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In need of some Broadband help and advice!

Hello all,

New to the forum and in need of some advice from those more experienced in this field then I. Basically I have a problem and could also do with having some other issues cleared up. For many many years now I've been with what is now Virgin Media. They used to be Blueyonder/Telewest (you already knew that) and it's always been a solid if less then fantastic ride.

Trouble is, since Virgin Media officially took over. My family's broadband and overall service from VM as been horrid. We have no wish to even be part of Virgin Media anymore so am looking at a few other ISP's. I'm sure you've heard this all before, but Virgin Media really do have terrible customer service and I've got to the point where I wish to never speak to another Virgin representative in my life. :laugh:

Trouble is we have a few issues, while I know some aspects to broadband services. I still don't know everything and we have come across some issues. First of all is that we are looking to move our actual phone service to that new provider to rather then be with VM. We understand that it will probably be better to take a look at packages that are on offer and I have personally been keen on giving Sky another try (We had SkyTV many many years back).

The problem lies with getting a broadband service from them, now I believe they require a BT line and for some odd reason. When we had the internet first fitted, they cut the BT line so require having that fixed. How much could this possibly cost us? Also the broadband gets used quite a lot in my house and I also use it for gaming on many occasions, so am looking for something at least over 10MB, possibly even higher if possible.

A problem lies there, I believe only Sky and Virgin Media offer such speeds. I had heard some good things about BT Broadband but that is mostly wireless (though I understand it could be set up to a router) and I'm not keen on Wireless, it also seems they only go up to 8MB which probably wouldn't do for us.

At this moment in time I'm a little bit stuck on where to go next, if I'm honest! I feel somewhat imprisoned by Virgin Media and just want to get rid of them for good. I'm sure some of you have had fine experiences with them, but after almost a year and a half being messed around with bills and disconnections... I'm kind of done with them . But I'm at a bit of a loss, I'm looking for some advice on what might be a good turn to take with ISP's. I have wondered if being a past SkyTV owner if that could also affect obtaining one of their packages, though that was so many years ago now that I was hoping they would see us as new customers.

Can someone provide some help and advice?
I would greatly appreciate it. :)
 
Moving from a cable platform and back onto BT based infrastructure can incur a charge of up to £120; depending on a number of factors (ask the ISP you’d like to move to about it). Never the less you may have to pay. Meanwhile Sky has a 'Broadband Max' package that offers speeds of up to 16Mbps on their unbundled platform, in fact quite a few non-Virgin ISPs offer speeds faster than 8Mbps (Be Broadband, O2, Aquiss [Entanet vISPs in general] and so forth).

Do be aware though that the speed advertised is not the speed you will receive, that depends more on your line quality, local network congestion and your ISPs ability to deliver the service itself. This is also the same with VM; performance varies between ISPs and locations.

Still, your first step should be to stick your phone number into a broadband checker and find out which BT or unbundled broadband services cover your line. This will tell you whether Sky's BB MAX package is within your reach, as well as those of other providers. Also be aware that Sky now offer NEW LINE INSTALLATIONS, which might be better than going directly back to BT unless you also want BT's or a BT based ISPs broadband service.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/checker/

PS - "BT's service includes Wi-Fi on the Home Hub, though you can I believe hook it up via a wired LAN cable as per most routers."
 
Mark, your ADSL checker doesn't seem to work with just a post code - presumably as the OP has cable and not a BT line, they will need to use a postcode checker.
 
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Hey,

Thanks for the information so far, sounds like it's an odd and tricky sort of system. Not exactly surprised though, always been with the same ISP since first having the internet installed so expected the process of switching to be tricky. Though I know a couple of friends who have changed their ISP frequently, one in particularly who went through three different ISP's in around 3 months.

Doing some more research of my own, it looks as if I can't get the Sky's BB Max, I believe it's due to the BT Phone line issue. I did read about how Sky will often install a new line for free if you are obtaining their services, though I wasn't totally sure if that offer was still on. Not to keen on having to pay £120 when it wasn't us who messed with the cable in the first place.

I totally understand issues with speed, you never get often anywhere near your actual advertised speed. I know that for sure! As for what to do next, well I'm not totally sure still. Still seems like Sky might be the better choice and more trustworthy, I have had past experience with Sky so they currently seem the better bet. I was keen on getting the SkyTV, SkyTalk and Sky Broadband package but I'm not totally sure how that will be affected by having the phone line fitted.

Originally I was going to be doing it online, though when I took a closer look and found that they could not provide me with SkyTalk (which meant they could also not provide me with Sky Broadband) it had me wondering if I could still obtained that deal, probably not now that I need to have the phone line installed. Still not sure, we've had a real bad experience with an ISP provider recently so my faith in all of them is low. :(

Thanks again for information and advice, any is welcomed! :nod:
 
Mark, your ADSL checker doesn't seem to work with just a post code - presumably as the OP has cable and not a BT line, they will need to use a postcode checker.
Oh you're correct, it should work and did before but I'd best check how the database is being called and get that fixed. Thanks for spotting it.
 
Checker bug should now be fixed.
 
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