I am a virgin broadband customer. I am a little peeved with them for recent price rises and consistent problems signing in (I use Google Chrome).

I am thinking of moving to BT for my broadband as it fits in with my telephone package needs.

Anyone any views on BT as a ISP?

Cheers

Ok as long as you don't download torrents. If you D/L then you need O2 or BeThere (I am with Be and getting 5MBPS and get a consistent 500kbps on torrents).

Can understand traffic management to a certain extent but 2kbps on a torrent when you are on 40MB infinity is a but rich.

They are okay for us. We have poor speed (1mb) but that is better that our previous provider. They have guarenteed us 1mb. If it goes below they will come out and fix the line or we can exit the contract. The Homehub router looks cool too!

Dont go with Talk Talk whatever you do, all the customer support is in the far east and they are very hard to communicate with. Also they sent engineers to our property to mend a damaged line (not on our property) now they are threatening to send baylifs to collect money for these visits. Even after the visits our speed was occasionally down to 1/20th of 1mb. AVOID. They were fined a very large amount of money recently for unethical billing and poor customer service. I can see why!

If you stream or game online then they are well known to throttle.

When you say sign in issues, what do you mean? Could be a DNS issue (easily fixed) or a wifi signal clash if simply slow and dropping out.

I am with bt and have been very happy with the service received over the last 2 years. I use my xbox with no issues and stream iplayer and other bits with no issues with a 1.5mb connection. I thought about leaving and going elsewhere but they offered me a great deal to stay so I have!

Thanks for replies

BT broadband helpdesk is also in India and they follow a script to make sure you have got everything plugged in correctly as do almost every othe BB provider. Once you got past all that they do send out an engineer to fix the issues. The worst BB provider I've had experience with is Carphone warehouse which includes Talk Talk, AOL and a couple of others that have eluded my memory. Pricing- You get what you pay for as anything else.

Been with BT since the move to the new house 2yr ago. Didn't really want to but to get lines in quick...

But honestly there have been few problems with it. It used to stutter a bit on iPlayer (traffic shaping) but that's not happened for a long while.

We're not downloaders or gamers so we're on the basic package of 10Gb. I have used that up streaming TV and had a few warnings from them.

We were offered a discount to stay with them after the initial contract ended so we're only £13 a month.

On advantage with BT is that you can use the BTFon network. Every router comes with a BTfon side channel that any register BT user can utilise. I've found it handy for connecting in a few places you wouldn't expect.

http://www.btfon.com/

On advantage with BT is that you can use the BTFon network. Every router comes with a BTfon side channel that any register BT user can utilise. I've found it handy for connecting in a few places you wouldn't expect.

http://www.btfon.com/

Yep, Handy for you Smart phone users.

As said most help desks are in and around India.

I'm with TalkTalk and never had a real problem apart from having my initial router replaced, and that was a 48hour turn-around.

Download speeds are variable as we all know, and much to do with how far you are from the local telephone exchange.

Son-in-law has constant problems with BT hub, with internet disconnections.

To me you are just lucky if you have a fairly constant internet connection, and a fairly fast download capability.

We all are using BT installed hardware, no-matter who we go with for our broadband, and will take many more years to be totally fibre optic based.

As said most help desks are in and around India.

I'm with TalkTalk and never had a real problem apart from having my initial router replaced, and that was a 48hour turn-around.

Download speeds are variable as we all know, and much to do with how far you are from the local telephone exchange.

Son-in-law has constant problems with BT hub, with internet disconnections.

To me you are just lucky if you have a fairly constant internet connection, and a fairly fast download capability.

We all are using BT installed hardware, no-matter who we go with for our broadband, and will take many more years to be totally fibre optic based.

We are with bt and they are ok but expensive thinking of jumpin to orange, unlimited broadband and phone although changed the homehub it's crap bought a netgear n router and much better, may contact to get a discount

If you have a Homehub type b in black the wireless connectivity is not that good and they do not like 20meg. DSLAM's. Ask BTB for a Homehub 3.

If you have a Homehub type b in black the wireless connectivity is not that good and they do not like 20meg. DSLAM's. Ask BTB for a Homehub 3.

