Which provider to go for???

aurongrande_2

OK folks, I have a problem. No doubt a similar problem for many other people.

I'm currently on BT for both Phone and Fibre Internet.

Apparently BT is upping their costs by making customers pay for things they don't want or need.

For starters, they'll be charging for the 1571 answer service. Another is charging for Sports channels even if you don't have BT Television because BT have paid for a contract to view certain popular (infamous in my opinion) sports.

Well, I only received that second bit of info through the grape vine, so not sure if it's accurate or not.

Also, several of my friends are having problems with BT for various reasons.

So I thought that I might as well look into switching, but I don't know which provider to go for.

PlusNet is owned by BT even though it would be cheaper. I've got SkyTV so I don't know if I can get a discount on broadband for being a current member or not. TalkTalk was my first provider before moving to BT, but they were very unreliable and their customer service was awful.

Looking at the Sky website, there are 2 different prices for broadband.

http://www.sky.com/products/broadband-talk/broadband/facts/

That one shows £20 for broadband

http://www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/

That one shows as £30. Confusing isn't it.

For PlusNet it would cost me £25 for broadband. However, would I get similar problems with them as your would with BT??

Phone costs vary. I'd have to get the calculator out for them.

I can't get Virgin in my area. Is there any others??

Robisere

I have Plusnet, happy with them atm. ALL Suppliers have raised prices within the last few months, including Plusnet. I have a FTTC service, in a rural village. My service is "Plusnet Value Fibre". I have Phone & Broadband (which is stable) ith free 24/7 calls and40Gb usage. My last monthly bill was £21.42 but this was subject to me paying a 12 month Line Rental fee, which was well discounted. I expect this to increase slightly this month.

You do not say if you have cable, FTTC or adsl normal service.

macman

The Sky broadband price will depend on whether you take Sky TV with it and whether you are on a Sky LLU'd exchange or not. If you're not, you will only get Sky Connect, so don't bother with that.
1571 will still be free if you agree to a further minimum 12m line rental period with BT. And you won't be charged for Sports channels unless you subbscribe to BT Sports.

aurongrande_2

Ah, sorry. No, my town doesn't have cable, I don't know what FTTC is and I did have ADSL before BT upgraded the wall socket to allow access for Fibre. So I'd say that my line can handle ADSL and Fibre.

My exchange can handle Sky Broadband because several others in my area are running Sky Wireless hubs (easily noticed when my computer searches for available wireless connections. Not that I can use wireless here anyway.)

My current download speed can top 55mbps on BT, averaging 50. I also have high bandwidth usage so I need unlimited usage.

I figured that prices have been going up through various companies, water, energy, petrol, phones etc.

I would like to see if I can save money and get a better service than what I have. However, I have learnt that cheaper isn't necessarily better. But don't get me wrong, pricier doesn't necessarily give quality as well.

So basically, which provider would be best value. It's just so hard to know.

jem16

aurongrande wrote: »

Looking at the Sky website, there are 2 different prices for broadband.

http://www.sky.com/products/broadband-talk/broadband/facts/

That one shows £20 for broadband

http://www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/

That one shows as £30. Confusing isn't it.

Not really.

With the first link, if you click for more info on Sky Fibre you will see that there are two choices of Fibre - one at £20pm which is up to 38Mb and the other at £30pm which is up to 76Mb.

The prices that you see assume you have/will have both Sky TV and Sky Line Rental. New customers have to take Sky Line Rental these days but there is a £2.50 penalty for not having Sky TV.

aurongrande wrote: »

Ah, sorry. No, my town doesn't have cable, I don't know what FTTC is and I did have ADSL before BT upgraded the wall socket to allow access for Fibre. So I'd say that my line can handle ADSL and Fibre.

FTTC = Fibre To The Cabinet

My exchange can handle Sky Broadband because several others in my area are running Sky Wireless hubs (easily noticed when my computer searches for available wireless connections. Not that I can use wireless here anyway.)

Just having Sky hubs showing up in your area does not show you what kind of BB they can get. It can be anything from the rubbish Connect service to the 76Mb Fibre service.

You need to find out what you can get specifically.

Why can't you get wireless?

macman

Do an exchange search on www.samknows.com for your LLU options. That's the best way to determine LLU availability.
As above, the neighbouring Sky networks may be running on Sky Connect. it doesn't confirm LLU.
But are you not still in minimum term for your Infinity contract (normally 12 or 18m)?

MillicentBystander

That £30/mth for Sky fibre up to 76mb seems more than a tad overpriced unless I'm missing summat? And is that price dependent on also taking Sky TV??

jem16

MillicentBystander wrote: »

That £30/mth for Sky fibre up to 76mb seems more than a tad overpriced unless I'm missing summat? And is that price dependent on also taking Sky TV??

Extra £2.50pm if not taking Sky TV.

aurongrande_2

OK, so FTTC stands for that. I just didn't know. We've had extra cabinets installed in our neighbouring streets which are setup for fibre. The one my home is linked to isn't all that far away. However, my exchange is about 2 to 3 miles away.

So down to business I think.

I've just gone onto the samknows site and did a search. The results are as follows. Some of this info is a little confusing to me so please bear with me.

Broadband availability;
ADSL, SDSL, LLU services. No cable and wireless.

BT Wholesale;
ADSL, ADSL Max, SDSL, 21CN WBC, FTTC

LLU operators (ignoring the unavailable ones);
AOL, O2/Be, C&W, Sky/Easynet, TalkTalk (CPW), Tiscali, Tiscali TV.

I just checked on some comparison sites and Primus appears to be the cheapest provider. However, I noticed some customer reviews saying that the company isn't all that good. However, PlusNet was second cheapest with higher customer reviews.

What do you think??