check for your property and receive an estimate of how fast your broadband connection should be.

The BT spokesman added "While automatic regrades may be put through, which is increasingly the case as BT tries to move everyone on to the newer and faster 21CN telephony network, people can also contact their supplier and have their account regraded to ADSL2+.

"If they are with BT Business then this can be done through the main Sales number - 0800 400 400."

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Ricky Lee

Monday 12^th September 2011 at 12:46 pm

Just tested, 11.5Meg download and 1Meg upload, not bad, At least a step in the right direction.

Jon Williams

Monday 12^th September 2011 at 3:01 pm

Between 7.5Mb and 17.5Mb
(Estimated speed: 13.0Mb)
With BT

Malcolm McClean

Monday 12^th September 2011 at 5:07 pm

Do you know that feeling when you just want to scream? It usually involves trying to get some sense from one of the world's 'greatest' communications companies. I called the number above just to make sure I was regraded. The voice recognition system didn't recognised the word 'regraded', 'upgraded'. 'ADSL2+' or any other combination of similar words. We eventually settled for "you want to speak to someone about the internet?" The first human took all my details and then despite me reading from the BT spokesman in the press release, she didn't have a clue. After waiting for five minutes she said she would put me through to someone who could help. Eventually reception answered and asked for all my details again. Eventually Colin came on the line and took all my details again. I read out the press release for the third time. Colin spotted a problem. I'm out of contract with BT Business (and as a result pay more for my Broadband than an in-contract user) so I can't have ADSL2+ unless I enter into a long term agreement with them.

I'm so mad I feel like writing a load of exclamation marks !!!!

Lisa Reeves

Monday 12^th September 2011 at 5:54 pm

Malcolm - this wasn't from a press release. I had to go through the same painful process to try and obtain the information.

The voice recognition system completely failed to understand me so in the end I had to leave a voicemail for them to phone me back.

I also sent an email but I've just spent a couple of minutes trying to find how I managed to do this via their website and have given up.

If anyone wants to contact BT and gets frustrated with the phone system you might have better success emailing BT Business Support at .

Mark Williams

Monday 12^th September 2011 at 8:14 pm

I've got a question. Lets assume someone could cable you all up with a fibre directly into your house......you would receive symmetric 100mbps speeds.
How much would you pay for this service?
Serious question?

Marc Asquith

Tuesday 13^th September 2011 at 9:13 am

Has no one heard of Virgin - I get a pretty reliable 45 - 48 megs from their 50 meg service. Its gotta be available throughout most of the village.

As for top speeds - in theory you could lease a line - it's what businesses do for guaranteed speeds. But it's expensive - I think we paid something like £ 7000 to have a fibre cable laid all the way into our office in Leicester and then there is a large monthly rental as well - several hundred pounds from memory. The contract is for five years after which we will be in a strong negotiating position to reduce the monthly payments substantially.

Neil Stelling

Tuesday 13^th September 2011 at 5:01 pm

Marc is right. You don't need to play these games with a company that doesn't deserve your business... !

And who needs a BT landline in a world of mobiles ?

Alderley Edge has been served by Virgin Broadband for at least 7 years, and I can confirm you actually get the speed they advertise (ask BT to confirm same), and never had the slightest problem in 7 years as a customer. My only complaint is that it seems more expensive than other options.

Mark Dermody

Tuesday 13^th September 2011 at 8:53 pm

I don't think Mark Williams question was rhetorical. There are many villages who have circumvented the "traditional" connections to the world wide web by installing their own fibre ring or at least getting a company to provide it. If my memory serves me correctly Virgin charge about £35 per month for their 50 Meg package although they do some traffic shaping in the background. So 100 Meg, £70 -£100 per month? The only point that Virgin fall down on is they don't provide fixed I.P addresses so it's no good to me. Maybe Mark can put forward a business case as the CEO of one of the worlds leading fibre providers?

Wednesday 14^th September 2011 at 3:11 pm

Thanks for your comments Mark. By the way all you Virgin 'Angels' out there. I'd keep quiet about the speed of your service. If Virgin catches on, the last thing you need is 10 more customers subscribing in every street in Alderley. Your connection speed will be shot to pieces, just like BT's used to be and I promise Virgin will not be investing heavily in improving their network.