Broadband, which provider

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The other Chris
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I guess this has been asked many times before but my BT contract is up and they seem pretty expensive compared to TalkTalk and plusnet. Are either of those any good, what's there customer service like? Is there any one else I should consider?
 
I have been with PlusNet for some years and overall have found them good for:- connectivity, service support and their community forum where CSA also attend.

Yes, there have brief periods of flakiness in their ability to handle the odd issue efficiently but as outlined above on balance all OK.

NB others experiences and views may differ ?

PS this site I have found in the past a great resource for research and user experience insight on ISP "quality"
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/

HTH
 
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My vote goes to Vodaphone fibre unlimited broadband.Great speeds,unlimited downloads.Used them for a year totally troublefree.£22 per month including line rental.
 
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Another Plusnet user, been with them for a while and am happy.
 
I'm with BT aswell and, also thinking of changing due to price.

Plusnet actually is BT under another name, still looking for alternatives at the moment.
 
Earlier in the year I moved from TalkTalk regular broadband to Vodafone Fibre at £22 a month (cheaper than I was paying TalkTalk!) - no complaints so far.
 
If you decide to make a move don't forget cash back sites for an additional savings.
 
I pay £32 with BT for Superfast fibre 2 with download speeds of around 67Mbps. Its pretty stable and constantly fast. They do try and raise the price every renewal but a quick phone call usually puts a stop to that :D


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I did consider changing but when I looked at the price of TalkTalk and Plusnet for the same service and there really wasn't that much difference.
 
I pay £32 with BT for Superfast fibre 2 with download speeds of around 67Mbps. Its pretty stable and constantly fast. They do try and raise the price every renewal but a quick phone call usually puts a stop to that :D


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I did consider changing but when I looked at the price of TalkTalk and Plusnet for the same service and there really wasn't that much difference.

Yes for the same service PlusNet is £27.99, but if you are a new customer and get the £60 cash back, that would reduce you monthly price a bit.
 
TalkTalk cannot be trusted with your personal data (multiple breaches) and they can't secure their routers either (Mirai malware).

No complaints about Plusnet, although you do get better peering with BT (fewer hops between their network and the destination)
 
Steve all we get is aorund 36 Mbps download and 6.5 Mbps upload and that is with BT fibre. non fibre is around 15 and 0 .9 respecively. A pal of mine in Cannock,Staffs can't even get the internet

What is wrong with this government not forcing a better speed for everyone for fibre internet connections , not impossible, other countries can manage it. They should be heavily find if they don't such as £2m per day. That should get their fingers out. Failure and the bosses get sacked
 
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Was with PlusNet and moved to BT.
Strangely enough, whikt they are 'the same', I have had better speeds and stability with BT.
£30/m, but went via broadband genie and got something off/amazon gift card.
 
Thanks all, I'm a bit wary of Vodafone because they took over Demon Internet (admittedly a long time ago now) who used to be brilliant but really went down hill when Vodafone took over AND they have been pretty rubbish as a mobile provider but unfortunately theirs is about the only signal we get at our house and even then it's not good.

I'm not staying with BT, this is the second time I have had a contract with them and last time to get anything like a sensible price I had to start the move to another provider and then they phoned me with a reasonable price so I stayed. This time I phoned them and got a right a******e trying to tell me there was nothing but fibre and that was £30/month plus calls and all the rest, you would think if you were trying to sell something you would treat the customer with a bit of respect but not this guy, he wouldn't make the grade as a back street used car salesman. Personally I do value a bit of customer service and don't mind paying a bit more for that, but BT are way off on price and even then the customer service is really not good.
 
If customer service is a priority then try Zen internet. Theyare one of the most expensive ou there but check out their customer satisfaction rates - "Zen won PC Pro's annual Best Broadband Provider award for a 15th consecutive year." I have been with them for years and can count the issues I've had on one hand. Unlike other suppliers if you have an issue they actually call you back. No waiting on hold listening to inane lift music for hours. And skilled tech support not script readers.
 
Talk talk. Long story but at one point for months I was getting 0.1-0.3 Mbs ( yes thats correct)
They refused to do anything about it ( actually claiming there was nothing wrong) and the ombudsman was totally useless.
I went to BT and their speed dropped below the guaranteed 25mbs. and kept dropping off, half a dozen times a day, well probably more, that was just while I was here!

