Which broadband service provider?

49 Posts

Hi there,
After renovating my house, I'm looking to install broadband for the first time, and I'm finding the options overwhelming.
I live alone, and work from home full-time (9-5, Monday to Friday, occasionally on the weekend). Apart from that, I would say I use the internet moderately - I mostly watch stuff on YouTube. I don't download films or do anything that requires high mbps.
I'm therefore thinking that I won't require fibreoptic & that a standard contract would suffice - is this a safe assumption?
Also, I'm looking to sign up with one of the big companies - BT, Vodafone or Sky - unless someone could recommend a smaller company that has at least a few years' proven track record.
I suppose the criteria I'm interested in are speed, reliability, service (in terms of support), and cost.
I'd be very grateful for any advice or suggestions.
After renovating my house, I'm looking to install broadband for the first time, and I'm finding the options overwhelming.
I live alone, and work from home full-time (9-5, Monday to Friday, occasionally on the weekend). Apart from that, I would say I use the internet moderately - I mostly watch stuff on YouTube. I don't download films or do anything that requires high mbps.
I'm therefore thinking that I won't require fibreoptic & that a standard contract would suffice - is this a safe assumption?
Also, I'm looking to sign up with one of the big companies - BT, Vodafone or Sky - unless someone could recommend a smaller company that has at least a few years' proven track record.
I suppose the criteria I'm interested in are speed, reliability, service (in terms of support), and cost.
I'd be very grateful for any advice or suggestions.
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Currently paying £22 per month for approx 65 Mb/s
Nothing business related but if that was key then I would be looking at a business package.
Most providers don’t charge any more or less for different OR technologies , so if for example you think 40Mb is OK , it doesn’t matter ( price wise ) if that’s FTTC or FTTP ( fibre to the cab , or fibre to the premises) , if older ADSL is available, marketed as 17-20Mb , chances are it won’t be much cheaper than FTTC anyway,
TBH , FTTC type speeds are probably the minimum you should consider.
Basically pick an ISP after check the internet for reviews, baring in mind , people tend to post if they have had bad service, but don’t post if the service is good , and the bigger the company , the more customers, so it could look like more complaints, but may actually have better service than a smaller company, and consider pricing, personally I use BT FTTC and have never had an issue , but that’s not to say it would be different if I used another provider ,
Other areas have Openreach, Virgin FTTC and AN other cable FTTP, in my case Cityfibre. This opens up a huge number of options and as competition has grown don't assume FTTP is expensive. £20 a month for a 100/150 meg service.
This is important because if you rely on your broadband to pay the bills then your priority should be service and fault resolution with cost a minimal consideration. What point saving £10/month if extended downtime costs you £100s in lost earnings?
If you just use it for youtube then it won't matter so much if it goes down for a week or two while a bargain bucket ISP sorts itself out.
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