Help....Virgin Media? Sky? Other?

[ozhodge]

We just took the keys of our new place after moving from overseas. Now we want to set up home phone, broadband and TV. We have looked at both Sky and Virgin. Virgin looks better although more expensive (at least the broadband is faster than 20mb!). Essentially looking for:
Home Phone - nothing major. A focus on international calls to Singapore, Canada and Australia
Broadband - We are used to 100mb but that looks unlikely so quick speed. Wireless as we both have laptops
TV - The usual channels wanted, E!, music, Nat Geo, SyFy.

Any help really appreciated

Have tried various bundles over the last 15 years but always come back to Virgin (previously NTL, previously Telewest) for cable broadband, Sky for TV, BT for landlines and Vodafone for mobiles. More expensive (over £100 a month plus the mobiles) but we have 6 people using them to the max and suffer when compromising.

We don't do international calls on landlines though (we Skype) so can't help there.

You may be able to use BT Infinity (30-40 Mbps depending on distance from a street cabinet) if they have installed fibre to the cabinet. Given the location already has Virgin and Sky, it is a good candidate for BT to offer service... take a look
at www.bt.com/infinity

I only mention it, because I have neither Sky nor Virgin (no cable in this part of N Wales) but do use a phone 'indirect access' service www.1899.com which may be considerably cheaper than either Sky or Virgin for the destinations you mention... but needs a BT line (as they are forced to allow access to other telecomm firms)...

Australia 3p/min
Canada, Singapore 1p/min
Calls in UK (to 01/02/03 landlines) 5p per call connection and then 0p/min

As far as your TV needs, Sky may well have a deal on for low-cost setup and if they provide the channels you want, might still be worth considering, but clearly you would not take their phone service (they block access to 1899, I think).

[ Just being nosy, but where did you have 100 Mbps ? ]

Thanks for the advice. I have been told by so many people don't go with BT, its terrible service etc. I did look and we are eligible for BT Inifinity. Ultimately i am looking for something simple to do rather than doing all individual packages.
The 100Mbps was Singapore.

You would really have only the two choices, then, given you want some TV channels which are only included in subscription services (and even if on BT Vision, it would be a service you'd reject).

I find there are plenty of items of interest on Freeview but know that FreeSat offers a bit more variety and the future will include more HD channels, but without any monthly fees, just the purchase of a suitable FreeSat+ receiver/recorder.

On the telephony front, there's only Openreach (supplying BT, Sky, TalkTalk, etc, with engineering support and installations) and Virgin Media.

On the fibre front, other firms than BT offer service, though as far as I know, they are more 'niche' companies and charge more, presumably meaning the charges put forward by BT Broadband are somehow reduced below cost.

However, if you want it all from one firm, you are far more restricted and it might be easier from the 'one bill' point of view, but what if some part of the service disappoints?

Good luck with VM - it does have some voices of support and seems the only choice you really have, based on your criteria.

Thanks Network Guy. I guess it's one of those, you can't go wrong. I looked up the 1899 you mention and it does seem to have a great deal. Am now seeing, if i am with Virgin Media, can i use it?

Not using 1899 (as it will only work on a BT line where 'indirect access' codes are allowed - sometimes switching to have line rental and calls via another service will prohibit 1899 as well.

However, if you sign up there should be either an 020 number (intended for calls from mobiles) and an 0800-style free number (0800, 0808 and 0500 are free calls from most landlines, but not from mobiles, hence they've provided an 020 number as well).

In the past there was a (small) per-minute charge for using their access numbers (my own 0800 number costs me 1.5p/min, admittedly for low minute counts, so maybe they can absorb lower costs in the overall fees they charge, so long as they don't all go via an 0800 - so long as majority are on BT lines using 1899 it would subsidise the other costs, I suspect).

I'll take a look, but am away until Monday so suggest you see if they mention non-BT lines on the site.

plans changed (again!)...

On their FAQ they mention an 0808 number - there's some bit about NTL and Telewest - out of date but they were the cable firms which are now combined and under the Virgin Media brand, so the 1899.com site could do with an update(!)