I'd like some advice please on whether to move from BT

aah

for home phone and broadband.

I pay BT £50 per month and apparently am in credit of £94. They are gong to return that and reduce my charges to £35.

For that money I get line rental (cheapest package apparently that is unlimited weekend calls..) which costs £10.50 and broadband which costs £22. The broadband which apparently I am locked into until feb 2010, has unlimited downloads. I don't think I need unlimited downloads - 20 or 40 gb per month (the qmount quoted by rival providers) would probably be sufficient - hardly anyone downloads music or video clips. we do very occasionally watch tv online or listen to the radio. we do use the internet a LOT - there are four computers in our household.

I wonder if someone could advise on cheaper broadband and whether I still have to pay bt for the line rental, and whether the quality of service from providers other than bt is any good?

I know its a bigt ask but i'd really love to hear from you - i know there are experts out there.

Many thanks
Anne

macman

I don't understand why you are going to pay BT £35 a month if your calll/line/BB package is only £22 per month? That implies you are making a lot of calls which are not inclusive, in which case maybe you need to change your call package with BT anyway.
Cheaper BB generally means moving to a LLU supplier, please advise what your options are on LLU by visiting samknows.com (go to exchange checker and then look for 'LLU Operator presence') or post your exchange name or area code.
Broadband is exchange specific, so it's impossible to give general recommendations.
If you can get it LLU, I would suggest looking at O2, especially if you have an O2 mobile in the household.

aah

thanks for your quick reply macman but I'm afraid I don't know what LLU means... would you mind helping me out?

the line rental is 11.25 (sorry said 10.50 earlier) and the broadband package £22 - thats why they want 35 from us. Not sure this will even cover the VAT but tbh I'd rather owe them than t'other way round.

Stuck till February but am researching what we do then - quality of service is really important - that quality of internet service I do know BT's customer service leaves lots to be desired.....

Many thanks
A.

macman

Local Loop Unbundled.
Have you looked on samknows? If in doubt post the name of your exchange (or if not known your postcode instead) and we can advise further.
PS: BT package of Unlimited Weekend and Evening Calls plus Broadband Option 1 currently costs £15.65. Plus line rental at £11.25 is £26.90. So don't understand why you are paying £35? Which broadband package are you on?
You won't find it difficult to improves on BT's service standard!

aah

Thanks again macman I am paying £35 because my broadband (£22) apparently allows unlimited downloads.

I do not know whether I need unlimited downloads because I have no way of telling how much downloading we do. Surprise, BT can't tell me either!

We do watch some internet tv and download some music but mostly just visit sites.... is there any way of guaging how much in Gb this might be monthly?

Anyway locked into it until Feb apparently..... (news to me)

I will try samknows later on - right now I have to go out and pick up daughter from work.

Bye!

macman

Heinz wrote: »

Yet another UW agent spamming.

Reported.

Quite cunning (by UW standards) to talk down the broadband a bit though...

fullstop

Thinking of moving to Virgin broadband when my contract with BT runs out in October, do Virgin block 18185 and other phone providers ? It seems to be cheaper to get a package rather than just broadband, but Virgins call rates are expensive.
Thanks.

Heinz

I think you just answered your own question there fullstop. Virgin are the most expensive voice telephony provider (for calls) in the country.

VM subscribers have to use the (more expensive) freephone access numbers to make use of the likes of 1899 and 18185 - because VM bar the 4 and 5 digit prefixes.

And VM charge double or triple the standard prices for some 0844 calls.

fullstop

Heinz wrote: »

I think you just answered your own question there fullstop. Virgin are the most expensive voice telephony provider (for calls) in the country.

VM subscribers have to use the (more expensive) freephone access numbers to make use of the likes of 1899 and 18185 - because VM bar the 4 and 5 digit prefixes.

And VM charge double or triple the standard prices for some 0844 calls.

Think the bods at Say no to 0870 should start a new board Say no to 0844, which seems to the new rip off number.

Heinz

https://www.saynoto0870.com already lists alternatives to 0500, 0800, 0808, 0843, 0844, 0845, 0870, 0871, 0872 and 0873 numbers.

aah

oh what happened there? not sure where we got to with all this talk of Virgin....

Macman, thanks again for your help - it does seem however that either talk talk or BT option 1 is best for us. I think 10Gb monthly would probably be sufficient.

Does anyone know - if you sign up to BT option 1 can you upgrade it before contract runs out if it turns out to be insufficient or do you have to guesstimate download usage in advance?