Which Broadband Supplier?

manda1205

Hi, we have been with AOL for absolutely years, we threatend to leave at the beginning of the year and to keep us they said we could have it for £10 a month, every month since we've had silly amount being charged, the last one being £16. So hubby rang and they said it would be £26 now and so he asked for MAC code. We live out in sticks and are really limited as to who we can have BB with. We are also in contract with BT for phoneline, so can only get BB on its own. Now from reading on here it might not be a good idea to go with BT (they won't do us any deals except 3mnths for £20, then £26), it seem plusnet is our cheapest option. The only thing Im worried about is the usage, we have always been unlimited so never had to worry about what we use. Hubby goes on xbox live quite a lot and we let my nephew use our modem (he stays next door with my brother at weekends)also using xbox live, we go online to do the normal checking emails daily, DD is sometimes allowed on disney site and moshimonsters, so will this all add up and go over the 60gb limit? I can't see that plusnet do an unlimited package, so does that mean we are totally stuck with BT?
We just want realiable, unlimited BB, but seems its hard to get?
Sorry to ramble, really appreciate any help from you guys though.

Plusnet_company_representative

Hi manda1205,

The only thing from what you've said that'd use a significant amount that I can see is patches/updates or game downloads from xbox live. Gaming doesn't tend to use a great deal, nor does surfing or email unless you get a lot of large attachments or stream a lot of video (youtube, iPlayer, that sort of thing) when you're surfing.

By the sound of it you don't do a lot of downloading, if you could find some way of doing any large downloads etc overnight they wouldn't add to your total as any usage between midnight and 8am is free so that may help.

Do AOL have any way of measuring your usage? If so that might give you some idea of how much you are getting through in a month. The only other thing I could think of would be something like NetMeter (in the thread on these forums here), but that wouldn't show you how much the xbox is getting through unfortunately.

Hope some of that may help, if you have any other questions please drop a post in and we'll get you some answers

Regards,

Matt Taylor
Customer Support

eldar_2

We use a supplier http://titan-adsl.co.uk/ small provider which does 1 month based contracts, might be worth looking into before one of the plunsnet boys tie you into a 12 month contract.

Plusnet_company_representative

The only products we do which have a contract are the fibre ones, which are 18 months - though the amount required to be paid if you do cancel is reduced month on month.

All other accounts are on a 10 day rolling contract, so only require 10 days' notice to cancel (though if you take hardware with a deferred contract, or defer the activation cost assuming you don't migrate in you'll need to pay those if you leave within 12 months).

Regards,

Matt Taylor
Customer Support

eljmayes

If you schedule big downloads in the "free" PlusNet time then I'd go with them. 60GB isn't a stingy allowance by any means and PlusNet's customer service is far superior to BT's in my opinion.

LincolnshireYokel

Holy Moly, someone still on AOL? It was a heap of doggy poo 15 years ago, im suprised there still in business.

Ive used Diamond Cable/ NTL/ Virgin since 1990. They pretty reliable, but there customer service is shi*te if you want anything changed, it takes three attempts usually. But the down time is about 3 days per year max.. I pay £60 a month for 30 mbs fibre broadband, landline and 160 channels of TV.

mustangu

Are you out of contract period with AOL. We have been with AOL for years, currently on the £10 unlimited broadband for 18mth. We find that as soon as your contract period is past they up the price to £24 until you commit to another contract period.

nilrem_2

manda1205 wrote: »

Hi, we have been with AOL for absolutely years, we threatend to leave at the beginning of the year and to keep us they said we could have it for £10 a month, every month since we've had silly amount being charged, the last one being £16. So hubby rang and they said it would be £26 now and so he asked for MAC code. We live out in sticks and are really limited as to who we can have BB with. We are also in contract with BT for phoneline, so can only get BB on its own. Now from reading on here it might not be a good idea to go with BT (they won't do us any deals except 3mnths for £20, then £26), it seem plusnet is our cheapest option. The only thing Im worried about is the usage, we have always been unlimited so never had to worry about what we use. Hubby goes on xbox live quite a lot and we let my nephew use our modem (he stays next door with my brother at weekends)also using xbox live, we go online to do the normal checking emails daily, DD is sometimes allowed on disney site and moshimonsters, so will this all add up and go over the 60gb limit? I can't see that plusnet do an unlimited package, so does that mean we are totally stuck with BT?
We just want realiable, unlimited BB, but seems its hard to get?
Sorry to ramble, really appreciate any help from you guys though.

I was in the same situation as yourselves having been with AOL for over 10yrs. Last month in response to the increase to £25 per month I decided enough was enough.

Like you living in a small village 3km from a small exchange not many providers are interested, I have now switched to BT £13 per month with free phone calls for 12 months and a reduction in line rental from £14.70 to £10.75 and a £25 Sainsburys voucher!

Downside is a 10Gb cap, however at any time one can upgrade to another package for example 40Gb cap. BT do also provide a usage monitor so you can keep a check on your cap.

I was concerned about the cap but decided I could not be worse off by switching and feel that BT are the only people who are interested in keeping customers in a non LLU exchange.

FWIW I joined BT on 11th May and have been watching my usage and during that first period (not a complete month of course) I used less than 2Gb of the 10Gb cap, I would not say I am a light user, I am on and off the internet all day and evening but I don't do heavy downloading or watch a lot of utube.

AOL were once a good bet but now unless one is on an unbundled exchange they don't really want your custom.

manda1205

mustangu wrote: »

Are you out of contract period with AOL. We have been with AOL for years, currently on the £10 unlimited broadband for 18mth. We find that as soon as your contract period is past they up the price to £24 until you commit to another contract period.

Yes we are, this was why we rang in feb, to see if they'd match bt and they said they would do it for £10, that's where the problems have started, this third month and they've whacked the price up. When hubby rang them, they tried to tell him, even if we were in contract (which we thought we were) they would still put it up to £26, so this was why he told them to give him MAC code.
Lincolnshireyokel - unfortunately due to our exchange and no cable area we are really limited as to who we can go with, the only reason we have stayed with AOL for so long is purely because they have always given us unlimited for around £10pm, it seems now they won't, and BB has become pretty poor with dropping off a lot in the evening (although don't know if its our modem to blame or them).
Im put off with plusnets up front fees, so we may end up going with BT with their 40gb and see if we do go over or not. A bit pants, but still a bit cheaper than AOL and hopefully a better modem.

nilrem_2

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

Holy Moly, someone still on AOL? It was a heap of doggy poo 15 years ago, im suprised there still in business.

That is just nonsense TBH, coming from someone who has probably never used AOL! 15 years ago it was 'au fait' to criticise AOL because of their past history.

For the last 15 years or so AOL have been pretty decent, that only changed when Carphone warehouse took them over a couple of years ago. Once CW was in charge the tech help line became an utter joke with support staff who knew less than most of it's customers plus the prices increased.

After CW took over my BB went from £9.99 with AOL first to £14.99 then £19.99 and then to £25 in the space of about 18 months!

Since going online I have been with a lot of providers starting with Netcom in those early days but AOL were the best for me until the CW takeover.

manda1205

Thanks very much nilrem. Can I ask how do you check your usage with BT? Can you do it on your online account with them (we already use them for line-rental and calls) or how does it work? Will I be able to look every day for example?