Broadband Providers

pblakeney

Hi,
My BT broadband contract is coming to an end and it looks like they don't want my business as they are asking for 50% more than anyone else.
Who gives the best service, both in reliability and customer service, but mostly reliability?
Note, no fibre available (yet). Plusnet have the highest score but they all charge much the same for the same promisee of service.

First.Aspect

My experience is that BT are cost competitive, depending on what you want. Also beware in case the BT cost includes land line rental, while the others do not.

Makes absolutely no difference to reliability, because they are use Openreach maintained infrastructure.

The main consideration is how they interact with you as their customer, and in turn, Openreach.

BT undoubtedly have the greatest sway, to the extent that I couldn't manage to even get any other supplier to connect fibre to premises. All the others just kept fing the order with Openreach up.

Stevo_666

Now that BT and EE are effectively one and the same but still compete, ask EE for a quote and then ask BT to match it. Worked for us - we knocked 40% off our monthly bill.

thegreatdivide

First.Aspect said:

BT undoubtedly have the greatest sway

They really don't. Compliance is ultra tight - it's part of the telecoms analysis that I dig into as part of my job. BT and any of the other providers have to talk to OR via a compliance intermediary (or in the case of a call centre agent - via an online system) which can be an utter mare at times.

Virgin still lead the way with fibre to the premises, but the City Fibre folk are chipping away at that now. We can get insanely fast broadband in Dundee now thanks to CF.

rick_chasey

I have recently switched from Virgin superfast to Sky superfast (who use BT) and the Virgin internet was faster and more reliable. Much more consistent, fewer dips.

photonic69

We've been with Plusnet for years. Every renewal I threaten to leave and they give me a discount worth staying for. Reasonable speeds (FTTC) of around 42Mbps and 16Mbps upload. Not blisteringly quick but it's fairly stable. We have had a lot of line faults but they have always been very quick to respond and do what they say they are going to do.

I'll stick with them until we can get FTTP.

First.Aspect

Presupposes that you have the option, which a lot of people don't.

Openreach has a lot of ex BT people, from before the division of the two. From a practical perspective, in my experience BT are just better at dealing with Openreach and vice versa. As I say, neither Vodafone nor Sky were capable of dealing with our installation, which had one tiny not normal wrinkle to route the cables - they needed a taller ladder. Seriously, that was enough to derail it.

pblakeney

Thanks for the help. Reply comments:-
BT are asking £15/month more than anyone else and rental costs are "supposed" to be included in quotes. This will be confirmed if required.
No new line is required, just an operator choice. Fibre has not been laid therefore ignored.
The EE/BT switch is what I did last time. EE don't even appear to quote any more.
Interesting that Virgin was faster and more reliable than Sky. Was that fibre?

Next stage will be phone BT to query the discrepancy/get a discount.
Not forthcoming? Query line rental costs with Plusnet.
On the plus side, a new provider should mean an updated router.

thegreatdivide

pblakeney said:

Interesting that Virgin was faster and more reliable than Sky. Was that fibre?

Virgin is full fibre and will always be the fastest provider (with the exception of the aforementioned City Fibre lot) until Openreach push out more fibre to the premises options for consumers.

thegreatdivide

Just had a look and I can get 900Mb for £29.95 via a City Fibre provider. It's nuts.

surrey_commuter

thegreatdivide said:

Just had a look and I can get 900Mb for £29.95 via a City Fibre provider. It's nuts.

I get 1GB with Virgin for £100 a month including two boxes and all the sports channels. It is faster than work.

Interestingly down our road I would say the BT and Virgin customers are equally moany

orraloon

I have a broadband only renewed in June 18 month contract for £24.99 per month with ShellEnergy, which will soon be migrating to Octopus. I don't need a landline for (old school) phone calls, but house connection is via copper phone line, no fibre in town street yet. 66mbps download speed, so Firestick tv streaming connection etc works fine.

Cheap and effective.

TheBigBean

surrey_commuter said:

thegreatdivide said:

Just had a look and I can get 900Mb for £29.95 via a City Fibre provider. It's nuts.

I get 1GB with Virgin for £100 a month including two boxes and all the sports channels. It is faster than work.

Interestingly down our road I would say the BT and Virgin customers are equally moany

I get that down a coax cable. Genuinely amazes me that old tech can carry so much.

First.Aspect

TheBigBean said:

surrey_commuter said:

thegreatdivide said:

Just had a look and I can get 900Mb for £29.95 via a City Fibre provider. It's nuts.

I get 1GB with Virgin for £100 a month including two boxes and all the sports channels. It is faster than work.

Interestingly down our road I would say the BT and Virgin customers are equally moany

I get that down a coax cable. Genuinely amazes me that old tech can carry so much.

You must be extremely close to a fibre box. I know people a couple of hundred yards away who are down to below 100. We had 4 km to the exchange at one point, and we got 5.

I'm not entirely sure that anyone normally needs more than 100 at the moment anyway. We can stream several devices in HD at that level. I don't think I would notice any practical benefit from 900.

rick_chasey

First.Aspect said:

TheBigBean said:

surrey_commuter said:

thegreatdivide said:

Just had a look and I can get 900Mb for £29.95 via a City Fibre provider. It's nuts.

I get 1GB with Virgin for £100 a month including two boxes and all the sports channels. It is faster than work.

Interestingly down our road I would say the BT and Virgin customers are equally moany

I get that down a coax cable. Genuinely amazes me that old tech can carry so much.

You must be extremely close to a fibre box. I know people a couple of hundred yards away who are down to below 100. We had 4 km to the exchange at one point, and we got 5.

I'm not entirely sure that anyone normally needs more than 100 at the moment anyway. We can stream several devices in HD at that level. I don't think I would notice any practical benefit from 900.

Gaming.

First.Aspect

I forget how many middle aged professionals who cycle are avid gamers.

Zwift, I suppose. Minimise the lag and make group rides easier.

rick_chasey

First.Aspect said:

I forget how many middle aged professionals who cycle are avid gamers.

Zwift, I suppose. Minimise the lag and make group rides easier.

Some of them even have children.

First.Aspect

rick_chasey said:

First.Aspect said:

I forget how many middle aged professionals who cycle are avid gamers.

Zwift, I suppose. Minimise the lag and make group rides easier.

Some of them even have children.

Mmm. Do kids do that a lot then?

rick_chasey

Roughly 1/3rd of gamers are under 18.

Twitch reflex heavy games are really best played in your teens and if you play a fair bit you’ll want that ping to be as low as possible.

First.Aspect

rick_chasey said:

Roughly 1/3rd of gamers are under 18.

Twitch reflex heavy games are really best played in your teens and if you play a fair bit you’ll want that ping to be as low as possible.

Are you one of these people who, when someone says hi how are you, actually gives an honest answer?

Pross

I used to regularly get shot by someone on CoD before I’d even seen them. It was basically unplayable at times especially when you were up against kids in countries that were far more advanced on internet speed.

We’ve finally got Virgin in my area and they are apparently offering some very good introductory deals so I may look to move to them when my current BT deal ends. I’ve had internet, landline and 3 mobiles with them for a few years now but it’s all getting a bit confused now with the mobiles going to EE last year.

pblakeney

General take from this thread. Everyone is happy with their provider so switching shouldn't be an issue. Key to keeping costs down is to switch. No surprise, but thanks!

TheBigBean

First.Aspect said:

TheBigBean said:

surrey_commuter said:

thegreatdivide said:

Just had a look and I can get 900Mb for £29.95 via a City Fibre provider. It's nuts.

I get 1GB with Virgin for £100 a month including two boxes and all the sports channels. It is faster than work.

