I've had my broadband via my phone line for the last 7 or 8 years.

It was originally with O2 as a deal off the back of my mobile contract and then Sky bought them so now it's with them.

 

Following a move to a new build 5 years ago speed has been pretty bad (2MB on a good day) but that has been a widely reported problem for the development.

 

However whilst looking for a solution today it seems that BT have pulled their finger out and put fibre in - Hoorah

 

Having spoken direct to BT (as the landline is still supplied through them) it's "fibre to the cabinet" which is about 50 yards up the road.

They then attempted to sell me Infinity1 at up to 40MB or Infinity2 at up to 80MB.

Having spoken to Sky they also now concur that I can get a fibre service and quoted the same speeds at pretty much identical prices if i move the phone line over to them too.

 

Given they both use the same cables and quote the same speeds is there really any need to consider anything other than price in my decision?

I know Sky's servers have proved ok for me so far and that while my parents have no issues with their BT service the inlaws do have common drop outs.

 

help

Edited 15 January, 201610 yr by PastyBoy

It's the same physical cable, and the same network to a point, but there is still a point where the traffic diverges and ends up in Sky's core, or BT's core. Personally I just go on price, and if any ISP does dodgy stuff (hijacking NXDOMAIN DNS errors to inject ads disguised as helpful search results was common for a while) then they're at the bottom of the list.

 

Other than that, anyone can be affected by speed increases in the future, anyone can be affected by cybersecurity in the future, and anyone can be affected by court orders to censor websites in the future, anyone's call centre is pot luck whether you get one of the good ones or the bad ones, should you have to make that fateful call. The main decision you can make based on the right now is price, so that's what I usually do.

Samknows is a good website to use and see what services are available,

I'm with Andrews & Arnold's due to the excellent support and policies they have. They are not for everyone, nor cheap, but as my employer picks up the tab, I wouldnt have any other service. They're the only really different ISP as far as I know. There is pretty much no 1st line script, you get straight through to actual technical people who actually work with you. Your customer portal gives you access to their communication with the line provider so you know what's going on and you get tons of stats and info on your line. If you think your line is a bit dodgy, you can run tests yourself and reset your own line from their end.

Plusnet gets my vote. But then I'm a Yorkshireman.

If you can manage it, topcashback or similar offer some good deals. I nearly went with Sky fibre but in the end left it with Plusnet as I'm getting it for free for a year (metronet migration).

 

J.

fuel broadband?

You get what you pay for; there are lots of ISPs selling fibre, BT isnt the cheapest and Sky is far from the best; you have to decide how much knowledge you have and how important it is to you to have a working connection; there is a HUGE disparity between the customer service of the big ISPs and the smaller ISPs.

 

A&A mentioned above are probably the best in the UK for customer service, but their service model is VERY expensive, because a dedicated UK team of experts is expensive to maintain. With the smaller ISPs you will often get much the same level of expertise, but limited to standard office hours and an email alert system, because they do not have the finances to keep a team in the office 24/7.

 

ISPReview is another place to look, they have an exstensive list of ISPS and what those ISPs offer, and what people think of them; you will also find reviews of the latest round of VDSL routers to replace the BT white box that has now been discontinued.

 

So, at one end you have A&A, where a call to tech support gets answered by someone with expert knowledge after a few rings 24/7; and at the other end you have PlusNet where you get placed on hold for 94 minutes before giving up (me, mid-morning, trying to get the business internet connection fixed a few weeks before Christmas).

been with sky fibre for 3 or 4 years now, never had any serious issues, did have to ring their tech support once and it was flawless (and based here in Livingston), rang them and said that vodafone would be cheaper with free netflix and they cut my bill to £10 a month.

I've had to speak to Sky once when the speed dropped from it's 2MB to a consistent 0.25MB and they were great, called me back so they were paying, did some tests, confirmed something was up and had it fixed in about an hour (probably turned something off and on again)

 

There's a big old local facebook community moaning about internet speeds.

Apparently BT have only put one "cabinet" in for the entire new development which is now around 1200 homes.

but it seems a bit of a lottery. some peopel are moaning about 0.5mB service and having to cancel "fibre services" that was only giving them 1MB but then other screen shots of speedtests giving 19MB and 75MB.

I know the 19MB property is in close proximity to the cabinet and think that is always going to help.

