Cheapest Broadband Provider Discussion

krishna

We too use freedom 2 surf and have found them excellent. I have looked at alternatives, but not found anything worth changing to. I did look into UKOnline following martin's article. We do qualify for their 9.99 per month package. But then I saw their ratings on adslguide.org.uk and decided against it.

Krishna

niff_noff wrote:

Like leki, I am also with freedom 2 surf. They have been excellent from the word go.
I did a lot of research using www.adslguide.org.uk , particularly the user ratings, price comparison and message boards (look at the ISP specific boards and also the ISP Unhappiness board to see who are the bad ones - Tiscali particularly).

I signed up about a year ago to their 1M/1Gb capped service for £14.99pm (extra Gb can be bought @ £2.99). They also offered a 1M/5Gb cap for £19.99.
Since then, they have upgraded the service to 2M/2GB cap for no extra charge and on the couple of occasions when i have very slightly exceeded my capped limit, they have not charged me for an extra Gb (I assume they would if this was a regular occurance).
Couple this with unmetered usage between 1.00am and 6.00am (ideal for scheduled updates etc) and you have to my mind an excellent product from an excellent ISP - I certainly would not change :cool:

Johnny_Gibbon

Hi All, I followed the links to Telewest but it's not available in my remote part of the westcountry... The link evntually took me to Virgin Broadband which looks like a good offer. I'm so fed up of trawling through sites looking for which BB provider to go with, I'm tempted just to sign up with Virgin. Any thoughts or advice from anybody? Would be much appreciated! John.

Roger_Rampant

I'm so fed up of trawling through sites looking for which BB provider to go with, I'm tempted just to sign up with Virgin. Any thoughts or advice from anybody?

Check out www.adslguide.org.uk

Stabilo

Johnny_Gibbon wrote:

Hi All, I followed the links to Telewest but it's not available in my remote part of the westcountry... The link evntually took me to Virgin Broadband which looks like a good offer. I'm so fed up of trawling through sites looking for which BB provider to go with, I'm tempted just to sign up with Virgin. Any thoughts or advice from anybody? Would be much appreciated! John.

I'm with www.plus.net and have been very pleased with the service they offer. £14.99 per month for 'unlimited' download at up to 2mb. If you are a very heavy user they will 'recommend' you upgrade to the next level (£25/month I believe).

A friend connected with them last week and it only took about a week from order placement to connection.

Stumpy

Johnny_Gibbon wrote:

Hi All, I followed the links to Telewest but it's not available in my remote part of the westcountry... The link evntually took me to Virgin Broadband which looks like a good offer. I'm so fed up of trawling through sites looking for which BB provider to go with, I'm tempted just to sign up with Virgin. Any thoughts or advice from anybody? Would be much appreciated! John.

Noooo!! Don't go with Virgin. They're awful. Had major problems with them myself, and heard of lots of bad press about them. Their customer services was abysmal, they would have maybe a couple of months where everything would run okay, but then there would be disconnections, or low connection speeds - I once had almost two months of bad connections and they spent the time telling me that it was my equipment or software, or that I had a virus, until it turned out that it was a problem at their end. I eventually left, after about a year, and that was a nightmare too - took them 2 months just to get me migrated because, firstly, their staff didn't seem to know what to do, and then they kept "refusing" the migration.

I went from them to NDO (now Namesco) who were very good - good connection speeds, no drops, etc, however, their customer service wasn't the best - I had one problem that took them around 6 months to resolve.

I am now with plusnet, who so far have been excellent. Its well worth having a look around their website. They have all sorts of gizmos and tools to help you, from webcams actually within their offices, to speed tests, useage trackers and customer service stats. There is also a very good status page, which keeps you up-to-date with any problems. There was a problem in the last week with browsing, but virtually straight away there was something up on their site about it, and it was fixed very quickly.

Depending on what you do, as previously stated there are two different options - the cheaper one, £14.99, is the one I'm on, and have had no problems. This is aimed at those who do normal browsing, e-mailing and the odd download, etc. However, if you do a lot of downloading, for example peer to peer, etc, then you should go for the slightly more expensive one at £21.99 (which is still better value than a lot of other companies, and includes things like static IP address and more webspace, etc), you can see a comparison here.

They also have a special offer on at the moment, where, if you choose the premier option, for the first 3 months you only pay £9.99.

Johnny_Gibbon

Thanks all! I had a sneaky suspicion virgin weren't all they caracked up to be. Will check out PlusNet, also checked adslguide and Eclipse seemed to rate quite high (and they're about 500 yds from where I work, so maybe I should support a local firm.. :O) John

Rex_Mundi

Vodka wrote:

If you’re thinking of getting broadband or want to change, have a look at this site. It’ll find the right broadband package for your needs and purse.

This site is full of affiliate links. Is this your own site? Not only this, but it only lists a VERY FEW ISPs. How can you get a good comparison when it doesn't include most of the ISPs out there? This comparison site looks like it is set up to make the site owners money. Not give users the best choice.

The best (and biggest) independent ISP comparison site in the UK is www.adslguide.org.uk This site will give you all the info about all of the ISPs out there, along with monthly ratings from each ISPs users. There are also message boards for each ISP where you can see what the current problems are, along with answers from technical staff of each ISP.

spacehopper_2

I have been looking into getting broadband for some time now and keep going round in circles. I was going to go with uk online but have been hearing lots of negative feedback about their customer service and delay's in setting up. I want to use it for moderate use, downloading music and surfing. Would I be best getting stand alone broadband and telephone. I am currently with BT evenings and weekends and also use 1866 for daytime calls. Are the cable tv and broadband/ telephone packages from NTL etc value for money in comparison with stand alone products?

Best wishes

Jac

mrJ_5

zazizam offer talk and surf package's which saves you money on their broadband options - need a BT line

spacehopper_2

Thank you for that suggestion. I checked out zazizam website and although it looks good at first you have to buy a modem, pay £47 to get connected and still have to pay my BT line rental. It all adds up.

Thank you anyway, it is appreciated.

Jacqui