Marc's X7, C3 Aircross, Rants, Raves & Everything Else

[Gibbo2286]

But do you really need that speed Marc?
I'm on Talk Talk super fibre with speeds of 63Mbps and it does all I need and for just £27 a month.

[GiveMeABreak]

Yes but I was paying £39 before for line rental and all inclusive call package so same outlay but double the speed. We don’t have other choices here it’s BT or nothing and it’s onlt fibre to the premises with no other providers as BT paid for the infrastructure.

[KennyW]

I'm getting FTTP soon what a difference it will make from 2Mps to heavens knows what !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kenny

[GiveMeABreak]

We had 75 Mbps yesterday and 20 Mbps upload, and it's actually providing the advertised speeds - none of the usual 'average' get out of it clause nonsense. I think because we are rural and there are few people with it that we are getting the full speeds.

It was only a couple of years ago that we had to have community radio WiFi supported by Welsh Government grants - and the best that provides was 5 Mbps! We had to pay £29 a month for that pathetic speed and of course we had our BT landline rental on top of all that. We can't get 'normal' broadband here as we are too far away fromt he exchange.

So my telephone line is with one exchange and my fibre comes direct into the home and that comes from another exchange. Seems we have gone from nothing to the one of the fastest speeds in the Country!

File transfers are blisteringly fast. I can download a 2Gb file in 1 minute!

[Paul-R]

Could you now drop your BT line and move to an IP solution over broadband? It's what happens in France, we pay no rental to the ex-state provider as everything is over ADSL.

[GiveMeABreak]

Ideally I would like to but we can’t as according to various sources the landline rentals supposedly subsidise the broadband.

That’s a bit of a joke as my Fibre is entirely separate and has nothing to do with my phone line or connection. I think we are tied into having the line rental.

[mickthemaverick]

That certainly is quick Marc but not one of the fastest I'm afraid!! I had issues with Talk Talk about 3 months ago and after some research selected Virgin's 200Mb service to move to. We already had Virgin cable TV which was costing £74 a month with the full sports package and Talk talk landline, broadband and phone service which was £52 a month all in. On transferring the total cost for all services is £82 a month for 12 months and will then rise to £102 per month which will still be cheaper than the old £126 a month total. But the real bonus was going from average 15Mb to guaranteed minimum of 105Mb broadband. So far I have measured it weekly and the speed has always been between 145 and 195 MB. Not hit the nominal 200MB service yet but well above the guaranteed minimum for a decent saving. It has also allowed me to keep up with the forum and post more often.....maybe its not such a great idea for the rest of you Result

[GiveMeABreak]

On another unrelated rant, if I hear that tortuous Argos "Woah-woah-woaha-woaha-woah" theme song one more time, I'm going to risk needing a new smart TV, on account of a blunt projectile going through the screen.

How can anyone who has any regard for sanity put this stuff on the airwaves?

And while we're at it that home equity release advert with the ridiculous heel kicking executive sales dancers in the street doing a song and dance routine :missile:

Pure torture.

I'm going to have to invent an automatic 'annoying advert volume mute / channel changing' gizmo. To say these annoying, intelligence-insulting, moronic adverts put my stress levels through the roof is an understatement.

I watched '1984' film on the weekend and was reminded of these Argos big brother brain washing ads. Far short of trying to get me to buy anything from them - it has the exact opposite effect and makes me proactively hate the brand. I walk past their shop with a look of thunder on my face and a few choice utterances, which inevitably makes me feel better. I've not set foot in one of those places in 15 years and when I search anything on line I purposefully exclude them from any search.

I'm one of those people that could probably handle a nuclear attack or zombie invasion without batting an eye lid, but these niggling insignificants to most really set me off.

Rant over. Glad I got that off my chest and saved another TV.

[mickthemaverick]

I'm with you on Argos Marc!!
Another ad came on this morning for a 24 hour relief from heartburn pill called Guardian. At the end of the ad they put up a footnote, and I quote verbatim:
"Available from selected branches of Boots, subject to availability"

Just run that by me one more time!!

[Gibbo2286]

I'm with you on the ads dislike, the equity release advert suggests you upgrade the house, add an extension etc. with the money, good for them they're going to own it in the end.

[Paul-R]

I tend to only watch the BBC channels live nowadays as they are without adverts - barring their in-house ones of course. I record whatever I want to watch on the commercial channels wherever possible and then zip through the adverts when watching at a more convenient time.

On a related subject I tend not to watch stuff on catch-up streams (except the BBC iPlayer) as the adverts are non-speedable through. And they're so repetitive. The same ones every advert break. Urghh.

[bobins]

I tend to watch any adverts with an analytical eye to try and work out what emotion or human trait they are playing on. Adverts for make-up tend to play on insecurity or lack of self worth. Holiday ads might try to imply that your family or relationship will be happier and full of smiles and freedom if you chose their holiday. Car ads might imply that you're successful or desirable if you buy that car, etc, etc.

[GiveMeABreak]

I'm with you on all this ^ But I must of lost the plot on the Boots one Mick - just not getting that?? Maybe I'm trying to over-analyse it

@ Paul - I only have Sky news on because I can't stand the BBC format. I have it running in the background for the news only - but don't watch any terrestrial TV now.

And another reason why I think they should dump the TV licence entirely and let the BBC stand (or fall) on its own merit. I do object to paying a tax without representation in the form of a TV licence. If they made it a commercial service - great - everyone's happy - no more extorting a licence for having a TV in effect. Watch it or don't.

But I have to say, Sky tend to have a very high proportion of repeated daytime 'begging adverts' that can wear you down after a while. Whether for cruelty to animals, lack of water in third world countries with the associated pictures designed to make you feel guilty. Don't get me wrong, we support charities in our own way (we give food / donations to local animal charities so we know it is being used directly and we take in strays. But there is something deliberate, and I'm not really comfortable with the 'make you feel guilty' ads. When you hear of these executives being paid vast amounts to run these organisations, no thanks, I'd rather see our donations used directly.

We now almost exclusively watch content form streaming services now as these have some really good exclusive content and a lot their own funded series like Netflix originals, with the exception of some offerings on Freesat. With regard to terrestrial TV offering - it says a lot that most of the more interesting stuff are repeats of classic 70s series like Charlie's Angels, CarKey & Clutch, Hart to Hart, and the like - much more entertaining than some of the drivel pumped out today, just so they can pay Gary Linekar £1.75M to host Match of the Day! Disgusting waste of licence money, along with the ridiculous salaries of some of these presenters in the half million ranges.

[myglaren]

Years since I have seen an advert.
Three years since the TV was used as anything but a DVD player. Last used six weeks ago.
Prior to that I only watched BBC stuff.
Do watch the odd thing on iPlayer - Killing Eve and when it is on QI and Silent Witness (I like Emelia Fox). Only on a computer though.

Did watch a film on there last week, The Company You Keep, a Robert Redford film, pretty good in itself with an impressive cast and had Jackie Evancho as Robert Redford's daughter - he picked her after seeing her sing 'O Mio Babbino Caro' on TV.

Adverts are just lies set to awful music.

[Paul-R]

And another reason why I think they should dump the TV licence entirely and let the BBC stand (or fall) on its own merit. I do object to paying a tax without representation in the form of a TV licence. If they made it a commercial service - great - everyone's happy ...

I would be far from happy if the BBC had to show adverts. For my money the TV licence is one of the biggest bargains going.