Best Internet provider?

[cupcake78]

Im with Talk Talk. I've wished for along time that I wasn't. Their connectivity is unreliable, we've had 3 wifi boxes in 15 months. We are continually having to reset the wifi box and I'm sick of having to phone the support line.

We only use them for our phone and Internet. We have no fancy TV and although I'd quite like it dh isn't that bothered.

We live in a town so cable etc could be an option. Don't know where to start.

[BlueSkySunnyDay]

ive been with Plusnet forever, never had a problem.

[nannynick]

SamKnows can tell you what services your exchange supports.

BroadbandSpeedChecker can show you on a map what other people are getting speed wise - based on speedchecks done via their site I guess.

[CruelAndUnusualParenting]

I switched my MiL to PlusNet after TalkTalk took over Pipex. She's not had any problems and the PlusNet staff I dealt with when organising the switch seemed competent.

[BlueSkySunnyDay]

cupcake - it does also depend where you live - my isp should give me a minimum speed of 8mbps but because of our distance from exchange we get a maximum of 3 or 4mbps. Still I consider that lucky as some of the villages very locally are still on dial up (shudder)

Your best bet would be to ask people local to you or start another thread with a more area specific title - namechange if you done want to be "outed"

I have family who dont live local who are on Virgin cable and their speeds are awsome, although I think they pay a lot for the service. Not available here

[ohforfoxsake]

Not Sky. I'm going to BT.

[BlueSkySunnyDay]

I agree the Plusnet staff I have dealt with have always been efficient.

When I have asked them technical questions online they have always been really helpful and spoke to them on the phone last year to cancel an order and they even managed to do that efficiently.

I have always found BTs service to be good, they will always compete on price if you say you are leaving but should anything go wrong or you need any extra help they are worse than useless

After deciding to move my phone only to BT last year I couldnt make any calls, BT kept going on about a fault on my line which I was clear was a technical fault at their end as I could use an override code to make calls. They just were not listening to me, after much tooing and froing - turns out it was a fault at their end! I then had a hell of a job cancelling their visit carrying on two looooong contradictory text conversations where on one the visit was cancelled and on the other they would see me next week. They finshed off by connecting me to evening and weekends rather than anytime!!

Very very strange as Plusnet and BT are part of the same group of companies.

[BlueSkySunnyDay]

If you are with BT and need to speak to anyone, chose the "thinking about leaving" line, you get through much quicker

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Not BT. Their 'award winning equipment' is a pile of rubbish IMO. We've just swapped to Plusnet and are very happy so far, BT wouldn't/couldn't price match Plusnet's package.

[BlueSkySunnyDay]

hell - thats because you are a new customer they wouldnt do it for me. When I told them I was scrapping my order (to add phone to my package) they promised If I talk to them when this BT contract is up they will do me a "good deal" Id rather have the whole lot with them, they are less of a headache to deal with if you have any queries.

[ohforfoxsake]

Ahh bollocks. I should've checked back. Have ordered BT.

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Who are less of a headache to deal with? BT or Plusnet? BT have been a nightmare to deal with not least because if our landline goes down, which it often does, we have to rely on our dodgy mobile signal to hopefully get a call through to their call centre in India.

[BlueSkySunnyDay]

hell I never speak to their call centre in India - the cancellation line is in the UK - I tell them im fed up for x, y or z reason let them talk me out of leaving then they either deal with the issue themselves or put me through to someone else in the UK

Im still not staying with them though when my contract is up! Moving it all to Plusnet.

[firefly11]

I've been with O2 for a year and it has been fine so far until the month around the time they wrote to me saying Sky has taken over the O2 broadband network. Now my connections are always on-and-off. It's very annoying because prior to O2, I was on Virgin, and both O2 and Virgin have been fine. The connections have always been reliable. Now with Sky broadband being so unreliable (and this is after I called the technical support line, who said it was a problem with my ADSL filter and sent me a replacement one which didn't solve the problem really)...

When my contract finishes this September, I am looking to go for Zen broadband as I've read good reviews about it. It seems that independent ISPs like Zen provide much better service although they tend to be a little more expensive. Zen charges £25.50 for 100 MB of data per month but I've been watching my household's monthly data usage and even though we are fairly heavy internet users (watch a lot of streaming videos, listen to streaming audio, etc.) we still haven't hit the 100 MB mark every month, so I think this will be fine. I have to say that £25.50 is just what O2 (or rather, Sky now) currently charge me every month too.

[firefly11]

I meant to add that currently I am paying O2/Sky £25.50 but its for unlimited usage. With the connection being so unreliable, I don't care about the unlimited usage anymore. Zen charges the same but it's not unlimited, it is 100 MB. Still, I think it'd be really hard for my family to hit the 100 MB mark. We hit the 50 MB mark monthly... most times, just under.

[NetworkGuy]

BSSD "Very very strange as Plusnet and BT are part of the same group of companies."

