Updated Find the cheapest broadband discussion thread

mije1983

I'm having trouble with the O2 cashback deal that was mentioned in the weekly email. When I have entered my details on the O2 website it just tells me there has been a problem with the system and to try again later.

Its been doing this for 4 days now, but works fine if I go direct to the O2 website and not via a cashback site.

Anyone else had this problem and managed to get around it?

Smirnoff

I've just moved to a new flat, I previously had Virgin Cable 10MB connection, which was excellent (fast, reliable and very stable), unfortunately my new flat is not in a cabled street, so I need to go back to ADSL. I wasn't planning on getting a fixed phone line as I hardly use a landline, I won't say no to having one if it's cheap, but obviously as I'm going to need an ADSL connection I will have to get a BT (or unbundled equivelent) landline installed.

Any recommends on a deal that give fast internet (I'd prefer better than 8MB), unlimited download allowance (or 40GB+) and no speed controlling at peak times. I'm happy to pay more for these features.

Do I have to get BT to install a phoneline before I apply for an ADSL connection ? All the sites I've tried want a postcode AND and phonenumber to do a service availability check.

As far as I can tell I'm in a BE unbundled area, frustatingly cable is available in the street that feeds into mine, but the new built house were I live are not cable enabled (the house opposite me 50' away is).

harryhound

:DDo you think a powerful wireless router might reach that far?:D

Smirnoff

Yes if the walls aren't so thick, but wireless is too insecure (even with high encryption), the latency is not good for online gaming and I don't know anyone who lives close enough to let me steal most of their bandwidth :cool:

BT_company_representative

Smirnoff I have read your post and just wanted to let you know that you can check for broadband availability, by postcode only, on the following link: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

Cheers,

Anne

BT Support

espresso

BT_company_representative wrote: »

Smirnoff I have read your post and just wanted to let you know that you can check for broadband availability, by postcode only, on the following link: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

Cheers,

Anne

BT Support

Checking by "post code only" is unlikely to help, as they already know that only 50' away, cable is available!

:rolleyes:

debt_free_soon

Thanks to the original post on here I've now signed some elderly friends up for Plusnet's 5.99 service, it will do exactly what they need.

Clicked through from MSE so hopefully helped Martin in a little way as well.

Ta all

harryhound

"Borrowed" from that excellent website "thinkbroadband":

Digital Spy is carrying an announcement from Virgin Media that the cable broadband/TV/phone firm is to expand its network to cover an additional 50,000 homes this year.
Apparently the firm has found around half a million homes which are close enough to their existing network to make connecting them commercially attractive. This comes after a number of years where the coverage of the cable network has remained static in the UK.
Now the UK essentially has a triopoly with BT, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media holding some 75% of the broadband market, it is perhaps no surprise to see Virgin Media stepping up its game. While BT and Carphone Warehouse have never really tried to hold the crown of the fastest broadband, Carphone Warehouse started the 'free' broadband wars with the number of customers they have suggesting that the average broadband user is more worried about price than speed.

trojjer

Final final final final edit! Here's a summary of my annual cost calculations, for anyone interested:

In ascending order -- including £65 via topcashback, £50 Triple credit if applicable (another reminder about 22/June for that) and 1 Connect a Friend (read on)...

BB-L only: £ 145
BB-L / TV-M / Phone-M: £ 170
BB-XL / TV-M / Phone-M: £ 242
BB-L / TV-L / Phone-M: £ 275
BB-L / TV-L: £ 292
BB-XL only: £ 355
BB-XXL / TV-M / Phone-M: £ 457
BB-XXL only: £ 555

I've corrected the cost for BB-XXL -- I've only just noticed that the total installation charge for 50Mb is £50, consisting of a £30 standard installation (can't do it yourself because it must be "too technical") and a mysterious £20 extra "activation fee". I thought that's what the installation fee was for...

The cheapest offer I've found so far is straight up, standalone BB-L: "Upto"* 10Mb for £145 over a year after Connect a Friend and cashback (spread at £15/month for 3 months, then £20 -- I hate it when they do that! We're not stupid). Sounds like the best candidate, as it's the only standalone broadband plan that is cheaper than a bundle -- even without the £50 Triple discount. I've just bought an overpriced LCD TV** with Freeview, which is largely the same as Virgin TV-M as far as I can tell -- and I'd be able to use the TV's built-in PVR with it. For BB-XL it's cheaper to at least get a phone line though, even if it's unused.

* I've never measured at 10 Mb/s of course, but cable has always seemed more reliable than a typical ADSL line. I've read good things about the likes of B etc, but I'd have to pay the line activation and rental...

** 32 inch 720p JVC for £399 at Fenwicks clearance; I lost my head because it had a gimmicky, constantly humming hard disk that only works with the built-in Freeview and no other input, oh well... I was planning to get a 1080p for more than a week damnit! And I've seen them for the same price. At least the guarantee is for 5 years, so I can hope for a better replacement within that time.

