Biscit & Breathe!

[ellison]

If you have a mac code and bring your own modem/router then you can migrate to AOL on a one month contract (with no migration fee) http://info.aol.co.uk/broadband/switch.adp?promo=228937&promoCode=228937



It is also possible to negotiate 2mbps for £9.99, or so some new customers have said.


The only snags with AOL is that they are throttling connections in the evening at the moment (It is unclear if this is a temporary measure eg while they merge the networks or what) and their first line support is based in India.

Also some cashback schemes eg Quidco & rpoints offer a discount (cashback) if you join through them.

Thanks for that info.Ive got an actiontec router that UKonline gave me when i was with them.Its old but does the job,though it doesnt appear on that list.Im not too sure i want to go with AOL.I know friends with them on the 8 meg bundle tell me that they usally get half that but are satisfied anyway.With my 1 meg limit (all my line can support) i dont really want any less than that ,and i have visions of 200kbps etc that i once had with ukonline (which is why i migrated from them...dunno what they are like these days though?).Since ive been with naims ive had pretty much consistent 962 kbps (though just before the move from netservices to biscit it was up and down dramatically).It has been good with biscit though.I dont mind paying a little more above the odds as long as its consistently good service.Im uncertain whther id get that with AOL.Ukonline used to be good when i was with them on dial up and then to half a meg.Then they gave me a free upgrade to 1 meg and i ended up with less than what i was getting on half a meg.The customer support at that time was non existent too.For me its either breathe or possibly ukonline at the moment (if theyve changed that is).I would like to hear some user reviews of the breathe network and service though.
elllison

 

[Mel]

Hmm, ok. So its free if you want to leave right away with your MAC. Thats good.

So why does it cost £69.99 to transfer to breathe? Im very confused.

First point - I would have thought they have to pay for the customers if they are staying with breathe or not. Otherwise, they would be charging for the MACS.

Second - Why does it cost so much, people migrating to breathe are presumably using MACS, so unless they absorb the cost of MACs to start with, thats costing breathe nothing.

Third - theres no activation cost, as they are presumably migrating over.

So does it really cost £69.99 to transfer someone over, just because the records are in a mess?

How much does it cost an ISP to migrate someone over from another?

And if breathe have bought biscit, is there really any migrating?

Its all a bit odd.

I would just like to point out, people shouldnt be so calm just because a CEO posted in here. Ive seen a few CEO's, MD's etc post about their ISP, and it hasnt always gone rosy.

From what has been said BT will be doing a "realm migration" - pointing the biscit.net authentication realm (aka ISP Domain) to Biscit's wholesale provider - I've no idea what that costs are, or if they're even charging.

The £69.99 only applies to the £9.99 package.

Assuming their prices remain the same for a year and you remain that long, then it works out the equivalent of about £15.82 per month

BT currently charge up to £9.81 inc vat for adsl rental that excludes the cost of the BT central - it is just the physical connection from you to the exchange. So I would assume the £9.99 price is subsidised by the set-up fee - V21 only got that low with a £2 discount for taking their Telephone service and I guess they saved some VAT by charging £5 of the subs per month for a Zero rated training manual.

Eurisp wholesale prices were published here:- http://www.ispreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/news/viewnews.cgi?id=EEZEVFpyylGnEfmvxi

 

[Mel]

Thanks for that info.Ive got an actiontec router that UKonline gave me when i was with them.Its old but does the job,though it doesnt appear on that list.Im not too sure i want to go with AOL.I know friends with them on the 8 meg bundle tell me that they usally get half that but are satisfied anyway.With my 1 meg limit (all my line can support) i dont really want any less than that ,and i have visions of 200kbps etc that i once had with ukonline (which is why i migrated from them...dunno what they are like these days though?).Since ive been with naims ive had pretty much consistent 962 kbps (though just before the move from netservices to biscit it was up and down dramatically).It has been good with biscit though.I dont mind paying a little more above the odds as long as its consistently good service.Im uncertain whther id get that with AOL.Ukonline used to be good when i was with them on dial up and then to half a meg.Then they gave me a free upgrade to 1 meg and i ended up with less than what i was getting on half a meg.The customer support at that time was non existent too.For me its either breathe or possibly ukonline at the moment (if theyve changed that is).I would like to hear some user reviews of the breathe network and service though.
elllison

Until Feb the 11th I was getting a constant 960kbps at all times of day from my AOL 1mbps connection, since then they have been throttling between 6pm and 10:30pm to 320kbps so I would only currently recommend AOL to people who want a 512kbps connection, or use it off peak, or just want the cheapest deal they can get with a large ISP (9.99 if you can get an AOL rep to offer it) . If you use a "non AOL supported" router you will have problems if you need to contact AOL support, unless you say you have a supported router and bluff your way though their support script - probably not to be recommended.

