O2 too expensive for me

TrishB_2

I have my MAC code but I am so restricted to my choice of broadband where I live. Apparantly it is because my exchanged has not been 'unbundled'. Plusnet looks a bargain but I have read mixed reviews. I would really like to change to O2, but after checking my postcode etc they came up with a price of £22.02 per month! Any ideas as to how I can get round this, if at all?

DatabaseError

The O2 service at £22 is NOT the same as the very cheap one....so be warned (I'm on O2)

ComplexP

TrishB wrote: »

I have my MAC code but I am so restricted to my choice of broadband where I live. Apparantly it is because my exchanged has not been 'unbundled'. Plusnet looks a bargain but I have read mixed reviews. I would really like to change to O2, but after checking my postcode etc they came up with a price of £22.02 per month! Any ideas as to how I can get round this, if at all?

I'm with Plusnet and have found them to be quite good but I'm on their £18 'Pro' service. I think that their budget service can suffer from slow speeds at peak times but that is not uncommon for cheap 'unlimited' packages.

It really comes down to what you're willing to pay for and what's important. If you just want to check emails and surf some websites the Plusnet budget package will probably be ok most of the time but you'll have to accept some slowdown.

If, however, you want to watch the iplayer at peak times for example, that package is unlikely to cut the mustard and you're likely to be looking at £15 and up.

As an additional note, if you're lucky enough to live close to the exchange your natural connection speeds could be very high, in which case the slowdowns may not be as noticeable. Also, I dont suppose you have Virgin Cable in your area? If so, that could be the way to go.

TrishB_2

Thanks for the advice, when I put in my postcode and phone no. they say I am .73 miles from my exchange, we are with AOL at the moment and mostly it is pretty fast but I am just fed-up with their customer service (or lack of it). There is no cable available either so I shall have to just either stick with what we have or pay more by the looks of it.

ComplexP

TrishB wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, when I put in my postcode and phone no. they say I am .73 miles from my exchange, we are with AOL at the moment and mostly it is pretty fast but I am just fed-up with their customer service (or lack of it). There is no cable available either so I shall have to just either stick with what we have or pay more by the looks of it.

Plusnet at least have UK call centres and the tech support guys are pretty knowledgable. However, they can be slow sometimes. My guess is that they are a little overcommited.

hopefulfooluk

If your exchange hasn't been unbundled it will typically cost you more for your broadband as there is less competition between suppliers in these exchanges. Eg as mentioned earlier, plusnet can do BB for £6 in an unbundled exchange, but it costs £12 in a non-LLU exchange.

That's just the way it is I'm afraid - annoying, but perhaps if enough people on your exchange approached another ISP it might help get things moving in your local exchange and get the prices pushed down.

Cheers!

Chris