What do you think of your broadband provider?

ajdesq

ajdesq

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Hi folks, I've just moved house and now need to get broadband so I can get back and enjoy TP properly!

I don't need a phone line but I guess I'll have to swallow the ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE FRIGGIN' POUNDS it will cost me for a BT engineer to flick a switch in the exchange...

I already have a 3G mobile modem but this is not an option in my remote property which just about gets 1 bar of 2G reception in the bedroom.

I used to have Tiscali and found the reliabilty was appalling! It used to go 'down' about 3 times per evening (stop tittering at the back...)

A friend of mine has proposed Orange as it's £24/month without BT line rental. Or I could pay a few £ more for BT option 1 + line rental which is capped but I'm a light to medium user.

I'm hankering after BT as I want reliability more than anything.

I do not have cable, don't want a TV package, and the default speed from the exchange is 0.5mbps.

Any suggestions or comments gratefully appreciated.

Thanks,

Andrew
 
You need not spend £125 to get the phone line. This company www.utilities-direct.co.uk will install a new line for £99.99 (subject to survey) and it could cost just £25.

One popular package is BroadCall which costs £19.99 pm including the line rental. Go to the BroadCall section and enter (normally your own phone number) a telephone number of someone connected to your local exchange to confirm availability of LLU BroadCall.

Otherwise, just call or email me ;)


p.s. and look out for the free laptop offer.
 
I had the same problem as you. £125 is yet another kick in the nuts to add to the list when you move home.

BT will charge you for a full years line rental even if you use another service provider in the first year. I stayed with BT for my broadband but will change after the year is up.
 
ZEN, I can't fault the service, speed or indeed anything in the years I've been with them, more expensive than most (£24.99mnth for 8mb with 20gb cap) but you gets what you pay for.
 
Even if you do get BT to connect the line (because you like paying extra :thinking:) and have their 12 month lock-in, there is no need to use them for broadband. That recently imposed 12 month contract condition is for the line rental only. There's no reason why you shouldn't have broadband with another supplier. Nor is there any reason why you shouln't have your calls handled by another supplier - especially if that supplier can give you highly discounted or possibly free calls.
 
I have been with BT and found them truely appaling :( I am still with them at work and believe me, their customer support is worse than bad! :shake:

I am now with Orange at home (formerly Wanadoo) and I honestly can't fault them. I've never had a service drop out in nearly two years, I once had to phone their customer support and they were brilliant. A couple of months ago they offered me a free upgrade from my 2Mb service to a 5Mb service :D

It's no coincidence that the letters B and T are in the word B*ST*RD :LOL:
 
You don't need to pay £125 quid for a fresh install.
That's only if there is no existing wiring in the property, and even then its subject to the engineer on the day. Ply him with tea and biscuits and you may just be fine :D

As for my ISP? Im extremely happy, I pay £14 a month for a completely uncapped, unlimited service. 3 month notice (1 month if they introduce any throttling or capping).
For that I get free ADSL2 wireless router, freephone 24/7 technical support, talking to people who actually KNOW what theyre talking about and not reading from a script.
I can ring technical support at 23:55 on New Years Eve and say "I'd like to change my SNR profile from 7db to 3.5db please, see how stable it is (to get more speed)", and it will be done.

How many UK ISP's can you say that about...all for £14 a month.

Oh and I get a 1.4Meg upload speed too ;)
 
Steep said:
ZEN, I can't fault the service, speed or indeed anything in the years I've been with them, more expensive than most (£24.99mnth for 8mb with 20gb cap) but you gets what you pay for.
Click to expand...

Another vote for Zen here too - we use them at work. Nice that they don't tie you in for 12 months either, like most companies do - rolling monthly contracts are great if you do decide to change provider.:) In my experience they have been superb, ultra-reliable, fast and with decent support staff too. (y)

I have Tiscali at home, but it'll be changed over to Zen soon.
 
I'm on cable broadband with Virgin (was Telewest). I can't really fault the service at all.
 
I'm with Virgin Media ( formerly NTL), never had a problem. When we moved they sorted out diconnecting at the old house and reconnecting at the new one (TV, Telephone and Broadband) at no charge. Can't complain.
 
And of course the one everyone laughs at Tesco
Not the cheapest but listning to all the complaints of the others I guess I will stick with it for awhile longer £17.99 for 1Meg unlimited and in 2.5years virtually no disruption apart from the down time of my BT line (twice in 2 years)
 
Marcel said:
You don't need to pay £125 quid for a fresh install.
That's only if there is no existing wiring in the property, and even then its subject to the engineer on the day. Ply him with tea and biscuits and you may just be fine :D

As for my ISP? Im extremely happy, I pay £14 a month for a completely uncapped, unlimited service. 3 month notice (1 month if they introduce any throttling or capping).
For that I get free ADSL2 wireless router, freephone 24/7 technical support, talking to people who actually KNOW what theyre talking about and not reading from a script.
I can ring technical support at 23:55 on New Years Eve and say "I'd like to change my SNR profile from 7db to 3.5db please, see how stable it is (to get more speed)", and it will be done.

How many UK ISP's can you say that about...all for £14 a month.

Oh and I get a 1.4Meg upload speed too ;)
Click to expand...


Okay you little tease .... :D

Who do you use?
 
