Talktalk best for phones and broadband?

Stephen66

Hello,

I have followed the advice on this web site and have my line rental with BT but use 18185 by day and primus by night for phone calls. I am looking for a good broadband provider. I was using BT but they fined me for going over my limit. I see o2 gets recommended on MSE for their cheap, unlimited broadband. However I also read that talktalk offer free broadband if you switch your phone service to them. Would this mean that I could no longer use 18185 and primus? I thought that telecom companies other than BT could block the use of such services? If so, am I best to stick with BT for line rental and use 18185 to get cheap calls and pay for broadband separately rather than get free broadband with talktalk and pay more for my calls? Thanks.

Heinz

Stephen66 wrote: »

If so, am I best to stick with BT for line rental and use 18185 to get cheap calls and pay for broadband separately rather than get free broadband with talktalk and pay more for my calls?

IMHO, yes.

OTOH, Martin recommends TalkTalk*

macman

O2 is good broadband (as long as you can get the LLU service, not the O2 Access service), but it is not unlimited, it is subject to fair usage policy like any other ISP these days.

ah30

macman wrote: »

O2 is good broadband (as long as you can get the LLU service, not the O2 Access service), but it is not unlimited, it is subject to fair usage policy like any other ISP these days.

macman, when you say 'it is not unlimited' what are you refereing to? The download limit or something else? And would thise apply to the O2 BB Premium package.

Thanks

macman

Yes, the download limit. It is subject to the usual fair usage policy on all O2 broadband packages. Relevant phrase of the contract is as below:
4 What about excessive network usage?
There is no limit on the monthly network usage. However if we feel that your activities are so excessive that other customers are detrimentally affected, we may give you a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, if the levels of activity do not immediately decrease after the warning, we may terminate or suspend your Services.

Stephen66

macman wrote: »

O2 is good broadband (as long as you can get the LLU service, not the O2 Access service), but it is not unlimited, it is subject to fair usage policy like any other ISP these days.

Thanks for the fast replies. What is "the O2 access service"? Since you mention LLU, I presume it is the scheme for people with exchanges that are not LLU'ed? If so, I'm afraid that is me. I'm in a rural area so I don't know when (or if) it will ever be unbundled as I heard that it is more profitable for ISPs to unbundle city exchanges first.

What is so bad about the access service? Isn't it a BT service badged as O2? If so, won't it perform as well as BT broadband? I presume if I went with any other ISP that I would be offered exactly the same service just under a different name?

The O2 fair use policy that you quoted is very vague, why can't they give a figure of so many gigabytes? I appreciate that strictly speaking anything with a fair use policy is not unlimited but I think unlimited is how o2 describe it on their web site. Hopefully their interpretation of fair use is more generous than BT's 10Gb.

Thanks again.

macman

Yes, O2 Access is the non-LLU service. Check your number on the O2 site and it will tell you which service you can get.
The Access service is just a resold BT Wholesale service, it's not bad, it's just not as good as the LLU, and it costs much more. Yes, as you say the speed you get if no LLU will be much the same as they're all BT. However if you have an o2 mobile you will still get the fiver discount on Access. Have you checked on samknows.com to establish that there are no LLU providers on your exchange?
Fair use: if they give you a GB figure then that is not a limited service, it is a capped service like BT. It's meant to be vague, that's the whole point of it. Basically, if you start downloading videos 24/7, they have the option of cutting you off it you don't desist. Think of it as a failsafe for them. What sort of limit are you looking for anyway?

Stephen66

Thanks for your reply. I just looked at Samknows and it confirmed what I had thought: there are no LLU ISPs at my exchange. I am capped at 10Gb by BT option 1 and would like to have unlimited so that I can avoid the monthly fines. Are these as illegal as bank charges? After all, if BT can offer unlimited option 3 for £25 pm, surely these fines should be capped at £25pm, anything else is above and beyond their consequential loss? That said i am not expecting to be downloading 100s of Gb each month so I hope I would not fall foul of any fair use policies elsewhere. it's just it seems barmy paying BT 25pcm for the same service I could get from O2 for 17pcm. The only difference is that BT include hotspot access but would I ever use that? I haven't yet and i'm not sure I would know how to. Thanks.