Cheapest Broadband Provider Discussion Area

Garret

Blimey! I stand corrected.

Their start up fee is rather high, but migration is only £35, so start with Virgin or someone and switch. They lock you in for three months, but that's not too bad.

They are £9.99 EXCLUDING VAT so in reality £11.75, but still the cheapest so far mentioned on this board.

Has anyone had any experience of them?

Garret

mutley74

Hi Chipz,

I don't think the Virgin offer includes a free modem - you have to buy the optional broadband starter pack for £19.99 if you need one (I think).  This still looks like a good deal as a platform to migrate from, some time after the free activation has taken place.

I ordered Wannado for my mother @ £17.99/month, free connection, free modem, 1Mbps speed, 2Gb/month cap.  Just waiting for the free modem and the line to be activated.  There will be no stopping her then  ;)

Johnnie

is the wanadoo offer subject to a 12mth contract?

op

Thanks for responses to my earlier Q. Still probably looking at Wanadoo due to low start up cost probably outweighing cheaper subs but with £60 ish startups.

Wanting to go wireless Wanadoo sell package for £79.99 but surely there mus be a cheaper way. I know enough to get myself into trouble but not enough to get myself oout of it again! Could someone point me in the direction of the kit I would need?

Cheers

johnniegif

Hi Chipz, the Wannado deal does indeed have a 12 month contract.  There are cheaper deals if you are prepared to mix and match offers and switch appropriately.  Virgin might be good for this.  But sometimes there are hidden administrative penalties - ie a release charge, overlapping charging periods for the outgoing and incoming ISP, possible downtime etc.  ... and the last thing I want is a whinging parent  ;)

At the moment, migration to a different broadband supplier is a fairly new process and as such, is non standard across suppliers.  Hopefully when my mother's Wannado contract runs out in 12 months time, we can re-evaluate what is the best value according to the market and her needs.

Personally, I signed up with Freedom2Surf about two and half years ago.  They have been excellent value in that time and I have only ever experienced two short outages (fingers crossed!)  There are cheaper small suppliers around now, but I have just switched from their 512Mbps unlimited service @ £22.50/month to the 1Mbps capped service with 5Gb/month @ £19.99/month. Additionally, the connection is unmetered between 1am & 6am - in case you want to schedule larger downloads.  I had to pay them £15 +VAT for this "privilege", but it was well worth it.  I am unlikely to exceed their 5Gb monthly cap at the moment, but as a keen moneysaver, I'm keeping a watchful eye.

For those who want to switch to the latest deal - good luck to you - that's exactly what this site is all about.  Until it is quick, easy and free to switch suppliers, I would rather stick with one which I know is not so cheap that a) they have no staff to resolve outages b) they won't go bust as their chargin model is unsustainable c) they don't want 6/12/24 months payment in advance.  Call me a big old cynic  ;D

Garret

I'm with Freedom2surf on the £22.50 pcm deal. They have been fairly reliable, but I can't help finding the offer of £11.75 tempting. A year or so ago freedom2surf were the new boys offering unfeasably low prices, so I'm not sure what to do - wait until I've heard some reports about the £11.75 lot I suppose.

For quite a few years I've bought cheap modems (most recently a wireless modem / router) from Solwise who actually give you helpful advice on the phone. They're a small company so you can call the same person back (but the downside is that they're not always available immediately). The web site is:

https://www.solwise.co.uk

Garret

allthatmularky

Garret - have a look at the forums on ADSLGuide - plenty of info./ views on EFH there. I've no connection to EFH but am looking into moving BB supplier.

frostforbes

I'm with Plusnet myself (never pay more than £14.99 for a 20x connection), and looking for broadband ISPs for friends & family but are put off by their activation/connection charge and think going via Virgin's too much hassle for them.
I've just seen TalkTalk for £19.99 (10x, unlimited, free modem & connection, 12 months, etc) which also includes free evening/weekend calls. I know there are many ways to get cheap calls, but this does seem to give an edge over Tesco, Supanet, etc. - any thoughts?

Garret

Talk Talk don't charge anything at the moment for their free evening and weekend calls (they make their money from your daytime ones - but if you use call18866 you get really really cheap daytime ones).

So you could get free eveing and weekend calls for nothing and get broadband for £11.75 pcm from EFH. Total: £11.75, which is £8.25 cheaper than Talk Talk alone although more hassle.

G

iceking

When can you cancel your talktalk plan once they start charging for the evening and weekend calls after a year or anytime? Also do you have to pay a connection fee?

allthatmularky

Iceking- short and sweet - the answers are yes and no. Yes to the first question and no to the second question.