Broadband help

Emjayf

Ugh! I am hating broadband searching! We find a decent priced one and then are scared off by a couple of negative reviews! It's hard to know who to trust! Then I see ones that seem okay but then find it isn't available in our area!

So are there any phone and broadband recommendations?

I won't use TalkTalk as they were awful to try and cancel when the wife's Dad had died.

I also won't go back to Vodafone as they nearly made me ill with how useless they were at signing me up to their stupid website!

I am Currently on a contract with Sky and they have been okay. This ends 18th March

And I have had Broadband Superfast for £26

Plus Evenings and Weekends phonecalls for £5.75

So that was £31.75 a month (this included a £13.50 a month discount)

They upped it to £37.50 (Broadband Superfast by £3.50 & Evenings and Weekends Extra by £2.25 from 1st May) but that is what all companies do in May! I seem to have an awkward time of year for changing.

Now I was happy with Sky but they want to up it to £54 from 18th April - which is a sharp rise!

I was looking at going back to Plusnet but they say if you join them you will lose your phone number and won't have a phone line! Which is okay, but we have a spotty mobile signal and my wife needs a phone in case of any hospital or Doctor things.

So I'm a bit stumped this time! Any pointers would be helpful! Thanks!

born_again

Why not give sky a call & get onto retentions for a better deal?

Emjayf

born_again said:

Why not give sky a call & get onto retentions for a better deal?

I did wonder that but I couldn't see a retentions contact details on the app or website. They don't make it easy!

(Also I could not remember the word "retentions"! So that I think stymied my research!!)

Thanks

iniltous

The underlying network is Openreach so most suppliers will be similar in the speeds delivered , it’s backhaul capacity that can vary ( so poor performance at busy times ) and customer service you need to consider, obviously you can’t tell who has poor backhaul capacity but cheap providers have to save money somewhere, that’s an easy place to save themselves money …

‘FWIW , there are many providers that can supply what you want for a similar price to what you were paying Sky , for example EE 80Mb broadband with PAYG telephone service is £31 goes up annually by £3 so £34 from March 

Neil49

If you have mobile phones with WiFi calling facilities then a poor signal would not be a problem. The issue of course is that not all mobile network providers offer wifi calling and not all phones have the capability.

We are with O2 and have a poor signal at home but have our phones default to WiFi calling wherever available. Call quality is excellent. 

VoIPMan

There are literally hundreds of broadband provider now, unfortunately the major brands are fairly universally awful at customer service and most use BT's core network anyway. I'm a bit of a fan of Trooli if they're in your area but it's always worth looking at the independents.

It's advisable to split your phone service from your broadband too as most broadband companies really don't want to do that old landline stuff anymore and have awful support for it. There are few independent companies interested in residential phone services though. The only one I know is Voipfone which has a good reputation. 

Emjayf

I did ring Sky, got a lovely Scottish lady who was very helpful and friendly. She told me they weren't discontinuing the phone lines, like Plusnet seem to say, but we're just replacing the copper cabling to an updated system 

Anyhow she was great. She wasn't able to offer much discount - just money off if I took off my evening and weekends call extra.  So I asked if there was a retainer department who might be able to make a better offer and she said yes and put me through.  Sadly I was then transferred to somewhere overseas and a combination of a bad line and a strong accent meant I could not understand any of what she was trying to offer me.  I felt so stressed and confused that I had to tell her I was sorry and had to hang up as it was a bad line.  So, after the nice lady, that really put me off.

So I am still as confused by it all!! Haha!

Emjayf

VoIPMan said:

There are literally hundreds of broadband provider now, unfortunately the major brands are fairly universally awful at customer service and most use BT's core network anyway. I'm a bit of a fan of Trooli if they're in your area but it's always worth looking at the independents.

It's advisable to split your phone service from your broadband too as most broadband companies really don't want to do that old landline stuff anymore and have awful support for it. There are few independent companies interested in residential phone services though. The only one I know is Voipfone which has a good reputation. 

I don't know Of them but they do seem to have good reviews.  Especially as they do phone lines too. Maybe worth a look. Thanks 

Robert619

BT offers solid broadband with widespread coverage, and their customer service is generally better than Vodafone or TalkTalk. Unlike Plusnet, BT still provides landline services, ensuring your wife has a phone for emergencies. I don't know if that helps.

GrubbyGirl_2

I swapped from Sky To BT last year and they were excellent.  I don't have a landline but do have an O2 sim which gives fee calls and texts and 10GB data for £6.99 but more importantly for you they also provide wifi calling so signal reception is not an issue