Interestingly down our road I would say the BT and Virgin customers are equally moany

I get that down a coax cable. Genuinely amazes me that old tech can carry so much.

You must be extremely close to a fibre box. I know people a couple of hundred yards away who are down to below 100. We had 4 km to the exchange at one point, and we got 5.

I'm not entirely sure that anyone normally needs more than 100 at the moment anyway. We can stream several devices in HD at that level. I don't think I would notice any practical benefit from 900.

First.Aspect said:

TheBigBean said:

surrey_commuter said:

thegreatdivide said:

Just had a look and I can get 900Mb for £29.95 via a City Fibre provider. It's nuts.

I get 1GB with Virgin for £100 a month including two boxes and all the sports channels. It is faster than work.

Interestingly down our road I would say the BT and Virgin customers are equally moany

I get that down a coax cable. Genuinely amazes me that old tech can carry so much.

You must be extremely close to a fibre box. I know people a couple of hundred yards away who are down to below 100. We had 4 km to the exchange at one point, and we got 5.

I'm not entirely sure that anyone normally needs more than 100 at the moment anyway. We can stream several devices in HD at that level. I don't think I would notice any practical benefit from 900.

Yes, it's pointless to me. Not least because my mesh doesn't support those speeds and Virgin's wifi is rubbish.

I think most people would benefit from a better distribution network in their house rather than a higher nameplate speed.

pblakeney

Well, if Virgin's wifi is rubbish then that is useful info. Thanks!

TheBigBean

pblakeney said:

Well, if Virgin's wifi is rubbish then that is useful info. Thanks!

Most routers supplied for free are rubbish.

surrey_commuter

pblakeney said:

General take from this thread. Everyone is happy with their provider so switching shouldn't be an issue. Key to keeping costs down is to switch. No surprise, but thanks!

No need to switch just phone them up as they are sh1t at negotiating

The marginal cost of you being a customer must be close to zero so they will cut you a deal.

First.Aspect

TheBigBean said:

pblakeney said:

Well, if Virgin's wifi is rubbish then that is useful info. Thanks!

Most routers supplied for free are rubbish.

No router is supplied for free.

BTs is pretty good I think.

What's a mesh?

Edit: I looked it up. I have one. It's just abitshit.

briantrumpet

First.Aspect said:

TheBigBean said:

pblakeney said:

Well, if Virgin's wifi is rubbish then that is useful info. Thanks!

Most routers supplied for free are rubbish.

No router is supplied for free.

BTs is pretty good I think.

What's a mesh?

Edit: I looked it up. I have one. It's just abitshit.

The techy chap who's been chipping in helpfully re my Eero channel 155 problems seems to think that Talktalk's switch to the Eero as a supposedly standalone router is a cop out, as they only come into their own as part of a mesh system (see, I'm learning, @TheBigBean ), and that they should have stuck with their previous standalone router (complete with VioP port) that has better coverage as a single unit.

First.Aspect

briantrumpet said:

First.Aspect said:

TheBigBean said:

pblakeney said:

Well, if Virgin's wifi is rubbish then that is useful info. Thanks!

Most routers supplied for free are rubbish.

No router is supplied for free.

BTs is pretty good I think.

What's a mesh?

Edit: I looked it up. I have one. It's just abitshit.

The techy chap who's been chipping in helpfully re my Eero channel 155 problems seems to think that Talktalk's switch to the Eero as a supposedly standalone router is a cop out, as they only come into their own as part of a mesh system (see, I'm learning, @TheBigBean ), and that they should have stuck with their previous standalone router (complete with VioP port) that has better coverage as a single unit.

Yes. Or no. Or maybe.

Mmm.

pblakeney

An update - One phone call and £10/month knocked off.
Why don't they just offer that in the first place? I guess they can rip off lazy customers.

kingstongraham

I get 500mb+ in the loft from the Virgin router in the cupboard under the stairs on the ground floor. That seems pretty decent.