4 ms·

ADSL2+ was widely available from the mid-2000s onward. I remember having an ADSL connection from the now-defunct 'Be' broadband provider (delivered over BT / Op

ADSL2+ was widely available from the mid-2000s onward. I remember having an ADSL connection from the now-defunct 'Be' broadband provider (delivered over BT / Openreach copper). It was rated as 'up to' 24Mbit/s down and I got sustained download rates of 17Mbit/s. Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) was great for broadband options.

smilespray 5y ago
For me, LLU only meant choosing which company logo was on top of the invoice for the same, crappy ADSL service in central London. Moved away in '13, hope things have improved.
- rahimnathwani 5y ago
  You can think of the internet connection consisting of two parts: 1. The copper from your home to the exchange. 2. Everything from the exchange to the rest of the internet. LLU meant that we had options for #2. Not all providers were the same. Some had better networks, better peering with other networks etc. than others. Or they had more infrastructure per customer. However, #1 was also a bottleneck. Where I live (in San Francisco) all the available copper pairs are in such a state that ADSL will only get me something like 3MBit/s at the best of times. And there's no way to get that copper upgraded. So whether I order ADSL from AT&T or Sonic, the connection will be bad.* Perhaps your situation was similar? * Thankfully both Monkey Brains and Xfinity have good service at the same address.
  - smilespray 5y ago
    Yep, very similar. It was the same when I lived in LA in the early 2000s, but that was at the beginning of DSL rollout, so I'm going to cut Verizon et al a nanometre of slack.
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    > 1. The copper from your home to the exchange. > 2. Everything from the exchange to the rest of the internet. Also, 1A - the equipment at each end of the copper. The CLEC owned the CPE and the DSLAM, the only thing which is the same for any provider would be the copper itself. Source: Worked at a CLEC for more than a decade.
  - fmajid 5y ago
    And Sonic has its own fiber in the Sunset.
philjohn 5y ago
LLU, and now the successor to it with FTTX where OpenReach manages the last mile and has a capped fee they can charge ISP's has done wonders for competition in the broadband space. You have "pack em in and sell it cheap" providers like PlusNet, super techy focussed providers like AAISP (and to a lesser extend Zen) and those in the middle.
- rahimnathwani 5y ago
  > AAISP I used Andrew & Arnold for a while when they offered bonded ADSL, i.e. a single virtual internet connection carried over two pairs of copper. It was plenty for our office of 10-15 people. ISTR having to use a PC as a router, with a special ADSL whose chipset was supported by some special 'bonded adsl' linux or *bsd distribution.

smilespray 5y ago

For me, LLU only meant choosing which company logo was on top of the invoice for the same, crappy ADSL service in central London. Moved away in '13, hope things have improved.

rahimnathwani 5y ago
You can think of the internet connection consisting of two parts: 1. The copper from your home to the exchange. 2. Everything from the exchange to the rest of the internet. LLU meant that we had options for #2. Not all providers were the same. Some had better networks, better peering with other networks etc. than others. Or they had more infrastructure per customer. However, #1 was also a bottleneck. Where I live (in San Francisco) all the available copper pairs are in such a state that ADSL will only get me something like 3MBit/s at the best of times. And there's no way to get that copper upgraded. So whether I order ADSL from AT&T or Sonic, the connection will be bad.* Perhaps your situation was similar? * Thankfully both Monkey Brains and Xfinity have good service at the same address.
- smilespray 5y ago
  Yep, very similar. It was the same when I lived in LA in the early 2000s, but that was at the beginning of DSL rollout, so I'm going to cut Verizon et al a nanometre of slack.
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  > 1. The copper from your home to the exchange. > 2. Everything from the exchange to the rest of the internet. Also, 1A - the equipment at each end of the copper. The CLEC owned the CPE and the DSLAM, the only thing which is the same for any provider would be the copper itself. Source: Worked at a CLEC for more than a decade.
- fmajid 5y ago
  And Sonic has its own fiber in the Sunset.

philjohn 5y ago

LLU, and now the successor to it with FTTX where OpenReach manages the last mile and has a capped fee they can charge ISP's has done wonders for competition in the broadband space. You have "pack em in and sell it cheap" providers like PlusNet, super techy focussed providers like AAISP (and to a lesser extend Zen) and those in the middle.

rahimnathwani 5y ago
> AAISP I used Andrew & Arnold for a while when they offered bonded ADSL, i.e. a single virtual internet connection carried over two pairs of copper. It was plenty for our office of 10-15 people. ISTR having to use a PC as a router, with a special ADSL whose chipset was supported by some special 'bonded adsl' linux or *bsd distribution.