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robanfield

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Hi to all, Complete novice at this so I,m asking you guys for a bit of advice. I am at preset with Talktalk for just landline / broadband. We dont have call plan so dont use the landline as its too expensive. We pay £24 @ month. Mobile sim is with Three @ £9 month 600 min calls / unlimited texts/ 1gb data. I have just signed up with Three for the £14 offer and I get sim for £6 @ month unlimited everything and 4gb data. I get speeds at present of 36 to 38 Mbps wired with their Talktalk hub. It seems a no brainer to me but I would like to make sure as I watch football etc and we dont go out much, we have excellent PC entertainment with Yamaha AVR, surround sound via Kef q8s and Monitor Audio ref speakers. I dont want to cock it up so any advice would be really appreciated.
Thanks a million, Rob
Present state £24 plus £9 SiM and 1gb data. Month.

Future? £14 plus £6 Sim 4gb and 4gb data. Month
 
@robanfield mobile broadband can be quite volatile, especially Three's 4G.
As sometimes they practice "dumping" pricing, it happens a lot that their network is oversubscribed and congested at peak times, especially the mast backhauls.

Their 5G is in a better shape than the 4G, if you are lucky to be in a signal area, but it implies expensive 5G router etc and even then uptime and connectivity are not a given.

If you're mostly home bound and broadband is critical to your day to day, then I honestly suggest staying with Talk Talk if your experience with them was good.

I'm currently balancing two 5G connections (EE & Three) because just like you being online is critical (work). I'd be quite nervous if I had to rely on just one operator. I'm paying significantly more for this "luxury" than your £24/m, not only in money but also in time messing around with the equipment (which to be honest I kind of enjoy, but it's not for everyone).
 
Hi Lucian, I have the feeling you are correct! I have just spoken to my son who connected yesterday, he said daytime Sky movies etc was spot on, but nightime watching football was awful! He only lives 500 yrds away so I dont think I will bother opening the package, 2yrs deal is an awful long time.
Thanks again for your help.
I think I,ll try Talktalk to see if they will offer me anything better.
 
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I load balance two 4g routers and have dumped the landline, one of the masts was down for 2 weeks during working hours being upgraded earlier this year. If I had not had the 2nd 4G pointing at a different mast I would have lost connectivity for days until I got something else sorted.
 
By way of balance, I have been with Three for two years using B525 then B818 4g routers. There have been around four protracted periods of maintenance over several days between 9:30am and 4pm that caused 4g to go down between those times. I didn't lose connectivity, being able to switch to 3g which had more range and pick up a more distant tower. During those times, with download speeds of around 5-6 mb/s streaming would have meant SD quality. However at no time did I completely lose everything. General web access and banking was pretty much as normal. During those disruptions 4g was resumed after 4pm.

My daytime download speeds vary enormously but average around 80-110 mb/s. However, once the kids get home after 4pm and start streaming I frequently get half that. As already suggested Three is highly contended. I can run a speed test and get 30-40mb/s then run another and get over 100mb/s. I don't use paid-for streaming services but I do frequently use BBC iPlayer and UKTVPlay in the evenings. I cannot remember the last time I had any buffering problems, so I presume in my area at least the company makes some effort to prioritise streaming services. iPlayer UHD content streams without a hitch.

I am currently using a Smarty contract free sim from a referral in this forum and appears to give similar performance to Three at a cost of £16 per month.

As a single user it suits me fine, particularly having come from Virgin Media which had great speeds, but awful customer service and billing.
Location is everything, also if you have more than one concurrent user then it may not suit you.
 
Your biggest problem seems to be TT lol.

I’m on TT Wholesale, never had my broadband go down at night every 6 weeks on average.

Thankful I have 5G phone, I won’t be renewing the contract, TT as a customer or TT wholesale reseller has been horrific for me.
 
Your biggest problem seems to be TT lol.

I’m on TT Wholesale, never had my broadband go down at night every 6 weeks on average.

Thankful I have 5G phone, I won’t be renewing the contract, TT as a customer or TT wholesale reseller has been horrific for me.
I don't think the OP said anywhere that they were having issues with their TT service?
 
