Move to BE Value or stick with Tiscali/TT?

FrugalTopCat

Hi everyone,

I'm quite new to the site and after starting off investigating the improvements I can make on my savings accounts, I am now moving on to looking at better deals for Broadband!

So please forgive my ignorance of a lot of this stuff, there is such a wealth of info and some of it is a bit baffling. Essentially we have been on Tiscali for donkey's years (so NOT locked in) and have been paying £14.99 per month for what seems like for ever. Not sure of the actual spec of what we get but the PC usually shows it to be running at a pretty crappy 2.2 Mbps. I had assumed that this was all that was likely to be got unless I moved to cable provision via Virgin, and had been considering that. Our usage is fairly bog standard web surfing (no gaming or anything) and watching the odd programme on iPlayer. I would like to upload the odd music video clip (live/acoustic, not copyrighted!) to Youtube, but this has hardly ever worked - tried it again today for instance and after 10 mins it had only uploaded 10% of a THIRTY SECOND clip. This is something that I have attributed to our low quality BB service - would that be fair?

Anyway, after looking at Virgin Media (who have been bombarding us with marketing for months) it looks as though it would only save us a couple of quid overall - taking into account line rental and BB charge - to move to them. We would then get the 10mB broadband through a cable which should be much better than at present. But I am shying away from the disruption a bit (there is VM cable in the street but would have to be brought through the front garden etc) and wanted to know what other alternatives there are - which could actually cut costs too.

So - on the Best Buy article section it mentions BE Value at £7.50 a month for 12 months. It quotes a speed of 8 Mbps (after I entered my phone number) and a download/upload limit of 40 GB per month which I reckon would be fine for our needs? There is also mention of a cashback potential of either £25 or £40 through the cashback providers. So if I managed to get back £25, say, then I would be looking at £65 for the year for a much better provision than I am currently paying £180 for - my own stupid fault for being so apathetic, I know.

So anyhoo, I then phoned Tiscali (now Talk Talk) to ask for my MAC number (and by the way, I hadn't been contacted by TT at all about the takeover and only found out about it on here) and of course they wanted to try and retain my business. So the TTT chap tells me that they can match the £7.50 a month and that they too can provide me with 8Mbps as my exchange has been updated. He was fine to deal with but was very sceptical of the idea that the £7.50 BE deal could just be for 12 months and did not have any small print with this amount rising after a few months. I have had a good look and can't see any indication of that being the case. He also said something along the lines of "go ahead and get BE if you can get that cashback, I can't match that". Now I know that the cashback things can't be depended on but obviously that would make quite a difference.

The bit where I get most confused is about how 8 Mbps (or anything like) can be achieved without cable, and whether both BE and Talk Talk would basically be providing the identical product in terms of line speed. The board won't let me post links yet but on Sam Knows, under LLU Operator presence, both "O2/Be" and "Talk Talk (CPW)" are ticked, also the following:

05/06/2008 Be Unlimited has enabled the xxxx exchange for their service

16/03/2008TalkTalk has enabled the xxxx exchange for their service

Does it look to those in the know as though there is therefore not much to choose between them (in terms of what is technically possible)?

Other than that I guess it comes down to cost, service and the hassle of switching if TiscaliTalkTalk will more or less match the BE deal. Any feedback from more experienced members? Apologies for the long post!

Thanks.

Nemo

Hi,

If you can find the download attenuation figure from your router stats and post it, we'll be able to tell you what type of speed you're likely to get. I moved from Pipex to Be Unlimited last month and found my speed went up by a little over 50%. The upload figure increase four-fold.

I've had a few problems with disconnections, but the line's been stable now for the last 7 days. I think my line's not the best quality. Customer Services post in the Be Unlimited forums and are very helpful.

I'd highly recommend the move to either Be or O2.

FrugalTopCat

Thanks for the feedback so far - that looks like two solid recommendations for BE over Tiscali. I will have a look at the O2 thing although I can't really be bothered with the faff of the mobile phone thing etc.

Nemo wrote: »

If you can find the download attenuation figure from your router stats and post it...

