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Can I ask for some help, please?

  • Thread starter Thread starter KozuBlue
  • Start date Start date

KozuBlue

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I'm sorry to ask, you probably get this all the time.

Buuut... my contract with BT is ending soon... and I need a new one. I've looked at packages... whilst I'd love something amazing, something around the £20 mark (including line rental!) so I've researched a few packages, but I wondering if you could advise?

I do use quite a lot of bandwith, some p2p and things like youtube and the iplayer, also there's two of us on the connection.

The main questions I have are about whether there's bandwith shaping in the 'peak hours', what happens if I go over the download limit, and if they block any ports for P2P or gaming!

So there's that TalkTalk package - line rental and internet for £13.25 a month! Sounds bargain, and 40GB limit is alright.

There's also a deal from Orange - £17 for internet, line rental... but they have an ambiguous "fair usage policy" on their apparent 'unlimited downloads'.

And there's Virgin - I'm pretty far away from any exchanges, so even if I went on their 2MB deal, it's probably what I'd get anyway from those so-called "8MB" offers. Again, it's unlimited downloads (which I love the sound of) but again, a fair usage policy? What!

Finally, there's Utility Warehouse but I doubt anyone knows too much about that.

I've already discarded Tiscali as I've heard awful things about it, and O2 because they don't offer it in my area. Boo. I would've loved O2!

Thanks so much for any help. My contract with BT is ending soon and I need to figure this one out ASAP!
Thanks again!
 
For a package that allows you a good download speed on P2p, a highish download limit and line rental, I think £20 is a bit low; all of the ISP's you mentioned like to push how cheap they are, but the support if you have a problem is appalling, look at my postings in the Orange forum; TalkTalk too, have proved disastrous for some people. Virgin have their good days and their day days, check their forum to see how they are doing currently.

If you can afford a little bit more, it is worth using one of the "Little guys"; look at the front page and click on the "Top 10" bar, notice how NONE of the Top 10 by subscription also feature in the Top 10 best reviews

Look at the reviews and read the details of the packages they offer and take your pick; just remember TANSTAAFL
The Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
 
Thanks for the reply! I didn't really think I'd have an amazing thing with any of those companies, but it's all I can afford "these days" so really I'm wondering what the best of a bad bunch is?

Wahey.
 
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To be honest I could not recommend any of the big players, Freeserve were great, Wanadoo OK and Orange is dire, TalkTalk wanted to get big quick and are a mess, Tiscali will be billing you for at least a decade after you die.
The best I can suggest is Virgin, they really dont like BT, so may have the incentive to give better service.
Personally I use Vispa, 50gig, 300 minutes of calls and line rental for £29.99; speeds are great most of the time, Tech help is AA+ (His name is Kevin), and overseas calls stupidly cheap to many countries. if you can budget that high there are a lot of good ISP's out there.
 
TalkTalk wanted to get big quick and are a mess

I have a friend on Talk Talk and he gets a pretty steady 7mb with no drop-outs as yet, and some fairly decent ping times.

I still wouldn't recommend them for anyone who enjoys a good download though due to their network management and low limit, but for a "free" service it seems to be pretty good.

Actually they seem to have cleaned up their act a lot lately after the unpleasantness of last year, and are actually on the verge of removing the "8mb" cap on their LLU service.
 
The Line Rental (bundle) aspect is probably what hinders your option the most, since it's predominantly the largest players that include line rental. The downside to this, as mention above, is that while the largest players may be cheaper they can also deliver some of the poorest services and support you've ever seen.

Due to this I'd say that Sky Broadband is probably your best bet, although it's only good value for money if you already take their satellite TV services (doesn't include line rental but the low price mitigates that). Otherwise there's no easy or risk-free choices at the £20 price point for a line rental and broadband bundle with your needs.

Still, if you want to take the risk then I guess TalkTalk is a good bet for budget price points, just don't expect the best service in the world.
 
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Try the checker on the Be webiste. It's the same network as O2 (it is owned by O2) but as I discovered recently, the checkers on O2 and Be don't always agree with each other.

For example, according to their checker, I can't get O2, but I have been using Be for the last year!

Might be worth a try. www.bethere.co.uk

As for your other concerns, Be are pretty reliable - aside from occasional planned outages, I haven't had any downtime for months.

Support isn't brilliant, but they do try to be helpful so it's isn't terrible either, and they don't treat you like an idiot. When I did need them, they didn't insist on going through all of their scripts when it became clear that I have some technical knowledge and had already done the obvious things to fix the problem.

You already know you won't get massive speeds due to your distance from your exchange, so you might as well go for the cheaper option if you can get Be - I think it's £14/month for up to 8mb.

Also, it is a 3 month contract (well, a 3 month notice period anyway), whereas O2 is a 12 month contract.

Be have a vague FUP also, but I have never heard of anyone tripping up on it, and I can be a pretty heavy downloader.
 
Nah, can't get be either! Oh, woe is me.

I don't have Sky TV... again, money concerns and the like. I can't afford to be rolling around with Sky TV! Heavens.

I mean the ~£20 limit is just including line rental, so if there's some good internet at around £10, it would balance out at about £20 with the £10 line rental too.

But my research has told me that no such deal exists.

So, Virgin or TalkTalk, Virgin or TalkTalk. Or Utility Warehouse. Oh, if only there was a definitive answer. Hot damn!

Thanks for all the advice. I truly appreciate it!
 
It seems to me like Virgin would be better - I have a crappy line and can't get more than 1-1.5MB anyway, so TalkTalk offering me "up to 8MB" versus Virgin's 2MB is irrelevant. Virgin might actually be faster because of their fibre optic thing.

Also, TalkTalk restrict bandwith automatically during peak times, whilst Virgin only restrict if you download during peak times.

Furthermore, Virgin has no overall limit, whilst TalkTalk's is 40GB a month.

So I can't really see any argument for going for TalkTalk - anyone feel any differently?
 
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With VM read the small print they are not as unlimited as they make it look.
 
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