It is with reluctance that i have to leave The Phone Co-op after just over a year. In fact i now wish that i had joined them after leaving Aol, rather than going with BT for three years.

Unfortunately my father died last month, most household bill payments were in his name and now frozen so a new start is needed in the Scorpio time of birth, death and regeneration; ergo some economies are having to be made.
The standard Phone Co-op package costs about £25 a month. I use the telephone as little as possible but the average bill has been the very best part of £30 a month which is no longer affordable. Personally i don't think any ISP needs to charge more than £20 a month for a basic, good strong service. The Phone Co-op gave a generous 40 GB or whatever it's termed allowance per month. I never used more than 4 because of only using this machine for email, 'surfing' and watching a few U tubes.
How people have the inclination to play games, let alone the time to do so is quite beyond me.

Aol years ago just seemed to melt down into a hopeless uncontrollable disaster, took over my machine and tried to preach to me about what i looked at. The Indian call centre had perhaps one gent called Niamet Ullah who actually knew what buttons to push after a month of trying.
British Telecom became extortionists at £38.50 a month for a turgid service with shitdowns and never an appology. The 'helpline' put me straight through to New Delhi (!) where the very nice sounding lady said "oh goodness gracious me, it is your router sir". My local shop who set the tower and screen up said she was talking through the equivalent of a scrotum ! Why this router thing isn't built into the big mostly empty tower box is beyond me. It would save on cables for a start.

So, after all that The Phone Co-op was like a blast of cold fresh air. Their staff speak a very high standard of English in both Oxfordshire and Manchester, helping me set up the Email via Windows 7. They have always been courtious, polite and efficient and really do seem to value new customers. In short i would never rule out going back to them which would be past the event horizon for the megalithic vast companies as prevoiusly slated.

If you want a good reliable ISP for around £30 per month the The Phone co-op in my opinion is amongst the best. There was one shut-down that i can remember and that lasted only an hour and a half, then normal quite fast service was resumed.
Clearly 'Offcom' must look at this issue of telephone line rental. We have all been stiffed with this extortion since Edwardian times and must have paid for the pine poles, terminals and wire at least fifteen hundred times over. If competition won't work for the people then the people must force a total renationilization of what ought to be public services. As a corollary i would add that any big ISPs who operate offshore, are not prepared to pay their staff above the national minimum wage should not be allowed to trade.