Just "upgraded" to same tariff and staying with BT, but £18.50 a month cheaper!

DamTiger

Thanks Bungaroosh - I was in the same position as you and getting fed up of over paying once the initial discounted period was over.

It is still expensive but unfortunately only BT can provide fibre to my property, I've no idea why but none of the other cheaper providers can provide it even though the infrastructure is in place I thought I was stuck with BT's high prices until that changed but I just followed your link and placed an 'upgrade' order. Fingers crossed it'll all go through.
Thanks again.

Caddyman

DamTiger wrote: »

.......but unfortunately only BT can provide fibre to my property, I've no idea why but none of the other cheaper providers can provide it even though the infrastructure is in place .....

Yes, does seem a bit strange when you consider that Plusnet (which is owned by BT, but operates as a separate business), is likely to have access to the same exchange you are currently on. I used to be on Plusnet fibre but swapped to BT Infinity this year because they had a cheaper deal. Same line, kept the same number etc.

Bungaroosh

DamTiger wrote: »

Thanks Bungaroosh - I was in the same position as you and getting fed up of over paying once the initial discounted period was over.

It is still expensive but unfortunately only BT can provide fibre to my property, I've no idea why but none of the other cheaper providers can provide it even though the infrastructure is in place I thought I was stuck with BT's high prices until that changed but I just followed your link and placed an 'upgrade' order. Fingers crossed it'll all go through.
Thanks again.

Hello DamTiger,

Great! I'm glad you were at least one person who found the post useful! I wanted to pass on the information to someone who might also benefit, despite the disparaging responses received. Yes, BT isn't cheap, but I don't want to risk jeopardising the consistently good download and upload speeds and dependability of service. Maybe once the 18 months are up I'll look to jump ship, but £38 for a dependable service (which I need for periodic working from home) is better than £50-odd. And I agree with what people have said: £50+ is a lot and feels like a rip-off.

Variations in service quality are very variable locally. Virgin here is good on paper but unusable at peak times. I've heard horrendous BT stories from elsewhere.

One thing I would be interested to hear is the experience someone might have had moving from BT to Plusnet -- there are horror stories about every company and Plusnet don't seem to get a particularly good press either. So yes, a dependable internet connection (proven over years) is something quite valuable, even if it's not the absolute cheapest. :beer:

Caddyman

Bungaroosh wrote: »

Hello DamTiger,

Great! I'm glad you were at least one person who found the post useful! I wanted to pass on the information to someone who might also benefit, despite the disparaging responses received. Yes, BT isn't cheap, but I don't want to risk jeopardising the consistently good download and upload speeds and dependability of service. Maybe once the 18 months are up I'll look to jump ship, but £38 for a dependable service (which I need for periodic working from home) is better than £50-odd. And I agree with what people have said: £50+ is a lot and feels like a rip-off.

Variations in service quality are very variable locally. Virgin here is good on paper but unusable at peak times. I've heard horrendous BT stories from elsewhere.

One thing I would be interested to hear is the experience someone might have had moving from BT to Plusnet -- there are horror stories about every company and Plusnet don't seem to get a particularly good press either. So yes, a dependable internet connection (proven over years) is something quite valuable, even if it's not the absolute cheapest. :beer:

As for moving from BT to Plusnet. I've done this twice, from BT to Plusnet and from Plusnet back to BT. Absolutely no hassle involved whatsoever, done online, no humans involved. The service I have found is the same, as reliable as each other, after all, they are using exactly the same exchange. The only issue with Plusnet, was they operated traffic shaping and it used to slow our internet down. BT don't do that on my current line. The routers used are different, although Plusnet's latest router is a BT Homehub 5 clone anyway (or it was). When I switched from BT to Plusnet the last time, I just continued to use my BT Homehub 5 router, you just alter the ISP address from BT to Plusnet or vice versa. Lots of Plusnet customers who were former BT customers successfully use their old BT router.

I switched again this year from Plusnet back to BT because BT had an absolutely cracking deal on and I wasn't going to pass off a free £200 reward card. I also bagged another £80 off the switch because I routed it through Topcashback. I also got a brand new BT Homehub 6 router (which I had to pay £50 for, so the cashback paid for that!)

