Broadband advice please!

Inactive

Caden wrote: »

I suppose it comes down to personal choices really, but this is principally a money saving forum, my broadband connection is perfectly stable and reasonbly fast, and I'm only paying £9.99 per month (34 pence a day) of which I'm very happy with

But as Tony Hague says, this is a service, as we all know, ISP's vary greatly in the service that they provide, most of the cheapskate ones offer minimal support by incompetent tech advisors.

My speed never varies day or night, many ISP's supply throttled service, seeing slow downs at busy periods.

Also most ISP's stitch their customers in to 12/18 month contracts so they cannot get out, however bad the service is/becomes.

We are not comparing like with like.

S0litaire

Does Sky still do the Free minimal Broadband?

If he has sky that may be a good idea...

Night-owl_6

S0litaire wrote: »

Does Sky still do the Free minimal Broadband?

If he has sky that may be a good idea...

http://packages.sky.com/buy/?CMP=KNC-UKesalesSearch

DatabaseError

S0litaire wrote: »

Does Sky still do the Free minimal Broadband?

If he has sky that may be a good idea...

samknows has an exchange search to check availability, sky's free/£5/£10 service is, if you already have sky tv, excellent value for money, and a superb service. however it is not available to everyone, only those with sky LLU at their exchange. Another decent cheap provider is O2, again, only if LLU is available.
as a general rule, if the 2 providers above are not available, the cheapest isp I'd recommend is newnet @ £10/month with a very low cap, entanet @ £20 for a huge allowance, idnet @ £25 for a moderate allowance with superb consitency, and a few others inbetween and above depending on needs (fast, aaisp etc), all of the choices offer 1 month contracts and have a reputation for exceptional support, which hopefully you'll never need, but if you ever do you'll regret having bad support.

Caden_2

Inactive wrote: »

But as Tony Hague says, this is a service, as we all know, ISP's vary greatly in the service that they provide, most of the cheapskate ones offer minimal support by incompetent tech advisors.

I've never needed support so can't really answer, as Tony says "I'm technically competent"

My speed never varies day or night, many ISP's supply throttled service, seeing slow downs at busy periods.

Neither does mine.

Also most ISP's stitch their customers in to 12/18 month contracts so they cannot get out, however bad the service is/becomes.

I'm no longer in a contract at all, I could leave anytime

We are not comparing like with like.

I thought the object of this forum was to save money, which is what I have pointed out, like with like doesn't come into it.

DatabaseError

Caden wrote: »

I thought the object of this forum was to save money, which is what I have pointed out, like with like doesn't come into it.

if the money saved then goes on support calls, and lost time and productivity, then like for like does come in to it.

Caden_2

tonyhague wrote: »

if the money saved then goes on support calls, and lost time and productivity, then like for like does come in to it.

I take it you've done a full cost evaluation of the above statement.

I cannot believe that anybody spends £8 a month, every month, phoning support lines.

DatabaseError

caden, I'm sure you are right, very few spend £8/month on support calls, and the majority of customers with the reputedly worst ISPs are happy (probably because they don't know any better).
I always feel that by recommending a service I am taking some responsibility for that provision, as such I struggle to suggest anybody take a service that I would be unwilling to take. Another reason I'd struggle to suggest AOL is that as a cpw company there is a fair chance that phorm will be implemented on the connections at some point in the not too distant future, I respect my privacy, and that of others

greyster

My few options would be:

AOL... you know what you get with them and they offer good retention offers each year.

plusnet. Very good lightuser package at 9.99 as mentioned above.

or even USB Stick Mobile Broadband, £15/month for 3GB usage. Bonus is that you can switch it between PCs and laptops very easily in any location with 3G coverage,.

Whatever you choose they are all on quidco, good luck.

Caden_2

greyster wrote: »

My few options would be:

AOL... you know what you get with them and they offer good retention offers each year.

precisely my point.


tonyhague, I appreciate what you are trying to say, but I'm on a tight budget (and so are many like me) so it's a case of either a cheap broadband supplier or none at all, which for me is not an option I care to consider.