Questions pls, changng phone and internet suppliers

bundance

Please could someone help with some questions, as I am very confused over the whole phone/internet thing.

Will your new supplier notify your old supplier of the changeover, or do you have to do that?
If you have to do it, at what stage of the changeover do you have to do it?

I am unable to get fibre optic cable in my area. My needs are internet, and phone with free evenings and weekends.

I would rather stay with my current supplier, to avoid disruption in internet services, but may have to change if the price is not right. Virgin, my current supplier quoted me £24.49 a month, is this expensive.

thank you

dylanuk

£24.49 is expensive for just broadband and free evening & weekend calls.

You may be able to get Plusnet Value for example for £5.99 - which is broadband with a 10GB monthly limit (e.g. fairly light use) and free evening & weekend calls (not including the cost of line rental though).

Can you say more about your current set up? You say you've got Virgin but can't get cable - does that mean you're on Virgin National broadband and have a BT phone line ?

macman

Are you on Virgin Media (cable) or Virgin National (ADSL)? If the former, then you can't switch to any other ISP without first having a BT line reconnected or installed.
There is no disruption in service when migrating between different ISP's. The usual downtime is no more than a couple of hours if you use your MAC (this would not apply when switching from a cable service though).
What you pay depends on what is available on your exchange, go to www.samknows.com and do an exchange search. Note which the LLU providers are, these will be the best deals.
You should be able to get what you need for about £17.50 if you are on a Market 3 exchange.
Look at O2 if available LLU.
Or Plusnet if not.
Edit: just reread your post and assuming you must be on Virgin National and so already have a BT line.

bundance

I have a BT phone line, my calls are with talktalk, and my broadband is with virgin I am a national broadband customer.

I don't think 10GB would be enough for me as I have my internet on many hours in the day. I dont download films or music but I watch videos and recorded tv programmes.

I checked samknows.com with my post code, and it came up with the following:

The following services are available in your location:
BT Wholesale ADSL
BT Wholesale ADSL Max
BT Wholesale WBC (21CN)
BT Wholesale SDSL
AOL LLU
O2 / Be LLU
Bulldog LLU
TalkTalk (CPW) LLU
Sky Broadband / Easynet LLU
Tiscali LLU
Orange LLU (Formerly Wanadoo)

I did an exhange search and got a result but am a bit confused. It says the following companys are enabled for LLU operator presence:

AOL
O2 / Be
C&W / Bulldog
Orange:
Sky / Easynet
TalkTalk (CPW)
Tiscali


How quick is it to get a MAC number please?

Does this mean these companies will offer the best deals?

How can I tell if I am on a market 3 exchange please?

Thanks for your help so far, and sorry for the extra questions.

macman

Streaming videos and iPlayer is the same as downloading in terms of data usage.
Your obvious choice is the O2 Home Broadband LLU service which will be £7.50pm with the O2 mobile discount, £12.50 without. £50 Quidco cashback available. This is an unlimited service, speeed up to 8MB
ISP's are required to supply a MAC within 5 working days.
The samknows exchange search page will state your exchange market status, if not clear post the name of your exchange and someone will check for you. But from those results it should be Market 3-so you can get Plusnet for £5.99.
O2 are also about to offer a home phone service to it's broadband customers, likely to come on stream in the next 2 months.

dylanuk

You'll need to phone Virgin and request a MAC number.

You then give this MAC number to the new broadband provider when you order a new connection.

As you've got O2/Be LLU enabled at your exchange - one of their packages will be best. O2 is the cheapest - especially if you have an O2 mobile phone number - pay as you go will do as long as you top up at least £10 every 3 months.

I think even if you don't get the mobile phone discount O2 is still cheaper than BE - and it's pretty much exactly the same service.

The O2 Premium / Be Unlimited packages are the best ones to go for.

The SamKnows page will say in the bottom right hand corner which market your exchange is on. However, as you've got a lot of LLU providers available - you're most definately on a Market 3 exchange.

bundance

Thanks for your help. I have a few more questions, please.

Do I contact my old telephone providers to tell them I am changing or will the new providers do that for me?

I was looking for a land line and broadband deal rather than a mobile broadband deal, I checked the o2 page but coul not find any landline and broadband deals. Do o2 do landline and broadband as well as mobile and broadband?

I looked at the exchange search page, but could not see anything in the bottom right hand corner about market 3. The code for my area is SSCHI if thats any use.

thank you

dylanuk

O2 don't currently do landline - however they are planning on launching it in the next few months - I don't think there is a definitive launch date yet though.

As you've already got a BT landline - you could leave your landline with BT, get O2 or Be broadband and then move your landline to O2/Be when they launch their landline service.

Are you particularly wanting to move your landline away from BT, or are you just looking for a cheap call plan?

As for informing your existing landline provider, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to tell them yourself as well - at least then you've made them aware what's happening and would help to avoid any problems.

However, you don't need to tell BT you are ordering broadband from O2/Be (or another provider of your choice). You might want to tell Virgin - but that would happen anyway when you request a MAC code from them.

bundance

I'm looking for a landline and broadband package all in one, as I am paying through the nose at the moment with different suppliers for calls, line rental and internet.

Thanks for the tip about telling my landline provider.

dylanuk

You might find this page helpful - http://www.chooseisp.co.uk/compare/broadband-phone.asp

It just lists different broadband and phone packages and lets you filter them by availability if you enter your post code.

macman

bundance wrote: »

I'm looking for a landline and broadband package all in one, as I am paying through the nose at the moment with different suppliers for calls, line rental and internet.

Thanks for the tip about telling my landline provider.

Chippenham is a Market 3 exchange:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SSCHI
It's a complete misapprehension that you'll always get the best prices on a bundle. By far the best service on your exchange is going to be O2 LLU at £7.50pm with the 02 discount. Leave your line rental with BT, you can then switch calls and line rental to 02 later if you want to.
The only other cheap option is to go with the TalkTalk Essentials bundle, but the service does not compare to O2, and it's a 40GB cap.