One question on the above point...could you point me in the right direction as to how to find this figure please?

Stompa

I migrated a couple of weeks ago from Nildram (who were taken over by Tiscali, who were then taken over by TalkTalk) to BE Value. I've gone from ADSL Max to ADSL2+. I'm certainly glad I migrated, my speed with Nildram was around 2.7Mbps, and with BE I'm getting 5.0Mbps (the BE site had originally quoted a max speed of 6.0Mbps for me). There were a few glitches to start with whereby I was getting disconnections every 10 hours or so, but fitting an I-Plate appears to have resolved that issue, and I've now had 5+ days uptime, so it's looking good.

I'm not sure if it's an issue for you, but be aware that BE Value doesn't include any email addresses.

mk-donald

FrugalTopCat wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback so far - that looks like two solid recommendations for BE over Tiscali. I will have a look at the O2 thing although I can't really be bothered with the faff of the mobile phone thing etc.



One question on the above point...could you point me in the right direction as to how to find this figure please?

Have a look thru my Be (and o2) features doc. It includes link to how to find the stats and where to use them to calc your own estimate. You won't be dissapointed with Be Value as long as you're okay with the volume cap. See my doc for a link to the ThinkBroadband forum (for instance) where you'll find loads of happy (some 'devoted') Be subscribers and only the very very occasional less than happy..

MKD

FrugalTopCat

Stompa wrote: »

I'm not sure if it's an issue for you, but be aware that BE Value doesn't include any email addresses.

Oh. That's a bit odd. I do have hotmail but like to have "proper" email through Outlook Express too. Hmm.

FrugalTopCat

mk-donald wrote: »

Have a look thru my Be (and o2) features doc. It includes link to how to find the stats and where to use them to calc your own estimate. You won't be dissapointed with Be Value as long as you're okay with the volume cap. See my doc for a link to the ThinkBroadband forum (for instance) where you'll find loads of happy (some 'devoted') Be subscribers and only the very very occasional less than happy..
MKD

Thank you for this. I have had a look through the doc and will take a look at the TB forum too.

Stompa

FrugalTopCat wrote: »

Oh. That's a bit odd. I do have hotmail but like to have "proper" email through Outlook Express too. Hmm.

I just set up an Instant Mail account with 1&1, for ~£10 a year.

mk-donald

FrugalTopCat wrote: »

Oh. That's a bit odd. I do have hotmail but like to have "proper" email through Outlook Express too. Hmm.

Lots of people would wish to avoid ISP email a/c's for the reason they at least psychologically (and sometimes really) tie you to that ISP.

I use the freeware Mozilla ThunderBird 3 software and that works with hotmail.com a/c's though I haven't cracked hotmail.co.uk ones yet (haven't really tried though).

FYI: The o2 brand subcriptions come with 10 email a/c's.

MKD

FrugalTopCat

Well, I've taken the plunge and signed us up to BE Value at £7.50 a month (via the Topcashback site so we'll see if that works, would be a nice bonus). A friend also mentioned Gmail to us so I created us a couple of email addresses on there and I have managed to set up Outlook Express so that emails sent to the Gmail addresses come straight into our inbox.

:j

I downloaded the TBB meter a couple of days ago and I think the 40GB limit on BE Value should be fine for us. One little postscript about Tiscali/Talk Talk - the last two nights I have been phoned by two separate Talk Talk agents trying to retain me. They wanted to engage me in conversation about why I was going to leave and then when I was in the middle of replying, both hung up on me! Incredibly rude.

FrugalTopCat

One more thing about switching - I'd be grateful for any feedback. I have now signed up to BE and given them the MAC code from Tiscali. I have had email confirmation from BE that the process is underway. I have been with Tiscali for years so well out of contract.

My question is - when should I cancel the Tiscali monthly payment? It is on a credit card regular payment and usually comes out somewhere between the 27th and 30th of each month. Are these things generally in arrears or in advance - do you think I am obliged to let the end of March payment go or would you cancel it now - or as soon as the change takes place?