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* Posts by supermoore

19 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Aug 2009

'Boutique' ISPs: Snub the Big 4 AND get great service

supermoore

Quick correction

Both TalkTalk Technology and Vodafone use Dynamic Line Management on their LLU platforms, not just BTW. The protocols are different, with different levels of sophistication. TalkTalk and Vodafone will only manage line rate at the DSL layer, whereas BT then match that with management at the IP layer too.

The upshot is that on BTW if you replace a crappy filter your line rate will go up fairly quickly, but your actual speed (IP Profile) will lag up to 2 weeks behind unless you go through painful support processes. On the other networks, changes to DSL rate are instantly reflected in throughput.

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Phones for the elderly: Testers wanted for senior service

supermoore

Scheduling challenges

I like your idea, and have filled in the query form as I think I have a relative who would make use of this service.

However, I can foresee call centre scheduling and costs being a big factor here. For this to work, you'll need to be answering requests almost instantaneously and when you're small the law of averages won't operate properly meaning you'll need to over staff. Who's providing the call centre?

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Anger grows over the death of Aaron Swartz

supermoore
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Re: Comparing Turing to Swartz? Complete FAIL!

Just for those who come on this site and know me, this ^^^ isn't me by the way.

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BT broadband goes TITSUP - cripples Scots, Geordies, Northern Irish

supermoore
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Re: BT Openreach do the "last mile" between exchange and punter

Backhaul from the exchange is owned and managed by tier 1 service providers, rather than Openreach.

It's a complicated mix of ownership. In some cases BT will be leasing fibre off Virgin, in other cases the other way round. There's also C&W fibres in the mix. It's a complex peering arrangement, much like the connections on from these networks to the internet.

But no, Openreach don't own backhaul or the exchange kit (DSLAM/MSAN) that connects to it. Openreach are strictly HDF onwards towards the customer.

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Samsung Google Nexus 10 tablet review

supermoore
Meh

Cease Fire

This is a good tablet computer.

The iPad is also a good tablet computer.

Each will meet different people's needs more closely in different ways.

Choice is appropriate in a large market.

Grow up.

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Samsung readies bendy smarties for 2013

supermoore
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Re: I imagine

Samsung tried this via a design effect with the Nexus S, where at a glance it looks like the screen is slightly curved. Would produce some great looking phones, even if a slight curve is as far as it goes.

More exciting though is the idea of a "port-less" phone, with wireless charging and bluetooth headphones etc, where the screen is the entire outer surface of the phone. Cool.

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Somebody give BT a brolly: National telco blames RAIN for its pain

supermoore
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Re: Infinity (delays and excuses)

You've just perfectly described the difference between 3rd party contractors and experienced staff engineers.

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supermoore
FAIL

Openreach are a disgrace.

Currently the lead time for a (copper) line installation is knocking on 8 weeks in many parts of the country.

Having laid off hundreds of experienced engineers on early retirement deals to reduce costs, they are now having to hire them back through agencies like Kelly's. Of course, then they also get inexperienced and downright useless agency staff into the bargain.

The appointment you've waited 8 weeks for is missed by the engineer, or they turn up and such their teeth before "going to check something at the exchange" and never returning. Of course, there is then an 8 week wait for a replacement appointment.

Complaints? Escalations? Ofcom? Useless.

Take your business elsewhere? As a consumer, only if you're in Virgin's footprint or Hull. As a wholesaler or CP? Unlucky.

At least soon we will have a choice of several infrastructure providers thanks to the even distribution of taxpayer funded incentives for fibre infrastructure.

Oh... Wait...

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Android tablet review

supermoore
Meh

Build Quality

There's no mention here of the build quality, other than stating it's made of plastic and therefore light.

Other reviews have been extremely forthright in their crticism of poor, flexible materials used for the casing and I was hoping to find at least some comment passed on this in the Reg review one way or another. This review also seems to skip over the limitations of the split-screen functionality (gmail app not included in list of apps available in this mode, etc) mentioned elsewhere.

I usually find I get the detail I need from Reg reviews, but this doesn't seem to commit either way on some of the big questions being asked of this device elsewhere.

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Official: Britain staggers into double-dip recession doom

supermoore
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Re: Austerity?

There's lots of people in the thread saying that having children is a choice, and they are of course correct.

However, if everyone who can't really afford to do so stops having children for the next 5 years, what happens when the current 20-40s reach retirement with a life expectancy of 85+ and a small tax paying work force as a result of lower fertility rates? Ta-da the country either has to borrow heavily at that point, remove the welfare state altogether and enjoy watching large-scale deprivation and poverty amongst the eldery, or go bust. Japan is struggling with this right now, and China will not be far behind.

The situation is perilous enough in this regard already without further encouraging large portions of the population not to have children. If anything, looking at the long term we need more people to have children, not less.

This is typical of 4-year-term politics. Making decisions to appease people in the short to medium term that will have disasterous consequences for large numbers of people in the future.

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supermoore
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FAIL

Re: Austerity?