EDIT: Funny thing is after posting this, AOL are not throttling my connection tonight :shrug:

If you can get UKonline and have Sky then that's probably the cheapest deal you'll be able to get. only trouble if you migrate to a LLU provider is it can take much longer that migrating to an IPstream based provider.


If you want a one month contract:-

UKFSN one of several Enta reseller with a 1 month contract.


Newnet - think this is available on a one month contract the T&C annoyingly don't seem to be available to read unless you go throught the sign-up :hrmph:

Eclipse -Online they offer a 12 month contract, apparently if you phone them you could get eclipse on a one month contract with no modem, but I don't know if that is still the case.


Zen relatively expensive, however most of their customers seem to think they're getting what they pay for.

IDnet as above (haven't read the T&c's on this one)

Sky's avaliability checker http://check.skybroadband.com - You need to be on a £15+ sky package to qualify and it is a 12 month contract but if you can get the £0 - £10 packages it has got to be worth considering.

If you want some better suggestions I suggest starting a new thread in one of the non-isp specific forums.

 

[ziggycat]

To me the £9.99 deal is quite good if the service is good, if the service is not good and you need to leave then your down your setup fee.

If you get a good service it wont take long to recoupe the setup fee, but as I say its all down to the quality of service and assuming you will be staying for some time.

 

[ellison]

Until Feb the 11th I was getting a constant 960kbps at all times of day from my AOL 1mbps connection, since then they have been throttling between 6pm and 10:30pm to 320kbps so I would only currently recommend AOL to people who want a 512kbps connection, or use it off peak, or just want the cheapest deal they can get with a large ISP (9.99 if you can get an AOL rep to offer it) . .....snip....

Thanks again for the extra info.Between 6pm and 10:30 is the time that i surf ,so id be a little wary to go with AOL after youve mentioned that.I havent long parted company with SKY digital(getting ridiculously expensive) ,and apart from the sport am more than happy with freeview ,and my humax.Looking around ukonline and breathe seem to be the best (for me personally)for price ,unlimited downloads and no throttling (supposedly).As ive mentiond before im not averse to 12 month contracts providing its good service.I guess every things a gamble with ISPs these days.There really should be some legislation to force ISPs to provide the download speeds that you pay for though (assuming your line is capable of it of course)This "up to 8 megs" and then giving you less than half that even though your line is capable of recieving it ,and charging you for the 8 meg package,borders on the criminal in my view.
ellison

 

[Mel]

The trouble with 12 month contracts is that the quality of ISPs services can change very rapidly as recently demonstrated by AOL. If I didn't have another 5 months to run on my contract I'd have left for sky by now and currently be enjoying up to 8mbps for £5 per month while I wait for them to unbundle my exchange.


It looks like AOL have moved the throttling start time to after 7/7:30pm:hrmph:

 

[Robbiecollie]

Breathe Networks Limited has been unable to initiate a migration of Biscit's
customers to their network due to a number of legal and commercial issues
between Biscit Internet Limited (In Administration) and its suppliers.

Whilst 'breathe' would still be delighted to provide services to those
customers, we are prohibited from contacting them directly, and cannot
migrate them to our services.

However, we will be delighted to provide any assistance that we can to
anyone who contacts us.

Any further information that we gather and are allowed to publish will be
made available on our website at http://www.breatheinternet.com/biscit.

Thank you and good luck!
Breathe Networks Limited
http://www.breathe.com/

 

[Robbiecollie]

e mail just posted

 

[QuantumKid]

I think the best thing that could happen now is ....
BT put up a walled garden type page explaining whats going on, and giving a BT Wholesale telephone number where people can obtain a MAC code.
My thinking here is that I am sure there are thousands of people out there who know nothing about this situation. Alot of them do not use the emails that are in the ISP records, so this is the only sure way of comunicating with them.
The walled garden page should also allow people to access the rest of the internet so they can check out which ISP to move to.

