Technology Vault - NewsBytes
Thursday 19 December, 2002
ADSL shambles by @ 11:38 pm
Can you get adsl or not? Newsbytes looks at the world of ADSL. We tried out our number in the 'online availability checkers' from a number of ISPs and got a mixed bag of results.
OK, I've wanted ADSL for a long time. I have tried three times with BTOpenworld only to find that I live too far away from my enabled exchange. I find this extremely frustrating especially as neighbours within a very short distance of me have it, use it and gloat over it's speed. A fellow work colleague who just happens to live further away from my exchange claimed today that he can get ADSL now. So this evening I have spent most of the evening trawling lists of ISPs to see what their 'online availability checkers' claim.
Now if after the first 2 or 3 ISPs I found that they all said that ADSL was unavailable I may well have left it at that. But I got such a mixed response from these online checkers that I continued to trawl and got further confused along the way.
As the world of high technology seems a bit quiet at the moment, I thought you might be interested in seeing my results. My conclusion is that I'd wish these ISPs would get their act together. See what I mean...
Tiscali - Fantastic news - your line has passed the initial line check indicating that you can receive Tiscali Broadband.
V21 - You cannot continue the sign-up process because: Enabled for Telephone Number 01424 xxxxxx
ADSL NOW - Congratulations, ADSL-NOW is in your area!
BTOpenworld - We are sorry but our records show that although broadband is available at your exchange, you are too far away from the exchange for us to provide the service
Andrews & Arnold - Based on the postcode ########, you may be able to get 500K RADSL service
AOL - We are very sorry but unfortunately you cannot order AOL Broadband due to the fact that you live too far away from your local telephone exchange.
Bulldog - Congratulations! Our records indicate that ########### is connected to the HASTINGS exchange. Based on the availability checker data, you should be able to get Bulldog’s Off-Net ADSL broadband products and services
eclipse - Sorry, ADSL is unlikely to be available on your line If you wish to proceed with your order please be aware that it may fail
freedom2surf - Congratulations! Your number has passed the initial ADSL tests
freeserve - Unfortunately you are too far from the telephone exchange to receive Freeserve Broadband
Telecom+ - The checker indicates that Broadband is available in your area
i2 network - Your local exchange is in HASTINGS Our checks indicate: BT has enabled your exchange for ADSL services. I also got an error message with i2 Warning: Undefined index: erridin /usr/local/apache /htdocs/adslorder /adslchecker.php on line 190
Onetel - same as BTOpenworld message
RedDSL - same as BTOpenworld message
Supanet - Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that we will be able to provide you with supanet broadband Internet access.
Vergin net - We have checked the phone number and postcode that you entered against information provided by BT and unfortunately, you are unable to receive a broadband service at the moment.
Vispa - Good news! The checker indicates that Broadband is available in your area and that the preliminary check on your line suggests that you should be able to receive Broadband ADSL at speeds from 512kilobits per second to 2Megabits per second downstream and 256kilobits per second upstream.
Zen - same as BTOpenworld message
Well, as you can see, some I can and some I can't. All these 'online availability checkers' ask for either a telephone number (the one I want ADSL on) or postcode or both. As far as I can see, all these checkers do, is prove how useless they are. It makes you wonder how many ISPs spend on valuable time trying to connect people that their checkers tell them that they can have ADSL when in fact, they can't.
Never mind, one day I might be able to get broadband via my Electricity supplier. I still have some hope, not much, but some. So if their are any Electricity companies out there that want me to sign up with them (and take on my gas and water), the first company to offers me fast always-on Broadband can have ALL my business;-)
Finally, to rub salt in the wound, my local newspaper published that everyone in Hastings could get ADSL apart from people with a telephone number that started with 85####. Yippee, my number doesn't start with that, my number starts with a 7. Can I get it? No.
##################################
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