BT offer for Infinity: good, for real?

pigeonpie

I am not a BT customer, I'm a Zen customer. I generally hate BT as have had run-ins with them which have driven me mad.

Had a call from BT Infinity (it's new in our area) offering me £18 pm incl VAT plus free router and installation (think usage is 40 pm) with 28mb download and up to 7mb upload. We currently get 5 download and 0.7 upload. It's an 18 month contract. They say if we agree they can fix an engineer's visit to suit us within 2 weeks, all I need is my MAC code from Zen. Much as I like Zen as an ISP, they can't compete on price with this. It sounds a good deal but we have questions for those who have Infinity please:

BT also told me that it's possible to get a UK tech support call centre, just by asking for it. True or false?

Is there a cooling off period? eg if you are unhappy as get tech problems, drop outs or the speed isn't as promised?

Do you think I could make it a condition of signing up that the engineer moves our master socket for free as part of the installation (it is in an inaccessible, daft place) rather than just run a messy extension?

We are complete tech idiots. We run a mac and a PC off the current router and needed help with the set up (email etc). Are BT ok with mac support?

I don't really need bb that fast as the Zen line is stable, but OH does work from home on a VPN, so I suppose that would speed up quite a bit?

Bt say they never throttle speed during peak hours, which is the bulk of when we use the internet ie never late at night or v early am. True?

any other pros and cons please? I have to decide by wednesday.
My only definite query so far is what happens if I move house and the new place doesn't have Infinity.
And Sky isn't getting it anytime soon is it as we are Sky subscribers.

Many thanks. Sorry such a long post.

andya99

Hi Pigeonpie,

I have had BT infinity for about 3 months now and get really good speeds, 30 meg down and 10 up. I got it as part of a bundle of BB, TV and phone. Was already with BT for my phone, sky for TV and Talk Talk (ex Tiscali) for BB. So BT offered me a deal on bundling everything and saving about £20 a month on previous suppliers (horrahhh!!).

We have several gizmos using our BB, 2 laptops (PC and Mac), iphone, blackberry, xbox, wii and blueray player and they all connect without problems. You will need to 'run' the wireless setup wizards on your equipment again to put in the new BB login details but that should be it. The information they supply is easy to read and straightforward.

If you decide to go ahead and order ask plenty of questions, BT infinity is available in several flavours -limited (option 1) and unlimited (option 2). The limited one has a usage cap of 40 GB per month and the unlimited is unlimited (fair usage applies which is roughly 300GB) if you go near this in a month they email you to warn you. I have yet to go anywhere near this and we use the internet a lot.

The install is done by BT openreach, so your sold the product by BT retail and they pass the install across to open reach. You will receive email and written confirmation of order etc. The do issue you with a BT yahoo email but I have never used it, moved my tiscali email to gmail so not dependant on BB provider.

You will get a BT home hub and an openreach modem as part of the deal which the openreach engineer installs for you. We were offline for about 10 minutes in all. Moving your master socket will probably count as extra work and therefore charged accordingly but BT might do a deal if it gets you to sign up.

I would suppose that if you were to move and infinity was not available in the new property then you should be able to redo your contract, BT will probably offer their Total BB package.

Have a look on the BT Care Forums, there are sections on there regards infinity etc might help you decide?

I know this may not have answered all your queries but hope it helps.

Regards,

Andy

brewerdave

1.AFAIA connection to an office VPN doesn't need a mega fast connection.I was talking to my brother in law yesterday and he manages his work connection perfectly well via a fixed 512k connection!!
2. Be aware that having a mega fast connection via Infinity will be very seducing in that you will want to watch HD video etc in its full glory - that will eat thru your 40GB mnthly allowance in no time flat! BT will then be on at you to pay for the "unlimtied" flavour which will probably be more expensive than your current deal.

pigeonpie

I'll see if I can get them to give me the unlimited deal then, it's worth a try.
thanks for the input guys

Seems v few competitors for BT Infinity. Zen has it but it's uncompetitive price wise.

Any news on Sky getting fibre optic broadband anytime soon? I could do an all-in with them as we do want Sky Sports and movies.

is there a cooling off period once you agree to BT's 18 month contract?