Haven't got a clue but need to bundle

witchwood

This crosses over a bit with internet too, but as the title suggests we have no idea what we re doing. Mainly from a tech point of view.
At the moment we are not tied into any contracts with any of our internet, phones or tv. We let our internet contract run out and are now paying a ridiculously high monthly price of £36 with talktalk. Email address is associated with it and just couldn't be bothered with hassle of changing it. But now just going to get a gmail one so not tied. Our internet is shocking and is forever dropping out (due to a digger partly cutting the cable on our land we think). We pay 17.99 netflix, 10.99 disney, 3.99 horse & country and 5.99 lionsgate.  and have a firestick with our prime and all the normal channels bbc, itv etc. Again not sure if its the internet connection but always buffering and not very reliable. I spend most of the time using my phone hotspot. 
Looking to combine internet and tv as we think we can get it cheaper than the roughly £65 month currently paying for it all. We don't need a landline and as the internet is rubbish one option is 4g home broadband device? Need to look into that and costs. We could just use our phone hotspots but it's not that great for the phones I hear?  However looking at some of the broadband and tv bundle deals they are roughly what we are paying at the moment for just our internet! And include some of the channels we have. But not prime and we watch a bit on prime. This is where I am struggling to understand it all. Can we keep the same tv, and firestick? Does Sky or Now include bbc, itv etc and have the option of adding the prime apps (much like the firestick you add the channels you subscribe to) Is Sky or Now a device you plug in like the firestick? Would it be better and cheaper to just keep the tv subscriptions and find a cheaper internet on its own? It's all so confusing. Any suggestions and insight to the tech side of it much appreciated. 

Mark_d

Personally I'm not a fan of bundling.  I prefer the freedom to choose and change providers as and when I see fit.

We've been with EE broadband for several years.  We get a very high speed and excellent service whenever there have been issues.

We use fire sticks to get Now TV etc. as and when

For mobiles my partner and I are currently using Lebara and Talkmobile.  £5 a month for each. No plans to change but we're free to do so at any time.

witchwood

Mark_d said:

Personally I'm not a fan of bundling.  I prefer the freedom to choose and change providers as and when I see fit.

We've been with EE broadband for several years.  We get a very high speed and excellent service whenever there have been issues.

We use fire sticks to get Now TV etc. as and when

For mobiles my partner and I are currently using Lebara and Talkmobile.  £5 a month for each. No plans to change but we're free to do so at any time.

Which is why we didn't renew with talktalk... was going to move but never got around to it. Now paying a high monthly cost for internet that doesn't work! 

Cornucopia

First thing is to work out what you are getting from Talktalk, what alternative contracts are available from them and from other similar providers.   Also to understand what is faulty, if anything, and whether a new router will help.   Try running a speed check to get some data about the issue.

You can certainly replace landline services with mobile.   That may introduce speed/reliability issues of its own, though, so it'd be worth testing it out before committing to it.

Sky/Now TV only provide their own and their bundled channels on their streaming services.   BBC, ITV etc are available through their own apps for streaming and catch-up.  

witchwood

Cornucopia said:

First thing is to work out what you are getting from Talktalk, what alternative contracts are available from them and from other similar providers.   Also to understand what is faulty, if anything, and whether a new router will help.   Try running a speed check to get some data about the issue.

You can certainly replace landline services with mobile.   That may introduce speed/reliability issues of its own, though, so it'd be worth testing it out before committing to it.

Sky/Now TV only provide their own and their bundled channels on their streaming services.   BBC, ITV etc are available through their own apps for streaming and catch-up.  

We are only getting basic internet and landline from talktalk. We had a new router not so long ago... we had some work done where the wire goes underground and we know the digger cut into the wire... not completely severed. Land line very crackly when it rains! We are quite rural and speeds etc not great. Speed tests when working come out between 8-10 mbps. We have 2 teenagers in the house and I wfh and so may look into getting the cable fixed. 

MikeJXE

My first stop would be talk to TT say you can't afford it and considering leaving, before you do that check what you can get it cheaper for so you have a reason.
I'm sure if you persist you will get £10 a month knocked of that price 

oldernonethewiser

If the wire was damaged whoever damaged it should have organised a repair.  That ship may of course have sailed.

There is not a great deal to be gained from moving if you have a duff connection.  Have you reported it to TT?

witchwood

oldernonethewiser said:

If the wire was damaged whoever damaged it should have organised a repair.  That ship may of course have sailed.

There is not a great deal to be gained from moving if you have a duff connection.  Have you reported it to TT?

It was us that damaged it, and at the time we hadn't realised it affected it... only come the winter and the wet got in we realised it must be that. TT came out (or a bt engineer) and this is where it gets weird... put in a new router but ran tests from the top of the pole to the house  and concluded it was the wire. Gave us his personal number and said to call him directly if it gets bad again... it will need replacing in a couple years... he will sort it quicker than going through TT. All a bit bizarre and never heard from him again. Then we get a call out charge etc from TT saying the engineer report said there was nothing wrong and it was our socket which wasn't wired in properly!!! We contested it and got a call out refund but after that I couldn't be bothered OR have the time to go through the whole process again. Sometimes our internet works great and others not at all. Chances are they come and look when its working well and say nothing wrong. 

jbrassy

Can't really comment on the broken cable issue, but whoever you go with, you're likely to get rubbish speeds if the cable is genuinely broken.

However, when it comes to bundling, I always think it's best to unbundle. I think in today's day and age it's best to fork out for fibre broadband. 8-10 mbps is very slow if you're streaming Netflix etc. I would try and get at least 50 mbps if possible. You shouldn't be paying more than £25 per month for this.

When it comes to TV, I think there are two options depending on whether you want to record live TV or not. If you do not want to record live TV, buy yourself a Google Chromecast / Amazon Fire stick / Roku stick as they will all allow you to stream Netflix, iPlayer, etc on your TV. If you do want to record live TV, buy yourself a refurbished BT Youview recorder off of Amazon (https://amzn.eu/d/bB89SXv). This still lets you stream Netflix etc, but also lets you record live TV.

Personally, I do not bother with landlines as my mobile contract has unlimited minutes. 

If you do all of the above, you will be paying far less than £65 per month.