Broadband. Who's the Cheapest? Article Discussion Area

trisontana

Perhaps V21 are unwilling to pay uSwitch the commission they demand for including companies on their website . I am always wary about these so called independent companies. How can they be independent if they are paid commission ?

Art_2

trisontana wrote:

Perhaps V21 are unwilling to pay uSwitch the commission they demand for including companies on their website . I am always wary about these so called independent companies. How can they be independent if they are paid commission ?

Uswitch is a reputable company for comparing suppliers and you are wrong in your comments.

Look on their website and it is fully explained.

They do get a small commission from some suppliers. They also offer special deals with some suppliers is you sign up through their website. They make it clear that any arrangements do not affect the validity of their advice.

Some of the companies recommended by MSE also offer deals to MSE. Are you suggesting Martin's advice is biassed?

Regards,
Art.

rammell

My feeling is that "yes", uSwitch can indeed be trusted to be impartial BUT they have some "small print" .... which is published on their website.... that now makes me feel a little cautious about using the service. Their website quotes:

"uSwitch.com has agreed deals with some broadband providers to receive a small commission payment when a customer chooses to sign up through us. Our commercial relationships are in place to help make the sign up process as convenient as possible for our customers. They also enable us to keep this a free service. Our commercial relationships have no bearing on the ranking of providers in your results."

I take from this that if an ISP does not agree to pay a fee to uSwitch, then it will not appear in their results. However, so long as a fee has been, then uSwitch will include the ISP in the search results together wilth all other fee-paying ISPS that meet the user's criteria.

The uSwitch website also says: "all broadband providers must: have information regarding the availability of their product; supply complete information about their product, as well as notifying us of any price or product changes; provide published accounts for other suitable credit references on request." This may also exclude some ISPs.

My take on it is.... uSwitch will provide you with the cheapest ISP THAT HAS PAID A FEE TO uSwitch, BUT there may be cheaper ISPs available who don't match uSwitch's acceptance criteria. Don't therefore just assume that the cheapest ISP on uSwitch is the cheapest ISP out there (as is the case for it's gas, electricity and phone comparison service).

mrJ_5

rammell wrote:

uSwitch will provide you with the cheapest ISP THAT HAS PAID A FEE TO uSwitch

totally agree - I have heard that uSwitch charge these ISPs somewhere between £35 and £45 in commission, depending on speed and restrictions - though normally it is £45 apparently.... so if the ISP has small margins, that could add £3-4 on a connection each month, for a year

... now why don't we start a rival service - and charge half that!

britters

This may not be of much use to people who download movies, but for those like me who only get on the internet at weekends and then mainly for VOIP, emails and the occasional music download, this might be the answer for you.

Lixxus offer a basic broadband service with NO monthly charge - you just pay for downloads up to a maximum determined by the type of package you have selected. To date, my bills have varied between £4 and £14 (the latter due to an OS update of about 125MB).

The setup cost is a bit high at about £60 + the cost of a modem (about £23) but, over a long period, you could save a good deal of money. I'm often away from home and it would irritate me to have to pay for a service I'm not using, so Lixxus definitely scores top points for me - and their support is excellent.

What you get:

Up to 8Mb download speed
Only pay for what you use, and usage costs are capped
1 month contract and no hidden penalties
Online control panel
View online statistics and billing data

Take a look: http://www.lixxus.co.uk
:T

maximus78

mamazaac wrote:

If you use the link provided by Martin giving the extra £1 off per month, the free Voyager 240 router is still part of the offer. I signed up yesterday and when I selected this modem the price against it was "free".

I meant the Voyager 240 4-Port Router that has been free till end of feb while now is at £39.99!! if you got it for free on the 7th you must be lucky! :mad: when i signed on the 5th it wasn't.
The Voyager 210 USB Modem/Router is the one still free but you can connect only 2 computers.
(we've got 3 at home= £4,70 pppmonth!! :cool: )

I promised a feedback on Madasafish and here it comes:

Signed up on 5/3/06, got 2 emails back on same day, confirmed order and activation date by 13/3/06. I didn't need any of their modem-router( but with hindsights i would get what they give for free).

