topic Re: Wanadoo - Freeserve - Orange - EE - 4GEE - Virgin Media - FTTP - EE in Broadband & Landline

Wanadoo - Freeserve - Orange - EE - 4GEE - Virgin Media - FTTP - EE

Krug — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:32:05 GMT

Ore December 2025 FTTC optionDecember 2025 FTTP option

A little bit of our background broadband history with EE

FTTC - The green cabinet is about 40m from our front door

CompuServe - 1994 our first internet provider

Wanadoo - 1997 we moved to Wanadoo from CompuServe, then it became Orange, then Freeserve

Freeserve - 2002 after the merger our email became ....@....freeserve.co.uk

Orange - 2007 our email stayed the same ...@....freeserve.co.uk

EE - 2009 we were still using our ....@....freeserve.co.uk

FTTP - 2015 we were notified that we would soon have FTTP via BT Openreach Fibre Checker but the date kept being pushed back & then nothing.

EE no longer supported emails and advised everyone to change to another provider, in our case ....@gmail.com

4GEE - after years of poor internet speeds, we upgraded to 4GEE due to buffering on the smart TV on catchup or streaming

It wasn't really much better but it appears the multi transmitters very close by, when switching were the cause of the slow downloads after a lot of chasing and the engineers at EE after several years.

Virgin Media - January 2025 we had by then had enough, VM were a similar price at £31.16 and offering the M250 roughly 283mb/s.

FTTP - December 2025, after waiting roughly 13 years, it was available to order.

EE Full Fibre - When our Virgin Media contract expires in July 2026 (we're still in credit) we may possibly move back to EE with their Core Plan 300mb/s £32.99 in March 2026 to £36.99 in March 2027 but that will depend of the price compared to Virgin Media.

Re: Wanadoo - Freeserve - Orange - EE - 4GEE - Virgin Media - FTTP - EE

XRaySpeX — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:19:07 GMT

.Interesting! I've been on a similar trajectory from 1999 but I've only stayed with Freeserve & its successors, or EE & its predecessors (see my sig.). I'm sure the sequence was Freeserve > Wanadoo > Orange > EE. Freeserve was started by Currys on Dial-Up BB with a free CD. I'm now on EE Full Fibre 150 Meg. I'm still using my ...freeserve.co.uk@fs username altho' I no longer need to.

Do you have a landline?

Re: Wanadoo - Freeserve - Orange - EE - 4GEE - Virgin Media - FTTP - EE

Krug — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:29:50 GMT

Our landline ceased when we changed to 4GEE, which was annoying at the time but now, like many others use our mobiles, If memory serves me correctly, we started with T-Mobile in 2000 that then merged into EE over the decades. I can not remember who my first mobile provider was in 1994, when I purchased the Sony CMH 333 (the Mars Bar).CM H333CM H333

Re: Wanadoo - Freeserve - Orange - EE - 4GEE - Virgin Media - FTTP - EE

JimM11 — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:30:32 GMT

@Krug Are you sure about the 2012 no way FF was even considered at that time, but yes FTTC with the partial fibre and the higher speeds sugar so close you may even have got G.Fast after that if OR considered it as an optional take up!

Re: Wanadoo - Freeserve - Orange - EE - 4GEE - Virgin Media - FTTP - EE

Krug — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:36:20 GMT

Thank you for pointing out my error, fat fingers should have read 2015.

Our speeds were between 4.3Mb/s & 12.8 Mb/s as from 5th February 2020 renewal plan email.

As to the sugar, I'll take that compliment 🤣

Re: Wanadoo - Freeserve - Orange - EE - 4GEE - Virgin Media - FTTP - EE

JimM11 — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:42:35 GMT

@Krug You got it, at least looks like OR are covering all the homes with the CBT and no uptake on the Fibre yet, may not be fully finished spine wise, who knows! FTTC and 40M away the full bhuna 80/20Mb/s should have been easily done! And if they did throw G.Fast in the mix the whole 150/30Mb/s....