Penicuik Broadband

I see Penicuik is on the list for a BT broadband exchange upgrade

http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/broadband-news/bt-reveals-63-locations-due-a-broadband-exchange-upgrade

Very interesting and it must be BT trying to catch up with the LLU ISPs such as Talk Talk and Sky who have been taking lots of their business away. Good news for all Internet users in Penicuik as it will mean faster and more reliable connections.

That is interesting. I wonder if the benefits of the upgrade will be immediately available after the work has been done or whether the ISPs will have to do anything? I've just had a look at my Orange account and it looks like I could save myself £7 a month if I switch to another package with them

They certainly seem to be busy at the moment as Monday saw the green cabinet on Mauricewood Road replaced. When you see all the jumble of wires inside these junction boxes you wonder how any of it can possibly work, never mind the amazing amount of data which travels over those tiny little wires!
It will be interesting to see how it affects broadband speeds once the system goes live - it might be very necessary in Penicuik since we might have no shops here soon with the way things are going!

I had talk talk at the door yesterday advising that they are doing an upgrade over the next few days and we should see a significant change in the speed of our broadband

gonzo wrote:

I had talk talk at the door yesterday advising that they are doing an upgrade over the next few days and we should see a significant change in the speed of our broadband

Sounds great as I am also on Talk Talk and already getting 16M+ download speeds for much less than other people play for "up to 8M" service. Hard to think that 512k broadband or even 56k dialup used to seem fast a few years ago

I am helping an elderly neighour who has decided she would like to jump on the Internet band wagon. As she does not have a broadband connection I hooked my laptop up using a dial-up connection. I had forgotten just how bad it used to be By the end of the session I was ready to throw the instrument of torture through the window

Anyway, at the moment I am lucky if I get 2 Mbps from my broadband connection, never mind 8 or 16

2Mbp is about normal, Andy.
The "experts" at BT's call centre keep telling me I'm getting 6 and keep on insisting even when I say I'm not. Probably a language problem!

Know someone thats just moved over to Sky broadband, who tell him that he might get a whopping 1mb download speed - In practice though it's about 5 and from what I can tell 8mb is about max for here.

I'm really annoyed with Argos I gave my neighbour a shot of my Vodafone dongle to let her connect to the Internet. I looked up the Argos catalogue and found that they were selling them for £35. She bought one during the week and told me that the credit would run out at the end of the month According to the catalogue there are no monthly bills like mine so I could not understand this. Checking her credit confirmed this. However, I then looked the item up online and it says that the credit only lasts for a month

You should be able to get well over 8M on the LLU networks (eg. O2, Sky, Talk Talk)
I am a Talk Talk customer and this is what my router shows:

Downstream Line Rate : 17050 kbps
Upstream Line Rate : 1020 kbps

Sky users seem to get a much slower upstream rate for some reason - around 300 to 400k. You might find that asking your ISP about moving elsewhere will prompt them to upgrade your line to the faster speed most new customers get - they tend to just leave things as they are unless you complain. The only place you would get around 1M connections now is well out of town at places such as Nine Mile Burn or farms which are well away from main roads.

It all depends on how far you are from the exchange and the quality of the phone line. I don't know where the exchange is but it will probably be somewhere in Penicuik. Therefore, as far as I am concerned I'm likely to be at least 2 miles from the exchange. Living in Penicuik, I would expect the speed to be much faster.

I see the Penicuik Super Fast Broadband rollout ( http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk ) has been deferred by BT!

PENICUIK ESPCK FTTC Lothian Deferred - http://www.openreach.co.uk/exchange_plan

Dear old BT! Always good for a laugh.
I'm not trying to rub it in (no, really, I'm not) but at this moment I am getting a download speed of 14.8 and an upload of just under 1. If the French can do it in the wilds of rural Burgundy what the hell is the matter with BT?
Don't bother to answer that.

This story might be the reason, although it seems a bit silly when they have already put the new cabinets in place here. I suppose that is typical of BT.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/sep/30/cornwall-broadband-bt

So far there have only been 4 votes for faster broadband for Penicuik http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/04/bt_fibre_comp/

If you want to add your area to the list vote here
http://www.racetoinfinity.bt.com/