Updated Find the cheapest broadband discussion thread

james4004

Can anyone beat £2 for broadband? For a year? Only as an O2 customer though....

I recently took up the Simplify Digital offer of £70 cashback for O2 Broadband (20megs at £10 per month with 2 months free). They put me through to O2, who then offered me an even better deal. Buy any accessory for my mobile (I was offered the cheapest, a 4 meg memory card for £12) and they would extend the free period to 6 months.

So I have paid £12 up front, my first six months will be free. After three months I'll get the £70 cashback which will more than cover the last six months. £2 for the year.

Customer service was excellent, and having ordered the deal on Saturday, O2 had the router and connection with me by the Monday. Thay also seem to have a pretty helpful customer service as well.

The one downside is that despite being told I'd be getting 16meg download speed I'm actually getting about 6meg, but I can live with that.

gemstars

James mentions he has received this deal, until recently o2 was offering 2 months free and it changed to £50 off your mobile bill on the 25th Feb. Obviously the offer has changed since he signed up.

poppy10_2

I know Plusnet are being heavily pimped by Martin in the newsletters, but my experience of them has been awful - their 'broadband connection' is traffic-shaped to the point of unusability. Even youtube is restricted, so you can't stream HD content at peak times. Major content providers like Akamai, which provide content for many major players like Sky and CNN are also restricted. And don't even think about p2p or FTP, you just can't use them.
No point in having a broadband connection that only lets you browse text pages on the web, but doesn't let you actually view video, download files, or do anything else that actually uses that broadband speed. Big thumbs down from me.

poppy10_2

An update - Plusnet have gone from bad to worse, their initial 2meg connection now either functions at 500-800k, or worse still just drops out entirely for no particular reason at all. I have excluded any causes with my setup, and Plusnet have acknowledged it is an issue at their end, but despite two DLM resets it still ends up getting worse and worse.

Avoid Plusnet if you want a usable broadband connection!

harryhound

DavidP24 wrote: »

The problem is OFCOM making such a mess of the rules that BT will not invest and the competition are the same. Soon we will have the 21CN 50p internet tax on our phone bills, it seems to me that the infrasructure will then become public property and should be made available to all.

The "broadband tax" has been sent down the plug hole by the calling of the election.
Let us see what is proposed by the next government.

TheFlyingGerbil

Will there be a section in the article for people who aren't on LLU unbundled exchanges - I imagine a lot of people reading the article and being confused that they aren't getting anything like the same deals. Not to mention the fact that most providers hide there non-LLU prices so it is hard to compare prices - even comparison sites don't seem to take this into account so these users need most help.

edit to add an example: As an example O2 broadband is £10 per month dearer is you are out of their broadband area: £120 extra over the one year contract!

cr1mson

Currently have Broadband and Phone via Talk Talk (old Tiscali customer) and not impressed at all. Wasn't that keen to start off with but since they upgraded my exchange it has been ten times worse and their technical support is a joke.

So obviously looking to change but having looked at so many suppliers have to have a BT line which I don't. Looked at Virgin but unless you take TV with them very expensive.

Any ideas!

Cx

beelzebomb

Am I missing something here??

Plusnet say on their site:
"..it's £6.49 a month for three months, then £12.99 a month after that."

Which is slightly different to this site advising it's just £6.49 per month, even if the first 4 are free..

MiniKidsXe

Shop around for a great deal and follow the steps in the thread. I looked up reviews of a few "unlimited" broadband providers a few months back. o2 came out best for me, so i switched from Virgin Media 10mb speed for £20 a month to o2 home broadband which was 20mb speed and only £10 a month for o2 customers. It also gave me the first 2 months free plus I went via topcashback and received £75 back. The first 2 bills I have been charged (since the free 2 months have been over) were only £9.67. So my internet has worked out only £2.03 a month and it's unlimited. I doubt I'm going to find a deal that good when this contract is over. But all the money I'm saving is going towards holiday spending money. Needless to say I'm very happy and have had absolutely no problem with my service from o2. So check out your area, check cashback sites and read reviews. Shop around, there's lots available for really cheap!

Trina_F

I thoroughly agree plus cheap isn't always as good as it claims to be. I signed up with Talk Talk thinking I was getting a great phone and broadband deal. Trouble was that I was consistently only getting 1.5Mb download speed. My teenage son gave up trying to use the internet on his laptop as it was so slow. Even their own website said that taking into consideration the distance from the exchange etc we should be getting 3.12Mb. Just got out of broadband bit of contract and they gave us excellent deal on phone (all 01,02,03 and 08 numbers free day and night) for £20 a month. Getting Virgin installed next week and happy to pay a bit extra to get what it says on the package!

normanmark wrote: »

I dont think this thread should be called 'cheapest broadband'

Should be called 'Best value broadband'

Reasons being is that as most people know if a company offers a cheap service, then the cost of offering it that low is usually offset against something else (eg. Poor customer service/high rentention ratios).