So when my current deal with BT ends next May, the likelihood is, I'll just swap back to Plusnet and have the benefit of continuing to use my BT Homehub 6 on Plusnet. I was with TalkTalk a few years ago, but their service was diabolical with speeds of about 2.5mbps. I currently get 55mbps download from BT with a 17mbps upload speed.

We don't even have cable on my housing development, so that isn't an option anyway.

Bungaroosh

Thanks very much, Caddyman -- very very useful and authoritative advice from someone who's been there, done that!

I know the internet service provider market is a bit different from gas and electricity (as in, depending where you live, there are genuinely different systems and networks in place, and so something that can be seen as genuine competition). I find it so annoying though that for affordable gas and electricity these days we have to go through the rigmarole of changing each year or so. Doable for people who are au fait with the process, but not for elderly people who use more domestic fuel. It really irks me! It might sound a bit gas and electricity boards of the 1970s, but surely a government department could buy it all up in bulk and sell it on to consumers at a small operating profit, rather than the charade of "competition" in the gas and electricity market?

Anyhow, sorry -- big digression! I suppose it came to mind after reading your post, where it's possible to ping-pong between internet service providers in a similar manner. Only I don't have concerns about my gas/elec connection going down when I change those suppliers each year as it all comes down the same pipes and no physical changes are made to the supply ...

JJ_Egan

To a certain extent your ISPs all come down the same pipe bar VM .

I find the best method is always to price up what you want .
Inform your ISP you are cancelling at the end of the contract . They make xx offer you say no not at this time i will think about it and decide before my contract is up . ISP will usually contact you a few weeks later with a better offer .
Last three years my BT infinity has been lower than the year before .

Caddyman

To be fair, for all my bluster about not wanting to 'haggle' with BT come the end of the contract and just go full steam ahead and switch back to Plusnet, I'm actually, very, very pleased with the service I get with BT. The internet is quick, it is rock solid, especially now I frequently stream movies and have multiple wifi devices connected to the HomeHub 6 router, which, despite some of the rather unbelievable moaning by some users of that particular router, is by far, THE best router I've ever used and I've used a fair few over the years.

Don't get me wrong, when I'm with Plusnet, I'm almost equally as happy as I currently am, but the thing that still grips me about Plusnet, are the 18 month contracts, I absolutely hate 18 month contracts with a passion. BT on the other hand seem to offer 12 month contracts pretty much as standard.

iniltous

DamTiger wrote: »

Thanks Bungaroosh - I was in the same position as you and getting fed up of over paying once the initial discounted period was over.

It is still expensive but unfortunately only BT can provide fibre to my property, I've no idea why but none of the other cheaper providers can provide it even though the infrastructure is in place I thought I was stuck with BT's high prices until that changed but I just followed your link and placed an 'upgrade' order. Fingers crossed it'll all go through.
Thanks again.

It's not really correct to say only BT can provide fibre to your property even if you are in a property that is FTTP (fibre to the premises) there are alternatives to BT , it's just they tend to be 'premium' ISP's and charge accordingly, so strange as it may seem, BT are the value provider for FTTP.
As for the reason the likes of Sky and Talk Talk , who can buy wholesale access to FTTP if they wanted to, (in much the same way as they buy access to FTTC ) but chose not to, you would have to ask them why , it's not because they are not allowed to, it's because they don't want to

Caddyman

I receive fibre broadband via FTTC method. Whilst it is true that I could take my fibre broadband from several different providers, sadly, many of them do not offer the speed that I need. I stream 4k HDR movies via Netflix or Amazon Prime and I also have multiple wifi devices connected to the router, so I need a decent download speed. The likes of TalkTalk, Sky and others, are seemingly unable to offer me the type of package I need. The only other provider that can reliably meet my requirements, are Plusnet.

I would dearly love for Fibre To the Premises, but no one on my housing development has access to that, it's all FTTC. VM have laid a cable through part of my town, but not to the estate on which I live.

WaxiesDargle

My contract with Plusnet has finished. I pay £37 pm for BB and phone including anytime calls.
I'm going to ditch the anytime calls as I hardly use that phone.

My question is how do I switch to BT on line? they are offering £120 Reward Card for Unlimited Infinity at £34.99 pm with no activation fee... plus I'll get £80 from TopCashback (thanks Caddyman)

Do I just go through the 'new customer' purchasing bit or do I have to let Plusnet know first?
Thanks