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I don't think the OP said anywhere that they were having issues with their TT service?
Well in my experience at numerous properties TT go way slower on the same line than even Sky LLU or BT Wholesale. You pay cheap with TT you get cheap less priorities on their lessor backhaul network.

I’m 330 capable, 250 on TT reseller.

Numerous BT Openreach/third parties state use any BT/LLU provider as long as it’s not TT or TT Wholesale, BTO and it’s third part contractors are sick of being called out to ‘TT’ slow speed faults, TT speed and traffic shape like no other that’s why it’s cheap.

Thankfully for the few who can get GFast it counteracts even TT Wholesale as they are limited.

For a single person TT is decent with 30+ megs estimate, if you have numerous things/people streaming the word from BTO/3rds is dont use TT or TTW.
 
Well in my experience at numerous properties TT go way slower on the same line than even Sky LLU or BT Wholesale. You pay cheap with TT you get cheap less priorities on their lessor backhaul network.

I’m 330 capable, 250 on TT reseller.

Numerous BT Openreach/third parties state use any BT/LLU provider as long as it’s not TT or TT Wholesale, BTO and it’s third part contractors are sick of being called out to ‘TT’ slow speed faults, TT speed and traffic shape like no other that’s why it’s cheap.

Thankfully for the few who can get GFast it counteracts even TT Wholesale as they are limited.

For a single person TT is decent with 30+ megs estimate, if you have numerous things/people streaming the word from BTO/3rds is dont use TT or TTW.
Sorry but that's utter tosh. If the TT wholesale network was that bad, then the likes of AAISP and Zen wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. TalkTalk's network is no better/worse than the likes of BT Wholesale, Vodafone (ex C&W) etc.

Oh and most (if not all) ISPs stopped traffic shaping donkeys years ago. Btw these are the sort of speeds I get on TalkTalk Business 900/115, day & night over Wifi 6:

speedtest.jpg
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Sorry but that's utter tosh. If the TT wholesale network was that bad, then the likes of AAISP and Zen wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. TalkTalk's network is no better/worse than the likes of BT Wholesale, Vodafone (ex C&W) etc.

Oh and most (if not all) ISPs stopped traffic shaping donkeys years ago. Btw these are the sort of speeds I get on TalkTalk Business 900/115, day & night over Wifi 6:

speedtest.jpg
[/url]
Talk Talk business isn’t a consumer product, FTTP also isn’t a TT product for the masses.

You can’t compare either to TT Consumer or TT Wholesale.
 
Talk Talk business isn’t a consumer product, FTTP also isn’t a TT product for the masses.

You can’t compare either to TT Consumer or TT Wholesale.
Errrrm I think you'll find TalkTalk Business use the TalkTalk Wholesale network just like TalkTalk Residential does. From a technical/performance point of view, they're both exactly the same. Where TTB is better than TTR, is that you get a better SLA and better phone support and stuff like static IPs - but none of these affects day to day line performance. I've been with TTR on ADSL2+ and FTTC and never had any issues

I suspect you've had a bad experience with TTR (you're not alone) but that's not a good enough reason telling everyone to avoid the TT wholesale network altogether. Its a bit like someone having a bad experience with BT Retail and then telling everyone to avoid using any ISP which uses the BT Wholesale network.
 
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Errrrm I think you'll find TalkTalk Business use the TalkTalk Wholesale network just like TalkTalk Residential does. From a technical/performance point of view, they're both exactly the same. Where TTB is better than TTR, is that you get a better SLA and better phone support and stuff like static IPs - but none of these affects day to day line performance. I've been with TTR on ADSL2+ and FTTC and never had any issues

I suspect you've had a bad experience with TTR (you're not alone) but that's not a good enough reason telling everyone to avoid the TT wholesale network altogether. Its a bit like someone having a bad experience with BT Retail and then telling everyone to avoid using any ISP which uses the BT Wholesale network.
So TT Business, TT Consumer & TT Wholesale are all equal products in end user delivery ? TT just charge other corporate businesses a lot more for the same.

Aye ok.
 
So TT Business, TT Consumer & TT Wholesale are all equal products in end user delivery ? TT just charge other corporate businesses a lot more for the same.

