Cheapest Broadband Provider Discussion

Psych_2

personally, i'm looking at the ukonline 8mb account at £40, however this isn't the cheapest (ok it is for the spped, since it's the only one available).

for the truly cheapest i've seen, they all come to £9.99+vat unless someone knows better?
and that would be https://www.metronet.co.uk (payg) and efhbroadband.com (first 1000/month only)

i'm sure https://www.zazizam.com were doing a £9.99 unrestricted service though... afaik they are simply a v21 visp, cutting down on their own take, however this doens't appear to be the case anymore.
https://www.adsl4less.co.uk are doing an unrestricted service for £14.99 a month though.


re barebum: why not switch to a dsl provider who provide a dialup acocunt as backup? that would cut your cost considerably. metronet appear to be the cheapest provider to offer this, wit their basic rate being £9.99+vat for broadband (this is partly cpaped however, see the wesite for more detials on price)

as for telling whether you line is cpapble of 1mb+, you'll need to access your modem/routers status page, where it gives your snr & attenuation figures.
i do believe you lose 6db of snr for each step, 512->1mb->2mb->4mb->8mb
i'm not sure how attenutation fts into it however, ll i know is that it goes up wit hevery regrade, and it can't be too high.
i can tell you i'm running 2mbit at snr: 22.6/31 attenuation: 23.8/12.5
which should qualify for 8mbit, i hope.

electracy

stinky wrote:

Personally, I'm in London and was able to take advantage of Bulldogs offer of £39/month for 4Mb/400Kb with phone and free local/national calls. Its on a one month contract (so I can cancel anytime) and yes it goes up after one year - however after 1 year, I'll re-assess the situation, like any money saver would. So far, I am very happy with the service. 4Mb makes for very fast software downloads. Not everyone needs 4Mb, but if its the same price as a 1Mb service, I'll take the 4Mb.

Stinky, Could you tell me if you had any issues with changing over? I'm on ADSL at the moment, and worried about the change over period. When they change the phone over to Bulldog I guess wanadoo bb wont work because its not a BT line anymore, so if there a delay between the line and the bb activation from bulldog I lose all bb connection. Most people who have had a problem with bulldog have complained about the time it takes to change over.

Also have you had any problems with disconection or the quality of the phone line for voice calls?

Thanks,
KT

boblevin

Take a look at https://www.eclipse.net.uk they are offering 2mbps for £14.99 per month with free set up and modem. I think this makes them the cheapest at this speed. I found them by accident whilst trying to book a holiday on line with Eclipse.

Hrun_2

I am going back to Tiscali(lineone)! I first used their Lineone unlimited Dialup offer and had no problems until it folded. I then moved over to Freeserve(wanadoo) and am now going back to Tiscali for the £15.99 (£1 more than my unlimited dialup) uncapped offer with calls bundled (we hardiy use the phone so my provider is not important).

I have read what people say about their technical, but I would not waste my money calling them anyway. I am no expert, but when my better halfs laptop lost all its file exension associations I called the Compaq helpline (cost 16 quid) and was told reboot the computer to a fresh install (losing all her work/photos) 1/2 an hour on the web found a site where I downloaded the register fixes for all the problems and cost nothing!

So having had a good experience with tiscali, customer service being an issue is not a problem. You try and fix something working on the descriptions of the upset person who rang you!

HTH Giles

chateau42

Was with Tiscali, OK but they were not really interested in existing customers. Now with Plusnet, OK for average users. Not a gamer so can't say from their point of view. Ideal for hectic emailers and surfers!!!!!!!!!!

Psych_2

re: layces, while i agree that contention is a major aspect that everyone forgets about, most every normal isp has theirs set at 40:1 or 50:1. you will get special cases where it will be lower, but these are the exceptions. speed, price, and now capping are the easiest ways to weed out the best from the worst.

is there an easy way to see how conteded an isp is before using them, and even when, apart from noticing speed jumps?
maybe i've been lucky with bulldog, and my exchange (harrow) my 2mbit primetime, is pretty much capable of 2mbit all day given the right source:)
i know http://www.samknows.com/broadband/ provides some exchange data, but dont think its that helpful in this case.

Psych_2

eclipse. 2mbit for only £14.99? what's the catch? ah yes, it's capped to 1GB with extra being £1.75/Gb. now unless my sums are wrong, at 2Mb, you can fill up 1GB in 66.7mins. the other way of looking at it is that they're giving people 30MB/day
i know the'yre targetting the low usage users who just want speed, but these kind of caps are a license to print money imo.
afaik, only ukonline has a realistic cap in place.

IanatSeaton

I support alared - AOL takes some beating! They are in the process of doubling the line speed for all existing users at no extra cost! Not many suppliers do that!
Also they include a free email virus checker. Most viruses are written to attack weaknesses in Microsoft Explorer - used by most ISP's, but AOL uses a modified version of IE and is thus not usually attacked by the viruses.
Add the fact that AOL has a totally free service backup - ie they provide an 0800 number for you to ring them free! not at 75p or even £1 per minute like some ISP's charge and they have a great package which is constantly being upgraded.

cifpower

I read the article and fir the first time I disagree with Martin. He recommend Tiscali but the cutomer service from them is woeful as http://www.theukhighstreet.com/Tiscali_R963/ testifies. He also mention the cost of buying a modem. The modem is only useful as long as you subscribe to broadband. I am with ntl and have had absolutely no problems whatsoever. The FREE speed upgrade has made my PC go super-whizzy. 2mb for £24.99 with no limits. The modem is rented free of charge - you cancel the service the modem goes back. I know there has been a lot of complaints (ntl hell anyone) about the service but to contradict myself I have found it fine. There have been some problems, mainly the delays on the phone. But the 15 days it can take for a BT line to be switched on is a lot longer than the 5 days I had to wait for an ntl man (and lovely he he was too! ;-) ) to come out and fix me up.

Sharpy

You should check out https://www.talktalk.co.uk. This offer is great and runs out on the 31st March so be quick

1mb for £14.99 per month - unlimited download