Suitable for the average user who doesn't depend upon broadband speeds (Utility Warehouse)

Member Name: bikerchris

Product:	Utility Warehouse
Date:	14/01/09 (553 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well priced service, English staff easily understood, quick time to answer support calls

Disadvantages: Broadband speed varies, lack of response from emails, "1 month contract" a con - hidden £50 charge

UTILITY WAREHOUSE DOOYOO

This Dooyoo opinion is only about the Broadband service provided by Utility Warehouse and may be a little too technical for some to even be interested in!

STATISTICS AND NOTES FOR GETTING CONNECTED:

16th Dec 2008 - Filled out an inquiry form to gain availability for having 4 services with Utility Warehouse. Received auto-reply and then no response.

20th Dec 2008 - Rang Utility Warehouse to arrange 4 services (Phone, Broadband, Gas, Electric). Very friendly, reassuring, efficient and above all, clear English was spoken. Based on the calls I have made I can assume all call centres are based in the UK.

22nd Dec 2008 - received a text at 6:25pm confirming the line would be activated by 6pm on 29th Dec. Also mentioned an engineer won't be needed and phone line activation was £25.

29th Dec 2008 - rang up at 1pm to see how they were getting on, assured line will be active by 3pm. Line active shortly after 2pm. At the same time I enquired how long before broadband connection, given estimate of 7th Jan 2009

7th Jan 2009 - rang at lunchtime from work and within 4minutes I had gone through the usual 'press button' menu, been connected with a human, confirmed broadband connnection live and disconnected call. Returned home and the connection was successful.

COSTS:

Connection Fee (one off): £25.00

Telephone Line Rental and Broadband package: £26.99 (normally £19.99 via LLU exchanges).

Broadband package details:

Name: BroadCall Standard.
Speed: "up to 24Mbps (currently up to 8Mbps)".
Monthly allowance: 40GB per month.
Minimum Contract Term: 1 month (unfairly there is a cancellation charge of £50 if you terminate the contract in the first 12 months...so what's the point of saying "1 month contract" eh?).
Contention Ratio: 1:50

Note: As I have taken 4 services I get free national calls at any time.

CONNECTION QUALITY/TESTING BACKGROUND:

The local exchange is less than 448 metres from the nearest non-LLU (correct 12th Jan 08) exchange. Tests are performed using a wired ADSL connection. www.thinkbroadband.com is used for speed testing and www.speedtest.net is occasionally used to verify unusual results. the tbbMeter application freely downloaded from www.thinkbroadband.com is also used to further verify results. The potential speeds according to an ADSL modem are 8.1Mbps/downstream and approx 0.5Mbps/upstream. Only one PC is online during any connection testing.

To be brief I can conclude that so far the maximum downstream and upstream have been 6.5Mbps (6500 Kbps) and 0.366Mbps (366Kbps) respectively. However, this has not been consistent and the current average is 2.9Mbps downstream. This is based on 50% of tests being performed during late or offpeak hours (after 21:00, 22:00 and 01:00). Other weekday peak usage times record as little as 272Kbps downstream (at 7pm). During the whole test period the upstream has remained a consistent 366Kbps (+/-10Kbps) except where the low downstream was recorded when the upstream became 234Kbps.

There is sufficient evidence of 'throttling' of LEGAL P2P (Peer to Peer) usage, i.e. BBC iPlayer. This is where limitations have been placed and 1.5Mbps seems to be the maximum limit, typical averaging 0.3Mbps. Verification has been via remote access to other computers outside the area within seconds of a local attempt. In these other test conditions phonelines have been the same distance or further from an exchange, had LLU enabled and used standard hardware. These do have a clear advantage, being LLU enabled, though considering the differences it is clear that the iPlayer download speeds are not proportionate with the set-up. To compare, using a Utility Warehouse connection it can take up to 4 hours to download a 1 hour program - via other providers it takes 15minutes.

I spoke with a Utility Warehouse representative and they agreed that based on my results I should close my account and go to another internet provider. So far I have decided 'eclipse' will provide me with a service that's closer to their contract than Utility Warehouse. Although Eclipse (www.eclipse.net.uk) costs around £22 per month, they do not excuse low speeds buy mentioning congestion ratios - they don't have them! (according to email communication with a representative).

OTHER THAN CONNECTION SPEEDS

It has to be said I am a heavy user, so I would still recommend Utility Warehouse for any occasional/light user as the pricing of packages is good value for money. The customer service is excellent and it does not take long to connect to an easily understood member of staff. Their website could do with a few improvements but otherwise, it's serves it's purpose.

HOPE THAT HELPS!

Email Note: When 'testing' services I provide an email address with spam protection disabled. It is a dedicated email address copied and pasted from my email database to their online text fields (where provided).

Summary: Very good for typical user, reliable but slow speed at peak periods, good for night owls