What is pissing you off this time?

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by DanaC

To be fair to TalkTalk, the people I speak to are usually really lovely and helpful and try to explain things in non-tech speak as much as possible.

The problem isn't actually TalkTalk. The problem is the archaic exchange and equipment, all of which is out of their hands. They've now put in their own unbundling equipment, but: the BT Openreach people who actually install it haven't installed a 'testhead' so when the TalkTalk engineer came to my house he was unable to run the full suite of tests.

They managed to get it sorted and it worked slowly for a few days - then the engineer came out and said the problem was at the exchange. Then the guy at the tech department chamged my profile and got it working quite well - for about two days.

Now it's back to an erratic 1/3 meg, with lots of dropping.

Going to another provider wouldn't help. TalkTalk is currently the only provider with their own equipment in the exchange - no other provider can offer unbundled services, so any other provider would present the same problem. The problem is on the BT infrastructure.

I have talked to several providers and they all say the same thing - initially they say they can help,and that according to their tests my line should be capable of 1-3 meg. Then when I explain the situation they say it probably wouldn't be any better.

When I talked to the BT engineer last year, he also said it wuoldn't be any different, even if I went with BT.

I am equidistant between two exchanges. They are both ancient, overcrowded with equipment and overheated (the BT engineer reckons it must breach health and safety for the lads who work there)

I saw an ad from Virgin Media in the newspaper the other day which offered a cable internet connection without having to buy phone or TV packages. Is your area supplied by Virgin or BT fibre optic cable? I don't know how much it would cost and, in these straitened times, that of course may be the stumbling block. Might be worth investigating.

ETA Check here by post code: http://www.cable.co.uk/guides/broadband-in-my-area/