Why I'm a big supporter of Truespeed

Why I'm a big supporter of Truespeed

This is a tricky one. I get accused of being employed by or of the payroll of Trespeed and it pi**es me off.


Firstly, I have run my own technology businesses since 1994 and in that time I've created a lot of jobs and opportunities for others. I have lived through dial-up modems, and I recall the first X.400 email service I paid for used to charge me per character or text I use. We used to abbreviate to save money. I remember signing a check for £400 in one month just for email and we would be dealing with less than 100 emails a month. Stamps would have been cheaper.

I have also been a buyer of Networks for a major bank and also for a travel business where 9.6kb/s leased lines would cost £30k per annum. When I was a buyer, I had to negotiate with a near monopoly which was not fun.


So it's true to say I am not a big fan of all things BT. I have also been a customer of Virgin for 15 years and I have had similar dealing with them. Constant small price increases and I pay nearly double what a new customer would pay. I also have frequent outages just when I need to work. I do a lot of work with the USA so night time connectivity is essential.


Below is what Virgin did to me without warning this week.



When a friend of mine told me that there was a small independent company with big plans to deliver Fibre to the Home, I was sceptical. I had direct experience of what was involved with building networks. It doesn't fit with small and independent businesses. This was my first introduction to Truespeed.


As I looked into it, I began to understand their business model. Truespeed sells to a community and when they have sufficient orders and interest to justify the build them move forward to plan and then build. This makes sense in that if there's a community who aren't sufficiently interested then don't waste money buildings something not wanted.


The major downside is the period of time between customers saying, "yes please" and the system becoming ready for service. For us, this has been about two years, and that seems to be quite normal. 


Of course, if they are already in your area then great, they should be able to install in just a few weeks, but even here we should remember we are not just connecting up to a local cabinet in the street. You get a dedicated port on a fibre switch in the cabinet, and that can be up to several km away.

Let's look at the Pros followed by the Cons

Positives

  • Independent provider based locally who you can actually talk to.
  • Supporting local communities providing free services to Schools and Community projects.
  • Dedicated synchronous fibre to the home. Fast up as it is down.
  • Active Ethernet link - like a leased line but cheaper.
  • Tiny latency (very low ping times).
  • Extremely low network Jitter.
  • Consistently fast - no slowing at busy times.
  • Fixed price for the term - NOTE: Virgin penalising loyalty.
  • Future proofed technology - could be upto 10Gb/s at today's technology.
  • Better security - it's only you on the circuit, not shared.
  • No Contention - again it's only you until you hit their core network. 
  • Incredible value upto leased lines. 
  • Can put between 3% and 5% on your house value.
  • No issues with multiple streaming, supporting work and study from home etc.

    Negatives

    • You will have to wait. Waiting can be very frustrating.
    • I'd like more communications and updates - the quietness hurts!
    • No low end option - some people don't need 200/200
    • No TV bundle - Sky and Virgin bundle TV services
    • Telephone Line - costs can add up.  VoIP normally includes all calls these days.
    • A new line to the home - can't be run over existing wires.
    • Not cheap up to alternatives.
    • Only available in limited areas.





    Location: Saltford BS31, UK

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