Who is good for Broadband (got to change provider)

[justinbarrow]

I have been with Virgin National Broadband for over 10 years and today got a letter to say they are focusing on their own cable networks and have now passed my account over to Talk Talk who want to put me on a 24 month contract and I have to pay them line rental which I am not happy with.

 

They didnt even give me 30 days notice and I will automatically be migrated to talk talk broadband on the 18th December (only got virgins letter today dated 8th December)

 

Virgin cable services are not available in my area so cant stay with Virgin for my broadband, so have to look at options. I am just after some pointers as to who people on here recommend as there seem to be a few companies to choose from, The new contract is not an issue just wanting high speed that is unlimited as I have 2 sons who play online games and stream quite a bit.

 

Thanks everyone. 

[Tomote]

BT are fine as long as everything is there in the first place. Are's wasn't, and there were complications so from the first guy turning up it took 2 and half months for it all to be sorted.... :-(

[john999boy]

Sky is unlimited and quite cheap if you click here.

[justinbarrow]

Thanks for the tips - I was looking at plus net as they seem to get good reviews but they are BT under another name I believe 

[camelspyyder]

BT own the phone/ADSL lines - the others rent them from BT.

 

Sky and others are putting there own networks down too.

 

BT here was about 16Mb down,

Talk Talk on same line 14.3Mb, completely uncapped usage on TT

Talk Talk with TV enabled 12.1Mb - but the TV service is utter pants - don't even consider it.

 

Line rental is about £16 from all the suppliers - their headline broadband for £3.50 per month (or whatever) is totally misleading.

Edited 11 December, 2014 by camelspyyder

[mannyo]

Plusnet are owned by BT yes but for now at least operate as separate companies.

 

You need to find out which ISPs have kit at your phone exchange as that will dictate who you can go with. You can pick any of them, but if there is no kit at your exchange then you'll end up using BT equipment as you do now with Virgin.

 

Your main choices are BT/Sky/Talktalk or plusnet.

 

If you can get BT infinity or Sky Fibre then you'll have no streaming issues, and a better experience across all your devices for not much more money.

[@Lee]

http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/rural-broadband/

 

http://www.connectingcumbria.org.uk/home

 

http://www.connectingcumbria.org.uk/when-and-where

[john999boy]

You need to find out which ISPs have kit at your phone exchange as that will dictate who you can go with.

 

Here's the link for that search.

[KBPhoto]

BT & PlusNet are different leagues of service & product.

I was with BT for about 3 months and they lied to me to get a sale, had a poor quality router & low line speeds.

PlusNet however have excellent customer service and about the best speeds we can hope to get out here. They also do a static IP address for £5 which BT wouldn't entertain unless on business deals.

As I said, same owners, different league.

[justinbarrow]

Some good advice guys - Cheers

 

If choosing between BT Fibre or Plusnet Fibre which one, The plusnet router doesnt look like much but has the better customer service reviews whereas BT own the network cables and the Hub Home router seems a decent bit of kit.

Edited 11 December, 2014 by justinbarrow

[mannyo]

The BT HH5 is a pretty decent piece of kit with concurrent dual band wireless (2.4 and 5GHZ) and supports the new AC standard. HH5 also has all gigabit ethernet ports, and if you go fibre does not need any additional boxes.

 

My BT HH4 is a bit of a mixed bag, it seems alright most of the time but my macbook does not like connecting to it at 5GHZ.

[Rustynuts]

Thanks for the tips - I was looking at plus net as they seem to get good reviews but they are BT under another name I believe 

Plusnet for me, and I moved to them from BT as they were much cheaper. If you can get it, FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) is available now in many areas and is marketed as superfast fibre broadband or suchlike. It boosted our speed from 5mbps to 38mbps

[Rustynuts]

Oh, and the Plusnet router is basic and functional, but I always buy my own router based on web reviews of people who use them. Get the Plusnet one if it's still free and just postage, and it'll get you up and running.

[Aspman]

I can +1 for Plusnet been with them for about 3yr now after BT.

 

BT were actually ok as well just too expensive.

 

I picked up Plusnet on one of their 12 month deals, the renewal increaed prices quite a lot, I phoned them up and asked for a deal to stay and was made an offer that was better than the new customer offer.

