Do I take the plunge and upgrade to infinity?

Question

Hi all,
After months of the BT wholesale checker saying that Infinity will go live on my phone number by the 31st Decemeber it has finaly been updated to say that it is now available.  However I have some concerns.
Over the past few months I have visited these forums and have seen a great deal of people with issues.  Some are simple and quite nasty.  I'm concerned because I work from home a lot and our family busines whilst not using the internet very heavy does indeed rely on it.  I have heard story's like peoples orders being cancelled and then they are left with no internet what so ever.  For me this would be VERY bad.  For the family business just 3 or 4 days could do damage that would not be reversable.
I have 2 friends who have ordered infinity in the last 3 months in different areas and both had problems, one had the order cancelled saying that even though the checker said he could get it, he's order was cancelled, but they turned everything off a couple of days after the cancelation, his phone and internet where down for around 3 weeks.  My other friend still has major issues and his fault is now being delt with the BT CEO's assistant.
Problem for me is that I want Infinity rather than need it,  Everything works fine on my ADSL connection now wth BT. I get around 5mb down and just under 1mb upload, whilst infinity is not essentual it would be a big bonus in it's upload speed.
I'm itching to order but BT's reputation holds me back.  Any thoughts or personaly experiences to help me make up my mind?
Thanks
Dean.

Answer 1

Yes, don't even think about it. If you can have it, grab it.
I was wary of BT also, but I think they do a pretty good job overall, given they don't directly run the network, thats Openreach. I also figure they should still have greater influence with Openreach than any other ISP. It's also easer to talk to someone at BT than any other ISP I've been with over the years.
The price diff between Total broadband and Infinity option 1 is v. little. Why would you stay with 5M, if you can get 5 to 8 x speed? 5M was great up until last year, but no longer. They are saying Openreach will double infinity speeds to 80M.
I remember moving off dial-up to Broadband(sort of) at 1/4 M, blissful at the time, but laughable now. 
Yes of course some people have had problems, or some initial disatisfaction (myself included), but I wouldn't let that deter you.
I think you would be extremely unfortunate if an Openreach engineer left you without a workable connex of at least 3 times yr current speed. In fact I believe if they can't give you at least 15M they won't put you on Infinity. The first ten days your speed will prob vary quite significantly. You have to let that happen, BT retail will not take any action, until that period has elapsed.
If after 2weeks yr speed is significantly off that BT said, or "promised" - "Contractual Speed" even, as I used to goad BT with, then you have to stamp your foot and be firm. Tell BT to  insist Openreach get on with it, if you have important business traffic, tell them that right at the start. Do not waste time on the Indian call centre after the first time, go straight to Warren Buckley, BT Sales Director via email or twitter, he'll pass yr case to Executive level Complaints who'll put Openreach's nose to the grindstone. Without ELC, I might still be lanquishing on sub 20M, but they got me to my target/contract of 30.7M, now seem to be getting up to 35M.
Having an Openreach engineer set up the system, instead of receiving a new modem in by post and told to do it yourself is good. It's your one opportunity to get info on your situation, such as where yr cabinet is, not ness the nearest one, whether the cable is copper or aluminium (bad news). You also get a new master socket fitted, and if you want it in a diff. room they should do that also, free, gratis.
Great start to the New Year, I reckon.
Bernardo