ISP Reviews by Jim

I had been with The Phone Co-op for a number of years (having switched from BT) until a few months ago when I made the switch to Pulse8 (see my other review!). I had gone to the Phone Co-op initially because I like the idea of a company owned by its members, but it never felt like it was. The fundamental problem, of course, is that they just piggyback TalkTalk, so to get the most out of that you would need to get better speed priority and have fantastic customer service and tech support. Pulse8 does that well, the Phone Co-op doesn't to the extent that I wondered why I should use them and not go straight to TalkTalk.

Stability was poor for much of the time. Speeds slow, and a number of times I was bumped down to ADSL from ADSL2 (I am near enough to the exchange to benefit from ADSL2). Getting Phone Co-Op tech support to resolve this and rest the line profile was painful as they were often dismissive and condescending.

Moving a few months ago to Pulse8 (and continuing to use my same Billion 7800dxl modem//router) has been a revelation and I realise now how bad Phone Co-op (using I suspect the lowest level of TalkTalk bundling) was. My stability and speed have increased massively since I left and support is also massively better.

It's sad, because I still like the idea of the cooperative mutual ideal, it's just a shame that in its current form the Phone Co-op isn't it.

Switched to Pulse8 (standard copper wire) a few months ago from the Phone Co-op. Both piggyback the TalkTalk network but the difference is night and day. I had constant stability problems with the Phone Co-op for years, and a number of times I was bumped down to slower standard ADSL from ADSL2 (but I am close enough to the exchange to benefit from ADSL2). Querying this was a pain as while the initial customer service was ok the tech support you get passed to was difficult and often dismissive.

The switch to Pulse6 was painless (on their silver ADSL package), stability is rock solid and speed has increased significantly (I have used my Billion 7800dxl modem/router for both providers).

I have also found their support to be excellent too, emails answered in seconds and a recent problem where I accidentally damaged my external phone line resolved by an Openreach visit within 24 hours, followed by Paulse8 contact to make sure everything was fixed and working ok. Can't recommend them enough!