Be prices changes!

[her0n]

Just received this email in my inbox from BE Member Services.

I love this isp <3

Dear member,

We at Be are always searching for ways to fulfil our mission of offering the best broadband, for the best price. Since successfully launching Be Value, we’ve been reviewing our pricing and your feedback and we are happy to announce significant changes: Be unlimited is now just £18 per month and Be pro is reduced to £22 per month. In addition, there will no longer be an additional charge for a static IP with Be Unlimited.

These prices will be available to all new Be members also, so there is no better time to recommend Be broadband to your friends

Be unlimited £18 per month

Be unlimited is one of the fastest broadband products available in the UK. Before today the price was £24 per month for the up to 24 Mbps downstream and up to 1.3 upstream speeds, but we have now reduced it to £18 per month. Be unlimited is also a completely uncapped service so members can surf as much as they like and members also have the option of either dynamic or static IP address at no extra cost.

Be pro £22 per month

Be pro has come down in price from £40 a month to just £22. Designed for SME’s and power users, Be pro offers the fastest upstream and downstream speeds in the UK. Using Upload Plus Be pro members have access to up to 2.5 meg upstream using the Annex M as standard.

Reduction in the Express Cancellation Charge

In line with these price changes we have reduced the cost of an Express Cancellation for Be unlimited and Be pro members to £40.



When will these prices come into effect?

All new members will be able to buy Be unlimited and Be pro for the new prices from today.

All existing members will see the new pricing on their December invoice with a refund to cover the period from 10th October to 30th November.

Members can upgrade to Be unlimited or Be pro at no cost. To upgrade, login to your member centre and open a ticket requesting your upgrade.



NB: The www.bethere.co.uk website will be updated from tomorrow with the new price changes.

[Inferno]

i hate them (purely for the fact they were meant to install in my area next month but later decided not too)

[Rizzo]

I'm with be there, cracking ISP and now even better!

<3 Be There

[KingDaveRa]

I'm toying with the notion of moving to Be. Zen are excellent, but they're stuck with BT's cack network for the 'last mile' and are at BT's mercy when it comes to line faults. My line is reasonably slow now (2mb-ish), but it's not within a fault threshold, so I can't raise a fault. I used to get closer to 4Mb. I'm not overly convinced I'd get much better with Be, but at least I wouldn't have a cap. On the other hand, I'd miss Zen's support. They really do rock. And my little IP subnet, which as proven useful as well.

[Gunsmith]

im tempted on moving, im getting fed up of virgin ****ing me about.

[her0n]

Just got myself a static ip for free :):

Very easy, just submitted a ticket and they did it a couple hours later, changed my router settings and voila.

DONE. (as Gordon Ramsay would say)

Also bear in mind the price drop is pretty significant, £24 to £18 for unlimited, £40 to £22 for pro. They also gave us 2 free days of interwub because Be's 2nd birthday was in Sept :awesome:

From my event log:

downstream: 14026 kbit/s
upstream: 1144 kbit/s
output Power Down: 23.0 dBm, Up: 12.0 dBm
line Attenuation Down: 29.5 dB, Up: 14.5 dB
snr Margin Down: 6.0 dB, Up: 6.0 dB

I'm about 800m from the exchange as the crow flies. Not sure on the line quality/copper. The houses in our area to the exchange date from around the 50's/60's

[Bonkers]

Woohoo! Poor student saves more money with excellent ISP! Student is overjoyed!

[tucool]

Nice, Im looking for a new ISP!

I just hope they operate up here :D

[Afty]

I moved to Be two weeks ago... quite pleased with the service so far (though I'm on the £14 a month package... might consider upgrading for an extra 6Mb/s plus a static ISP if it will only cost me £4 a month) but had a few random "disconnects" which aren't my actual DSL connection dropping, but seem to be related to DHCP.

I'll give it another week or so to settle down, and will thereafter be having a chat with customer service if things have not, indeed, settled.

[her0n]

How can you tell it is DHCP? I've had some random disconnects (rare tho), I just assumed it was the net dropping in times of high demand?

[Cheez]

My housemate has had be here for ages now, I must say I'm very impressed. Downloading 400mb in 3 minutes is the win. :)

[tucool]

Im on virgin media atm but definelty changing to Be because Ive heard so many good things about them! Does anyone know how I go about getting a BT line??

[KingDaveRa]

I'm still a bit wary about how my silly SNR (11db) will affect it. I suppose I'd have to suck it and see.

What's support like? I've heard conflicting reports, some saying it was outsourced, some saying it's UK-based in-house.

Im on virgin media atm but definelty changing to Be because Ive heard so many good things about them! Does anyone know how I go about getting a BT line??

Contact BT... www.bt.com

[ez64]

I love LLU be broadband had it since september last year and been loving it every kilobyte

and my noise margin has run at 4db and synced fine at highspeeds its around 11 now

it is DHCP related and ive had that a few times as well

upgrading to pro now and costing me £2 less a month

[her0n]

What's support like? I've heard conflicting reports, some saying it was outsourced, some saying it's UK-based in-house.


