BT have wound me up, need some recommendations

shadowdragon

Ok Ive had it with BT giving me the run around and giving me the bullshine. Just requested my MAC, its gone beyond a comedy of errors to a bloody greek tragedy.

So is Virgin Cable 10meg line actually 10meg, or is it another distance from the exchange dependant connection?

What about there throttling?

I am really confused with it all to be honest theres so many ISPs out there now, I hear good and bad about them all. To be honest I havent a clue anymore. All I know is that my 3.5meg from BT has dropped to 2.5 in the last month, connection is choked at peak times (evenings/weekends) that i need a nice stable connection thats a reasonable price £24 quid a month for a 2.5mb connection (and phone/line rental ontop too) is not really cost effective.

I am a low telephone user too,

Any help is appreciated.

DatabaseError

put you postcode in here post back with any LLU results

saintlyboy

Virgin Media (only cable company) have their issues too but as a rule they are more reliable and their traffic shaping only really comes in to play between 4pm and 9pm and only if you go over a certain download limit in that period.

With cable you don't generally have to worry about distance from the exchange, it's more about contention i.e. how many other users in your neighbourhood are sharing the same pipe as you?

Speed research has shown that users on their 2Mbps and 10Mbps packages generally do get very close to those speeds, although those on the 20Mbps may only be getting 14Mbps at peak time (oh no I hear you cry) which is not great as you are paying at least £20/month for the broadband alone.

The same speed research (I'm referring to samknows.com tests) also showed that BT give strong priority to basic e-mail and surfing - but if you are doing anything heavy usage related you are more likely to feel the pinch of their traffic shaping.

If you can get it in your area then O2 are worth a punt as no phone calls and cheap if you have an O2 mobile plus it's an unlimited service. You can get up to 20Mbps with them if you can get ADSL2+

does that help?

shadowdragon

yes saintlyboy anything helps at the moment as my brain is fried with the ISPs. So the 10meg Virgin might be worth a pop then. Im quite happy to kick BT telephone into touch too, its costing approx 120 a quarter for phone/bb with bt, and like I say not a big phone user.

Tony heres the results from our exchange:-

ADSL: Yes
SDSL: Yes
LLU services: Yes
Cable: Yes
Wireless: No

LLU Availability

AOL: Not available
O2 / Be: Enabled as of 08/12/2006
C&W / Bulldog: Not available
Edge Telecom: Not available
Entanet: Not available
Lumison: Not available
NewNet: Not available
Node4: Not available
Orange: Not available
Pipex: Not available
Sky / Easynet: Enabled as of 08/03/2007
Smallworld: Not available
TalkTalk (CPW): Enabled as of 16/07/2007
Tiscali: Not available
Tiscali TV:Not available
WB Internet: Not available
Zen Internet: Not available

saintlyboy

I'm on the 10Mbps Virgin service with XL TV (includes Setanta and BBC Iplayer plus some free Video on Demand stuff) and E&W calls (L) and it all works fine. I've been on both the former Telewest and NTL networks with them and as long as you keep phoning up after 12 months to get a decent price I generally have no bother.

Now that they have put tech support back to 0p/min I can't really fault the service. Their free security software is pretty good too if you don't want to do anything fancy. These days, now that they realise it's 2008 and not 2005, they even throw in a wireless router on the 10Mbps package.

Just be sure before you leap because once you cross over to cable it could be a bit of a hassle going back as after a while your BT line will go inactive and you will need to get reconnected blah blah blah.

But I have no probs in recommending them really. There's talk of them getting the basic Sky channels back soon as well so happy days all round.
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

shadowdragon

saintlyboy wrote: »

I'm on the 10Mbps Virgin service with XL TV (includes Setanta and BBC Iplayer plus some free Video on Demand stuff) and E&W calls (L) and it all works fine. I've been on both the former Telewest and NTL networks with them and as long as you keep phoning up after 12 months to get a decent price I generally have no bother.

Now that they have put tech support back to 0p/min I can't really fault the service. Their free security software is pretty good too if you don't want to do anything fancy. These days, now that they realise it's 2008 and not 2005, they even throw in a wireless router on the 10Mbps package.

Just be sure before you leap because once you cross over to cable it could be a bit of a hassle going back as after a while your BT line will go inactive and you will need to get reconnected blah blah blah.

But I have no probs in recommending them really. There's talk of them getting the basic Sky channels back soon as well so happy days all round.
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Thanks, but Im not overly bothered about the TV service, I have freeview and it suits me fine for what I watch. Do you have to take a tv package to get a good deal, and being a new customer would I get the 10meg/phone for less than £40 per month (which is approx what Im paying bt now!!!)?

Cheers

Shadowdragon.

saintlyboy

The more you take with them the better value the package becomes but you should be able to get what you want for that. You might as well get the basic TV package because it's essentially free and has the freeview channels anyway. You should also get Iplayer I think.

Plus, until 31st October they are giving up to £50 credit when you join online but you need to take the TV to get this - although you should still get £20 discount for signing up online when taking just the two.

Your two best options I would say are:

a) Phone & 10Mbps BB = £19/month for 6 months then £27

b) "Sweet 16" triple play offer which gives you basic TV, phone and 10Mbps = £27 with £50 back for online sign up.

Looks like the offers run until 31st October.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/specialoffers/index.html

Nex0

O2 broadband is your best bet and its even better if you have a o2 phone as you get a extra £5 of the price.

http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/index.jsp

Or if you have sky tv its worth looking at there broadband packages as well.

shadowdragon

Thanks Im gonna look into these but I think the sweet 16 package from Virgin is tempting, think theres a $40 installation fee which negates the £50 off though.

peachyprice

Just be careful Shadow, if it doesn't work out with Virgin you'll have to pay BT to re-instate your line from cable before you can change to another ISP.

Think Virgin may credit check too;)

TBH, we've just changed to o2 and they've been fab.

shadowdragon

Thanks Peachy, but I dont think BT are as good as they used to be and ill get it in the missuses name so the credit check shouldnt be a big problem.

Im waiting for my MAC code atm, so I expect a phone call from BT with everything miracously (sp!) sorted out. O2 look ok too, but although my mobile is O2 payg, I dont put £10 per month on it, so I dont think I will be eligible for the existing customer discount!!!