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OT - phone\Broadband provider recommendations
Wheels244 - 29/8/10 at 05:56 PM

Hello All

Need a quick recommendation for a new phonebroadband provider please.

Having had no landline phone or broadband for the last 4 days thanks to my current 'provider' carrying out an 'upgrade' - I'm binning them as they are absolutely useless.

I phoned the 'helpline' ( 4 times ! ) - surprise, surprise - put through to India - I couldn't understand a word they said and when I asked a question that was not on their script they were totally lost.

In case you're wondering it's Talktalk.

To quote my mate " I wouldn't go with them if they were giving it away" - I now know where he's coming from. I was with Tiscali who were fine - until Talktalk bought them out !

I want a phonebroadband package, with anytime calls - whose the best at a reasonable price ?
I've just had a quote from Sky and by the time you add the Connection Charge + the Installation Charge and £33month it ends up rather expensive.

Are BT any good ? £28.99month, no connection charge, 3 months free.

Anybody beat this ?

Thanks

Bluemoon - 29/8/10 at 05:58 PM

I use plusnet and on a standard BT line (i.e. line+phone Via BT). Happy (£6 a month for BB). Not called helpline though (had no need).

Dan

[Edited on 29/8/10 by Bluemoon]

FFTS - 29/8/10 at 06:12 PM

2 for plusnet and they have a 3 month free offer until August end. Helpline is free if you have their phone as well.

r1_pete - 29/8/10 at 06:13 PM

I'm with Sky, and its been the best I've had so far, but if you consider them make sure they have a presence in your exchange.

RichardK - 29/8/10 at 06:40 PM

I recently left sky to go to virgin, I was on the sky connect package which is the one they put you on if your area/exchange isn't sky enabled and it was shocking. Now 20mb isnt enough!

Cheers

Rich

britishtrident - 29/8/10 at 06:55 PM

Plusnet -- also

I have one connection with them and put several customers on to them. Very reliable good service and price.

They are actually owned by BT but a run completely separately.

Davegtst - 29/8/10 at 06:57 PM

I was with Sky and although their tv is slightly better (imo) than Virgin their broadband sucks. Virgin broadband is sooo much faster but occasionally it does stop working for a few minutes then reconects. This is a bit rubbish if you are in the middle of a multiplayer game. I payed for 10mb broadband with sky and was lucky to get 2mb because of the distance i am from the exchange. With Virgin i pay for 10mb and get 9.9mb all the time.

Stott - 29/8/10 at 07:14 PM

I'm with sky and I get 6M ish, £12.50 pcm for bband and unlimited phone, I used to be with pipex and it was always down but the sky has been flawless for me and always fast. Plus their rates for mobile calls are favourable to a lot out there. I went on U Switch last week to see if I could get it cheaper and there wasn't anything worth swapping for.

I think you get a different opinion depending where you live to be honest. May be worth speaking to some of your neighbours.

The other thing is, in my opinion, there is no equal to sky tv so they've kinda got you by the balls on that one. No other box I've tried was half as fast or had as good a menu system/recording system etc etc.

hth
Stott

Krismc - 29/8/10 at 07:31 PM

SKY Broad Band, Line rental, 4 TV Packages, Free calls with sky talk, £30 a month all in!

Cheap as chips good connection, and if you go over your usage its a extra £5 a month which i never do.

wicket - 29/8/10 at 09:08 PM

Another for Plusnet, we have the BB/Phone (Plusnet Value and Talk Anytime) package for £22.74/month.

I have found the technical support very helpful.

They also supplied a wireless router, charged p&p only.

At the moment the 1st 3 months BB are free.

Humbug - 29/8/10 at 09:17 PM

Plusnet gets good ratings from MoneySavingExpert too.

I would also personally recommend 18185 as an override provider (dial it before the number) for calls to mobiles or overseas numbers as it's cheaper than many/most normal phone packages for those calls - info here a bit down the page

Liam - 29/8/10 at 09:44 PM

Quite happy with our O2 broadband. Get 10mb max on our 'up to 20mb' which seems to be above average for phone broadband, and no download limit. Can't match the old NTL/Virgin cable in my old house for speed though - you get exactly what you pay for there.

mad4x4 - 29/8/10 at 10:30 PM

not that cheap but good, try freeola

britishtrident - 30/8/10 at 07:00 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Liam
Quite happy with our O2 broadband. Get 10mb max on our 'up to 20mb' which seems to be above average for phone broadband, and no download limit. Can't match the old NTL/Virgin cable in my old house for speed though - you get exactly what you pay for there.


O2 and the sister company Be use ADSL2 which is why they are usually twice as fast on the same line as normal ADSL They are reliable & supply a decent router BUT they lack the little extras that Plusnet throw in for free.

Plusnet give the user much better control over email and other options than O2 also Plusnets anti-virus and junk filtering is top class.

[Edited on 30/8/10 by britishtrident]

Ninehigh - 30/8/10 at 07:21 AM

Virgin are unbeatable for speed.

However if you want cheap then maybe your mobile phone provider does a discount for being with them? Iirc when we was on O2 it was £7.50 a month for, well we were lucky to get 2meg with them and sky because we're about half a mile from the exchange or something terribly out in the sticks like that...

Wheels244 - 26/9/10 at 09:25 AM

UPDATE ::

I went with BT in the end.
Been really good so far.
Remote set up when the router wouldn't connect via wire less, which was really useful.
Seemless transition to new service.

Poles apart from TalkTalk - I will never go with them again.