Broadband. Who's the Cheapest? Article Discussion Area

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  • rammell
    rammell Posts: 56 Forumite
    hhobba wrote:
    I am not a ridiculousely heavy user but I download a lot of music (legally!!) and PlusNet were limiting my speeds far too much for my liking. So I switched.
    And certainly don't touch PlusNet - far, far too many policy changes are being made without notifying the end users and so you might wake up one day to find your connection has drastically changed itself (as I did). /QUOTE]

    I think different people have different experiences and different needs. The download limitations made by PlusNet may well not suit everyone but 1Gb download per month at £14.99 per month is more than adequate for me and, I guess, many other users. Their Customer Service is good, reliability is good and they recently came out joint leaders in PC Pro magazine.

    I agree strongly with Martin that this site is about saving money and there are plently of ISPs charging far less than £20 per month that provide a more than adequate service. I certainly wouldn't go with the cheapest ISP if they couldn't provide the right download speeds and download data limits and their performance (as reported in the computer press and https://www.adslguide.org.uk) was poor. But I'm convinced that most users don't need to spend anywhere near £35 per months to get a good service.

    I'm sticking with PlusNet!

    Cheers.
    ELR
  • tubster
    tubster Posts: 256 Forumite
    The best deal I have found for unlimited broadband is £10 a month for 1mb speed at https://www.euro1net.com - to get this price you have to pay for two years in advance (£240). You can get free modem and free connection. I have been with them since October and I have never had a problem with the service, good speed etc. The only downside is telephone customer service, which costs £1 a minute, but email support is free and they get back to you within the day. You can also ask them to call you in the email and they will! I am an experienced computer user and don't need lots of support so this is perfect for me - I don't need massive speed (my exchange can only handle 2mb speeds anyway) and I wanted cheap unlimited connection. The company seems to have been going for a couple of years now so I am hopeful it won't go bust :-)
    Tubster
  • cownet
    cownet Posts: 23 Forumite
    BlueBolt wrote:
    PlusNet -
    There is no limit to how much you download per month so fantastic value for money.

    Sorry but they are not unlimited- just look at there AUP.


    MARTIN, Sorry to moan on first post an all, but you really have got this one all wrong.

    If I want a new TV and loads of shop are selling it and you point out the cheapest one then thats good and easy to see the saving.

    But simply making an articale on the cheapest broaband proivder is not as straight forward as you make it.

    You do point out a very good website for info, but then go ahead and recomend one here.

    Its good you understand that one post will sing about one ISP while the very next post will complain about the same ISP. but you fail to miss the fundamental reason for this......

    THE CUSTOMER USAGE !!!!! can be very differnet.

    Thus to truly compare an ISP you need for them to be completely open about there usages policies, and how they implemete them.

    EG PLUSnet throttle there users down to a speed that does not compare to dial up untill the next month when there usage limit resests.

    Other ISPs give you as much as you want with no bandwith resrtrictions, but charge you for each 1meg chunk you use over the AUP limit.


    To give an example BE broadband are currently offerning 24Meg down 1.3meg up UNLIMITED broadband for £24pcm. with no star next to it to warn you of the follwoing quote from the AUP.
    If it’s felt that any Be unlimited or office member’s Internet activities are so excessive that other members are detrimentally affected, Be may give the member generating the excessive web traffic a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, should the levels of activity not immediately decrease after the warning, Be may terminate that member’s services.
    https://www.bethere.co.uk/fairusage.do

    I have picked BE for not other reson that they are one of the clearer ISP about what they offer :mad:

    Plus they are one of the new ADSL2+ providers offering speeds upto 24Meg.

    You may say that a normal user will not be bothered by bandwith restrictions.

    Well they might not, but you might be supprised to know that if you use SKYPE for instance your internect connection is being used to proxy other users phone calls, and that is eating your allowence.

    Want to watch the child of our times videos on the http://www.bbc.co.uk/parenting/video/info.shtml view of them and bang you usage meter on the way up.

    These new VOD services (video on demand) are on the increase and the ISP will need to accomadate these high bandwith streams.

