Sky or TalkTalk?

colin1951uk

Hi,

I've been a victim of the recession for nearly a year now and am looking to save pennies wherever I can.

I currently have a packaged bundle of line rental, 24/7 calls and broadband for £31 a month and the bb is a mere 2mb connection and so archaic by today's standards.

So I've been looking into what I might be able to get in terms of both better speed and price and found out that my exchange supports both Sky and TalkTalk llu both of whom offer better packages than what I'm on.

Both are offering me between 11-18mb bb but then as I'm fairly close to my exchange I wouldn't expect any major differences in speed from either

But who to run with I'm not sure.

TalkTalk have an appalling customer service reputation but that may not be a problem as I'm pretty tech savvy and may not need them and TT are the cheapest of the two. Sky maybe as bad but I think their support is UK based and as far as I can make out they are truly unlimited whereas TT have a fair usage policy on both their packages which may or may not affect me as I have no idea of my monthly usage (although I do use Skype a fair bit and like to watch Nasa tv on a 1mb stream which may make me an above normal user.)

So can I have any comments on the best bet of the two please (and perhaps just a few TT and Sky users can share their bad/good experiences as appropriate which might help me make up my mind.)

Cheers...Colin

penrhyn

If you have Sky TV already, and Sky LLU is available go for it, doubt you'll get any increase in speed though.
Is your BB 2Mbps 'cos thats all you are paying for?

Post your router line statistics.

colin1951uk

No I don't have Sky tv...I looked at the Unlimited Broadband with Anytime Calls option which is a simlar package to what I have now. It's cheaper than my current subs and btw I never took into account the discounted line rental if prepaid for twelve months (only just spotted that) which makes it even better.

I currently get 2mbps because that's the highest available with my oufit...I started with them around 2000 on dial up, then to 1mbps and up to 2mbps and they've never offered any higher and never will.

Her are my line stats...or the important bits anyway:-

Downstream Upstream
SNR Margin : 35.5 29.0 db
Line Attenuation : 20.5 13.0 db
Data Rate : 2272 288 kbps

Bearing in mind the lines been like that (other than the speed) from day one I reckon I could get 12mbps down and double the up rate without any changes (a line reset might well offer more.) But speed is not so important as I'm not a gamer and I'd settle for 8mbps from anyone and I know I can get that on the line as is.

The important thing for me is to save money where I can and TalkTalk look best for that but I might well shoot my foot off if I run with them and hence I'm looking for some TT votes here.

Btw I did look at Orange to (as I do have an Orange payg mobile and hence qualify for their discounted offer which incidentally makes it even better than TT's lowest) BUT after reading through these forums I saw so many complaints about flaky speeds I think I'll not take the chance.

So methinks Sky unless we have some happy TT users around here.

Cheers...Colin

penrhyn

I'm with Sky, had a few problems but they have always sorted them out, had an intermittent connection recently which took BT OR a couple of attempts at, I did get a nice new WirelessN router though.
With a 20db line you should get at least 16Mbps.

Calls are free to the contact centres and are UK based during the day, they have a twitter helpline as well.

Can't comment on Talk Talk.

dhep1

I have been with both and ended up reporting them to the ombudsman because of crap service also 02 and plusnet, I am looking to change but it seems there is a problem with the lot of them!

AndysDad

dhep1 wrote: »

I have been with both and ended up reporting them to the ombudsman because of crap service also 02 and plusnet, I am looking to change but it seems there is a problem with the lot of them!

Or maybe the problems with your expectations as most people are happy with one of the providers.:)

2010

It`s a no brainer.
TalkTalk, £3-25 a month for the first year with unlimited downloads, phone package, etc. and if you pay your line rental upfront for a year, that works out at £9-50 a month.
Total £12-75 a month, cant be beaten.

Just did a speed test and getting 13meg download, about a mile from the exchange and that`s wifi.

oldagetraveller

Talk Talk have just LLU'd at my(semi rural) exchange. Other than BT Wholesale they are the only alternative.
I'm tempted to change to them but a bit wary considering the poor CS reports! Where are their CS/tech. help based?
It would save me about £12/month though compared to what I'm paying for 20Gb broadband limit and line rental/calls with another provider. My speeds are mediocre at the best of times due to distance from exchange (about 2.5 miles) so that would still be the same.
I can't find anything about what the Talk Talk broadband cost is after the first year, does anyone know? Would Talk Talk craftily treble or similar the broadband cost? I know they say half price for twelve months - but!

2010

TalkTalk broadband is actually, according to them "FREE", you only pay line rental and call package.

I`ve been with them 4 years and have no complaints at all.

colin1951uk

2010...you're on TT's Essentials packages then??

Essentials and Unlimited are both way cheaper than what I pay right now but apart from the the inclusive phone calls with Unlimited I can't see the difference between the two.

Is there maybe traffic shaping going on with Essentials whereas Unlimited isn't restricted as such apart from the fair usage policy? I assume you don't get slowed down at peak times...is it a fair assumption to make?

I'm just looking for pointers to make up my mind between TT and Sky so if you could just expand little on how you're bb has performed over the four years I'd appreciate it.

Tah.

ktothema

I had recent issues with sky that foxed them enough they ultimately chose not to fix (a switch to plusnet and now were Internet issue free). Their customer service wasn't great in that they didn't keep in contact with us or phone when they promised. However if you compare this to what talk talk are notorious for doing, I'd definitely recommend sky over them.

Talk talk are great if you want dirt cheap, but pray you don't need help at any point.

Also it's worth noting that both these companies can be completes !!!!!! when you choose to leave them, often retaining your landline number and refusing to allow porting. I believe talk talk often install as a new line, then you have to pay a disconnect fee when you want to leave, which at least sky didn't do to us.