Broadband suppliers

[TAFKARM]

I've doggedly stuck with BT for broadband for some unknown reason. 

 

I can save ££ if i switch (thinking Sky) - in terms of speed and reliablity (i work from home, hence all my posts) are they all much of a muchness?

 

I live in the sticks if that makes any difference. 

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

I changed to Plusnet and have been really happy.

Have them it in two properties and one is in a village the other quite remote and no issues in either.

[Stuart]

I live in the sticks too and am lucky if I get 3.75mbps download. But +1 for Plusnet. Been with em for years and 2 houses. They've improved troubleshooting services recently as well

[dombanks]

I'm with virgin. The Internet is pretty reliable, tivo is a joke, the phone charges a line rental. They put the prices up and send you a nice email to say why which is usually due to some new feature you don't want.

If you can cope with the price then it's not bad

[Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO]

I'm with BT infinity. I get between 45 and 59 mbps download and it's dead reliable, but i live in Sunny Manchester, a big city.

I pay around £36 a month for Broadband and phone with weekend calls included, i also get BT sport lite whatever that is.

[Onliest Smeg David]

I'm with BT infinity. I get between 45 and 59 mbps download and it's dead reliable, but i live in Sunny Manchester, a big city.

I pay around £36 a month for Broadband and phone with weekend calls included, i also get BT sport lite whatever that is.

 

BT Infinity for me too.

 

Found it very reliable, fast & although they've not been perfect, I've found BT actually very good to deal with.

[Blatman]

Doesn't matter who the supplier is, it's the same bit of copper in the ground or swinging from the pole. Switching provider doesn't change that, nor will it magically improve speed or performance. The difference is in the customer service. BT are truly truly awful. Sky are better but if there is a line issue no matter who you use you'll be hitting BT Openreach in the background.

 

If you are a BT customer then change because I wouldn't use them if they paid me.

 

Who you change to is going to be who's advertising you believe/trust the most. And bear in mind Sky have been in the papers for making it difficult to leave, even after the contract is up. 

 

Whoever you go with you are likely to have to take their phone line too so look for good deals for new customers, like free line rental or free broadband etc.

Vodafone are offering free broadband for new customers who take a new line (might be for FTTC only though) but Vodafone customer service is nearly as bad a BT's so I would avoid.

[bigals]

Doesn't matter who the supplier is, it's the same bit of copper in the ground or swinging from the pole. Switching provider doesn't change that, nor will it magically improve speed or performance. The difference is in the customer service. BT are truly truly awful. Sky are better but if there is a line issue no matter who you use you'll be hitting BT Openreach in the background.

If you are a BT customer then change because I wouldn't use them if they paid me.

Who you change to is going to be who's advertising you believe/trust the most. And bear in mind Sky have been in the papers for making it difficult to leave, even after the contract is up.

Whoever you go with you are likely to have to take their phone line too so look for good deals for new customers, like free line rental or free broadband etc.

Vodafone are offering free broadband for new customers who take a new line (might be for FTTC only though) but Vodafone customer service is nearly as bad a BT's so I would avoid.

I second the above and have been having issues with my line and sky customer service is fine but BT open reach close the jobs as complete dispite never having fixed the line in short they lie say one thing when visiting the house but record the job as closed, changing suppliers is worth while as they are all useless when you have a issue so you might as well save some cash, when we first went to sky we actually got higher speeds.

[corsechris]

Performance to the exchange (or cabinet) won't change with supplier, but past that, it's more complicated so you may well see changes depending on supplier.

A colleague recently swapped from BT to Virgin to save some money. Despite having been getting excellent speeds on BT and being promised even more from Virgin, the reality was very different so he reverted back to BT.

If you are struggling with service on BT, try their forum. Once you jump a few hoops you usually find one of their support staff will take on the problem and see it through.

Truth is, I don't think there is a universal 'this provider is best' answer to this as it depends far too much on luck and location. Probably the only given is that customer service won't be up to scratch.

[B.RAD]

There is only one provider worth using - SSE (Southern Electric). We have had our electricity and phone/broadband supply with them for years but for some stupid reason I decided to switch to BT two years ago. After two years of horrific service, arguments, lost service etc etc I went back to SSE two weeks ago. Everything about them is so much better - as mentioned above, it's all the same lines etc so the speed doesn't change, but their service is first class. UK call centres, quick call response, quick engineer despatch (next day vs BT's two weeks!!) and they're less expensive too. I can honestly say they are the best service provider I have ever had the pleasure to work with and would never look anywhere else!

[Onliest Smeg David]

We're with SSE for other services and agree Barny that they are the best to deal with in my experience.

Can't believe I didn't look at them for BB as well!

[corsechris]

My experiences with BT are entirely different. I used to be with Orange and they were utterly hopeless. Switched to BT. Instantly got faster actual data rates, although the link speed was the same. When I moved a few years back, I stuck with them - painless process, BB up and running from day 1 at the new place. They upgraded the exchange a while back and speeds went from 8 to 16MBPS. Had some initial speed issues so hopped on the forum. Went through the required hoops and reported test results, couple of days later, fixed. Infinity reached the village and it was £1 cheaper than the previous ADSL2 offering so I took it. Again, totally painless. Latest change was the doubling of bandwidth for free. I now see typical speeds of 56 MBPS down and 11MBPS up. The service has been 100% reliable to date as well, so I'd be really reluctant to try switching.

 

It really is a case of YMMV and is probably as much of a postcode lottery as anything.

[tisme]

Don't switch to EE (Orange) as they're absolutely hopeless when it comes to "customer service" with all their call centres offshore.

 

I wouldn't switch to Sky either as I simply don't trust or like them (my neighbour has Sky tv and broadband and is locked into an awful deal) 

 

I switched to Plusnet - initially with ADSL2 and now Fibre as our village was upgraded a few months back. Plusnet are actually owned by BT but are based in the UK (Leeds I think) and I've had excellent service from them. I have a Fibre / Anytime calls package and a discounted up front rental scheme so that works out about £36 a month all in. The other great thing about Plusnet is that they don't "cap" your download limit.

 

Of course it's all supported by BT Openreach at the local exchange as it's not "unbundled" yet but I've had no real issues with them either.

 

If you're still on ADSL Broadband - look for routers where you can tweak your SNR (signal noise) where reducing it can make a huge difference - that's why I left EE as they deliberately kept the SNR high at the exchange (they can change various settings via Openreach) as that way they could in effect "throttle" the throughput (and also look at the small print of any offer as they often reduce the bandwidth in the evenings - just when you need it most !!)

 

http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/SNR-tweak

 

A good modem/router such as those from Billion allows you to set your own SNR (which is what I did)

 

Fibre fantastic now though - 19MBPS upload and 79MBPS down 

 

p.s - I used to work for BT (in IT, not "phones") - I'll make no comment in case they send the boys round   

[TAFKARM]

BT Just gone up to £39 and the best they could offer when I called was £27.

Have switched to Sky.

[TAFKARM]

Bit of an update - the speed I'm getting from Sky is described as p*** poor at best. VoIP calls are impossible. 

They've passed on a small price increase so I'm using this has a get out - however, I've just been on to their retentions and they are doing everything they can to speed it up, inc running through all the settings and sending an engineer if its no better. They are calling back Friday. 

Cant fault the customer service.