Problems with ISP - looking for a reliable alternative

donquine

We have been customers of ADSL24 for the past two years and never any had major problems. They previously supplied us internet via Entanet, but have now changed over to Murphx and that's when things started going wrong.

We have been without internet since Tuesday morning, which I think is ridiculous. Technical support initially suggested that we were too stupid to put the new log in details into our router (obviously in a more tactful way than that), but we lost internet about a week after the changeover. Our router setup is completely unrelated. It was working fine.

We were chased for payment (billing methods changed after the switch to Murphx) even though we had already paid, so my initial thought was that we'd been cut off in error, but customer services confirmed that wasn't the case.

Technical support finally sent out a BT engineer today, who checked our exchange and is adamant the fault is with our ISP. All we know, is that there is no internet on our line and we're not happy about it.

If we can't get this resolved today, we are definitely looking to move. (We're on a rolling contract, so we're not tied in.) Even if we do get things sorted out, we're angry enough to want to move, but maybe not as urgently.

We are relatively heavy users (Skype, iplayer, Spotify but not gaming) and have been paying around £20 a month for a 30 gig bandwith allowance. Good uptime is the most important factor to us, as we both sometimes work from home. We use BT for our phone and don't have Sky or similar. We're not really looking to change our phone supplier at this time.

My initial thought has been Be unlimited, but I don't personally know anyone who has this, so have no idea what the uptime is like? Does anyone think Be unlimited would be a good alternative for us? Or are there any other suggestions?

Would really appreciate some input from MSErs in the know.

mrJ_5

go to www.samknows.com and see what LLU options are available to you (and maybe let us know the exchange) - if Be isn't available on your exchange, you won't be able to get it....

donquine

I did check my line on the Be website earlier (because I don't think Be was available on our exchange 2 years ago) and it does seem to be an option now. (Is it a good option?)

Sam Knows comes 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
TalkTalk (CPW) LLU
Sky Broadband / Easynet LLU

Mupette

I'm with O2 (BE)
never had a problem until a few months ago when there was intermittent downtime for a few seconds. They said they were doing software patches to solve this.. didn't work, so i actually removed the O2 router and dug out the old netgear, works a treat no problems.

My package is £9.97 for up to 10mg but it does what it says on the tin, I am happy with them for now.

mk-donald

As Mupette says if you have Be un Limited broadband available to you then you also have o2 home broadband - as they are the same parent firm/network, just different marketing brands & detailed packaging of facilities - but at MAJOR variations (currently) in net-cost. The complication in that pricing comes from whether you want to use an o2 mobile phone (they cross-sell of course!) and/or be prepared to get an o2 PAYG even if ONLY to save you money (ie never use it!)

eg Be Value can be had for a year for £50 net - ie £4.17/m BUT that has a usage cap of 40GB/month from 1/7. You mentioned Be Unlimited (ie an upto 24Mbps service - if your line is short/good enough - with no usage caps) but that is £174.56/first year net - whereas o2 Premium (also 24Mbps/nocaps) can be had for just £20-£60 IF you would use £50 of o2 mobile credit, and £70-£110 -£140 if you would not - ie a major saving (on the same core service from the same Telefonica over the same network) once you get your head around the mobile discounts/credits.

Be/o2 LLU has an EXCELLENT reputation and whichever of their subscription packages best meets your needs/budget you won't be disappointed. I've had it for 2.5yrs and had only marginal disruption ever (a few "go slow" evenings) and for the most part you get the FULL technical data bandwidth available - ie c84% of your modem synch is usable for your data to flow over.

See my features/net-cost (& new "o2 mobile phone discount" explanation/tips) at:
http://cid-99aa6cf1226facfe.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/o2%20Broadband%20-v-%20Be%20There%20Broadband

MKD

donquine

Thanks for your posts - it looks like I need to do some research into O2!

Unfortunately, the whole family is with another mobile phone network. I'm sure we've got a spare O2 sim kicking about somewhere, but we wouldn't want to top it up regularly as it's much cheaper for us to use our existing network due to the deal we have.

I can't view your link as it's blocked by our oversensitive filter at work and I no longer have internet at home...

But I'll have a look after work at the Be and O2 websites and see if I can't spot the right package for us.

Thanks very much for your help, everyone.

mk-donald

donquine wrote: »

Thanks for your posts - it looks like I need to do some research into O2!

Unfortunately, the whole family is with another mobile phone network. I'm sure we've got a spare O2 sim kicking about somewhere, but we wouldn't want to top it up regularly as it's much cheaper for us to use our existing network due to the deal we have.

In the net-cost comparisons Be/o2: even if you NEVER used the £40 you put onto your o2 SIM you'd still save £60 cash (ie £20 ahead). That's after all other opportunities for cashbacks too (£40-50 currently, has been £25-£125!)
If you want to PM me your email address I'll email you the 3 PDFs (6 pages of analysis/tips) that are up on SkyDrive
MKD

mrJ_5

But it seems you cannot access Be's/O2's LLU service as it isn't at your exchange - this service is far superior to the standard ADSL service that you'll be provided with (standard ADSL service is at an additional cost too)

mk-donald

mrJ wrote: »

But it seems you cannot access Be's/O2's LLU service as it isn't at your exchange - this service is far superior to the standard ADSL service that you'll be provided with (standard ADSL service is at an additional cost too)

I thought that initially from the PARTIAL copy of available ISPs listed on their exchange, but then checked the OP text above which says:
"I did check my line on the Be website earlier (because I don't think Be was available on our exchange 2 years ago) and it does seem to be an option now."

Otherwise absolutely as you say - if Be/o2 LLU ain't available then don't spend time wondering how good it might have been (as the number of exchanges covered c1250 has hardly changed for a LONG time - presumably something about capital investment in a recession & milking existing investments).

MKD

Nostromo

Im due to switch over to the Murphx product next week hope all goes well :think:

Have you tried the ADSL24 forum for an answer ?

http://adsl24.co.uk/forum/

donquine

Re O2, I didn't realise there would be a saving even without using the credit, so it is an option I'll look into. The only email address I can access from here is my work email and I won't be able to access that over the weekend, but I will try and look at that post over the weekend, using some free public wifi.

Re Be, I checked our phone number on the Be website and it comes back fine (it didn't when I last checked a couple of years ago).

Re ADSL24, the tech support guys are lovely (even if it did take them 5 days to work out the problem), but their customer service is terrible. They're not actually authorised to make any refunds - they have to get their money back off BT before they'll pay back the customer!

If Be/O2 isn't actually an option (I will double check at the weekend), where should I try instead? Not heard of NewNet - have you ever tried their customer service? ADSL24 was fine until things went wrong then I wished I'd gone with a bigger name...

Still open to ideas. I do really appreciate everyone's input - it's difficult to look for the best deal without having your own internet and I am grateful for the leads I've been given so far.