Plus.Net was independent until about 6 years ago when it was bought by BT. It runs completely separately from BT and that shows in both products (mostly cheaper) and call centre (in Sheffield for all enquiries, has an 03 number for use from mobiles, 08xx from landlines).

PN has been left alone, as far as I can tell, although it does adopt some of the same approaches...

If you take Plus.Net's landline rental, then like BT, if you pay in advance for a year (to get the charge down to under 11 quid) you get no refund if you decide to switch.

BT started that, when OFCOM made telecom firms drop the cancellation charges (a large chunk of the monthly fee is paid to Openreach [BT] for the line (maintenance, etc)).

If you switch from say Sky to TalkTalk then Sky is no longer paying 8 quid a month to Openreach so OFCOM said they could charge only their costs (around 3 to 5 quid a month, not 12 to 15). So nowadays, cancelling line rental from some telecom firms (and having to pay for remaining months of contract) is a fraction of what it was, but BT (and now Plus.Net and possibly others) will just not refund any part the 'year in advance' fee...

A bit nasty, but most firms are requiring 12 or 18 month contracts nowadays, and you are hit hard if you go monthly with many.

[NetworkGuy]

I use Primus for the line rental, Plus.Net for internet.

Primus charges 8.49 a month (no calls included, I use 1899.com or my mobile for most calls).

Plus.Net unlimited costs 9.99/month and I use 200 to 300 GB each month.

I have been with Plus.Net for over 10 years (end of March was start date) and they have not always been as 'fair' to existing customers as one would hope - for example, they only announced the new 'unlimited' accounts via their website not via e-mail to all customers. So someone on a really old 'unlimited' (legacy) account paying 25 quid a month knew nothing about being able to save 15 quid a month. He posted on BroadbandGenie that he was leaving Plus.Net as he was so angry.

[NetworkGuy]

Zen, AAISP, and a number of others are small, probably great technically, but in my view far too expensive for many household budgets.

They aim for niche markets, but when I spoke to them earlier this year, found their staff a bit lacking in friendliness... seemed a bit like they were "doing me a favour" by even talking to me, when I was enquiring about a new line and broadband for a business client of mine...

Neither got the order, mostly because (like Plus.Net) there was a lengthy contract. Plus.Net did mention the 4 week lead time to get an Openreach engineer, which was useful (and even though PN didn't get the order in the end, full marks to them for being far nicer on the phone, and following up by e-mail).

In the end a line was rented from XL Telecom with no broadband (plan was for a few months in one location and then a move to another, because planning permission [and subsequent building work] had been delayed, and alternative shop offered by the landlord, until intended location was available). They required no minimum contract (2 months, 2 days, "you tell us when to cancel and that's it") and only charged around 12 pounds (cheaper than many for a business line).

[nannynick]

Firefly, 100mb? i hope you mean 100GB.

[PolkaDotCups]

I'm a huge Internet user, I work from home and have to transfer a lot of image files (somedays I'll upload and download 1GB). We also stream films/tv series via Sky / LoveFilm.

I'm with Zen. No contract, very fast, very reliable. I'm just in the £25/month and have never hit the limit.

[IKnowWhat]

We use BT

I have 75 Mb actual download speed, 20 Mb upload ....which is bloody fantastic. Unlimited usage with no throttling. Plus unlimited anytime calls for £21 a month (plus £15 line rental) 50Gb of cloud storage plus WiFi and BTFon.

Even if the whole family is downloading like crazy at peak times we never have buffering. We are lucky that we live very close to the exchange.

If everything goes well then the customer service is ok but the overseas call centers are diabolical peaks from experience if you have a slightly unusual problem. The seperate departments can't speak to each other.

Its not the cheapest but it is very reliable.

[firefly11]

NetworkGuy : Yes, I meant GB. LOL

[firefly11]

PolkaDotCups : I've read a lot of good reviews on ISP rating sites for Zen. I just don't know anyone in real life using it as most people I know just stick to the usual BT/Virgin/Sky for their homes. The 1-mth minimum contract that Zen offers is attractive as well because I don't want to be tied to a contract again and have problems like the one I'm having right now with my Sky broadband connection but cannot leave because of the contract.

[NetworkGuy]

IKnowWhat - have seen Speedtest.net results from some Plus.Net users showing 72 to 75 Mbps. Have to assume you are close to the cabinet as (just like non-fibre broadband) distance is a factor.

When Fibre is finally available here (I even moved house nearly 18 months ago to get higher speed but dratted Virgin covers 80% of L20 postcode area and not my street) they estimate a speed of 33 to 35 Mbps... so remember you are lucky with 75 Mbps!

Also worth noting some will only get 15 Mbps using Fibre. But at least PN charges just 19.99 for it :)

[NetworkGuy]

(Also, because I've recommended PN to a few othere, I get £5 reduction each month as a form of commission... if I could 'convert' 5000 to PN then I would be laughing all the way to the bank!)