Aye ok.
If we’re talking about copper/FTTP products then yes, all TT products are pretty much the same from a performance pov. FYI “corporate businesses” will usually be using leased lines from TTB, BT Business etc often costing £1000s per month. They are a totally different kettle of fish and cannot be compared to a £60/m FTTP service with TalkTalk Business.
 
If we’re talking about copper/FTTP products then yes, all TT products are pretty much the same from a performance pov. FYI “corporate businesses” will usually be using leased lines from TTB, BT Business etc often costing £1000s per month. They are a totally different kettle of fish and cannot be compared to a £60/m FTTP service with TalkTalk Business.
Correct, just as you can’t compare TT FTTP with TT “Fibre” copper, different tech.

Same as TT versus BT Wholesale, TT shapes lines and throughout much more than BT provided or any other LLU provider off the same Openreach copper line.

BT Wholsale full adsl 2 + speeds
Sky full adsl 2 + speeds
Talk Talk estimate 14-16, usually below 14.

I can say the same for TT “Fibre” much slower than anyone or it’s own estimates.

TT Wholesale, same issue, GFast:

300-330 with anyone else, TT 230-250 megs - the estimate was 280-310. The slow down on GFast doesn’t matter as streaming is available.

On ADSL & “Fibre” TT 720HD stream on a top of the range ASUS router to a top of the range Sony TV was buffer most times, no one else ISP’s had these issues only TT, I left mid contract and refused to pay them, they had their new default & account removed by credit companies when they saw all the emails to and fro.

TT are nonsense, at one point when you’ve churned a Massive part of a nations broadband due to poor service you can’t get new customers, TT is a few years out of a big boy buying them out because who wants to merge with one of the worst.

TT 2018-2020 Ofcom complaints, consistently high: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.p...m-broadband-complaints-table-for-q2-2020.html
 
“TT shapes lines”
Do you have proof of this?
Ya look at Ofcom. Fast internet ISPs delivering as promised don’t take the no1 slot, for example Sky.

Try making a TT complaint about speed issues as per Ofcom guidance of speed failures and free to leave contract, you’ll find most people end up at Ofcom as TT won’t register the early termination requests on thier failures or raise a complaint they aren’t complying with Ofcom requirements on it or the Ofcom approved complaints process.

TT: Deny & deist customer.

Ofcom are then the only way left for those consumers who know about the regulator. HIGH Ofcom TT levels are consistent.
 
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Ya look at Ofcom. Fast internet ISPs delivering as promised don’t take the no1 slot, for example Sky.

Try making a TT complaint about speed issues as per Ofcom guidance of speed failures and free to leave contract, you’ll find most people end up at Ofcom as TT won’t register the early termination requests on thier failures or raise a complaint they aren’t complying with Ofcom requirements on it or the Ofcom approved complaints process.

TT: Deny & deist customer.

Ofcom are then the only way left for those consumers who know about the regulator. HIGH Ofcom TT levels are consistent.
You still haven't provided evidence where you claim TT traffic shape. I suspect its purely your opinion but happy to be corrected.
 
You still haven't provided evidence where you claim TT traffic shape. I suspect its purely your opinion but happy to be corrected.
Consistent lower speeds than advertised at order that all other providers can give on a line is shaping, TT bank on a consumer not knowing their rights to leave

TT don’t even auto compensate when they signed up to it, another reason TT has large Ofcom complaints https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-tel...-and-billing/automatic-compensation-need-know

TT prioritise money over everything. Ofcom poll topper, and that’s just the people who know they can go to Ofcom, many don’t know they can.

And it’s up to a individual Ofcom staff if they want to log it, if you sound too common, too posh, took ***, too black good luck as there is no obligation on Ofcom or their staff to record your TT General Conditions failures (or any Ofcom licence holder).

The fact TT tops the polls constantly has always been telling, it’s the tip of the iceberg.
 
If TT business are anything like VM business then it's exactly the same network, different router + SLA (which VM don't seem to keep to grrr)
 
The fact TT tops the polls constantly has always been telling, it’s the tip of the iceberg.
Really?
Capture.jpg
[/url]

But to put those figures into perspective, thats 0.024% of TT customers who have complained. In other words, 99.976% of TT customers seem to have no issues. Perhaps you should look at the wider picture?
 
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