Force ISP to upgrade area?

[Gin N Rum 5454]

So I live in the UK, and quite frankly I've had enough with the same piss poor internet that has persisted in my area for years (70mbps up and 20mbps down is the best you can get), I was wondering if anyone has had any success with getting any ISP to upgrade the area to enable faster speeds. 

If anyone has any tips and any resources available I'd love to hear about them and any success stories on getting your ISP to upgrade the area.

Also, if I can't get an ISP to upgrade the area to better speeds, are there any other options available to me?

[Donut417]

2 minutes ago, Gin N Rum 5454 said:

are there any other options available to me?

Move. I mean thats pretty much the only way. We have the same issues here in the US. Rural America is lucky to have 3 Mbps DSL. I would say you could contact your elected representatives, i mean thats what they are there for, but its doubtful that will accomplish a lot.

 

We have our major cellular providers doing 4/5G home internet. Does any of the UK cellular providers do that? Speeds might be better.

[Gin N Rum 5454]

41 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Move. I mean thats pretty much the only way. We have the same issues here in the US. Rural America is lucky to have 3 Mbps DSL. I would say you could contact your elected representatives, i mean thats what they are there for, but its doubtful that will accomplish a lot.

 

We have our major cellular providers doing 4/5G home internet. Does any of the UK cellular providers do that? Speeds might be better.

4g/5g often more expensive and with limited data plans. I wouldn't expect them to be any faster either
 

[TylerD321]

7 minutes ago, Gin N Rum 5454 said:

4g/5g often more expensive and with limited data plans. I wouldn't expect them to be any faster either
 

Verizon is running a deal right now that if you get their home internet you can get a free xbox series X if that is something you're into and is available in your area. IDK if that is a US only promotion though.

[Donut417]

Just now, TylerD321 said:

Verizon is running a deal right now that if you get their home internet you can get a free xbox series X if that is something you're into and is available in your area. IDK if that is a US only promotion though.

Im not aware that Verizon does anything international. Im fairly certain all the telecom's and cable companies in the US only service the US.

 

Though Comcast does own Sky, which I think is a UK DSL provider.

[Yua]

What about Starlink?

Isn't this the whole reason for its existence?

[Eigenvektor]

5 hours ago, Yua said:

What about Starlink?

Isn't this the whole reason for its existence?

I would say Starlink is primarily about getting internet into places where there's no coverage otherwise. Interestingly, none of their service plans make any mention of speed other than "Unlimited high-speed, low-latency internet".

 

Their specs mention 25-100 Mbps down and 5-10 Mbps up for the Standard plan, with an availability of ≥99%. So performance may vary quite a lot and worst case almost 4 days of outage a year are considered within spec. So I'm not sure it would be much of an upgrade for OP.

 

8 hours ago, Gin N Rum 5454 said:

I was wondering if anyone has had any success with getting any ISP to upgrade the area to enable faster speeds.

Unless you're the government and are actually able get regulations into place that mandate certain minimums, there's no way to force a private company to do anything of the sort. Your only option is to find another ISP or move into an area with better service.

[DaITguy]

Crazy that your upload speed is faster than your download. I’ve always experienced the opposite. I’ve seen folks in your position do one of 2 things (in rural areas):

Find a friend who has a better connection and use WISP equipment to beam the signal to their house

OR

Start their own ISP/WISP to get internet for themselves and their neighborhood. 
Kinda pricey but….its an option. That’s my take. 

[Rishi556]

On 12/22/2023 at 12:19 AM, htimsenyawed said:

My ISP, Windstream quoted me $600 US per month for a 1Gbps dedicated fiber line for resale purposes OR $1800 US per month for the same thing, but in 10Gbps. 
 

If you have 30 neighbors in your area that agree to sign up, and charge them a reasonable rate (like $30 for 100Mbps/100Mbps) you could potentially break even on monthly costs. 

That's a ton of effort on your part too. Starting a business to improve 1 thing you have an issue with and not knowledgeable about won't end well. Might be better to petition city for municipal fiber.

[Donut417]

17 minutes ago, Rishi556 said:

That's a ton of effort on your part too. Starting a business to improve 1 thing you have an issue with and not knowledgeable about won't end well. Might be better to petition city for municipal fiber.

Depending on where you live municipal fiber might not be legal. I pretty sure our state made it illegal. Of course it was the ISPs who wrote the legislation. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

On 12/22/2023 at 1:25 AM, DaITguy said:

Crazy that your upload speed is faster than your download. I’ve always experienced the opposite.

Its not, they just got it backwards.

 

On 12/16/2023 at 1:40 AM, Gin N Rum 5454 said:

So I live in the UK, and quite frankly I've had enough with the same piss poor internet that has persisted in my area for years (70mbps up and 20mbps down is the best you can get),

Think yourself lucky, I know at least one person in rural Scotland still on unstable 3Mbit ADSL.

 

In most cases an ISP has no power over any of this, they use whatever infrastructure is available.  You're most likely on an Openreach connection (ie a BT telephone line) and entirely up to Openreach to decide if its worth their money to upgrade your area. 

 

Converting an area to fibre is not cheap, if they haven't decided to do it already then trying to pressure them to do so is unlikely to achieve anything.  The only practical way is to get your neighbours on board, but were still talking huge amounts of money.  If you're in an area they haven't deemed viable, it may very well be cheaper to buy a house somewhere else than foot that cost.

 

With the right-wing government we have right now, I'm actually surprised things have moved as quickly as they have.  But it was obvious they were never going to hit their original target of Gigabit for 100% of the country by 2025.

 

 

[Rishi556]

On 12/24/2023 at 2:23 PM, Donut417 said:

Depending on where you live municipal fiber might not be legal. I pretty sure our state made it illegal. Of course it was the ISPs who wrote the legislation. 

That's a bit friked up. Did not know that. 

[Donut417]

20 minutes ago, Rishi556 said:

That's a bit friked up. Did not know that. 

Its America, everything in this country is fucked up.