MSE News: An end to line rental? No-landline broadband service launches

Porcupine

beenzberry wrote: »

We are also not likely to get a cabinet upgrade for fibre for another 2 years. So, I would assume this type of package from Relish would work in my favour?

It might, but if you're somewhere you can't get ADSL then it's very unlikely they'll get there - they're too busy serving Mayfair. What might happen is one of the mobile networks upgrades enough to get 3G or 4G to you. But be prepared to swap your slow speed for a fast speed but download capped. Which is maybe OK if you're a light/moderate user.

We are limited to BT or Sky as options and that costs approx. £15 a month with either and line rental on top, so again, I could see why Relish would work for me just a shame living 20 miles south east of London means relegation to 'the sticks'!

You shouldn't be limited to BT, you should have access to any ISP that uses BT Wholesale (of which there are dozens if not hundreds - you just have to look beyond the big names). One tip: the presence of Sky on your exchange will trip Plusnet (who are part of BT, but run at arms length) into offering their LLU deals (the cheaper connection you'd normally only get from someone who has their own equipment in the exchange - like Sky), which usually works out cheaper than the tariff offered by ISPs using BT Wholesale.

I've managed to help someone use this trick to get Plusnet phone and basic broadband for about £12-15 a month (can't remember exactly, it's a combination of deals like Line Rental Saver on top of a broadband special offer - which they've renewed for 3 years now). The other ISP on the exchange is TalkTalk, who I wouldn't dream of using. But the existence of TalkTalk unlocks the cheaper Plusnet deals.

kirkdouglas

Please avoid this useless company, I will speak from the in house experience of an ex-employee, they are obsessed with the sales and it's a cut throat company looking to dismiss people who cannot up sell products on the phone. Managers have no clue what direction to take and the middle management is poor and lack knowledge and ability to motivate people.
From my point of view they have a lot of problems when dispatching orders by scooter, wireless do not work properly, the signal is too low and it's a waste of money and time, you can get better broadband with any other provider. There is too many technical problems that affects the devices, the troubleshooting doesn't fix those problems and the customer service team is unable to help.
By the way I was dismissed today for being too good, a lady who is a team leader or manager was having a go on me telling me how to chat to customers.
Avoid Relish, it's cheap and low signal, go for quality look for other provider.

Damonius

I'm interested in using Relish but it would be good to hear from some people that have used the service first

Being wireless I would assume that it is a bit hit or miss depending on location which I guess is why they have a 2 week guarantee on it?

Uxb

minislim wrote: »

i hope this is the sign of things to come!
line rental in this day in age should be cheaper not constantly going up and up.

Well try working out the REAL cost of replacing things
a telegraph pole cost is £600 to buy
Add in the men/traffic control/hole borer etc etc for a day's work all in.
Then the total overall cost of a pole replacement is probably around £2000.

OK now say pole supplies 4 houses.
£16 line rental/month for 4 houses is £770 per annum.
So a single repair of a pole for these 4 houses has wiped out the total GROSS line rental for 3 years and the net profits to BT from these 4 houses for probably somewhere near 10 years from all of them.

Now consider your reply if you were renting out a house to tenants and were told you needed to do a repair which was going to wipe out all your profits for 10 years - I bet your answer would be unprintable.

Conclusion - Line rental is going to continue to go up - a lot.

richarduk

I live in central London (EC1) and Relish predicted 30-50Mbps speed based on my postcode.

I ordered the service (had to do it over the phone as their website was a bit hopeless) and found the service terrible - I couldn't get over 5Mbps. This compared to 12Mbps via my Sky broadband or 20Mbps via three (using a 4g dongle).

I promptly cancelled and Relish eventually sent a pre-paid envelope to allow me to return their router.

Overall it seems that wireless isn't the way to go - best to wait for fiber - especially in central London.

I can't recommend Relish.

DrPaul

We are lucky enough to live in a flat literally 100 yards from Trafalgar Square right in the centre of London.

Unluckily, our flats (built just 18 years ago) cannot be connected to fibre!!!

Fibre hasn't reached our BT box on Charing Cross Road, and even worse there is no date at all for when it will be available. So no company can provide us with fast broadband here in the West End.

I had thought that this was the answer, especially as the price is very competitive if you factor in the line rental cost, which gets hiked up with monotonous regularity while the headline broadband price stays low. However, it looks like the reality doesn't match the hype - shame.

goron59

Well I live in an old apartment that can't have fibre, has rubbish copper but am in the zone for this service, so it's very useful. I'll probably give it a go.

I occasionally tether my to my phone EE4G and get 3x the speed of my copper broadband.

KingL

Has anyone used Relish and have any experience to share?

I'm attracted by the short-term contract. Having said that, does their "one month contract" actually have a minimum term of one month? I know that you would expect it to (from the title), but apparently my local "24" hour Tesco don't think that they have to open for 24 hours a day, so thought I'd better check. The "legal" section on Relish's website is useless.

macman

It's a one month or 12 month minimum term. Presumably 30 days beyond that.
Coverage outside central London is still very limited.