Broadband. Who's the Cheapest? Article Discussion Area

espresso

bassetjb wrote:

Hmm... this is harder than I thought.

I basically want an up to 8 meg package with around 5gb usage, and I want a wireless setup (doesn't necessarily have to come as part of the broadband package though, I guess it's not too hard to pick up a cheapish wireless router?).

Any suggestions anyone? Preferably companies without too many complaints, that don't require that I'm with sky or orange, and who aren't likely to go bust in the next year.

Check the MAAF site, they did a wireless router for £25.

StatusBaby

A general note about the term 'Unlimited' when applied to Broadband.

Many service providers claim to offer an unlimited service (e.g. Tiscali etc) however, this does not mean unlimited as most people understand the word.

Many operators run a 'Fair Usage Policy' which discriminates or penalises users. Tiscali and Demon for example will attempt to throttle your account - restricting your speed - if you regularly break the 40Gb barrier. BT will charge you exhorbitant excess fees for going over 40Gb per month.

Now this just doesn't seem fair - or as far as the advertising is concerned - legal to me. If something is advertised as unlimited, then it should be exactly that - unlimited and without restriction.

If you regularly exceed over 40Gb of traffic per month, many ISPs will terminate your contract.

Selecting a broadband supplier is a complex issue - the ISPs deliberately muddy the waters, and estimating the true cost of your Broadband service is as complex as calculating the best mortgage available for you.

When choosing a mortgage there is no single best mortgage - there are a variety of good options that may be applicable depending on your own circumstances.

Similarly with broadband - without knowing your usage patterns, location (not all providors operate in all areas) and level of technical expertise it is simply not possible to say what is the best and/or cheapest option for you.

This site is not alone in making this error - uSwitch also has a poor broadband section.

Overall, I think the reputation of this site would be enhanced if you pulled the broadband section completely - you have not provided enough detail - or sought enough information from applicants to be able to guarantee that the suppliers you recommend are going to be the cheapest.

I get that old 'Which?' magazine feeling again - it all sounds very good until you read an article on something you actually know about - and the 'facts' given on that are so incomplete or vague that you begin to question other articles you have read.

Apart from the issue of download limits and the redefining of the word 'unlimited' I can give you another example of how your calculations could be completely off the mark.

Imagine a naive broadband user - they know nothing about broadband or how the internet works. It is safe to assume they will make far greater use of the helpdesk than an IT expert. If that helpdesk is charged at 50p per minute - as some of them are - the £5 per month the user is saving will quickly evaporate.

Do yourselves a favour and enhance your reputations by taking the broadband section down - you obviously don't know enough about it to make recommendations with any degree of certainty.

I am a broadband expert and I wouldn't dream of making any recommendations on the best deal for anyone without a detailed examination of what they want to do, how often they want to do it, where they live and how technically competent they are.

4_Pete's_Sake

bassetjb wrote:

Hmm... this is harder than I thought.

I basically want an up to 8 meg package with around 5gb usage, and I want a wireless setup (doesn't necessarily have to come as part of the broadband package though, I guess it's not too hard to pick up a cheapish wireless router?).

Any suggestions anyone? Preferably companies without too many complaints, that don't require that I'm with sky or orange, and who aren't likely to go bust in the next year.

In view of what you have identified as you needs as far as Broadband is concerned, have you considered Pipex's Midi package which for £22.49 gives you up to 8mb Broadband with a 15gb download limit and all your local and national calls free, but you still have to pay your line rental to BT. If you think that you could make do with 2 gb download then you can go for Pipex's mini package at £19.00.

You would need to get you own wireless router though.

See http://www.pipex.co.uk/products/midi/

theloft

It appears that you are all ignoring a very good Broadband & telephone deal with Primus Planet-Talk. See this thread:-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=184392

I have been with them for several months now and it is an excellent service. OK I am only paying for the 1Mb deal, but this is unlimited, I get free evening & week-end calls, free connection & modem, freefone number for Customer Services & Technical help. All this and with the rebates every quarter and 3 months free after 1st year, all this will cost about £10 per month. They also have 2Mb and now 8Mb service for slightly higher payments. Overall an excellent deal. Telephone number 0800 036 0094

4_Pete's_Sake

On what website can you find out about this Primus Broadband package. I have failed to locate it using Google. Most comparison sites seem to suggest that Tiscali is the best deal.

theloft

peterlittleton wrote:

On what website can you find out about this Primus Broadband package. I have failed to locate it using Google. Most comparison sites seem to suggest that Tiscali is the best deal.

This is because Tiscali pay the most for advertising and promotion. But they are the most complained about company on these threads. I wouldn't touch them. Regarding Primus. Their website does not give any details of the Broadband deal, as they are promoting it to existing customers first. They have two websites:

http://www.planet-talk.co.uk/SaverProducts.aspx?source=saver

and

http://www.primustel.co.uk/index.html

Also have a look at the ISP Review site: this link is to the forum page on Tiscali!

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/showthread.php?t=2114

liam_h

peterlittleton wrote:

UW's £19.99 package + £1.76 membership charge,(Total £21.75), which is called Broadcall features Free Connection, No minimum contract term (but beware - a £50 disconnection fee must be paid in the event of the service being terminated within the first 12 months), up to 8 mbps speed, 40gb download limit, free modem, (again beware - these must be returned in good condition if you terminate the service,otherwise you will be charged for them), line rental, free weekend calls and free calls to other UW customer at any time.

They do a "Broadcallplus", which gives you a free wireless router but this costs £24.99 (with LLU) + the £1.76 and gives unlimited downloads, plus an additional charge of £1 for each wireless adapter. I cannot find any information about whether you could use a wireless route of your own with their modem. You could always check this by e-mailing their customer services. You might be able to buy your own wireless modem instead of using their one but you may be on the phone to their technical helpline for a long time while you set it up. Call charges are 75p a minute. (Rip-Off). Again check this with their customer services.

You can find out if you have UW's LLU at http://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/bbcheck/index.taf

To be honest, if you do have their LLU, (few have) it is fairly competitive.

It is certainly not worth taking their gas and electricity in order to get all your phone calls free as their energy prices are horrendous. You would be better of making your phone calls via 1899's 0808 number at 1p a minute.

If you are a Sky TV customer a better option would be as follows:

Keep your line rental with BT - £11.00, take Skytalk for unlimited phone calls - £5.00 and take Sky's 8mbps broadband £5.00. Total £21.00. Once again you would need Sky's LLU for these prices. You also get a free wireless modem.

Would I go for it? After my previous experiences of UW and the way they operate, it would be a definite NO.

Why a definate no? I am just interested in the Broadband at the moment because I know that my echange isn't LLU yet

4_Pete's_Sake

theloft wrote:

But they are the most complained about company on these threads. I wouldn't touch them.

Surely talktalk, in the few months since they launched their free broadband, have taken over top spot from Tiscali. Some of the threads that I have read on talktalk make Tiscali sound very efficient and reliable.

liam_h

From what I know, TalkTalk are pretty good when it is up and running. Its the fact it takes so long to get you active and can be problems when your first active. From the stuff I have read it is none stop problems with Tiscali

4_Pete's_Sake

liam_h wrote:

Why a definate no? I am just interested in the Broadband at the moment because I know that my echange isn't LLU yet

If you exchange has not yet got LLU then you will be paying £27.99 + the cost of your phone calls. Also because UW would have your line rental you cannot use 1899 for your 3p calls.

You really can do better than this, look again at some of the earlier posts on this thread.