rwmorris
Casual Member
Hi all,
Bit of a complicated one, this, but bear with me. I’m looking for some really rock solid advice. I’m genuinely unsure as to what to do broadband wise.
My parents live in a Virgin Media cable area. Over the past decade, my brother and I have moved out, and they’re now living alone. They’ve slowly stopped all the services they had when we were also living there, they stopped Virgin Media TV and also their landline as they just weren’t using it anymore.
They’re both nearly 70 and still have Virgin Media broadband. I’m getting a little fed up with having to remind them to keep having to renegotiate a new contract, also, frankly, not sure my dad is doing a particularly good job at these renegotiations.
What they have, for the two of them, is massive, massive overkill. They’re paying like £45 a month for 110mbps down and 10 up. They literally use it for Netflix/iPlayer (no UHD), some FaceTime and their various Alexa devices. I suppose the most unusual thing they do is dad sometimes does big batch uploads of photos to Amazon Photos (they use their Echo Shows as photo frames) but that’s it. They’ve also got a Ring doorbell but I’d say that’s a minor matter.
Thing is, Virgin seem to have sold my dad on the idea that he needs this level of speed. He told me he wants no reduction in internet speed “because we watch Netflix”. I’ve told him something 200 times slower would still let him watch Netflix and iPlayer.
The problem is, the area where they live is totally dominated by Virgin Media, so much so that BT have never even put in fibre lines, it seems. The only packages they can get through BT lines are all ADSL, around 12-19mbps with 1mbps upload. 10mbps down guaranteed through Now (Sky). They’re 844m straight line distance from the local exchange, apparently. The exchange does have LLU for Sky and TalkTalk.
They’ve also been on Virgin for so long (we moved when it was ntl:home back in the 90s) that BT are saying they’ve got to install a new line if we move back to an Openreach provider. I’m not sure if this means “reconnect the line,” or if this means “we are going to dig up your front garden” (my parents will absolutely not have their immaculate front garden touched). They’ve still got the old BT master socket in their hallway, but it hasn’t been used in 25 years. All the phone lines in the street are underground.
The other option is Three home broadband, which is available in their area, but with the only decent-ish prices being for a 24 month contract, I’m just not sure.
If it turned out to be total crap after the initial 14 day cooling off period, then what? I assume it’s not regulated in the same way standard fixed lines are, whereby if it doesn’t meet a minimum speed, you can leave without penalty.
Despite being in a Virgin Media area, they aren’t actually in a major city, a small town, so Three network congestion, I assume, wouldn’t be too bad.
So, what are our options?
Any ideas anyone? I’m honestly stumped as to what to do.
Any advice gratefully received.
Thanks.
Bit of a complicated one, this, but bear with me. I’m looking for some really rock solid advice. I’m genuinely unsure as to what to do broadband wise.
My parents live in a Virgin Media cable area. Over the past decade, my brother and I have moved out, and they’re now living alone. They’ve slowly stopped all the services they had when we were also living there, they stopped Virgin Media TV and also their landline as they just weren’t using it anymore.
They’re both nearly 70 and still have Virgin Media broadband. I’m getting a little fed up with having to remind them to keep having to renegotiate a new contract, also, frankly, not sure my dad is doing a particularly good job at these renegotiations.
What they have, for the two of them, is massive, massive overkill. They’re paying like £45 a month for 110mbps down and 10 up. They literally use it for Netflix/iPlayer (no UHD), some FaceTime and their various Alexa devices. I suppose the most unusual thing they do is dad sometimes does big batch uploads of photos to Amazon Photos (they use their Echo Shows as photo frames) but that’s it. They’ve also got a Ring doorbell but I’d say that’s a minor matter.
Thing is, Virgin seem to have sold my dad on the idea that he needs this level of speed. He told me he wants no reduction in internet speed “because we watch Netflix”. I’ve told him something 200 times slower would still let him watch Netflix and iPlayer.
The problem is, the area where they live is totally dominated by Virgin Media, so much so that BT have never even put in fibre lines, it seems. The only packages they can get through BT lines are all ADSL, around 12-19mbps with 1mbps upload. 10mbps down guaranteed through Now (Sky). They’re 844m straight line distance from the local exchange, apparently. The exchange does have LLU for Sky and TalkTalk.
They’ve also been on Virgin for so long (we moved when it was ntl:home back in the 90s) that BT are saying they’ve got to install a new line if we move back to an Openreach provider. I’m not sure if this means “reconnect the line,” or if this means “we are going to dig up your front garden” (my parents will absolutely not have their immaculate front garden touched). They’ve still got the old BT master socket in their hallway, but it hasn’t been used in 25 years. All the phone lines in the street are underground.
The other option is Three home broadband, which is available in their area, but with the only decent-ish prices being for a 24 month contract, I’m just not sure.
If it turned out to be total crap after the initial 14 day cooling off period, then what? I assume it’s not regulated in the same way standard fixed lines are, whereby if it doesn’t meet a minimum speed, you can leave without penalty.
Despite being in a Virgin Media area, they aren’t actually in a major city, a small town, so Three network congestion, I assume, wouldn’t be too bad.
So, what are our options?
- Try and negotiate with Virgin Media (again), it’s also worth pointing out my parent’s Super Hub is a load of crap and drops out all the time when on FaceTime, even in the room below the hub, so there’s clearly something weird with their current set up anyway.
- Get a cheap ADSL provider like Now broadband who are guaranteeing a 10mbps minimum speed for £18 a month, and 1mbps upload, which I think is more than ample, but might need some kind of (as yet undefined) works to reconnect the phone line.
- Or risk it and try Three broadband at £17 a month for 24 months, or £20 for 12 months?
Any ideas anyone? I’m honestly stumped as to what to do.
Any advice gratefully received.
Thanks.