 

i wonder if either BT or Sky will upgrade me as a trial and i'll pay the activation etc if i get what i want otherwise just switch me back

i wonder if either BT or Sky will upgrade me as a trial and i'll pay the activation etc if i get what i want otherwise just switch me back

 

Hang on, let me pull up a chair. This could be interesting...

 

 

I reckon once they've got you signed up, then it'll be pay out the rest of the contract before they'll give you your eyes back.

well this morning fibre is now no longer on the table :(

 

On speaking to BT it would seem our cabinet is oversubscribed as it is and all fibre slots will be taken.

If it said yes yesterday it's cos someone left leaving a slot, which this morning has already been filled - due to them being able to put you on a "waiting list" if you take their standard copper service. 

 

So this morning = nothing doing. FFS.

 

and despite plenty of arguing there was indeed no way they'd agree to ever refund the "activation charge".

Although there is a grace period if you want to cancel the contract though; so i reckon if i signed up for the Infinity2 contract including it's free activation then realise i'll never need 80MB and downgrade to Infinity1 at 40MB it'll already be activated for free.

Naive or what  and completely pointless really as there ain't no free ends of the fibre cable anyway

 

time to negotiate my copper service down from a frankly ludicrous £15 a month then

Edited 16 January, 201610 yr by PastyBoy

In this day and age there's really no excuse for not having decent speeds. The fact that it's such a lottery is very poor, and the terminology they use of "up to ** speeds" is quite frankly just lies. I'm not aware of anyone who gets the top end of their "Up to" speed estimate.

well this morning fibre is now no longer on the table :(

 

On speaking to BT it would seem our cabinet is oversubscribed as it is and all fibre slots will be taken.

If it said yes yesterday it's cos someone left leaving a slot, which this morning has already been filled - due to them being able to put you on a "waiting list" if you take their standard copper service. 

 

So this morning = nothing doing. FFS.

 

and despite plenty of arguing there was indeed no way they'd agree to ever refund the "activation charge".

Although there is a grace period if you want to cancel the contract though; so i reckon if i signed up for the Infinity2 contract including it's free activation then realise i'll never need 80MB and downgrade to Infinity1 at 40MB it'll already be activated for free.

Naive or what  and completely pointless really as there ain't no free ends of the fibre cable anyway

 

time to negotiate my copper service down from a frankly ludicrous £15 a month then

 

 

Not all of the ISPs charge an activation fee; my ISP regularly has free Fibre activation offers; I think there is one on right now.

 

Check out your local county council website for their local broadband page, and also search for information on BT new exchanges; if there is that much interest in the area, at some point either the council or BT will ask for extra capacity, so you might be able to get an idea of when any new cabinets are planned.

 

I am lucky, living near an aerospace technology park, I can throw a stone and hit two cabinets (almost).

I compare the total cost of different packages over the contract period which is longest.

then go with the best value from that. Assume every CS setup is ****e as its total luck on how anyone call will be handled. Talk in circles and on hold for weeks, or someone fixes the problem in 3mins..

Only ever sign up for a year. After a year there are new deals out, new technology, and all sorts. Don't want to be on 2 years clockwork broadband only to find that after a year you can get faster speeds for less than you're currently paying.

Here in Cornwall a lot of the cost of the fibre installations in rural areas has been paid for by the EU, as a follow on from 'Objective 1' funding.  However, as BT put up some money for it, the Eton Hill mob gave them a 12 month exclusive deal from when they activate it.  I assume that a suitable donation to Eton party funds was made in return.  Because they have only just activated in our village, we are stuck with copper unless we are prepared to pay BT's extortionate rates.

 

With the news that EE has been sold to BT, II suspect that a change of ESP will be needed (and a change of mobile service, too).  We got away from BT about 6 years ago due to their p**s poor service and we ain't going back!

Unless you need a new phone line installed, many of the smaller ISPs run monthly contracts, so you are not stuck for long if the service is no good.

 

My Story..

 

My line got hijacked by Talk Talk, who messed up the internet configuration, my old ISP werent interested in getting it sorted, because THEIR system said everything was fine (it wasnt, I was being directed THROUGH the TT system to a BT log-in, but I was not a BT customer); yes I could connect, but only to a BT test server, and only at 512Kb/s when my line should have been 6Mb/s.

