On Sat, 2005-10-08 at 13:35 +0100, Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk wrote:
So the dilemma is: If I order broadband from a non-BT ISP, where would their engineer stand, being non-BT, in the event of difficulties arising from the BT part of the system (the setup in the exchange, the length and quality of the overhead cable, the final line from the pole to my house, etc. The latter, for instance, had to be renewed by a BT engineer a while ago because its covering had perished, letting the rain in to the cable. Who knows what the cable's like further back along the line ... )?
Generally it won't matter, most of the ISP's that have been discussed buy the ADSL from BT Broadband wholesale and BT will put the same amount of effort (it seems more effort in some cases) into fixing issues with those lines as they would if it was a BT Openworld or whatever account.
When it comes down to differences in getting long reach issues resolved is down to how committed each ISP is to getting new customers signed up. There are options to get customers near or over the long reach threshold connected, but all of these require the ISP to forward a long reach request to BT. Even then not all exchanges are long reach capable (although I'd hope that a newly converted one was).
So in sort your chances of getting a connection with a good ISP are equal to getting connected via BT (or some would say a bit higher)
Also at a line length of 5km (assuming the lines are in good order) you are within the threshold for 512Kbs at least. I am at 4km and am happily sitting at 2Mbs. I think you are allowed up to about 60db attenuation before they will refuse to even try anything other than long reach services. As a general rule of thumb allow about 10db per km of cable (although it does vary depending on the state of the cable or condition and number of termination points in the loop)