Find The Cheapest Broadband Article Discussion Area

taannuk

hi there. i have been with tiscali a few months now and have no complaints.

Thank you for your reply. Are you a heavy broadband user or just occasional as this is the most important to know (I am a heavy user)?

Romanysaver

Please forgive me if I have misunderstood today's recommendation from Martin - did he say that Talk-Talk is the best deal available - it would appear to me that that is not the case.
Talk-Talk's £18 per month package is only for evening and weekend telephone calls, whereas the Tiscali all-in package, at £19.99 a month, includes all of the following:

1. Up to 8 Mbs Broadband (my (stated) connection varies between 6.4
and 7.4Mbs).

2. All telephone calls at any time to landline numbers 01 and 02.

3. Free International Calls to the nine most popular destinations.

4. Charge-free Landline.

5. 5p per minute Helpline Charge.

6. 12 months contract.

7. And shortly, better rates deal to mobile numbers TBA.

Surely, this is a better deal than Martin's recommendation?

By the way, I have been with Tiscali, and its predecessor, Lineone, since 1998 without any major problem, until 29th August (one month after upgrading to Tiscali Max) when I completely lost my connection until 17th September. So I do have a grouse - they did not at any time contact me - I had to contact them. Although I was told that my call charges to their Helpline would be refunded, and that I would be compensated for loss of internet connection and two day's loss of telephone access.

I await their response.

Having got that off my chest, will someone - Martin? - please enlighten me as to today's recommendation of the Talk-Talk package? Thanks!

gorblimeyguvnor

Perhaps something which wasn't covered in Martin's original article is the costs etc. incurred when moving away from such cheap deals as TalkTalks "free" offer.
Deals such as this typically involve migrating to their own equipment in the exchange, LLU, and generally cover both voice and broadband services.
If for whatever reason you are not happy and wish to move away then for a start MAC regulations don't strictly apply so instant hassle.
BT may charge £125 to get your line back.
You may lose your old telephone number - TTs terms & conditions state they "own" the number (don't think they are alone in this).
Your new ISP may charge for reprovisioning Broadband on your new line (£30-£50).
Would also be aware of offers to "upgrade" current connections for free to LLU as these too will be subject to the same charges if/when you decide to leave.

IZZY01

I have been with AOL for a few years now. Last August, I took out the gold package, with free wireless router. ( i think silver is the same package now ). I was paying £25.00 monthly for this. I have a bt telephone which costs me approx. £40.00 monthly and Sky+ with the Sky world package at £45.00 monthly. A friend recently got Sky package to cover tv, phone and broadband, so I made enquiries regarding this. I was quoted £65.00 for wireless broadband, sky world and sky talk (unlimited calls). I then called AOL to cancel and was asked why? I advised them that I had been offered a deal, too good to miss. They offered me broadband and unlimited calls for £14.99. Add my sky at £45. and it is quite a saving. Of course I still have to pay £10.50 for BT line, but still worth the phone call. As I made a saving, I subscribed to Setanta to keep hubby happy!!

namford

Hi all,

I've had a *brief* look through this thread (as well as reading Martin's broadband articles) so I hope that my question isn't repeating anyone's or is silly, but please can I ask the following..?

First a bit of context:
I've been searching for a very basic combined home phone and broadband deal most over the last few days, with minumum cost being a high priority. I've been using sites such as this one, adslguide.com, thinkbroadband.com plus several others and I came to the conclusion that talk-talk was pretty much the cheapest of all (at £16.39 pcm).

Then today, I decided to do a final search using just google and I stumbled across virgin media. None of the other sites I'd used had shown this as offering a competitively priced option but I was able to find broadband and home phone for just £15.50 a month - cheaper than talk-talk and considerably cheaper than any other package out there that I found. You even get a free modem and if you buy online the connection fee is reduced form £25 to just £5!! Not to mention free weekend calls to all 01 and 02 numbers!

Anyway, my questions are:
1. Am I missing something? Does anyone know of any reason why this package isn't what it appears? (I'm only after 1mb broadband and the cheapest possible phone deal, so it meets those requirements, and a 12 month contract is fine for me).


2. Why isn't this deal coming up in any of the comparison sites or on Martin's cheapest BB web page? I know he only updates once a month, so possibly that is the reason, but none of the other sites showed this when clearly (so it appears) is the best match?

Any info greatfully received about why this deal appears to be so hidden and whether I am missing anything!!!