 

After SIX WEEKS of being ignored I talked to AQUISS, they arranged a new line to get around the TT blockade (since TT denied "SLAMing" the line, the ISP denied handing it over to them, AND also refused to issue a MAC), OE turned up to install it only 10 days later, and they also got me an early appointment for a fibre connection only 2 days after that*

 

Not only that, but they only charged me the OE fee for a new line - £50 +VAT, not the £150 BT charge.

 

*Apparently, you needed TWO appointments for a new line and new VDSL install, so either TWO guys at the same time or the same guy coming back twice - which is what happened. I believe BT have fixed this issue now.

 

Since then (2 years ago), I have had only one problem, an outage that lasted less than 10 minutes (about 9-10 months ago), however AQUISS tech support have been very helpful in getting me set up with  IPv6 properly, as it was still new and relatively unknown 2 years ago; and with a configuration issue with GMail, after a server switch-over last summer.

 

They day my new phone line went active, and appeared on BTs system, my old ISP cut my line off entirely (without warning), even though I was paid up through to the end of the next month AND charged me a termination fee.

Plusnet gets my vote. But then I'm a Yorkshireman.

 

Plusnet are terrible these days, 10 years ago I would have agreed with you, but not now.

Sky Fibre Unlimited is the thing to go for, their 40/10 (will be a great improvement over your current 2/? service).  Sky is uncapped and no traffic management in place.  It just works.  BT.

Plusnet are terrible these days, 10 years ago I would have agreed with you, but not now.

Sky Fibre Unlimited is the thing to go for, their 40/10 (will be a great improvement over your current 2/? service).  Sky is uncapped and no traffic management in place.  It just works.  BT.

I have no problems with Plusnet. Download/upload speed is about half of what I can apparently get (41/18 Mbps this morning) but no different to when we were with BT for quite a lot more money. Last night the wife phoned to enquire about something on our call package, and was answered and dealt with in about 5 minutes. Last year we called up to ask if they could do us the deal for new customers as our contract was out, and the guy said "Are you thinking of leaving?" I said "No, but I'd quite like the lower charges that new customers get if you can?" and he did it there and then. He said it's unusual for people to just ask nicely because "They usually phone up and shout about how they can get a better deal elsewhere and demand we match it.".

 

Perhaps it's because we were both Yorkshire.

 

I have no problems with Plusnet. Download/upload speed is about half of what I can apparently get (41/18 Mbps this morning) but no different to when we were with BT for quite a lot more money. Last night the wife phoned to enquire about something on our call package, and was answered and dealt with in about 5 minutes. Last year we called up to ask if they could do us the deal for new customers as our contract was out, and the guy said "Are you thinking of leaving?" I said "No, but I'd quite like the lower charges that new customers get if you can?" and he did it there and then. He said it's unusual for people to just ask nicely because "They usually phone up and shout about how they can get a better deal elsewhere and demand we match it.".

 

Perhaps it's because we were both Yorkshire.

 

Customer retention is a different thing to the technical support line.  I learnt a long time ago to always be nice to the person at the other end of the phone :-)

Never needed technical support.  Never had anything go wrong. :sun:

Plusnet are terrible these days, 10 years ago I would have agreed with you, but not now.

Sky Fibre Unlimited is the thing to go for, their 40/10 (will be a great improvement over your current 2/? service).  Sky is uncapped and no traffic management in place.  It just works.  BT.

Sky will still use the over-subscribed DSLAM though so until that gets a slot free, no FTTC from Sky or any other provider.

BT/ Openreach aren't the ones who funded the DSLAMs, that was part of the Governments BDUK thing to bring faster speeds to the UK.

The funding from the Govt. has virtually ceased and Openreach have significantly slowed down the installation of new FTTC cabinets.

BT will put cabinets in if they are sure they will make a profit; they even have a system to do it.

 

They ignore an area until the locals get so fed up they arrange for an altnet set up; as soon as enough people sign up the the altnet solution to make it viable, BT move in, undercut the altnet and steal all the customers.

 

If BT dont think they can make a quick profit, they walk away, even if BDUK is offering upfront money (just happened in Hereford).

Think yourselves lucky you have a choice!!!

No BT where I live, so just have a choice of 1 ISP :(