Recommendation for non mainstream fibre provider

chamelious

Interested in customer service/quality of product more than bargain basement prices. Had bad experiences with BT/Virgin/etc. Looked at Zen which looks ok, but it still looks pretty "consumer" with the speeds capped to match mainstream providers at 34/75mbs etc

Thanks

pappa_golf

there are only 2 common methods of cable connectrion , BT and virgin

in both cases you are tied to THEIR maximum speeds

what you are asking for is a company that offers a good customer service? well that excludes BT and virgin!

as only virgin use virgin equipment , you are now forced to use the BT network , and use a service provider that uses this system .

if you wish to use a non retail consumer orientated" then you must look at a buisness package

who to choose? , well that has narrowed it down


a buisness suplier that uses the BT network and is willing to pay BT to fit the fastest line available and offer you a 24/7 callout at a modest price

when you find them , please update this thread ,

lee111s

chamelious wrote: »

Interested in customer service/quality of product more than bargain basement prices. Had bad experiences with BT/Virgin/etc. Looked at Zen which looks ok, but it still looks pretty "consumer" with the speeds capped to match mainstream providers at 34/75mbs etc

Thanks

Not quite sure what you're asking?

If you want fibre directly to your home, you're going to need to find someone to install it, expect somewhere between £5000-10000 for this.

If you want to utilise Openreach's fibre to the cabinet technology, there are hundreds to chose from, but they all offer the same "sync speed" as they all utilise the same network and cabling right up to your home. "Preimium providers would be the likes of Zen, AAISP etc.

onomatopoeia99

As others have stated, you are limited to what the wholesale backhaul providers will provide. On a VM connection that means you can only use VM themselves at whatever speeds they provide. On BT infrastructure you get a choice of ISPs but are fixed at the normal FTTC levels that BT Wholesale offer, either 40 (or 55), or 80 down, excluding the higher speed trials, with up speeds of 2, 10 or 20.

A&A offer bonding for multiple lines so you can go to 160/40 with two lines at 80/20 (or more if you bond more lines, or you can configure as failover) and excellent customer service, (office hours only, they are business focused) but they cost and don't do deals, "retentions", cashback, tv channels or "unlimited" so aren't very popular here . I've been with them for 13 years on ADSL then FTTC on a single line and am happy to recommend them.

chamelious

Thanks for the help. Looks like i'm backed into a corner with very little choice then.

What is the point in providers like Zen who charge more for virgin/bt connections ?

Also, "AAisp", why on earth are they still capping data? What is this 2005?!

onomatopoeia99

chamelious wrote: »

Also, "AAisp", why on earth are they still capping data? What is this 2005?!

Transit costs per byte, a bit like electricity costs per kWh. Some ISPs take an approach of charging an average amount and letting people like my parents who just use a bit of email cross subsize the family of six with children all streaming individual episodes of HD peppa pig six hours a day on their iThings, and don't worry if their links get congested as they underprovision to save money.

It all depends what you want from your ISP I suppose. I find the cross-subsidies insane, no-one would contemplate that for electricity or gas, but for data, that's apparently fine.

chamelious

Because gas/electric charges are far higher, surely? Its practised for water.

What i want from an ISP is a modicum of care for customer service/satisfaction and no ridiculous arbitrary restrictions.

I don't really understand how any company other than BT or Virgin is able to operate if everyone uses their infrastructure.

newtonflotman

Try Origin Broadband. 100% UK based. Excellent customer service. Good fibre packages and advance line rental deals. Prices very competitive. Been with them just over a year, can't fault them. Used Talk Talk, Sky and BT before, Origin miles better.

engelsepiet

I recommend Zen Internet highly. Its support team consists of people who actually understand the technical stuff, unlike some ISPs, who have support droids who read from a script. Also, if you have to contact them more than once with a problem, although you might speak to a different person, he will have all the info on the screen in front of him, so you don't have to explain everything all over again. (ChatChat, please note!)

Nilrem

chamelious wrote: »

Because gas/electric charges are far higher, surely? Its practised for water.

What i want from an ISP is a modicum of care for customer service/satisfaction and no ridiculous arbitrary restrictions.,

I don't really understand how any company other than BT or Virgin is able to operate if everyone uses their infrastructure.

In that case go you may want a leased line or business package, they tend to be far better at giving you exactly what you pay for, and better customer service and service level guarantees.
However expect to spend several time what you do for consumer level ISP's, at a lower "headline" speed.

At the very least expect to have to go for one of the slightly more expensive consumer ISP's, and one of the mid to top end packages (as opposed to the cheapest, which is what a lot of people do).

As has been said data transfer rates cost money, most ISP's offer customers affordable and "competitive" packages based on average usage over thousands or millions of customers (usually with you getting what you pay for - I'll happily pay an extra fiver a month for better CS).

So if you want a connection with no data limits for the speed you're paying, look at something like a leased line, you'll be pretty much guaranteed to get that the speed you choose, but expect it to set you back something like £400 a month for 100mb as opposed to the £40-45 you pay for a 200mb Virgin Media cable connection (or bt infinity based 80mb product).
The price difference is because that the leased line is provisioned based on you using it at that limit for much of the time (and having far better CS/fix times and compensation if it goes down), thus they've factored in the full data costs etc associated with that speed.
An ISP offering any reasonable speed for say £10-15 a month is doing so based on shared bandwidth and contention ratios at best (at worst they might be doing ti with monthly caps that either cut your speed down to a fraction for the rest of the month, or result in additional charges once reached).

sorry if that sounds a little harsh, but the isp business today seems to be about the lowest price and people complaining about limits because they don't realise the costs involved in providing what they want. I'm old enough now to remember paying more (in real terms) for a 512k connection than I do for my 200mb one! (the price has gone from about £30 a month 16 years ago to £45 for 400x the speed). It's not the cheapest, it sometimes suffers from contention (my speed might only be 50mb at times during the day), but it is far better than any of the cheapest offerings (just having the line and equipment owned by the same company is worth a premium - no arguments about it being my choice of modem causing a problem)..

onomatopoeia99

chamelious wrote: »

I don't really understand how any company other than BT or Virgin is able to operate if everyone uses their infrastructure.

BT are obliged to offer wholesale backhaul over their own network and allow other networks to install interconnects at BT exchanges. This allows other ISPs to create their own custom service, some part of which is provided over BT infrastructure. What this isn't is "rebranded BT Internet" .

VM are under no such obligations, so don't. On VM infrastructure you have a choice of one ISP, VM themselves.