Updated Find the cheapest broadband discussion thread
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Ofcom should have instituted quite a different model. Every homes phone line should have an 'internet dial tone' that's guaranteed to connect to a digital internet ready exchange. To connect you plug in any compatible modem and order your service via mobile phone, probably an app. Pizza delivery companies can deliver the correct model of modem and collect old for re-use/recycling.
Connectivity could be purchased for as little as a week. Like trains there'd be regional franchises to run the 'last few miles' basic wired or fibre infrastructure, and house the termination points. So, the pipes are run more like water or electric grid supply (with local councils have a big input like they do with street maintenance). The resource of backhaul and internet management is then fought over by a different set of real competitors.
A highly uncomfortable proposition for internet companies that want a cushy life and steady guaranteed income but a garden of opportunity for tech savvy competent innovators.
Key points are: Guaranteed technical connection on every phone line. Local and regional infrastructure answerable to local or regional companies.
Another way of looking at it is, the market should be more like mobile phones, pop a sim in and immediately connect. Hundreds of deals from PAYG to long contracts.
Ain't gonna happen of course unless her majesty's govt give Ofcom a completely new remit.0 -
Colin_Maybe wrote: »So what you're saying is that prices have gone up (the same as everything else)?
If you don't have a telephone line how do you think the broadband will arrive?
NO! what a daft comment.
What I SAID was that there is no competition in this Market.
In a competitive market there are REAL challengers on PRICE
My price on Mobile phone contract has not increased in years (under £10) and they have increased the data and call allowance. Now I can get a Sky Sim which is even cheaper at £6 a month, it has unlimited calls, unlimited texts, 2gb a month and any unused data rolls over for up to 3 years. At that point I can use any credit to buy devices such a bluetooth speaker.
THAT IS COMPETITION!
As for your facile comment about the Telephone Line;
1. We already paid for that line OVER and OVER again over the years.
2. If one person in the block has Fibre then all the investment is done, just a rip off that we all pay forever.
3. The Telco's argued with OFCOM that because of their interferance in CALLS that they would need to increase line rental. If there is no telephone line there are NO CALLS and no need to punish customers with this obscene charge.
4. The Telco's have been hiking this charge up for years without justification.
Vodafone does not charge line rental, but because the market is not competitive they do not bother to compete.
Now without adquate number of companies to compete coupled with the BT Wholesale fiasco that causes cartel like behaviour, scrapping line rental will only work with a cap on BB charges also applied.
The BT ownership of Plusnet and EE needs to broken up and BT Wholesale needs to also be taken away along with the assets. I am generally not in favour of nationalisation but turning it into a not for profit company might work. However, not as a company rigged to create costs like some organisations that spend "other people's money". e.g. the BBC.
The fact is that there is very little real investment in the network, all this nonsense with different ISP's putting in different equipment, plus all those green boxes that re-wired over and over again to premises. This results in huge over employment and the same work being done repeatedly, it makes much more sense to wire every home, business and premises just once.
The whole network should be wired up to virtual networks for each ISP, so moving suppliers is just a matter of dragging and dropping in software or issuing a command to move a user from one network to another. If any international organisation ran office and branch networking the way the UK broadband network is done, they would and should be fired.
ISP's should have options to buy bigger "pipes" for their virtual network in make their network function at higher speed.0 -
So guys my plusnet cheap offer from last year (£11 a month or so) runs out in a couple of days and I don't know yet if I want to move out of this place or not so don't want to commit to one of the current cheap offers of a year's BB.
Is paying full whack for a month or two on plusnet my only option? It pains me to do so after having had cheap bb for a couple of years now
but if I went on a new contract and wanted to leave I would have to pay much more than that for the early termination since they are charged monthly.
Plusnet could only offer me about £17 a month for a new deal yet I *still* would be tied into an 18 month contract no less which would have just the same break fees as the rest.
I would like a cheap pay as you go option for a couple of months. I don't have a smartphone so that isn't an option so is plusnet the best of a bad bunch of my options? till I am more clear in where I want to live?
Or maybe there is company which has a really low termination fee.
I see another option might be to find one of the cheap deals which would be 'portable' to a new residence.0 -
Search monthly contracts on here.
Most ISP will allow a home move without penalty but the move starts a new contract .
Providing they supply the new home that is .0 -
Most ISP will allow a home move without penalty but the move starts a new contract .
So long as this would not incur a fee then there would be no problem with it being a new contract since I would be planning to stay in new place for forseeable future (hopefully)
The only problem with that I could think of is that if the offer you signed up with had run out they might not honor it going forward to a new property. I remember when I first moved in my current property and I missed the offer by one day only because their website malfunctioned and they (sky or plusnet I forgot as I got deals from both) wouldn't give me that old one so I had to go with their new slightly more expensive offer.0 -
I agree with every point except the BBC which is a provder and financier of serious and expensive artisic content, not really a tech. co.....
I am generally not in favour of nationalisation but turning it into a not for profit company might work. However, not as a company rigged to create costs like some organisations that spend "other people's money". e.g. the BBC.software or issuing a command to move a user from one network to another. If any international organisation ran office and branch networking the way the UK broadband network is done, they would and should be fired.
....
ISP's should have options to buy bigger "pipes" for their virtual network in make their network function at higher speed.
Anyone who resents paying for a license can disconnect their aerial and strictly avoid watching any BBC video content or live content from other video services.
But I consider the £3/week for BBC license fine compared to rip off UK broadband prices. Wouldn't surprise me if one day industry broadband price fixing is discovered.0 -
whilst the tips are very helpful they can be confusing. My broadband contract is near its end so i checked the deals mentioned on the weekly tips. Having decided to go with the Now Broadband deal, i tried to sign up. Only to find the deal is not available in my area. This is strange, as they could / did offer a faster deal at a lot more cost. I am quite happy with the speed i get at the moment on what is referred to as "standard". Very strange though, if they cant offer the cheaper deal how can they offer the more expensive deal. After all, the signal comes along the same cable. We surely are all aware that in the oft mentioned "exchange" the "speed" is regulated by (to put it in a simple way) an adjustable amplifier system. I wonder if folks realize that unless the old mainly copper cable entering your home has been replaced by a relatively new "fibre" cable, the speed at your terminal will probably not be as fast as you had hoped. Take a multi lane motorway, lots of speed lots of traffic. The the slowing down at the bottleneck when you leave the motorway, sometimes only at a crawl.
By the way, as an qualified electronics adviser i should know.0 -
whilst the tips are very helpful they can be confusing. My broadband contract is near its end so i checked the deals mentioned on the weekly tips. Having decided to go with the Now Broadband deal, i tried to sign up. Only to find the deal is not available in my area. This is strange, as they could / did offer a faster deal at a lot more cost. I am quite happy with the speed i get at the moment on what is referred to as "standard". Very strange though, if they cant offer the cheaper deal how can they offer the more expensive deal. After all, the signal comes along the same cable. We surely are all aware that in the oft mentioned "exchange" the "speed" is regulated by (to put it in a simple way) an adjustable amplifier system. I wonder if folks realize that unless the old mainly copper cable entering your home has been replaced by a relatively new "fibre" cable, the speed at your terminal will probably not be as fast as you had hoped. Take a multi lane motorway, lots of speed lots of traffic. The the slowing down at the bottleneck when you leave the motorway, sometimes only at a crawl.
By the way, as an qualified electronics adviser i should know.
FTTC fibre is fibre to the cabinet and the utilises the copper pair from the cabinet to the house, not from the exchange. FTTP is fibre all the way. If on 'standard' (ADSL) then the signal is copper pair all the way from the local exchange.
The offers are frequently area dependant, there's no way that MSE (or anyone else) can know where you'r located until you put your postcode in.0 -
(By the way, as an qualified electronics adviser i should know.)
And you think you do .0 -
cashmonger wrote: »So guys my plusnet cheap offer from last year (£11 a month or so) runs out in a couple of days and I don't know yet if I want to move out of this place or not so don't want to commit to one of the current cheap offers of a year's BB.
Is paying full whack for a month or two on plusnet my only option? It pains me to do so after having had cheap bb for a couple of years now but if I went on a new contract and wanted to leave I would have to pay much more than that for the early termination since they are charged monthly.
Plusnet could only offer me about £17 a month for a new deal yet I *still* would be tied into an 18 month contract no less which would have just the same break fees as the rest.
I would like a cheap pay as you go option for a couple of months. I don't have a smartphone so that isn't an option so is plusnet the best of a bad bunch of my options? till I am more clear in where I want to live?
Or maybe there is company which has a really low termination fee.
I see another option might be to find one of the cheap deals which would be 'portable' to a new residence.
Get the HELL out of Dodge
Grab any offer because their base pricing is 18.99 line rental and 10.99 for internet, if you have TV with them you will be ripped off by being asked to pay the remainder of the contract. Their site says 19.99 so that is the max you should negotiate to but quote the deals below and they might move to keep you but I doubt it
So that means you either go with Post Office or NowTV for 10.92 (TopCashBack)0
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