PLEASE!! Recommend Broadband for me!

moonpie

I moved from O2 to TalkTalk mostly due to price. I download around 150Gb per month so needed unlimited and got it for £7.50 per month for a 12 month contract (£65 cashback through Quidco) so including line rental (paid upfront for 12 months) it's costing me £11.60 per month for unlimited broadband (syncing at 8Mb) unlimited calls 24/7 and line rental.

Yes, customer service is terrible (mostly due to poor english of operators)
Yes, P2P is throttled from 6pm to midnight (every day) but normal browsing is fine at these peak hours.

I schedule my downloads outside peak hours and haven't had any problems so far, getting the full 8Mbps.

If you check the following link you'll see they're not the best but they're by no means the worst.

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

shell820810

We were with Vivaciti before moving to BT infinity. They were about £25, so more expensive than the likes of BT, Sky etc, but they were very reliable. There was no throttling, and no limit on the package i was on. It was a UK call centre (just a small office I think!), so while they were just a BT reseller, they got everything sorted without having to spend half an hour at a time on the phone to India. The only reason I left was because their "infinity" type product was too expensive for me to move on to.

http://www.vivaciti.net/internet/1/home-internet

suki1964

Just looked and CPW isnt due at your exchange till Jan 2012 and Sky has no date of yet.

I would stay where you were until LLU is available because you will be jumping from one reseller to another and possibly getting no better sevice and tying yourself into a contract.

happy_gardener

Hi willowisp,
I had never ever been with sky before. Infact I used to think the idea for paying to the TV stations was too expensive. When it was all broken down, there was not much difference. With sky we have the basic tv stations (i think) plus two if the pachage things at £1 each + internet broadband wifi + unlimited phonecalls which we pay £5 extra per month for. I wanted to be able to phone my Mother 24/7 and not have to wait 'till after 6pm.

The BT - free after 6pm thing...is actually after 7pm....!!

I am not sure how sky would work out for you if you are not taking the phone...but you need to have a landline (BT line) to have the internet..don't you?, so I am guessing that despite you are using your mobile for things you are still paying for a landline? If you are paying for line rental you might as well use the phone in your house too instead of the mobile, as that must be costing you a fortune. I have a mobile on a PAYG and that does me fine.

Anyway, cutting to the main point. For our house I wanted a trouble free internet connection, with a company that can REALLY HELP when you need it. Even if it was a little more expensive than anyone else, the peace of mind it gave/gives me is worth more than actually saving a couple of pounds. And that is not 'cause I have loads of money!! My kids also think it is great to have the discovery channels, as well as being able to have cookery channels etc.
If you are unsure of where to go as you will get alot of opionions...make a list of ....what you want (internet/phone etc)..why you want(cheap price etc) and ...what is most important (eg after service, 24hr availability to ISP etc)...then that will make your mind for you.

willowisp

happy_gardener wrote: »

Hi willowisp,
I had never ever been with sky before. Infact I used to think the idea for paying to the TV stations was too expensive. When it was all broken down, there was not much difference. With sky we have the basic tv stations (i think) plus two if the pachage things at £1 each + internet broadband wifi + unlimited phonecalls which we pay £5 extra per month for. I wanted to be able to phone my Mother 24/7 and not have to wait 'till after 6pm.

Hiya, thanks for the extra info.
I did the "live chat" thing with them last night, and im outside the unlimited download area, so its not a good package...

So stupid that you can live so near but services can vary so vastly....:(

steveymp

If you have FTTC in your area at your nearest cabinet I would give BT a try again.

Londonderry/Derry/Doire/Stroke city etc.... became the first City to be completely Fibre To The Cabinet last week, your distance to the exchange is no longer an issue, it's your distance to your local cabinet that now counts.

BT will be turning up the power on FTTC soon to 80mbs, other companies are currently discussing FTTH, which then connects your home to the cabinet and gives you 300+ speed.

willowisp

steveymp wrote: »

If you have FTTC in your area at your nearest cabinet I would give BT a try again.

Londonderry/Derry/Doire/Stroke city etc.... became the first City to be completely Fibre To The Cabinet last week, your distance to the exchange is no longer an issue, it's your distance to your local cabinet that now counts.

BT will be turning up the power on FTTC soon to 80mbs, other companies are currently discussing FTTH, which then connects your home to the cabinet and gives you 300+ speed.

Samknows says its available to me -but how are BT now for service, line dropping etc?

thetope

i have BT infinity and its great, 37 mb and no dropouts since we were connected in june. one small hiccup in that the router died, it was replaced the next morning by an engineer! i may be the exception but ive found their customer service excellent?

willowisp

thetope wrote: »

i have BT infinity and its great, 37 mb and no dropouts since we were connected in june. one small hiccup in that the router died, it was replaced the next morning by an engineer! i may be the exception but ive found their customer service excellent?

I did a live chat with someone on the BT website about their services,and i was thanking them for helping and explaining things to me, and he just wrote an ending -"please leave a comment at the end of this chat" and went -i just thought he was incredibly rude!! Could just be the one, but puts you off being treated like youre a pain in the !!!! and not a potential customer!

metalgal

if virgin are in the area you're an idiot not to go with them. you are more likely to get the speed you pay for and only very very rarely have we ever been throttled (weekends of many many downloads at least 150 gig) we're on the 100meg package and it is the best thing ever. virgin customer service is a million times better than sky and the extras are good too, e.g. free spotify premium, photo printouts etc.