Looking to get cheaper/better than BT (& poss do away with landline?). Help/advice?

tightauldgit

I've used BT Sky TalkTalk Plusnet and Vodafone in recent years and find them all to be exactly the same. They are all perfectly fine when everything works, and useless whenever there is a problem. I'm on Vodafone at home right now and have had no issues so far. I left Plusnet because I thought their CS was crap, but then BT's CS is just as bad if not worse. We get taken for mugs generally with Broadband, hugely expensive, crap service and don't dare complain.  

HaroldWren5

[Deleted User] said:

neilmcl said:

[Deleted User] said:

Don't underestimate the utility of the wifi router in terms of getting the best from your broadband connection and value for money. 

FTTC is really poor value to start with when in comparison you can get 7-10 times the speed for less than double the price with FTTP or cable.

Only if you need to have 7-10 times the speed.

That is exactly my point that most people don't understand until they have experienced proper internet speeds because they are faffing around with deals in the decade old 30-70mbps zone. Consumers are thinking they are on to a winner because they have saved a few quid a month but in reality are all fighting over the cheapest cold pasty on the high street when then could be eating a fresh 8oz steak for little more if it was widely available.

All the marketing bull about "superfast" draws people in and the think they are getting good quality internet and are satisfied because that is what they signed up for but the reality is they are getting the bare minimum and just don't know any better.

The whole internet market in the UK is based on fluff, "fibre" deals are not fibre, "superfast" classification is actually very slow and just 3% of the gigabit speeds available with fibre to premise.

The deals on MSE and everywhere else are just a race to the bottom and justify the poor average speed available.

It also justifies the poor quality "free" ISP wifi routers supplied that are incapable of providing coverage for the full house and so the ISP sells extras to cover their inadequacies like BT halo / virgin booster pods etc when in reality a proper Wifi router will easily cover a 30 metre radius around your house (mine does) 

The UK is vastly behind the times with internet speed and it is a disgrace, the likes of Portugal have 90% gigabit connectivity, the UK is the bottom of the pile and people like yourself are justifying that.

4G is capable of 90mpbs and we are now entering into a 5G era of gigabit to mobile phones yet people are paying more for their home broadband than an average mobile contract for slower speeds.

Don't put up with this any longer and demand proper home broadband speeds.

100% agreed

JustAnotherSaver

greyteam1959 said:

BT PAYG is now charged at £2 a month even if you don't make any calls.
It used to be no calls no charge.
😡😡

I've just been on to Live Chat and they assured me this is not the case. I make sure I spell it out for them so that we're on the same page ... so if I make no calls for a whole year I pay a grand total of £0.00 in relation to my telephone as far as BT is concerned (I know some on here may start getting pedantic over the electricity cost to power the damn thing but I'm not getting that silly!).

They said that is correct. If i don't make a single call and only ever receive calls then I will pay £0.00 on my bill in relation to the phone. I will only ever be charged if i make a phone call.

Anyway, rightly or wrongly I signed up (renewed) with BT. I ran a speed check which said on Fibre 1 i'm getting 62Mbps. I questioned the difference between Fibre 1 & 2 since I'm getting the speeds that Fibre 2 advertises but at a Fibre 1 payment. They said the difference was the stay fast guarantee. I wasn't going to bother, thinking Fibre 2 would be a fair bit more but when they said the difference between 1 & 2 was £1/month I thought sod it, it's £24 over 2 years. Hardly bank breaking over a 24 month span.

Rather than wait it out until my renewal (end of April) I went for it now as I figured there's no guarantee and everything is going up in price. Knowing my luck it wont be as cheap come April - though now I've done this it'll be even cheaper for better no doubt.

I also have to wait until April to cancel my TV, so for the time being at least, i'm paying just over £1pm more.

Tallmansix - I read your rant. I see where you're coming from but i disagree these speeds are 'slow'. I remember the days of 56k (as I'm sure many of you also do and probably speeds even slower than that). My point is I'm happy enough with the speed I get. It does the job for me. Nothing really lags, nothing takes forever. I'm not sat at my PC cursing a download like the days of Napster where it took the best part of an hour to get 1 mp3. Yes I can get faster - I could've gone with Virgin, but I priced it up and it was dearer so I said it's not worth it to me.

neilmcl -