Which broadband provider is fastest in Escrick?
The question of which company provides the fastest broadband in Escrick arises from time to time.
As at December 2022, FactCo are in the process of installing a 'full fibre' network in Escrick, which will be capable of speeds of up to 1Gbps. The rest of this article refers to the existing services provided using Openreach infrastructure.
At the moment there is only one wholesale provider of wired broadband in Escrick - Openreach (BT as was). There is no Virgin Media, and no 'local loop unbundling' - therefore whether you go with BT, Sky, TalkTalk, PlusNet or whoever - the wire to your house will be provided by Openreach and will be capable of the same speeds (minor caveats below).
Openreach provide three types of service in Escrick for other providers to resell:
ADSL2 was enabled during April 2018.
ADSL connections are provided from the telephone exchange (located opposite the church) - in practice almost all of the village is capable of getting close to the theoretical maximum speed of 17mbps ... this reduces to 1.5mbps by outlying areas such as the business park and Menagerie. (NB: Prior to April 2018, those on ADSL connections will have only been able to get 7mbps as ADSL2 wasn't enabled on the Escrick exchange).
Fibre broadband is provided from one of three cabinets. The village is served by a cabinet located outside the exchange (cabinet 3), and the Menagerie and business park each have their own cabinets (cabinets 2 & 4).
Fibre broadband speeds are much more dependent on the distance from the cabinet. Dower Chase and other areas near the exchange achieve the full 80mbps; The Glade/Carrs Meadow/Escrick Park Gardens get around 40mbps.
You can see what speed your line is capable of by putting your phone number into this tool: http://dslchecker.bt.com/
Swapping providers won't change the speed that your line is capable of. The line can be provisioned by Openreach as either:
If you are getting slower speeds than your line is capable of it could be due to a number of causes:
Openreach has enabled new features since first launching fibre broadband that better handle certain types of line faults and noise. Some modems originally supplied by Openreach (those with a serial number beginning with "ECI" on the back) do not support these features ... so if you've got an ECI modem you *might* get a small speed improvement by getting a new modem/router - look for one that supports G.INP.
It is worth noting that in many parts of Escrick, 4G mobile data connections offer higher speeds than fixed line - but these usually cost more unless your usage is quite limited. They are also more prone to congestion, and therefore likely to slow down over time as more people make heavier use of 4G.
Related pages: Mobile coverage in Escrick