As orange mobile phone contract customers we get broadband with a livebox and phone 24/7 and now we get our homephone rental too wth free weekends and evenings (getting rid of BT altogether!) :woot:

£15 per month and no bt line rental to go ontop. (y)
 
I'm with Ukonline and have had no problems at all been with them 2 years now

16Mb down, 1Mb up, unlimited. @ £19.99 month
 
UK On Line here, have been for 2 years. Pretty reliable, and when it does go tits up they are very helpful. The biggest problems have been the exchange failing a couple of times, but even then, BT got it sorted in a few hours overnight.
Impressed enough with UkOnline [they are owned by easynet] that when we had to have a new business BB lined installed at work a couple of weeks ago, we went with their business option.
 
Wow! Cheers for all the advice. Let's hope my exchange is 'LLu'd' or whatever it is to use Broadcall. I never realised till now that BT would tie me in for 12 months to a line rental plan regardless... on top of the £125 connection fee. So even if I don't make a call, that's £240 for the first year just to have the line, before I add an internet package! :annoyed:
 
I've just checked some random, but valid, telephone numbers in your area and it appears that your local exchange hasn't been LLU'ed. Which is not really a surprise. Some 65+% of the country by population can now get an LLU connection but it will come as no surprise that those out in the sticks, like you, will be at the back of the queue.

There is a non-LLU version of BroadCall. I does cost £8 per month more than the LLU-flavoured BroadCall. But this will drop to the LLU'ed price shortly after your local exchange is upgraded and your line can be changed.

Unfortunately, living so far from the local exchange, whether it is LLU'ed or not, does mean that you won't get a lightning fast connection. The '8' service is always described as 'up to 8 Mbps' - or at least it should be. In other words, your connection will be the best that your line conditions allow be that anywhere between .5 and 8 meg. I can't say I've encountered one less than 2.7 meg amongst my customers. My own connection is 3.9 meg.
 
Are there any providers that have a UK call centre, or is that asking too much. Had no problems with BT, but it is best to shop around the same as you do with insurance.
But I hate foreign call centres.:bang:
 
Galaxy66 said:
Are there any providers that have a UK call centre, or is that asking too much. Had no problems with BT, but it is best to shop around the same as you do with insurance.
But I hate foreign call centres.:bang:
Click to expand...
The Utility Warehouse will always have a UK call centre. Their call centre often receives great write-ups in the press. The call centre has a single-level computerised call system (as opposed to a multi-level or even a circular one like SKY!) which, after selecting your option, will tell you how long you can expect to wait. This is always over-estimated in my experience and is often 15 seconds. They answer over 90% of incoming calls within a minute and I don't know of another utility provider's call centre that comes anywhere close to this.
 
Steep said:
ZEN, I can't fault the service, speed or indeed anything in the years I've been with them, more expensive than most (£24.99mnth for 8mb with 20gb cap) but you gets what you pay for.
Click to expand...

With you on this Zen support is first class, when needed.
 
Steep said:
ZEN, I can't fault the service, speed or indeed anything in the years I've been with them, more expensive than most (£24.99mnth for 8mb with 20gb cap) but you gets what you pay for.
Click to expand...

With you on this Zen are good, however, my 1.2mb i down to BT line not Zen. Support is first class, when needed.
 
virgin have a good technical service except their customer care got even worse when they got into bed with NTL. The trouble with Virgin is that you can't swap to another cable company. If you want to move away from them then you need a conventional phone line. At least ADSL gives you more flexibility.

Apart from anything else, the OP wants broadband out in the sitcks and there is no way that Virgin will ever stretch their cables that far.
 
I have Tiscali. upto 8Mb, unlimited downloads, free wireless router, TV box giving lots of channels, films on demand and the last 7 days TV. £24.95 INCLUDING the phone line and FREE national and international phone calls.
 
We've got virgin media (previously telewest) for phone, cable tv and broadband and they've been fine. The broadband in particular has very rarely gone down and their customer service, in my experience, has been very good.

We're just about to install a new PC and I emailed them requesting advice about compatibilty between their blueyonder/pc guard software and windows vista. They replied in under 24 hours and have sent me a new install disc. Can't say fairer then that :)
 
Virgin media's customer service is next to useless. And although the broadband is pretty reliable, don't bother with the higher packages as they traffic shape in the evenings meaning your download speeds are slashed.
 
Talk talk been with them about a year no problems up to now so cant commment on service but for the price I get broadband,line rental and free land line calls 24/7 price £20 per month(y)
Bob
 
I was paying £26 in total for broadband, free national and international calls and lien rental. Saw an offer on Tiscali's site for the same deal PLUS TV box for £24.99 I took them up on it and it included a new router too.

I am now getting 7898.9 Kbps !!!!

Blimey !!!!!

Plus a new Tv box thing which allows me to watch Sky, order films, watch BBC programs I forgot to set or didnt know about upto a week after they happened !!
 
I use Freedom2Surf and I love them, they used to be run by nerds, who sold out to Pipex, who recently sold them to Tiscali.
I get 20gig cap, fastest available linespeed, for £20 (inc vat) a month, with one static IP
I pay £5+VAT for a further 8 static IPs.
 
I was with F2S when they were run by nerds :) theywere good back then, dropped off the scale when Pipex bought them though.
 
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