At least then people would know where they stood. I've spoken to Ofcom and BT Wholesale in the past hour. All Ofcom would say was that they had not officially heard that Biscit had gone into administration! and BT wholesale said no news, no comment, can't say anything, call Ofcom.

ALL PEOPLE WANT ARE MAC's SOMEONE SORT IT OUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PeeJay]

All Ofcom would say was that they had not officially heard that Biscit had gone into administration! and BT wholesale said no news, no comment, can't say anything, call Ofcom.

Sounds depressingly familiar...

 

[jack8]

Yes it is really very bad that in this day and age it is the consumer who has to suffer.

 

[andyk0903]

BT Wholesale

I have just contacted BT Wholesale who read out a statement about Biscit/Breathe.

BT will NOT be terminiating the connection (someone else may though?) and BT will be contacting everyone affected - but they would not say when!

Basically they would not tell me anything else, they just said we have to wait! Obviously there are some legal problems going on here and BT will not comment further. As for obtaining a MAC code or getting the line tag removed. Just wait.... for how long? I don't know

If you need to hear for yourself what they don't say....... 0800 1690934

 

[karen]

Greetings Marcus East, Chief Executive Officer of Breathe.

Can you just tell me how I can get the heck away from you, Biscit, Naims, V21, Edzee, Netservices and anyone other company even remotely connected with any of you?

I want a MAC code and I want it now. I'm sick of no technical support, no customer support, no response to letters, inability to actually speak to a live person, no response to e-mails, refusals to communicate, incorrect invoicing, over-charging, intermittent internet connection and now, to cap the lot, no Outlook Express.

So if you can just give me my MAC code (and any money for the problems caused by your predecessors which you are now inheriting) I'll be on my way.

Signed
one hacked off naims/biscit/ezeedsl/V21/breathe war veteran.

 

[ziggycat]

Greetings Marcus East, Chief Executive Officer of Breathe.

Can you just tell me how I can get the heck away from you, Biscit, Naims, V21, Edzee, Netservices and anyone other company even remotely connected with any of you?

I want a MAC code and I want it now. I'm sick of no technical support, no customer support, no response to letters, inability to actually speak to a live person, no response to e-mails, refusals to communicate, incorrect invoicing, over-charging, intermittent internet connection and now, to cap the lot, no Outlook Express.

So if you can just give me my MAC code (and any money for the problems caused by your predecessors which you are now inheriting) I'll be on my way.

Signed
one hacked off naims/biscit/ezeedsl/V21/breathe war veteran.

Karen,

Breathe have no part in this, they simply attempted to purchase the customers, a deal that did not come off.

 

[karen]

So why are naims telling their customers to contact Breathe for Mac codes?

 

[karen]

Actually, don't worry about responding. I've given up trying to follow anything that's going on. All I want to do now is get a Mac code and get out of this mess.

 

[ziggycat]

Actually, don't worry about responding. I've given up trying to follow anything that's going on. All I want to do now is get a Mac code and get out of this mess.

If you let us know a little about your situation I'm sure we can try to help. Your login would be a good start to sort out which supplier your with.

 

[jack8]

karen all I would say is this is the only place that has tried to help people, so having a go at these people will not help.

I really think that there will be light at the end of tunnell for all left. I for one will stay here to try and help every single ex biscit/v21 customer. I have my teeth into this now and people that know me eg on adsl guide , now I don't back down.

I personally have no idea what is going on, but I think if read what people have done on this site is just brillant, kits, Kayne ( who I do thank for what he did) and others I can'yt remember who as I have been out tonight and got a bit drunk.

Anyway just keep up the pressure and you will be OK

 

[Kits]

Actually, don't worry about responding. I've given up trying to follow anything that's going on. All I want to do now is get a Mac code and get out of this mess.

Hello Karen sorry I wasn't around when you started posting but after this week I was having family time and some time away from the monitor..

Please remember most of the people posting in these threads have been through exactly the same as you it is easier to get through if everyone chills and works together.

 

[Svender]

Search reveals the followingfor biscit customers BT step in

Hi folks found this link from a google search hope this helps all those of us left in this rather nightmarish hell callled isp land

http://www.btplc.com/news/articles/showarticle.cfm?articleid=%7b82bd3fa3-020f-49f8-a05c-a0b563ba0f26%7d