I had some difficulties with my IT-illiteracy on how to set up my old modem/router but Madasafish(reliable and friendly) Customer Service ( 0870 160 1386 who are available between 9am and 6pm, 7 days a week) explained me the few steps i needed to change the IP address on my router. :T
done!

BB was on and running in early sunday 12/3/06 at approximatly 5:00 am :rotfl: , 8 day after putting my order in!! :beer:


happy with Martin's tip :money: cheers!!! :j

P.S.:calling at the other number 0870 160 1387( not 1386) with the excuse that my old router is not supported by Madasafish I was offered to purchase their 4-port router for just £99 :eek: or their modem(the one for free on the site) paying £10 of administration fees(?) £5 Postage & Packaging.

mamazaac live a feedback on Madasafish! the MSEguys will appreciate :T

NicolaJH_2

I've had madasafish for two weeks now and am very happy with it. It took about a week from ordering until it was set up. Although its not the cheapest broadband around, when you are setting up from scratch it is one of the better deals and I got a router instead of a usb modem. Overall one happy customer.

rammell

britters wrote:

Lixxus offer a basic broadband service with NO monthly charge - you just pay for downloads up to a maximum determined by the type of package you have selected. To date, my bills have varied between £4 and £14 (the latter due to an OS update of about 125MB). :T

Lixxus looks a good bet for those with quite low usage or people, like britters, who are away a lot. The actual usage costs are well hidden on the Lixxus web site but when you find them and calculate the cost for 2Gb download (one of the most popular packages offered by other ISPs), the monthly cost comes out to around £20 per month.

Lixxus in only cheaper than ISP's charging around £13 per month if you're average download per month is less than about 250Mb per month. I'm not knocking Lixxus or saying to avoid it, just be careful.... it may turn out to be an expensive option for some.

mamazaac

maximus78 wrote:

I meant the Voyager 240 4-Port Router that has been free till end of feb while now is at £39.99!! if you got it for free on the 7th you must be lucky! :mad: when i signed on the 5th it wasn't.
The Voyager 210 USB Modem/Router is the one still free but you can connect only 2 computers.
(we've got 3 at home= £4,70 pppmonth!! :cool: )


Sorry, my mistake. The one I have got is the Voyager 210. I only have the one computer at home, so is enough for me.

Set up went smoothly, I ordered, got my confirmation email and followed the instructions on the date they said (ordered Monday 6th, up and running Tuesday 14th). I think I could have set it up earlier, but the email they sent said to wait until the date stated and the notice on my dial up provider didn't expire until 13th, so I waited.

Cannot report on their customer service as I haven't needed it - everything is running smoothly. One thing I was impressed about was that I was able to connect via an ethernet cable which was supplied. I was reading an article in Which the other day about making phone calls over the internet and they said if you chose to use an adaptor that lets you plug a phone into broadband, you may need to connect to broadband via an Ethernet cable which costs around £50. So when I get round to setting up my phone this way, I consider I will have saved that amount and I didn't even have to pay for the modem.

So for now, Madasafish gets my vote when you are setting up from scratch. Of course, when the 12 month contract is finished, I will be looking for a cheaper deal to migrate to.

rammell

mamazaac wrote:

maximus78 wrote:

I was reading an article in Which the other day about making phone calls over the internet and they said if you chose to use an adaptor that lets you plug a phone into broadband, you may need to connect to broadband via an Ethernet cable which costs around £50. So when I get round to setting up my phone this way, I consider I will have saved that amount and I didn't even have to pay for the modem.

Just in case anyone thinks they'll get 50-quid's worth of free cable if they sign up to Madasafish, I think Which got their information wrong! You can get an ethernet cable for just over £3 from dabs.com. You just need a Cat6 patch cable to hook your modem up to its ethernet port.