Hoping to chance ISP

O

Oshi

Joined
Friday May 28, 2010
I have been with the same company for a few years now but as don't use to the max capped hardly at all anymore(20GB download usage cap only)
at £26 a month, i was thinking of moving to another provider,standard exchange,No LLU,No Cable.

I like the idea that with BT you can use it's Openzone for data usage countrywide (Have a HTC Desire :D )but the problem might
be that the 10GB data usage from BT is download and upload capped
although i know that upload will mostly be negligible,

Anyone got any favorites on ISP's out there
 
I do not recommend any ISP positively. I do however actively avoid any that advertise heavily - if they need to advertise that heavily, it suggests that they are not spending their income on their basic operation (or put another way "I'm paying for them to get more people on the same network so it will get slower").

I will also not go down the route of "cheapest is best" - I'm aware that some of the cheaper ISPs do not buy enough backhaul capacity from exchanges to allow even one subscriber to download at full speed. So yes, you might get 8 (or 20) megabits to the exchange, but you're fighting with their other subscribers for 1-2 megabits to the rest of the world...

What I will say is go take a look at <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ispreview.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">www.ispreview.co.uk</a><!-- w --> or <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dslzoneuk.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">www.dslzoneuk.net</a><!-- w --> and their ISP ratings... bear in mind with a small ISP you're highly likely to speak to the same person more than once if you need to speak to support... mine for example I know that when I have a problem (rare, it's usually somewhere in BT's network that the issue lies) that I can tweet, call, text or email the helpdesk - they know that I'm one of their customers that only gets in touch when there's something actually wrong and we treat each other as professionals.

I had a faulty MSAN config on my line at the exchange... so it synced at 128/64 (which is arseclenchingly slow).... mine took 12 hours to resolve. A friend experienced the same symptoms on his, he's with BT and it took them 9 days to go through all the palaver of checking and testing any and everything when the fault was so obviously in the exchange. Who pays more for their broadband? Him actually.

As for the OpenZone thing - I find that I spend a lot more time out of range of WiFi and on a 3G network... even though I cane the living crap out of the 3G connection I've only been over 700M once... so you may find that it's more sensible to keep them separated (counterintuitive I know but that's what marketing would like you to think)
 
I have dealt with Demon in the past and have been very good. I'm with BE at the mo.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.demon.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.demon.net/</a><!-- m -->
 
I have been really happy with Madasafish. They took over Globalnet. I have no idea of who is behind them. Whenever I notice their special offers I ask them to reduce my charges to those being offered to newcomers. They always agree. I rarely get a problem and when I do, I get excellent customer service.

I could no doubt save by switching to BT or Sky but just cannot be bothered to change what is working well.

Just checked out HMs link to see Madasafish is ranked 32 in the list of UK ISPs. Fair enough!
 
I have BT with free FON access, haven't ever used it tbh, it is a good idea but I have a data sim and it's so much easier.No problems with the broadband though.I got the unlimited package and the speed is decent.No caps, not cheap but like HM says I would never go for the cheapest ISP.You get what you pay for.
 
I'm with Sky and have been having major problems over the last 3 months or so. Line speed checks and line quality show up ok, but the line drop out is chronic at times. This is just annoying unless you are trying to stream stuff like iplayer or on demand tv then it becomes a joke to the point I either give up or download it 1st then watch it.. So as my contract is up this week I am looking to change...............but like oshi, to who......... :(
 
Been with BE for over a year now - good price, unlimited, pretty good speed. Customer Service is excellent too.

Much better than Pipex who I was with before - they were good until Tiscali got involved then everything went to the dogs.
 
Had a look at plusnet also and according to thinkbroadband.com they seem to have
better speeds than BT their owner and better reliability,
Sadly BE is a LLU provider so won't be holding my breath that they will install any hardware in my local exchange,haven't even come to nearest towns yet,
 
Moving to Plusnet, no contract, no modem low cost basic broadband. 17mb download speed which is fine for me and if it is crap........no contract to stop me from moving..... :D
 
moodymick said:
Virgin Cable - Unlimited. Pretty good, but it comes at a cost, though worth paying when you have 3 heavy internet users under one roof.
Click to expand...

I agree,

The technical support is outstanding too*





*when you get through to someone called Andy
 
andyjreid said:
moodymick said:
Virgin Cable - Unlimited. Pretty good, but it comes at a cost, though worth paying when you have 3 heavy internet users under one roof.
Click to expand...

I agree,

The technical support is outstanding too*





*when you get through to someone called Andy
Click to expand...

:lol: Looks like Mick's contributing towards Andy's shaving purchases in a roundabout fashion.
 
missingskin said:
no contract to stop me from moving..... :D
Click to expand...

Another plus point... a lot can change at any ISP in a month never mind 18 or 24 months that you're often inveigled into contracting for (with questionable behaviour when it comes to contract renewal time - one well known company has a 14 day window in each contract period where you're able to decline the contract being automatically renewed for another 12/18/24 months)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom