Evenin' all, I'm giving Sky unlimited Broadband the elbow, just wondering which ISP to move to. i do work from home and as have ditched Sky TV will be using the likes of Netflix more

 

I'm in Manchester, not interested in Virgin as don't want them drilling in their new cables and all that faff. Don't want any throttling of line service and would need no usage cap too.

 

Current download speed is 7.81mb/sec, upload 1.26mb/sec

 

Have seen a tempting deal from EE with Cashback (but have heard a few horror stories about cashback not being paid and ****-ups with the transfer of ISP).

 

Is it worth going to fibre?

 

Who would you lovely people recommend?

 

Cheers

I ditched sky and went with BT Infinity 2 just over a year ago and get 74meg down and 18meg upload. Great for streaming glitch free full HD whilst others are using the same connection. Connection is totally unlimited with no traffic throttling or shaping and the full speed is available no matter how much you download.

All brands have customer service horror stories. 

 

 

Virgin are the best nationally, and would be my first choice. I've never noticed any 'shaping' in the evening and use the internet heavily. 

 

If not, whichever supply offers you fibre to the exchange (doesn't need the drilling) at the cheapest price. TalkTalk, BT, EE, Plusnet are the most popular I believe. All offer the same connection, just whoever is offering the best price at the time you sign up...  

I ditched sky and went with BT Infinity 2 just over a year ago and get 74meg down and 18meg upload. Great for streaming glitch free full HD whilst others are using the same connection. Connection is totally unlimited with no traffic throttling or shaping and the full speed is available no matter how much you download.

Not according to a recent BBC watchdog.

I'm sure it'll be on their site

BT DO restrict if you download too much - as a friend found out last year; the students he was renting out to were d/l ing in excess of 100GB per month, so BT starting slapping excess charges on him (without warning).

 

There are plenty of ADSL or Fibre resellers out there, they have their own tech support and it is usually head shoulders and a extension ladder above the support offered by the big guys.

 

Some of them occasionally offer free fibre installs as well. (I missed out by 2 weeks - BUGGER).

 

The resellers tend to be more expensive, but avoiding Indian call centres is not cheap; I pay ~£55 for line, phone and fibre - but I know that if I have a technical issue, they will sort it at once, or call in BT OR engineers while I am still on the line, unlike the big guys who will put you off and delay you for as long as possible.

 

I have an example I always trot out, both my sister and I had identical faults develop with dodgy exchange equipment, my tiny ISP got a BTOR engineer out to fix the problem in 10 days, her Orange connection wasnt fixed for nearly TWO YEARS; by which time she had a large box full of replacement routers and "Frogs".

Edited 17 July, 201411 yr by GentleGiant

I'd avoid EE as when I was with Orange they throttled heavily and do enforce data caps heavily. My speed doubled moving to sky.

Everyone I know who left sky for another adsl provider (with the exception of fibre) has regretted it and moved back to sky as soon as they could.

Sky also do fibre don't forget, they're offering 6 months at £10 (the staff price) and then £20 thereafter. EE is just BT Wholesale behind the scenes as orange outsourced their broadband to BT a few years ago.

My average usage on infinity over the past 3 months is 250GB. No throttling or caps.

 

 

I was a Zen ADSL MAX customer, then a Sky LLU customer.  I would have been happy to stay with Sky had they been willing to offer any deal at all for their top Fibre product.  BT were considerably cheaper.

 

Was sceptical , but no issues so far.

My average usage on infinity over the past 3 months is 250GB. No throttling or caps.

 

Thats my finding as well, don't forget BT offer a number of infinity products, some of which are throttled and have limits. The truly unlimited product does not have throttling or caps. I and the rest of my family use PLEX to access my PLEX Media server which lives here in Dorset and regularly see in excess of 250GB per month, often more than this. BT quote on there website for the product I am on "'Totally Unlimited' means that you will be able to enjoy catch-up TV, streamed films, online gaming and other bandwidth-eating applications and we'll never slow you down."

I've done 40GB alone today, and my current speed test is. 

I have noticed in the last year that BT Infinity adverts have given (ridiculously low), limits for the package price they are quoting (from 2-10GB); my friend was one of the first to sign up and was told "unlimited", so he was very surprised AND upset to get the sudden charges early last year.

 

He got charged for several months before BT relented (but no refund).

Switched to primus recently and seems pretty good at the moment

I have sky fibre running approx 30mbps and it's very good. Can have two kids on tables and still stream a hd film without issues. It's a little pricey at £35 for just the broadband and phone line. But when standard broadband runs at only 0.4mbps due to our distance from the exchange, it's worth it.

I have sky fibre running approx 30mbps and it's very good. Can have two kids on tables and still stream a hd film without issues. It's a little pricey at £35 for just the broadband and phone line. But when standard broadband runs at only 0.4mbps due to our distance from the exchange, it's worth it.

 

How old are the kids?? I wouldnt want them to fall off and hurt themselves.

How old are the kids?? I wouldnt want them to fall off and hurt themselves.

Haha. Tablets, bloody autocorrect!

Must admit I'm tempted to swap to BT infinity, given a point is 200yards away.

 

Would be leaving virgin, only negative is the quasi static ip, makes my life slightly easier. Ways around it, not end of world. Interesting views though.

Must admit I'm tempted to swap to BT infinity, given a point is 200yards away.

 

Would be leaving virgin, only negative is the quasi static ip, makes my life slightly easier. Ways around it, not end of world. Interesting views though.

 

Doesn't mean the cable is 200yds long

 

Should be fine but I know a few people that have been caught out over longer distances.

haha well aware cables do not go where grows fly. When adsl first rolled out the line ran down one side of the road then back up... I was technically to far away. Given I had 2 isdn lines in on top of a normal phone I convinced the engineer as you could back then, to have a go.  Fault free for 10 years.

I have noticed in the last year that BT Infinity adverts have given (ridiculously low), limits for the package price they are quoting (from 2-10GB); my friend was one of the first to sign up and was told "unlimited", so he was very surprised AND upset to get the sudden charges early last year.

 

He got charged for several months before BT relented (but no refund).

Signed up about 2 years ago and never been throttled or charged for over use.

Virgin Media ftw

Signed up about 2 years ago and never been throttled or charged for over use.

All depends on the popularity at the exchange.

Some areas hardly anyone is on infinity so they'll leave you alone.

If you want cheap, I read of a new ISP offering 40Gb for £1 per month and £11 per month line rental.

 

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/isp_list/ISP_Detail_Fixed_Line_Broadband.php?Pop-Telecom-326

 

For a bit more you can have "unlimited".

 

I pay ~£50 a month for unlimited fibre and line rental; and no way would I be tempted by the above.

I have BT Infinity and never have a problem with it, if there has been an issue i ring up and straight away it is dealt with with no hassle. Never had any restrictions on downloads as my 2 kids download films and games all the time.

i had a lot of teething troubles when i went to bt fibre but as it was from sky llu i can accept bedding in issues. since then, for last 6 months, its been rock solid and it does get some hammer, never had any speed restrictions imposed on me either

i think limits would be hard to enforce especially in the world of streaming, legally or otherwise, must place a strain on your service if theres several doing this at same time

If you want cheap, I read of a new ISP offering 40Gb for £1 per month and £11 per month line rental.

 

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/isp_list/ISP_Detail_Fixed_Line_Broadband.php?Pop-Telecom-326

 

For a bit more you can have "unlimited".

 

I pay ~£50 a month for unlimited fibre and line rental; and no way would I be tempted by the above.

 

they're not new, just a new name, docklands telecom they used to be, or DTC.