Cheapest Broadband Provider Discussion

gabrielharrison

Hi,

I sent all the companies in the adslguide website the following email because I am looking for a good provider for my father:

---

Hi,

I'm looking at becoming a broadband customer with you and wonder if you
could answer two questions. Is your telephone technical support based in
the UK or abroad and is it staffed by on-site technical staff or call
centre staff.

Thank you in advance,

Gabriel

---

I now wish I had specifically asked about the call centre rather than using the term on-site because some of the replies weren't 100% clear.

By 5:30pm today I have had quite a few responses and have listed them below. It is just a list at the moment with a few comments. The first four called me within 10 mins (!!) so there is a bit more detail (I missed the claranet call but Rednet are now owned by them and they have the same tech support). A * indicated a particulary good response and no call centre. A ? is if I think it may possibly be a call centre. Where there is 0870 tech support is a national rate number. It is all very brief but I hope to make it more complete when I have time. No comment means UK based support and probably not a call centre.

If anyone would like to add priced from the various website please feel free because that is my next task but I am away for a couple of weeks. I have found as a rule UK support costs more but support is king as far as I am concerned and I will be staying with Zen if nobody can beat their prices and one month contract singnificantly.

Gabriel

Onyx Internet * - home: (512Mb £24.99) (1Mb £27.99) £60 setup fixedip £0
netcalibre * - home: (512mb £29.99) (1Mb £34.99) £50 setup fixedip £0
rednet ltd * - home: (512mb £300/year+vat) £50 setup fixedip £60 for 8 (12months) 01494751870
clara.net * - 02076858000
Topletter
Star
intervivo
Houxou ?
Merula
intonet
cairnsolutions ?
UTV - no!
Fusion Media Networks
interdart *
Inweb
advancegroup 0870
altoHiway - business only
Twang
Zen ***
legend
Internet For Business
metronet ?
freenetname - no but small group in uk
KeConnect
Eclipse 01392 333300
albion
Vispa
ITSaSCREAM - UK but 5 man backup in India
skymarket - 0870
Moving-edge
lwcdial
netcentral
totalwebsolutions
the-web-works
bytel belfast
londonweb
community.net.uk
telecomplete
eliteukserve
EFHBroadband
newnet 0870
freedom2surf
c2internet
izrsolutions
Inweb
prodigynet
Lumison - scotland
Boltblue - trained agents (sounds like call centre to me)
quikinternet

cajef

Plusnet support is Uk based and is not a call centre.

It is also 24 hour 7 days a week, and is charged at local dial up rates (an 0845 number)

Broadband Plus has no usage limits, is connected at speed up to 2Mb depending on you line limits, and is £14.99 per month

I have been using it for 2 months now and would recommed it to anyone

arajkonwar2u

theloft wrote:

Re: Talk/Talk - We need more posts like this giving information. These offers look attractive, I was tempted myself, but am glad I didn't take it up and then get locked in for 12 months to a poor service!!

well,my experience with talk talk has been extremely positive.i have been with them since march this year 1mbps for 14.99 a month.the connection is reliable and speeds are fast and i download like it is going out of fashion but have never had any problems so far.my only gripe is the expensive technical support line but the good thing is that you are never kept on hold when you ring them.

Roger_Rampant

http://aa.gg/

Looks like a website created by a 10-year-old in their school dinner hour

durain

what's .gg ?

Roger_Rampant

Maybe it's a channel isles website?

www.alderney.gov.gg/

simplyblew

hi,
my girlfriend is going to university next month and has access to free broadband in her accomodation. I am therefore looking to switch to broadband myself with the specific purpose of using a webcam to talk to her on a daily basis. I am happy with the sevice provided by my dial up isp and could be quite happy if i used BB 4 nothing more than talking to her. My main computer is running windows 98, though i do have a laptop that runs xp. Does anybody have any idea which would be the best BB provider for this type of use, and any idea how often i could use the camera etc before i would exceed any monthly download limit?
thanx

theloft

gabrielharrison wrote:

Hi,I sent all the companies in the adslguide
website the following email because I am looking for a good provider
for my father: hI, I'm looking at becoming a broadband customer
with you and wonder if you could answer two questions. Is your
telephone technical support based in the UK or abroad and is it
staffed by on-site technical staff or call centre staff. etc. etc.

Gabriel - You missed out some of the better cheaper ISPs -
Here are a few who have been mentioned on these forumns :-

E7even - Euro1net - ADSL4less - Firefox

oranabana

This must be the cheapest by a mile:

http://www.plus.net/residential/broadband/broadband_plus.shtml?link=resbb_pluslink

its got the following features as far as I can discern:

- setup fee waived if staying for 12 months
- no port blocking
- no download cap (although they prioritise web traffic at peak times, whatever that means)
- monthly contract
- 100 Mb webspace
- unlimited e-mails

thought this might interest some of you, specially if you already on a 2 Mb/sec connection, meaning you can move to them for free...

BexTech

oranabana wrote:

- no download cap (although they prioritise web traffic at peak times, whatever that means)

It means they cap your service, by making downloads / P2P traffic crawl to a standstill, as you can't download to the connection capacity it is therefore a form of capping.