As has been adequately pointed out several times in this thread, the actual affect of such measures is often less important that the threat of them, or perception of them.

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers (far more than will be made redundant in the next 2 years) fear redundancy, and so do not spend what disposable income they have to hedge against this.

Families who may or may not lose tax credits and child benefit do likewise.

And importantly there is not just the real terms cuts that are made and threatened, but the absence of increase in investment, or reduction in value in the investment that remains due to high inflation. This clearly is resulting in less job creation and higher youth unemployment, again resulting in less money spent in the economy.

The mighty City is reassured that they will continue to be able to do what they like and interest rates stay low so we don't see mass repossesions (yet). Meanwhile anyone outside the home owning, self employed, share owning, Tory voting section of the population gets less well off by the day and the exonomy slowly starves as the wealth continues to accumulate in the investment funds and pensions of the wealthiest 10%.

Bonus.

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BT reveals fibre-to-the-cabinet plans for 156 exchanges

supermoore
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I hear that logic

but what you may find is that a lot of these affluent areas generate the highest rate of complaints and legal obstacles to installing the new cabinets, or disturbing pavement flags.

When Nynex were rolling out what is now the Virgin Media network, some of the most lucrative areas of Manchester were never cabled because residents lodged injunctions preventing the flags being lifted or cabinets installed. Seeing as by that time Nynex were losing money all over the place (and BT are hardly overjoyed about this whole process) they didn't bother challenging any of these and any area where people complained simply didn't get cabled.

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supermoore
FAIL

I genuinely look forward...

...to the day this roll out is completed, and everyone realises that the real problem is not the speed of connection to the exchange, but the amount of back haul bandwidth available.

By the time all this is completed, and the ISPs have used every drop of capital and mortgaged themselves to meet consumer demand for a higher headline rate, what use will your 25Mbps sync rate be if you're regularly drawing throughput of 2-3Mbps due to back haul congestion?

Of course, what will happen then is we will be invited to start paying by the unit, like we do for electricity and gas, so the providers can get their money back and deter people from their idea of over-use.

Classic mis-directed consumer (and media) pressure giving us what we think we want, but going no way towards solving the problems.

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BT accidentally chokes bandwidth to 'superfast' customers

supermoore
FAIL

Another reminder...

...if one were needed, that the headlong dash towards headline speeds (driven firmly by the consumer and the media) is running far ahead of desperately needed backhaul improvements.

When we all have the 100Mbps connections we are baying for, they won't run at even 10% of that unless BT Openreach and Virgin Media invest heavily in additional backhaul and core capacity.

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BT promises biggest ever rural broadband project

supermoore
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Beware ISPs bearing statistics.

What's the "capita" this is "per"? Significant differences if it's based on population, area, premises, or number of currently installed lines.

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supermoore
Grenade

I DEMAND...

...150Mbps interwebs directly to my brain! I demand that BT pay to install this, regardless of cost or viability, and go bust in the process! I then demand the government maintain the expensive infrastructure without paying a single penny more in line rental or taxation! I demand this within the next 48 hours! I refuse to pay any more than 14p per month for this uncapped, unmetered, unshaped service!

This is my RIGHT as a HUMAN BEAN.

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BT to throttle P2P for faster broadband

supermoore
Stop

The only surprise...

...is that anyone is surprised by this. This whole upgrade will do nothing to change the fact that the network backwards from the exchange is congested. In fact, it will only make that worse.

This is a result of the end user's constant quest for "higher speeds" at the expense of netwrok capacity. The money being spent on this would be far better spent doubling bandwidth capacity from exchanges into the backhaul networks.

There are still ISPs who just about provide an uncontended, unrestricted ADSL2+ service. O2 are creaking under the weight of their own success now, but Virgin ADSL in LLU areas is an example, and there should be another mass market player with this as a key selling point coming along soon,

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Virgin Media 'overwhelmed' by broadband customers fleeing BT

supermoore

Reply to YobRenopps

Virgin ADSL is over the Cable and Wireless LLU network where available, rather than BTW.

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supermoore

Worst of both worlds

In reply to Sarah Davis;

The problem with most ADSL2+ providers such as O2 and Be is that they are SMPF services, meaning they are providing only the port and exchange equipment and network back from there, and not the copper running to your home. That's what your line rental, usually to BT is for. If you're getting 2Mbps on a 1km line, it's unlikely to be a problem with the equipment, and very likely to be a problem with the copper.

Of course what should happen, is you should be able to report the poor copper to your line rental provider, who should make sure it is of good enough quality for modern ADSL services. However, because BT Openreach insist on using a line test based on the outdated SIN349 spec (really only designed for voice frequencies), actually making this happen is near to impossible, so your ISP has to dance around with Openreach trying to get engineering work done on a service which they really have nothing to do with, at massive cost to them and potentially to you also.

Openreach should be forced to update its benchmark for what quality of line constitutes acceptable service, and this would allow people to get value for the line rental they pay. Very few people are paying that line rental for a voice service now, they're paying it for exatly what it says it is, rental of a good quality working line.

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