My ticket was answered within 3.5 hours (request for change to static ip), in plain english and no fuss. They provided the new router ip details and that was that. My ticket was answered by Irina, which tbqfh doesn't lend any clues to outsourcing or not.

[ez64]

stop getting the word out about be there your gonna get it oversubscribed !!!!!! ^^

Dear Member, Thank you for contacting us. As you have requested we have switched you to the Be Pro package. Please bear in mind that at the moment we have not changed any settings on your line. As you were informed in the e-mail, please keep in mind that if you upgrade now you are going to be automatically charged by the system according to the old prices (40 pounds a month) for the days of service till the end of this month and also for the whole next month. This means that the monthly price for November will be also 40 pounds. The difference in the prices will be credited in your December invoice.This credit will cover the period from 10-th of October to 30-th of November. If there is anything else we can do for you please let us know. Regards, Dobri

If there is anything else you would like to discuss, please don't hesitate to call us at any time on 0808 234 8567.

[KingDaveRa]

I just noticed, they don't seem to offer a news (NNTP) server. Zen do, at no extra cost.

You know, for newsgroups.

[RTO]

Only any good if they've unbundled your exchange :p

[Afty]

How can you tell it is DHCP? I've had some random disconnects (rare tho), I just assumed it was the net dropping in times of high demand?The "be box" modem web admin interface is actually quite spiffy compared with my old one, and has plenty of details and diagnostics.

I am a little worried, as my connections appears to be getting LESS, not more reliable.

[Afty]

My ticket was answered by Irina, which tbqfh doesn't lend any clues to outsourcing or not.I've spoken to several has a heavy indian/asian accent.

They have been moderately helpful though, and seem well trained. Also the wait time has been nothing up to about 3 minutes sometimes. Annoying, but tolerable.

[Bob Grey]

Im with Be, i think they are a fantastic ISP, very quick to reply to tickets and get problems sorted fast.

Uptime: 0 days, 10:53:08

Modulation: G.992.5 Annex A

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,408 / 20,165

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 109.95 / 2.62

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 17.0

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 10.0 / 23.5

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 4.5 / 3.0


Mmmmm :D

[Species]

Sounds great if you live right next to the exchange.. :(

[Inferno]

it should still effectively double the speed of normal adsl though

[KingDaveRa]

Not quite

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/ADSL_Line_Rate_Attenuation.gif
It tails off quite heavily after a while - in fact, it looks like I'd get about the same speed!

[Cheez]

Line Attenuation(up/down) 6 db 1 db
Noise Margin(up/down) 3 db 2 db

:D

[Bob Grey]

her0n, u should make a ticket with be and asked to be put on fastpath, should get ya connection to sync at 20mb or so, ask em to set ya snr at 3.5 as well :P

[GeeDee]

Zen are excellent, but they're stuck with BT's cack network for the 'last mile' and are at BT's mercy when it comes to line faults.

You do realise that there's absolutely no change here with an LLU service right? The last mile infrastructure is still exactly the same as with a BTw service and line faults (and provisions / cessations) are still carried out by Openreach (again, the same as a BTw service). The only 'advantage' here with Be is that they use ADSL2+, which may (or may not) provide a slightly better sync rate.

Does anyone know how I go about getting a BT line??

Either call BT Retail and ask for a new line (If you don't have an existing line, previously connected to BT, with a dial tone you'll pay £124.99 installation and £10.50 p/m with a 12 month contract) OR connect with one of the BT WLR suppliers. They sell the exact same wholesale service, but some of them will knock a few quid off the install / connection fee and may have slightly cheaper line rental. These guys (http://www.madasafish.com/talk/new-line-installation.asp) are worth taking a look at - especially if you just want the line for DSL.

I'm still a bit wary about how my silly SNR (11db) will affect it. I suppose I'd have to suck it and see.

Target SNR is set by the DSLAM usually, but there's no requirement for that to be so. Quite a few routers will allow you to specify a target SNR if you have no joy getting your ISP to get their target changed for you. Obviously if you go too low you'll suffer from instability - but it's certainly do-able. Take a look at the DMT Tool (http://dmt.mhilfe.de/). :)

Besides - if you migrated to Be, your BTw SNR (which is higher than the default target margin of 6db, must have been raised at some point by the system acting to perceived instability or a fault) won't follow you as you won't be connected to the same kit.

[KingDaveRa]

My SNR is actually set to 6db (by BT, at Zen's request). It stuck around at 7 for a little while, then shot back up to 11. I don't think my router (Zyxel P660HW-61) will allow me to forcibly change it. I'll double check though.

But yeah. I'm thinking I'd be no better off with Be at all. I'd lose stuff (IP subnet and NNTP - and the wonderful support), but I'd gain a few (no cap, and a wee bit cheaper). Add in a giganews account (or whatever) and the cost is back roughly where I am now. Or at least thereabouts. And, I won't get much more speed out of it, which is what I actually want!