    The ISP I am with suits my needs and I can not say it will be good for you or not as your usage will be no way like mine.

    I for one use 8 public IPs (BT would charge me £80pcm for this) I use around 40Gig of data a month, so I pay £35pcm and am very happy. but my mother on the other hand pays £14.99 and is also happy.

    So for me and what I want the cheapest provider is £35 per month.

    I for one do not like paying for thing I have no controll over. So if I get sent 1000 spam emails all around 30K should I get charged for this?

    Should I have my limits taken up by unwanted use of my broadband?

    RANT over, sorry for long post
  • bettyr
    bettyr Posts: 477 Forumite
    Thanks cownet. That was a very helpful post especially for folks who are not yet on broadband and need advice. :)
  • rammell
    rammell Posts: 56 Forumite
    Nice one! It's like saying, "If you want a TV, the cheapest is £55." No, not if you want a Plasma TV or if you want a HD TV or if you want an integrated DVD/TV. What would be more useful is:
    - what is the cheapest ISP if you want 100% unlimited downloads
    - what is the cheapest ISP if you want free customer support calls
    - what is the cheapest ISP if you want max 1GB download/month and max 2Mb speed
    etc, etc
    ELR
  • barose
    barose Posts: 10 Forumite
    I just signed up for the new Broadband service in this mornings newsletter, Madasafish. I need to cancel with Wanadoo and get a Mac code. Wanadoo is charging me 17.99 for 2meg and 2Gig download. When I called to cancel the offers started flowing. First the price dropped to 14.99 then a free wireless router and a 'wireless and talk service' free for 6 months then a free month. They claimed the wireless and talk service gives you a second phone line effectively? So if you don't want to switch but want to reduce the cost give them a call.
  • I used to be with Ukonline, first 512K and then 1Mb for £14.99 per month 'cos I wasn't able to get their £9.99 service. I recently switched from them due to poor support and connectivity problems, very often I could not get web access. I have moved to PlusNet and if you want to see how a really professional outfit works I suggest you give them a look. I am currently at 2Mb for £14.99/mth and should be upgraded in the next few months to 8Mb at the same price. Their technical support is fast and first rate and so far I have had none of the connectivity problems I had with UKOnline.
  • Sleepy wrote:
    According to ISP Review, the most complained about ISP of the past week is Tiscali, with the most complained about ISP in general is Tiscali - (http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/complain/complain.shtml)

    Although this site is about making sure you get a good deal, with broadband it is worth considering other factors - in particular for new users, how the provider responds when things go wrong.

    I agree with Sleepy - Tiscali, and in particular its Customer Support, are not rated highly by its users.

    If you go to ADSL Guide's Comparison page (http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/compare.asp) and select Tiscali, you will see that their Customer Support is consistently rated below average to poor. From personal experience I can tell you that when you do get problems, trying to get Tiscali to resolve them can be a frustrating experience.

    Unfortunately, they are heavily promoting the service at the moment, and experience with other ISPs have shown that when providers do this, their client base increases but at the expense of their customer service (at least in the short to medium term).

    To be fair, after it's set up and running broadband rarely offers many problems, and a couple of friends and family are very happy with the deal they got from Tiscali. Good deal, and hope nothing goes wrong - are you willing to play the odds?
  • willb wrote:
    To be fair, after it's set up and running broadband rarely offers many problems, and a couple of friends and family are very happy with the deal they got from Tiscali. Good deal, and hope nothing goes wrong - are you willing to play the odds?

    I've heard Tiscali will not give a MAC to transfer away from them - I just hope I never have to leave them!
  • rammell
    rammell Posts: 56 Forumite
    "I've heard Tiscali will not give a MAC to transfer away from them"

    Ofcomm's industry code of practice states that an ISP must give you your MAC within 5 days of a request unless:
    - your are not the valid account owner
    - the line is already under a "cease" order with BT
    - the contract has already been terminated or
    - the account holder is dead (yes, really!)
    If you don't get your MAC code, report the ISP to Ofcomm. I was kept waiting 2 months by easyNet.
    ELR
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