Many thanks in advance
Natalie

Jennifer

I have been with Sky Broadband since January 2007 and have been happy with the overall service and connection.

I advise anyone connecting to choose the Base option initially at £0/month after connection at £40.

You have the option to Upgrade at any time but if you choose Mid or Max, you cannot downgrade for a year.

Base may not be an option for gamers.

Anyhow, I have remained on Base and never had an issue with speed or capacity. Also, I have used my own router since day 1 - the Sky router is still in the box.

As I migrated from Freedom 2 Surf, I saved £15/month and am paying £15/month for the Sky tv which I was in any case.

There is an excellent site - http://www.skyuser.co.uk/
for all things Sky and in particular broadband and using your own router.

I am not suggesting that you sign up to Sky tv just to get their brodband but to connect if you already have Sky tv. BUT by being with Sky, I also have free evening and weekend telephone calls.

JH

susan1

being very technically challenged, tiscali say vyou can keep your phone number, can you keep your e-mail address too> the thought of having to change that is putting me off moving providers

PeteHerts

The problem i've found with Tiscali is their network isnt that great. I moved from Pipex because of very poor customer services but when downloading using a download manager with Pipex I was getting around 850 kb/s which is around 6.5mb and that was 24/7 but with Tiscali its only 4.5mb.
I raised this with them and when they sent a BT engineer round he said it was the best line connection he'd ever seen and thats not surprising considering im only 400 metres from the exchange!
I only download before 5pm and after 11pm but have to wait til around 2am to get a decent half connection.
Also back in June when i signed up I was told I couldnt yet have the free line rental til they upgraded the exchange and that would be about 3 months but its still worth it because im still saving 25% off BT's line rental and free calls to 01 & 02 numbers but im not being told im going to now have to wait until Christmas.
The outsourced tech support in India isnt that technical but even with these problems they are better than Pipex.
By the way when i cancelled with Pipex at the end of my contract they took £400 out of my account and when I angrily phoned them to ask why they said they didnt know so beware!

pepsi_max2k

RE: TalkTalk option 3* as best phone / broadband package.

May not be true, Tiscali may be better for some...

Tiscali 2Mb, Unlimited downloads, line rental + free weekend calls @ £14.99 pm
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/talk/?code=NN-HB-0282&srccode=COD_194

Talk Talk option 2: up to 8 Mb (and bear in mind the average for ADSL Max is actually 2.5 Mb so many will see no/little difference in speeds from fixed 2 Mb), 40 Gb downloads, line rental, free weekend + evening calls @ £16.39 pm

So basically TT2 is £1.40 extra for free evening calls and (depending on location) around 500 Kbps extra speeds over Tiscali 2Mb. Obviously if you've been on ADSL Max before you'll know for sure what speeds you'll get over 2 Mb.

Also TT3 seems to just be free anytime calls, 40 Mb @ £20.49 pm, whereas Tiscali 8 Mb is free anytime calls, unlimited @ £19.99 pm, so unless I've missed something then tiscali are definitely better for free anytime calls.


And as for just broadband, I reckon the best unlimited package around right now is Be* (www.bethere.co.uk) who do unlimited, up to 8 Mb ADSL2+ (for most just meaning more likely to be closer to 8 Mb than regular ADSL) with free voip modem for £14.00 pm (so sign up with sipgate or the like and save on phone calls too). Using the code SALES1 should get you free connection (usually £24), and going through quidco should get £55 cashback. And they're also a well regarded supplier unlike the above two :cool:


Please correct me if I'm wrong about anything, I'd be happy to find out if anyone else is cheaper

taannuk

pepsi_max2k wrote: »

RE: TalkTalk option 3* as best phone / broadband package.

May not be true, Tiscali may be better for some...

And as for just broadband, I reckon the best unlimited package around right now is Be* (www.bethere.co.uk) who do unlimited, up to 8 Mb ADSL2+ (for most just meaning more likely to be closer to 8 Mb than regular ADSL) with free voip modem for £14.00 pm (so sign up with sipgate or the like and save on phone calls too). Using the code SALES1 should get you free connection (usually £24), and going through quidco should get £55 cashback. And they're also a well regarded supplier unlike the above two :cool:


Please correct me if I'm wrong about anything, I'd be happy to find out if anyone else is cheaper

Thank you for your reply - very interesting about BE*. But do they allow p2p downloads and any fair usage policy in place as their option for STE14.00/month is advertised as for a light usage. Is it really unlimited???
Could you or anyone comment on this, please?
Thank you!