Reliable broadband Sky vs BT

waseem432000

My 18 months plusnet contract will be up in September (can’t come soon enough) and I don’t plan to continue with them. It started alright and for 9,10 months, never had any issues(was never at home in the day time anyway) but ever since I started working from home, I have had quite a few issues. I have reported 3 instances of speeds falling as low as 1 mb (my minimum guaranteed speed is 25 MB) and 2 issues were fixed on 28 and 16 days in the past while third one is still active but worst thing is trying to explain the fault to their customer support team who basically take a full week with their standard messages like checking my internal wiring even tough the speed on their own portal is showing that low. I work in IT and my job depends upon on internet connection being fast enough for VPN and video calling. I am thinking about paying off rest of the contract and moving over to either BT or Sky ASAP hoping they may look after their customers better even if they cost a bit more. 

Is there any difference in response time for these bigger ISPs or am I just overthinking? 

unforeseen

If its a line problem then all 3 will be reliant on Openreach to sort the problem and that may be the bottleneck that Plusnet are currently trying to deal with. 

prowla

All domestic BB except Virgin and 4G/5G run over OpenReach's hardware; I'm with Sky at the moment.

waseem432000

I think it’s definitely a line issue as they confirmed to me last time and got open reach to fix it but apparently it’s so unstable and happens almost once every month and unfortunately I can’t get virgin media either. 

The most annoying thing is that every time it happens and I report that to them over the phone and by logging a ticket in their system, the first week it’s always check your internal sockets even tough it’s always a line issue. I even agreed to paying penalty for an engineer visit in case the issue was inside the property on the phone as well on logged ticket on the day I reported the issue yet at end of the week, I received that standard email from them asking me to agree to pay penalty fees for engineer visit template before they can book an engineer. I mean it could be staff shortage due to covid but this is absolutely appalling customer service. 

matelodave

As said above, unless you are with Virgin or one of the very few local providers then any ISP will be using the Openreach network and thus be reliant on Opereach engineers to sort out any problems so it's pretty unlikely that any system performance or reliability issues will be any better or worse whoever you transfer to.

Even if you get a more sympathetic  or understanding customer service they'll still have to use the prescibed process to pass it on the OR to try and sort out.

TBH the system has held up pretty well considering that over the past year so many people  have been working or schooling from home and thus putting a significant strain on the network and there will be parts of the network that have just about reached capacity and may need major work to upgrade it.

Much like the road network, it doesn't matter how fast your car can go, if it gets to a bottleneck with everyone else then you get slowed right down

waseem432000

matelodave said:

As said above, unless you are with Virgin or one of the very few local providers then any ISP will be using the Openreach network and thus be reliant on Opereach engineers to sort out any problems so it's pretty unlikely that any system performance or reliability issues will be any better or worse whoever you transfer to.

Even if you get a more sympathetic  or understanding customer service they'll still have to use the prescibed process to pass it on the OR to try and sort out.

TBH the system has held up pretty well considering that over the past year so many people  have been working or schooling from home and thus putting a significant strain on the network and there will be parts of the network that have just about reached capacity and may need major work to upgrade it.

Much like the road network, it doesn't matter how fast your car can go, if it gets to a bottleneck with everyone else then you get slowed right down

This does make total sense. I don’t think there ever was so much pressure on broadband networks in the history and hopefully it will relent in coming months with more and more people going back to offices. I think I will see out my contract and then evaluate my options. Thanks

macman

If you job 'depends' on your internet connection then you really need a business contract, rather than a consumer one which comes with no SLA, regardless of provider.

waseem432000

macman said:

If you job 'depends' on your internet connection then you really need a business contract, rather than a consumer one which comes with no SLA, regardless of provider.

Well, I can’t really access my own remote PC without a fast enough connection but I have started working from office 3 days a week plus my employer arranged a backup internet device to mitigate these connection issues but still, it’s annoying to say the least. I am not sure how much different is a business broadband contract or if I can even get one at my flat considering it’s not my permanent workplace but I will definitely give that a read. Thanks 

JJ_Egan

Same service you just have a different contract .

Best is always best what . Pointless having best customer service if your line is rubbish .

mark10525

We used to live in the countryside and couldn't get Virgin Media (cable) so were reliant on the phone landline network.

Until 4G came along. We got a router box from EE and a SIM card which at the time gave 100 GB per month and the speeds were a transformation - from around 1.5Mbps via the landline, to around 40 to 50 Mbps up and down via 4G.

The only limitation was that of the total data transfer but then the allowances might be more generous now.

Data over the air was a real alternative to having a bit of ancient old copper wire trying to provide some semblance of a broadband service, and so we cancelled the phone line altogether.

onomatopoeia99

waseem432000 said:

I think it’s definitely a line issue as they confirmed to me last time and got open reach to fix it but apparently it’s so unstable and happens almost once every month and unfortunately I can’t get virgin media either. 

The most annoying thing is that every time it happens and I report that to them over the phone and by logging a ticket in their system, the first week it’s always check your internal sockets even tough it’s always a line issue. I even agreed to paying penalty for an engineer visit in case the issue was inside the property on the phone as well on logged ticket on the day I reported the issue yet at end of the week, I received that standard email from them asking me to agree to pay penalty fees for engineer visit template before they can book an engineer. I mean it could be staff shortage due to covid but this is absolutely appalling customer service. 

For existing line faults, see this :

https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/we-will-fix-your-line/

You probably won't have heard of them and they don't do "deals", but they are a very good ISP.  I've been a customer since 2003 and am happy to recommend them, especially to people that need their internet connection for their work.  Obviously more expensive than the bargain bucket ISPs like Plusnet, BT, Sky, TT etc, but you pay your money and you take your choice.