sky connect broadband v virgin

lemontart

I am looking into moving to sky for broadband and phone but only option in my area is the connect package with Up to 8 Mb1 download speed / 768Kb1 upload speed
40GB per month usage allowance
£17 per month.



or virgin L

Want to download films, music and photos faster? Our up to 10Mb fibre optic broadband has average actual download speeds that are at least 2 times faster than BT, Tiscali and Orange†.

• Up to 10Mb fibre optic broadband
• Unlimited downloads1
• Download a music track2 in under 10 seconds
• Free wireless router
• Free PCguard Total3: anti-virus, firewall & pop-up blocker

£20 pm

If i move phone from bt and tv from sky could knock around £10 a month off monthly costs with virgin and around the same if I move all to sky but the download limit concerns me

so any advice is welcomes and what is virgin tv on the xl package like - any good?

A_Nice_Englishman

How important is a decent download speed to you? . You can check what speed to expect from Sky (it probably won't be 8Mb/s) at
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

lemontart

currently with bt looked at site and cannot work out how to check down load speed more concerned about allowances for use unlimited with bt and virgin but limited with sky

A_Nice_Englishman

Enter phone number and click the Check button
On the next screen click BT ADSL
It will say something like
"According to BT Wholesale, your phone line should be able to support a 3.5Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max"

Click on LLU xDSL
This will tell you about any companies which have their own equipment in your telephone exchange. They may offer better speeds/limits/deals than BT. In your case it sounds as though Sky are not among these so in effect they are just reselling the BT broadbrand product.

lemontart

thanks for that so just my concern over download limit with sky to deal with speed is not an issue for me has anyone here any experience of the sky package?

davethorp

With the virgin package don't forget about their traffic management which means as soon as you try to use the 10Mbits they will throttle it to 2.5Mbit

A_Nice_Englishman

davethorp wrote: »

With the virgin package don't forget about their traffic management which means as soon as you try to use the 10Mbits they will throttle it to 2.5Mbit

Well, as soon as you download too much at peak times they will throttle. Full details here http://www.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management.php

2.5Mb/s is still faster than some ADSL connections

mandi

I would AVOID Virgin at all costs Lemon , the customer service is appauling,
They have a habit of saying you owe money you dont, and passing it debit collection agencys, without any communication ...:mad:

Once the debit is passed on the colletors, really are a nasty bunch, and even if you can provide evidence, they will despute the debit to the bitter end, usually by cutting off your call , in mid conversation.........

lemontart

davethorp wrote: »

With the virgin package don't forget about their traffic management which means as soon as you try to use the 10Mbits they will throttle it to 2.5Mbit

which means in english?

lemontart

ok so virgin have a lot of negative reporting on them so looks like sky but I am worried that the download limit will not be enough I end up spending more than I currently do with bt by getting a bill for exceeding the limit - can anyone who has experience of the connect package give me some feed back

A_Nice_Englishman

lemontart wrote: »

which means in english?

It means that if you download too much they slow down your connection for a while rather than charge you extra. And even the slowed-down connection is as fast as many people get on ADSL (broadband down the phone line).

Sounds ideal for you on the face of it?

I can't comment on Virgin's accounts department as they've just sent me a bill every month and collected the correct amount a couple of weeks later for the two years I've used them.