OV9

ZZOOMM have recently laid their fibre cables in our area for FTTP and I'm going to sign up. They're promising 150Mbps on the basic £33/month service and up to 2000Mbps if I want to pay £99/month. Which I don't of course but it's nice to know the capacity is there for the future.

I've got the option of 330mbps g.fast, once I get the new job pay packet, I'll need to see if IDnet are going to push for FTTP or if I'm stuck with such....pauper-spec internet forever.

Ooh, you'll be able to download those 48k games in no time!

I prefer ZZAP meself.



Speccy twat.

(I'm was a Commie Bastard)

Definitely an ISP for the 8-bit era, either way

Update. Today’s the day. Installation is due this afternoon. But there’s no clear route from the pavement to the house without digging up the driveway so I’m totally expecting them to say “oh, that’s a bit tricky” and then leave again.

They were able to run the fibre cable through the existing underground channel to our house. However my mates house across the road...The channel was blocked and they had to dig his garden up! YMMV.

Is digging up the driveway still a thing? 25 years ago when I was still living at home with Mum and Dad I wanted a couple of extra lines put in for my own internet shenanigans and the BT people had a little difficulty with the existing copper to the house, so brought in what I think they called a 'mole' (don't remember the colour) to drill through underneath the lawn and pull a cable through.

Digging up the garden/driveway seems a little.... 1970 to me.

Gigaclear dug a trench to put in our fibre a few years ago. Fortunately the drive is gravel and alongside a lawn so very easy for them to do; I don't think they'd have bothered to mole it if they had a mole.

It's up to the contractor how they do it but you'd hope that the fibre company would be aware that many houses don't have front gardens which they can dig up. What would they do with block paving? Something like this...?

When I had Hyperoptic install their cable in my flat I couldn’t believe how lazy they were. The chap just drilled through through the wall above my doorway chucked the cable through then tacked it against the skirting board and drilled another cable through into the cupboard. This was all a stud wall too.

I got properly pissed at him and he told me that this is how they do all their installs unless you pay extra and they get a 2 man team down. I called to cancel it and have them repair my walls at which point they said they’d do it properly and fix the walls…

Nice caulking job and you can still see the tack marks!

OK then. I am very impressed indeed. ZZOOMM have been completely brilliant

The appointment was booked for 2pm-5pm. Two guys turned up just before 2pm, we had a brief conversation about where the cable was going and they set to. A couple more guys turned up about 3pm and we had all four of them working on it. The whole job was done and the line activated by 16:45.

On their standard 150Mbps service I'm getting a symmetrical 190-ish Mbps on a wired connection and very nearly the same on my phone if I stand right by the router it obviously tails off as you move further away.

A very curious thing though - on my laptop, on wifi, I only get ~70 down, the same as I got before, but I still get the whole 190 up. What's going on there ?

Jobbo wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 1:12 pm What would they do with block paving?

They did this. They carefully lifted a single zig-zag of blocks, set the cable into the sand underneath, and put the blocks back. Apart from some fresh sand visible you’d never know it had been touched.

Sundayjumper wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 6:28 pm A very curious thing though - on my laptop, on wifi, I only get ~70 down, the same as I got before, but I still get the whole 190 up. What's going on there ?

Fixed. Intel® Killer™ Performance Suite is a pile of toss. I uninstalled it and I now get 190 up & down.