Well this seems a little ridiculous so I hope someone can verify it all for me! I've put all the numbers from the twisty small print on the Virgin Media site and I've came up with this exciting little spreadsheet, from which I calculate that I could get the stupidly named broadband "L" (10Mb) with "M" TV and Phone for £170 over the course of the 12 months contract -- if I order online as a new customer before 22nd June (£50 Triple offer bill credit), say that a friend referred me for another £30 credit (I rang up about this and they said that my parents' house would qualify; failing that I could simply ask a flatmate to use their name), and finally there's a £65 carrot from topcashback...

With line rental added it's £25/month for 12 months (no annoying 3 months initial period at a lower rate, which I had to account for in other workings on the same sheet), with e-billing and direct debit (just the way I like it). And there's BB-XL (20Mb) with the same TV and Phone packs for a total of £31/month (£242 for a year). I'm currently rather happy with 10Mb, so I'm wondering if the extra £72 would be worth it... It's a flat shared with 3 other people; but my gf has lived with up to 6 other people for the past two years now, all sharing the same 10Mb without problems (besides the odd download hog -- but I'm quite a geek and it's fairly easy to install Quality of Service on a router to prioritise website traffic whilst still letting people download as much as they want on the network). Then again, with three people splitting the cost it would be easy if we wanted to do it... But they don't care for it much, they're happy with the 10Mb option (and so am I largely, even as a bit of a downloader).

For a laugh I've just added the BB-XXL (50Mb) / TV-M / Phone-M bundle for comparison... It's £180 more expensive than the 20Mb option over 12 months, at £422 with all the above deals applied. What's annoying is that it's still cheaper to get the bundle, because otherwise they'll charge £50/month for the 50Mb broadband on its own, or £46 with a phone line! Something tells me that the Virgin TV box would be a bit redundant with a connection like that though, and all the HD media you can download or stream with it.

The site says that the £50 credit for "building your own" triple deal is only valid until 22nd June, though, which leaves me with a bit of a dilemma as I know the house we're moving into at the start of July already has Virgin installed, and people often seem to forget to cancel their direct debits for a few months after they move house -- allowing the new tenants to freeload for a while without being fraudulent... This was the case for July until about November 2008 at my gf's current house. I might just leave it until we've actually moved in, because the £50 "loss" would be made up for by the 2nd month if we were as lucky this time, and the other offers together with the cashback will still be available it seems. Yeah, I'll wait after all -- or I may be downgrading without knowing it!

Oh and I included the cost for the cheapest installation, the DIY kit for £15. It's easy to install, and it's annoying that you can't escape this fee without ringing up or going to a Virgin shop -- but not too annoying, as I'd rather have £65 cashback for doing it online, plus the option of a £50 bill credit! I really don't want yet another bloody 11g wireless router though, as I've already built up a collection of about half a dozen and two of them are the Netgears that Virgin send out that are apparently worth £40... Yeah, and I'm devoutly religious, hah. I made sure to untick the "20 extra channels" box too, as I don't think it's worth it to spend an extra £5.50/month on what amounts to repeats of The Simpsons on Sky1. And I can download the rest if I'm inclined to (which isn't very often -- I'm talking about entirely legal access methods of course; I've took the time to bloody read the Virgin Media On Cable Acceptable Usage Policy... ). By the way, do Sky customers now need the "Variety" pack for Sky1 now?! That's stupid, as it was always a standard channel as far as I know...

The terms and conditions are sending me around in circles. For the £50 intro credit it says: "Offer is available to new customers only and may not be used in conjunction with certain other offers. Offer ends 22 June 2009. [...] To see if another offer allows the online credit, check that offer's Legal Stuff." Upon checking the "Legal Stuff" for the Connect a Friend offer (another £30 credit for both you and the referrer), it says that it isn't to be used in conjunction with anything. But I don't think this would cancel out the £50 though, as that wouldn't be fair to the new customers -- well, I say that, but they'd still be getting at least £30... Even so!

guyh

thanks very much for the info trojjer, i'm moving into a new place myself, and that sort of advice is indispensible. think we'll be going for the BB-L/TV-L deal as we just don't need the landline. does anyone have the TV-L package, am a bit confused as to what on-demand service it provides as I recently heard that all the 4od stuff has become free on tv, but it says nothing about it on the website. is it just the 7-day catchup? doesn't seem all that worth it in that case...

feeling a bit anxious about the cashback website, never done anything like that and it seems a bit too good to be true... free money?!

was also wondering if anyone here has a virgin media account so we could (both) benefit from the referral? is that allowed on this forum? sorry if not. also hello to everyone, been reading this forum for ages and decided it was time to take the plunge!

:money: (ha!)