We had homehub 2 with the phone, n router rubbish we bought a netgear, now orange supply new customers with the same n netgear router

Been with BT for years and includes 2 house moves. Speed is slow but that is not BT Broadbands fault and in general to the locality - in fact many other ISP simply wont supply in our neck of the woods.

I did call them and complain abot teh speed a few years ago and the service was brilliant. With no success in improving teh service after supplying 2 new routers and various techo tweeks the India call center connected me to a local engineer who came out a rewired the house phones FOC, resulting in a speed increase from 0.4 to 1 mb

Dont go with Talk Talk whatever you do, all the customer support is in the far east and they are very hard to communicate with. Also they sent engineers to our property to mend a damaged line (not on our property) now they are threatening to send baylifs to collect money for these visits. Even after the visits our speed was occasionally down to 1/20th of 1mb. AVOID. They were fined a very large amount of money recently for unethical billing and poor customer service. I can see why!

I've been with talktalk since they started and apart from their accounts screwing up at the beginning the service has been fine. They waived the £30 connection fee and paid my mobile phone bill for a month when they screwed up the account, so I came out on top.

Broadband speed where I live is betwwen 10 - 13mb, so for me Talktalk is OK.

Been with BT since the move to the new house 2yr ago. Didn't really want to but to get lines in quick...

But honestly there have been few problems with it. It used to stutter a bit on iPlayer (traffic shaping) but that's not happened for a long while.

We're not downloaders or gamers so we're on the basic package of 10Gb. I have used that up streaming TV and had a few warnings from them.

We were offered a discount to stay with them after the initial contract ended so we're only £13 a month.

On advantage with BT is that you can use the BTFon network. Every router comes with a BTfon side channel that any register BT user can utilise. I've found it handy for connecting in a few places you wouldn't expect.

http://www.btfon.com/

Although I've set up BT FON on my Home Hub 2 and registered an account on their web site some time ago, I can never seem to log on using it. At home, the Wi-Fi service on my Blackberry always seems to find the BT Fon signal but then stalls when communicating with the server.I've got a private wi-fi network set-up at home and the Blackberry has no problem getting a web connection over that.

My BT Broadband Service over twisted pair, 7.1Mb down and 0.7Mb up.I'm only a couple of k from the exchange. Few problems - only last year when the were installing some of the Infinity kit at the exchange and upgrading my service from 2 MB. Customer Service in India. Can be difficult to understand with the accent - but they are thorough and you get there eventually.

Nick

Edited 23 September, 201114 yr by Clunkclick

oh in case you didn't know Orange broadband is now run by BT

Can anyone tell me why I have to pay £45+ for a BT Hub 3 when I can get one free if I join for the first time

I have beena BT subscriber for many years!!!

Probaly because most ISP give you the first router "free" as an incentive and then you have to pay for replacements/upgrades - just the same as with a Sky box.

BT isn't the cheapest, but is very reliable in my experience.

I DL and stream an awful lot, and have never had a problem.

BT FON in the other hand, also in my experience, is complete junk.

Edited 24 September, 201114 yr by thejames

BT isn't the cheapest, but is very reliable in my experience.

I DL and stream an awful lot, and have never had a problem.

BT FON in the other hand, also in my experience, is complete junk.

Its funny. On the very few occassions that my Blackberry has managed to connect to the BT FON server, the first page you get is a log-on page (Which rarely works) but at the bottom of that same web-page is a list of icons directing you to BT pay-to-surf wi-fi connections of various payment profiles/configurations. Hmmm ? Is that BT's marketeers saying why should customers get a roaming wi-fi connection for free, at the cost of a loss of revenue to our 3G services, just because we had to sign-up to some european agreement (FON) to make us seem warm and cuddly and give governments the impression we were making the best overall use of telecomms capacity ?

Might be one for the regulator to look into.

Nick

Edited 24 September, 201114 yr by Clunkclick

Can anyone tell me why I have to pay £45+ for a BT Hub 3 when I can get one free if I join for the first time

I have beena BT subscriber for many years!!!

The answer is simple----If you are not currently on a contract then cancel the service and re-negotiate a new contract, "Summer Deals" are very competetive and they'll send a New Homehub3.