Another long story short, they eventually replaced the copper cable, (*no fiber here) it seems it was breaking down, they , gave me £125 credit and £19.99 / month ( all in) for a new 18 months contract.
Speeds are now hovering just below 30mbs down, 7mbs up (y) Thats more than enough for my purposes.
But I agree with the above, their "standard" tariff is extortionate compared to others.

* Vodafone are in the process of laying fiber and are guaranteeing 900mbs ( up to 1000) for 60 quid a month.
Apparently there are proportional deals too (money v speed) So I'll look at that, later on. But I still have approx 12 months to go with BT.
 
If customer service is a priority then try Zen internet. Theyare one of the most expensive ou there but check out their customer satisfaction rates - "Zen won PC Pro's annual Best Broadband Provider award for a 15th consecutive year." I have been with them for years and can count the issues I've had on one hand. Unlike other suppliers if you have an issue they actually call you back. No waiting on hold listening to inane lift music for hours. And skilled tech support not script readers.
Thoroughly agree.
 
I use a Mi-Fi 4G dongle from EE which costs £20 a month with a 40GB month cap.

It also has "Go-Binge" which means I can download films from Netflix etc with no impact on my data (apart from adverts, oddly enough) - but I don't bother with online films etc so have never tried it out.

I use the output from it to input to another router which can then connect to up to 4 PCs.

Speeds are good (depending on the time of day) and it means that since there are no cables etc if I ever move there are no problems.

I've used dongles for about 10 years now and had very few problems where I live.
 
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If customer service is a priority then try Zen internet. Theyare one of the most expensive ou there
Looking at their website they are actually the same price as BT unless there are some hidden extras, I'll give them a call, thanks for the suggestion
 
I pay £32 with BT for Superfast fibre 2 with download speeds of around 67Mbps. Its pretty stable and constantly fast. They do try and raise the price every renewal but a quick phone call usually puts a stop to that :D


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I did consider changing but when I looked at the price of TalkTalk and Plusnet for the same service and there really wasn't that much difference.

They upgraded me to that for free for some reason, don't know why though
 
Yes for the same service PlusNet is £27.99, but if you are a new customer and get the £60 cash back, that would reduce you monthly price a bit.
Thats for an 18 month contract, My BT contract is 12 months. If you choose 12 month with plusnet its about the same.
They upgraded me to that for free for some reason, don't know why though
I think they offer it to all customers who can get it. They upgraded me just before I renewed.
Looking at their website they are actually the same price as BT unless there are some hidden extras, I'll give them a call, thanks for the suggestion
They're a bit dearer for the superfast service, 12 month contract is £38.99 compared to my contract with BT which is £32.99 although I see on their website fibre 2 is £39.99 but I think current customers can upgrade to fibre 2 for free. You should ask if you haven't already finished your contract.
 
That is what I pay for my one on 12 months, not sure if that is because I am already a customer.
 
Chris, the latest Which? scores as follows.
Zen 87%
Utility Warehouse 76%
Plusnet 73%
John Lewis 70%
EE 64%
Post Office 61%
Virgin 58%
Vodaaphone 58%
BT 51%
Sky 50%
Talktalk 50%
 
I just thought I'd feedback on this. I went with Zen in the end and after a couple of weeks of B.T. telling me I would burn in eternal damnation, the sky would fall in and all manner of other ungodly things would happen if I left them we finally got switched over yesterday. Zen had sent a router a few days ago and my daughter was at home so with the line switched over she plugged in the new router and …

… couldn’t connect to the internet. The OpenReach guy was very good and even came round to the house to check it all out, he phoned Zen but of course they could possibly speak to anyone but the account holder, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da Anyway I got home from work and phoned them, I did get through to their support pretty much straight away and it was someone who more or less knew what they were talking about (although his telephone manner was a bit strange) so after a factory reset and manual set-up we got connected.

So day 1 with Zen and mixed results, the router they sent is pretty ugly with bright lights, not the sort of thing you want in a prominent area of the house and it would have been a lot better if it had been pre-configured properly but then the support was good.
 
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