[Bob Grey]

how far u from exchange davera?

[her0n]

What is this magical fastpath you speak of?

[KingDaveRa]

how far u from exchange davera?

It's either 3.5 or 5.5Km... I forget which! I think it's the latter. I recall being just in the limit for ADSL back in the day of having to have an engineer come install it!

I found some stuff about changing the SNR on the router (with some people on ADSL guide suggesting it worked for them). My SNR has actually gone UP, and my connection down. So I'm actually now worse off!

Upstream Margin: 17db
Attenuation: 31db

Downstream Margin: 15db
Attenuation: 51db

I'm currently synced at - wait for it - 1216Kbs.

Woo :(

I did find this doohikey though: http://zyxmon.streamclub.ru/indexe.php

I'm starting to think my router is doing something odd. The only alternative kit I have is an original Alcatel Speedtouch USB (the green stingray thing, from the BTopenwoe days) and a Netgear DG814. Both really old devices, and not really fair tests. We have some fairly recent ADSL routers at work kicking around, so I might borrow one this weekend and give it a whirl and see what happens.

[GeeDee]

That's a very poor sync for those stats.

You tried with your router connected to the test socket (http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/article.aspx?id=10552)?

[Bob Grey]

yea i agree, those stats arnt that bad, i would try connect direct to test socket and see what you get, unplug everything else from it as well :P.
Fastpath basically improves sync speed but u might gain some ping slightly., its well worth it though :P

Also, try one the alcatel stingray, they were quite reliable devices and get good sync speeds.

[GeeDee]

Fastpath basically improves sync speed but u might gain some ping slightly., its well worth it though :P

You're actually completely wrong here.

Fast Path will reduce sync speed, but decrease latency.

The opposite of fast path is interleaved, which will give a higher stable sync, at the expense of some latency.

On BTw provided lines, the default is fast path, which will automatically drop into interleaved if DLM determines that the line would benefit from it.

The CP can also opt out or opt in to interleaving on a line by line basis. :)

[ez64]

lucky Ive got my router on the first net5 socket to the house ^&^

[Bob Grey]

thats very odd, without fastpath i sync at 16mb, with fastpath enabled i sync at 20mb :s



You're actually completely wrong here.

Fast Path will reduce sync speed, but decrease latency.

The opposite of fast path is interleaved, which will give a higher stable sync, at the expense of some latency.

On BTw provided lines, the default is fast path, which will automatically drop into interleaved if DLM determines that the line would benefit from it.

The CP can also opt out or opt in to interleaving on a line by line basis. :)

[KingDaveRa]

That's a very poor sync for those stats.

You tried with your router connected to the test socket (http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/article.aspx?id=10552)?

Yup. Done all that. Both with and without Zen support on my mobile checking stuff at their end.

Removed the ringer pair, tried a different splitter. Tried it all.

I'm actually considering looking for an alternate ADSL router/modem to test with. I think my high attenuation, linked with the high SNR, is making for a bad connection. It's currently going at:

http://www.davidrickard.net/junk/sync.png (http://www.davidrickard.net/junk/sync.png)

Pretty lame. Trouble is, I can't persuade Zen to do much more, because I'm not within the fault thresholds. So I can't get any improvement :(

[KingDaveRa]

Just had another play with the router...

I increased the noise margin by 1.5db, and now the noise margin is bouncing about all over the place!

http://www.davidrickard.net/junk/sync2.png

[__OpenGL__]

Just received this email in my inbox from BE Member Services.

I love this isp <3

Seconded :-D

[her0n]

Test socket gives me about 15.5mb sync. Seems we have some creative cabling to do here at home! :o

[KingDaveRa]

What were you getting?

[her0n]

I had to put it back onto its usual socket in a different room... it's at 12mb now and appears not to like the wiring in the house!

Mum's fine with it moving to the Master socket, so long as there are no trailing wires. Will just mean unscrewing a bit of wood in a doorway and putting a cable under the carpet :):

[__OpenGL__]

My bebox misbehaved massively when I had it on an extension, but bebox in master socket and syncing about 20mbit :-)

[KingDaveRa]

I think you'll find most extensions aren't that great. I know a few people who have had terrible trouble with ADSL on extensions.

My extension is a pukka job installed by BT - cat 5 all through, to a proper RJ45 face plate on the wall. I think they were just re-using ISDN extension kits, as it is all RJ45 based. It means I can't plug the other end of the extension into other filters to test, as it uses an RJ45, and most filters use RJ11s!

[Bob Grey]

Yarrr!, Just been messing with my SNR margins, and enabled fastpath, i believe this is the fastest i will get from be, and im well chuffed.

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 2,411 / 21,936

DRooooool. :D

[KingDaveRa]

Mine has improved a bit too. My SNR is wavering about all over the place, but I'm getting slightly better speeds. I'm up to 2400 now!