Ok a shame I had to call but I expect that these days.

 

Much easier to get through to than BT.

 

Service has been pretty solid the only outages have been due to big cable thefts. Speed is as advertised, we're on an upto 14Mb and get 10-12Mb.

 

They do traffic shaping but it's not something we've ever noticed. Unlike BT where we had issues with iPlayer that was being restricted.

 

The supplied router is functional but not great. Unlike BT you can switch it for your own if you want.

[Ally_bassman]

I know a lot of people slate them...

 

 

But i'm with Talk Talk and recently upgraded to Fibre optic (Medium package) for an extra fiver a month compared to the £5 I was already paying for ADSL.

 

Bandwith was quoted as 35mb, and I was happy to find that I do indeed get those speeds, even at peak time!

[kilted]

I had Sky (on a BT line) and had hopeless speeds (never got close to the advertised 8Mb speed - more likely 3.5Mb at best.

 

I know its not much help to the OP but I switched to Virgin and apart from a couple of short outages (lasting a couple of hours) they have always hit the advertised speed of 30Mb give or take 0.5.

 

BT were absolutely abysmal to my mate - took 3 weeks to find their own line, 1 further week to connect it and another 2 weeks to get broadband on it

[milspectees]

Firstly, they can not transfer you without your prior permission.

 

Cancel your broadband contract and then sign up with TalkTalk on your own on a 30 day rolling contract. TalkTalk is completely unrestricted and unlimited, the only service that is. By the way, Sky is NOT unlimited they have a fair use policy and will restrict you in peak hours if you're a heavy user

[kevberlin]

I am a BT customer. Just had good service when my broadband started to drop out. It was soon resolved by an engineer at no cost to me as there were issues outside my home.

BT is not the cheapest package. However, as it stands, all BT broadband customers get BT Sport for free. This suits me as I do not have any other sport package for television. BT Sport gives a wide range of sport including Premier League and Moto GP.

I watch the footy and motorcycling on the iMac. It is as good as watching the TV.

Best.

[gadgetman]

I'm with Sky, and find it much faster than parents BT.

 

As above uses Topcashback or quidco.  When I joined Sky the cashback paid for itself for the first 12 months

[@Lee]

 

BT were absolutely abysmal to my mate - took 3 weeks to find their own line, 1 further week to connect it and another 2 weeks to get broadband on it

 

BT use a lot of contractors to put the ducts in for the cables and dig the trenches etc, trouble is the contractors plans aren't terribly reliable or they are non existent! BT are currently trying to locate ~20,000 (IIRC) poles put in accross the country over farmland etc.

[john999boy]

BT are currently trying to locate ~20,000 (IIRC) poles put in across the country over farmland etc.

 

I think I've found one!

 

[justinbarrow]

Here's the link for that search.

 

Just looking at link from john999boyit looks like just Sky and Talk Talk have LLU equipment, Plus-net are not on the list but do provide service to my area. BT were offering infinity 2 on a 12 month contract for £20 a month and speeds upto 72mb but today its changed to another offer not as good. 

 

Mrs said I should of took it right away, I didn't as reading up on things first.

 

Some good pointers on this thread - thanks everyone

[justinbarrow]

Found this link via a website called broadband genie 

 

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=37337&aff=bbgenie&s_cid=con_cic_aff_affwin_vidAJM_broadband&vendorid=AJM&utm_source=Affwin&utm_medium=Ref&utm_campaign=Affiliate&awc=3041_1418471343_d56400404ce12074fab38cb574afc4ac

 

Although the deals look tempting they are deals that are not listed on the bt.com website so should I be wary of these deals as I have never heard of broadband genie

[GentleGiant]

ISPReview.com might be the place to start looking

[andy2286]

I've been with a number of broadband providers over the years, the best provider I've ever been with was o2. They were absolutely brilliant, very reliable service, free 24/7 UK based helplines with very knowledgeable staff and they even provided McAfee internet security for 3 pc's at no extra charge. Unfortunately, they were bought out by SKY.

I would advise against SKY, sure the speed's aren't too bad but the helpline is next to useless and I've found the service to be quite choppy around 2am (not great if you're a night owl like myself)