Looking to change to BT Broadband - are they any good?

TanDiy

Hi, would really appreciate your views on the broadband service from BT (standard not the infinity). We are close to the exchange and have been told we should get download speed of 17Mb-19Mb. I am looking at the unlimited broadband and calls option.

We have always been with virgin (non fibre) and have been very happy. Our exchange was recently updated to 21CN and we were expecting our upload and download speeds to increase. Virgin increased our upload to 1Mb but have left the download speed at 8Mb. They say that our line test shows we could get 17Mb + but they want another £15 per month to increase it - hence we going to leave them.

Would be most grateful for your views on the service from BT. Thank you very much indeed.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Speed/performance rates about average. Utterly atrocious customer service, one of the worst in the business (do have a read of the threads in here!)

As your line is so short, it's worth picking an ISP who can supply most of that possible 17Mbps to 19Mbps most consistently.

Well rated: IDNet, Zen, Aquiss, ADSL24 (not all do calls and not exhaustive, you'll probably find all these work our more expensive)

Of the big players, Sky and BE are well rated. You can get BE via O2, and so with it, a calls package, but do check the details carefully because unlike the direct BE service, O2 employs throttling which slows down certain activities, notably P2P applications.

macman

Look at the hundreds of comments on BT on this board and draw your own conclusions.
Expensive, dire customer service and one of the lowest rated providers around-only TT and Orange tend to rate lower.
What are your LLU options? https://www.samknows.com-do an exchange search.

TanDiy

Oh dear - have to rethink that one then - I was also looking at Plusnet but I guess they are also owned by BT. Thank you for the info

Mark_In_Hampshire

Plusnet, even though owned by BT, seem to fare slightly better in the customer service department than BT do.

That said, they're a budget provider. The ones I listed are not. Good customer service and cheap prices tend not to work together.

macman

Plusnet do own BT, but it is still run independently, hence it's much better ratings. As above, it's a good budget non-LLU option as long as you are on a Market 3 exchange.
We await your LLU options if you want more advice.

TanDiy

Only LLU is TalkTalk and I am not going to use them. Thanks

macman

OK, but remember that non LLU and 'unlimited' is going to give you very few options. Do you actually need unlimited?

Shevchenko01

I've been with BT broadband for as many years as its been available in my area (about 8-10 years).

They aren't the cheapest and yes, BT have their problems as do all companies...but...I've had no more than 24 hrs in total down time (where there has been no BB available) and that was over 3 episodes, of which 1 was phone lines being cut accidentaly.

I wouldn't move away, purely for the good BB service I get...and the speed is good...could be better (could always be better) but could also be far, far worse.

iniltous

Some people (who may or may not use BT) have strong anti BT opinions, given their comments its hard to imagine they would use BT so their comments presumably are a refection of their own poor BT experience in the past ,or a nothing more than a conclusion drawn from reading other comments of BT ... I use BT and have had one problem in the past 10+ years, qucikly resolved (infact it could be regarded as not a problem , as it was a free upgrade which resulted in a new 10 day training period, so unstable speeds for a while, and although initially poorly explained by an ofshore employee, I asked for a call back and a BT employee called me from Newcastle and explained the issue in vey clear and concise way
BT are not the cheapest provider, and given they have the largest customer base its no supprise they have a larger number of customers with poor service, even if in percentage terms they are no worse than others..people with problems tend to post, those without tend not to....technically there is no reason why a LLU provider will give better/faster service than BT if BT offer the same technology in that exchange (after any line management period has elapsed) even the providers vaunted as peerless dont claim this, because they know it to be untrue,
All providers will have a percentage of unhappy customers, you would imagine if the service was universally bad, then that provider would lose customers as people would move away from them, I gather BT quite regularly sign up the most new customers per quarter, some feat if they are seen to be an expensive provider...thought i would put this as a bit of balance,

TanDiy

Thank you everybody so much for taking the trouble to write. I have always been with BT for my telephone and Virgin for the broadband. I am very close to the exchange and have always been close to 8Mb download on ADSL - the only reason I am changing is because Virgin are demanding another £14 a month to upgrade my download speed (even though they have upgraded my upload to 1Mb) and really did not care about me leaving when they realised I was not going to sign up to their phone service as well. I am hoping I will get close to the 17Mb - 19Mb that BT suggest if I move to ADSL2+. (although not sure if this will make difference over the 8Mb?). BT have offered their unlimited broadband and unlimited calls at a fair discount from the usual price but I am concerned about the 18month contract and the many bad reports - have to give this some more thought - many thanks again.