Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

blahmister

Hi
I'm considering signing up to utility warehouses broadcall plus service as its the only available "unlimited" 24 meg adsl available at my exchange, but the fair use policy on the website is very vague, does anyone know how much I can realistically download a month? Interested to hear any opinions about the 24 meg service, especially from heavy users as I live in a shared house and we get through a lot of data a month (sometimes over 200 gigs)

thanks

penrhyn

Unless you can see the exchange from your window you won't get 24mbps.
I would suggest you use the samknows website to find out what speed you could realistically expect.

You could give this one a go as well:

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/tools/exchangechecker.php

Just tried the latter myself and its VERY pessimistic!

NigeWick

blahmister wrote: »

I'm considering signing up to utility warehouses broadcall plus service as its the only available "unlimited" 24 meg adsl available at my exchange, but the fair use policy on the website is very vague, does anyone know how much I can realistically download a month

What sort of "average" amount are you looking to download each month? If you can give a good estimate, I'll see what I can find out. I've gone with the cheaper limited download option and have not been charged extra (yet) and I have downloaded software, pictures, a bit of music and watched the occasional TV programme.


I am an Independent Distributor with Utility Warehouse and any opinions expressed here are my own and may not be shared by the company.

1carminestocky

200gbs a month for £26.72 per month including phone line rental? If they let you get away with that it truly would be the bargain of the century :eek:. I don't suppose any of you shop at Sainsburys, do you?

1carminestocky

penrhyn wrote: »

Unless you can see the exchange from your window you won't get 24mbps.
I would suggest you use the samknows website to find out what speed you could realistically expect.

You could give this one a go as well:

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/tools/exchangechecker.php

Just tried the latter myself and its VERY pessimistic!

Been meaning to ask this of you, Penrhyn, as you seem very 'up' on these things and as you probably know from the thread on the Broadband forum I'm useless with stuff like this . Here goes; wouldn't ADSL2 give you a faster download speed on the same phone line than 'ordinary' ADSL? Not sure I've worded that very well but I hope you get my drift...

blahmister

penrhyn wrote: »

Unless you can see the exchange from your window you won't get 24mbps.
I would suggest you use the samknows website to find out what speed you could realistically expect.

Yes I'm aware of that, I'm more interested in the download limits than squeezing the last mbps from the line, having said that I'm about 100m from the exchange witha very low line attenuation so I think it's a pretty fair bet i'd get a lot faster than my current 8mbps adslmax product.

Carmine - I'm currently with entanet who had a 300 gb per month off peak and weekend limit for £18 which has just changed to unlimited off peak, albeit with a smaller off peak period. Sky and Be/O2 are cheap with with high, if any, download limits - unfortuneately where I live only talktalk LLU is available.

NigeWick - I'd say I would feel safe with 250gb maximum, probably average between 150-200gb

1carminestocky

blahmister wrote: »

Yes I'm aware of that, I'm more interested in the download limits than squeezing the last mbps from the line, having said that I'm about 100m from the exchange witha very low line attenuation so I think it's a pretty fair bet i'd get a lot faster than my current 8mbps adslmax product.

Carmine - I'm currently with entanet who had a 300 gb per month off peak and weekend limit for £18 which has just changed to unlimited off peak, albeit with a smaller off peak period. Sky and Be/O2 are cheap with with high, if any, download limits - unfortuneately where I live only talktalk LLU is available.

NigeWick - I'd say I would feel safe with 250gb maximum, probably average between 150-200gb

Hi blahmister, as I admitted earlier I know very little of how these things work so I was probably just blowing out of my derriere I hope Nigel can get a definitive answer for you. The great advantage of UW is there is a chance you could get the service for nowt if you had any use for the cashback card.

Edit: As penrhyn suggested, Sky's speed checker is ridiculously pessimistic (I have their Sky Max BB and am getting 4mb with extremely dodgy extension wiring but that checker states the best I can get is 3mb ) Be's speed estimator is far less pessimistic.

http://www.bethere.co.uk/

They state 7mb for me.

Rummble

I have had an experiance with UW and never want to deal with them again.
In my previous property I singed up with UW as a friend was starting with them (as her mum has been an employee for a while) and she wanted to see what I thought. I didnt have any money in my account to pay the £10 fee, so my friends mum sugested I could use my b/f card to pay the £10 and pay him back.

With out my knowledge she put him on the agreement although he was not living with me, and as I was claiming benefits as a single parent this could of caused me alot of problems.
My DD was not set up properly so UW decided to use my b/f card to pay my bill. (even though I was told that his details would only be used for the £10 fee)
Because of the unauthorised card use and the amount taken, took him in to his Overdraft, he ended up being charged by his bank. He requested a refund from UW, and after many heated discussions he finally got £96 refund (took over 2 months).
I then decided to cancel my contract and return to British Gas as I was also being charged for internet and home phone, which I did not have.

My last bill with UW say -£44 (owed to me)

I havent seen this and its now been over 1year and half, also the last time i picked up post from my last property (over 1 year ago) they were chasing me to return the £96 to them. (they sent a cheque to my b/f, i never recieved any money)

I am never ever again dealing with UW and would never recomend them to anyone.

NigeWick

Rummble wrote: »

In my previous property I singed up with UW - I didnt have any money in my account to pay the £10 fee, so my friends mum sugested I could use my b/f card to pay the £10 and pay him back.

With out my knowledge she put him on the agreement although he was not living with me, and as I was claiming benefits as a single parent this could of caused me alot of problems.
My DD was not set up properly so UW decided to use my b/f card to pay my bill. (even though I was told that his details would only be used for the £10 fee)
Because of the unauthorised card use and the amount taken, took him in to his Overdraft, he ended up being charged by his bank. He requested a refund from UW, and after many heated discussions he finally got £96 refund (took over 2 months).
I then decided to cancel my contract and return to British Gas as I was also being charged for internet and home phone, which I did not have.

My last bill with UW say -£44 (owed to me)

I havent seen this and its now been over 1year and half, also the last time i picked up post from my last property (over 1 year ago) they were chasing me to return the £96 to them. (they sent a cheque to my b/f, i never recieved any money)

How did your boyfriend's name, date of birth etc, get on the agreement without you seeing it? The customer always gets a copy of the agreement for their records. In what way was the direct debit not set up properly? Again, did you not look at the agreement and see the home phone (and broadband) had been put on it? I ask, as normally customers do not get signed up unless they have a landline. Have you asked the person who signed you up to help get this sorted out?

Rummble

NigeWick wrote: »

How did your boyfriend's name, date of birth etc, get on the agreement without you seeing it? The customer always gets a copy of the agreement for their records. In what way was the direct debit not set up properly? Again, did you not look at the agreement and see the home phone (and broadband) had been put on it? I ask, as normally customers do not get signed up unless they have a landline. Have you asked the person who signed you up to help get this sorted out?

I havent got a clue, they were friends of ours so most liely new all the info.... all sorted now I changed over a year ago