Best line rental, calls and broadband bundle - advice please

andygb

As per the title, any advice please. So far BT seems to be the best, but I am not sure.

camperman1

Have a look at POST OFFICE Home Phone, not perfect but much better than BT, if only because you do get to speak to real people, who speak the Irish version of English rather than the Indian version. And I used to work for BT.

Neil_Jones

Plus.net. Current offer, £9.49 for twelve months of line rental if you pay 12 months in advance. Free evening and weekend calls as standard and broadband value package £6.49 a month. Interesting fact of the day: Plus.net is owned by BT yet can wipe the floor price wise with them easily.

macman

Start with an exchange search on www.samknows.com look for your LLU options, these will be the best deals on your exchange.
General best tariff advice is not possible, as broadband is exchange specific.
But BT is by far one of the more expensive providers, and with some of the worst service.
The Plusnet price above will only apply if you are on a Market 3 exchange, and it's a capped tariff.

andygb

macman wrote: »

Start with an exchange search on www.samknows.com look for your LLU options, these will be the best deals on your exchange.
General best tariff advice is not possible, as broadband is exchange specific.
But BT is by far one of the more expensive providers, and with some of the worst service.
The Plusnet price above will only apply if you are on a Market 3 exchange, and it's a capped tariff.

Thanks for the link Macman, I have now found out that I cannot get Virgin cable in my area, no Plusnet either, just - BT, AOL, Tiscali, TalkTalk and a couple of other ones I haven't heard of.
Seems like "Hobson's choice".

macman

You misunderstand. samknows lists only the LLU suppliers. As the dozens of non-LLU suppliers are just reselling BT's wholesale service, they are available on every exchange, so there would be no point in listing them individually. Plusnet is available on your exchange, and probably at the cheap rate, as it appears to be Market 3. Also others such as Zen, IDnet, etc.
Who are the two other LLU suppliers you haven't heard of? Ones to look for are O2 and Sky.
As you're aware, TT/Tiscali/AOL are all the same group.

Neil_Jones

In a nutshell, if you have a BT line you can pick any provider you want, providing it's offered down a BT line. You already state you cannot get Virgin Media.
PlusNet is a capped tarriff, yes, but depending on how long you stay online and what you do online, that may not be an issue. If your motivation is purely price related, it is a relatively cheap option.
You are of course free to split the broadband and phone line between two different providers (and use a phone redirect for specific calls) if that's what you want to do, however this is not always the cheapest or most practical arrangement - should you have a fault on the telephone or broadband side at some point you'll end up in a game of piggy-in-the-middle between the two suppliers.

coolsteel

Plusnet have a good deal on at the mo, half price broadband for nine months so you can actually get it for £3.24 for nine months on there value package on a market 3 exchange. Plus if you get phone and broadband and if you go through quidco you get £38 cashback.

andygb

I can get Sky, and their bundle of - anytime UK calls, unlimited broadband and line rental for £27.25 looks OK. Does anyone know what their serice/support is like?

macman

Is this a Sky LLU service. If so, OK.
If not, it's the dire Sky Connect (non-LLU).