Are There Any Good Broadband Providers

onomatopoeia99

I've said this multiple times on here but Andrews and Arnold, who I use, are a good ISP.  They pay for a higher service level from BT wholesale which means getting Openreach out more quickly than some others can and I know from personal experience they are tenacious in getting things like line faults resolved. In my case my fault ended up behing handled by the manager of the service department directly and the owner of the ISP had their legal representative remind BT wholesale of their contractual responsibilities that they weren't meeting. And the saga of getting my line fixed (and the issues behind it) ended up on the front page of ISP review at the time .

edit - as an ISP they aren't popular with expert moneysavers on here as they are relatively expensive and moneysaveing experts know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

DavidAC

I walked passed the cabinet in the street nearest my house yesterday. The door was bent and jammed in place with a big gap where the lock latch is. If the inside of it is maintained to the same standard I have no hope. Next time I see my neighbour I will ask if he has had any problems.

gsmh

onomatopoeia99 said:

edit - as an ISP they aren't popular with expert moneysavers on here as they are relatively expensive and moneysaveing experts know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Oh how true this is! You really need to read between the lines on any moneysavingexpert forum - it's either about free money from the banks, or the cheapest product or service. There is so much more to it than that!

oldernonethewiser

gsmh said:

onomatopoeia99 said:

edit - as an ISP they aren't popular with expert moneysavers on here as they are relatively expensive and moneysaveing experts know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Oh how true this is! You really need to read between the lines on any moneysavingexpert forum - it's either about free money from the banks, or the cheapest product or service. There is so much more to it than that!

A lot of people like to see things in black & white and unfortunately, or fortunately, life isn't like that.  

Nuance gets lost, especially online.

uvarvu

Check bidb.uk to see if an alt-net serves you or is coming soon.   Otherwise if you're stuck with Openreach then go with Aquiss.

DavidAC

A breakthrough, I hope. I put off switching but did another search on MSE yesterday after my speed was down to 10Mbs. I CAN now get full fibre, I could not just a few days ago  . I did a search on Open Reach and found the same. CATV manhole cover on pavement near my front garden another confirmation. I thought they were just resurfacing the pavement recently but they must have been installing it. I am willing to take time off work to get full fibre installed, it would have been a wase of time to get the FTTC fixed. Vodafone Fibre 150 looks the best for me, at about the same price I pay for 67Mbs (but only getting 10Mbs).

gsmh

DavidAC said:

Vodafone Fibre 150 looks the best for me, at about the same price I pay for 67Mbs (but only getting 10Mbs).

Do check out Plusnet - they are part of the BT groups and cheaper than BT and EE. The customer support is top notch too. I have not heard anything good about Vodafone Broadband. The Plusnet 145Mbit package is currently £25.99 a month. Vodafone is £26 for the same package.

DavidAC

Plusnet don't show full fibre at my address. Maybe they don't want the hassle of installing it. On that point, how will they get the cable to the house? I don't think there is a conduit for the copper cable or a telegraph pole near by. Would they dig a trench to put the cable in or say it is too much work?

gsmh

You said you have access to the Openreach full fibre product. Plusnet, Vodafone, EE, BT, Zen, A&A, Sky, Vodafone and others all use the Openreach network where it is available. Plusnet won't install anything. Openreach (or one of its sub-contractors like Kelly Communications) will call and do the install no matter who you choose to sign up with. They will install a new cable to your house using the existing telegraph poles of an existing underground trunking. However your current copper cable comes to your house, that's how the new fibre will be routed too. If the Openreach fibre checker page says fibre is available to you the various broadband companies will be able to see the same thing.

This is the Openreach fibre-checker site:

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker

DavidAC

I already used the checker, it shows speeds up to Ultra Fast Full Fibre 1800Mbs. When I enter my post code and house number Plusnet says my best speed is 67 to 72Mb. BT only shows up to 73Mbs. EE only shows 37Mbs. Sky up to 900Mbs. Zen up to 900Mbs. A&A only shows Fibre to cabinet. On 29th July Vodafone showed up to 67Mbs, now they show up to 1.6Gbp and confirmed it on the telephone. They offered a good price as well, but I wanted to check the T&C first and get some idea of how they would install it. There is no telegraph pole in sight of my house, the BT telephone line comes from under a tiled floor and is definately not in trunking at this point. There is no sign of the cable entering the house, it will be buried. So I wondered how they would install it before I commit to going with Vodafone. I guess I will have to trust they can do it, and if not give me a full refund.