View Full Version : Who provides your Broadband service and how good are they?
OK I'm going to try this again, as my first effort went off the rails rather quickly :lol:
http://cdn.head-fi.org/7/76/76d31508_c851d40e_Derail_1.jpeg
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?29685-Any-Co-Op-Phone-and-Broadband-users
This time can folk let me know who provides their broadband and how good would you rate them out of 10? Any other comments 'about the service' in general also gratefully accepted as I now have plenty of cakes here ;)
LittleTone
17-12-2013, 10:21
Hi Tim,
No complaints with BT Infinity. Have used then for about a year now and have to say that
the service has been exemplary so far. Free BT Sport is a bonus.
Regards
Tony
Audioman
17-12-2013, 10:24
I have BT at present mainly because I had 6 months free up till Sept. I have found the connection faster (not fibre as I don't need it) and get less annoying sales calls than I did with Orange (EEE). In fact the woman I spoke to when trying to leave got rather stroppy when I wouldn't listen to her sales chat rubbishing BT. On that basis avoid Orange and BT are not the bad boys some people claim though not the cheapest. However you get free streaming of BT sport included. If you want the full BT Sport television service you need to upgrade to a fibre package or pay extra.
Oldpinkman
17-12-2013, 10:46
I was with 2 "geek" providers before, both excellent - Andrews and Arnold, and Uno Xilo. We only have copper here (when the pikies don't nick it) out in the sticks but get a pretty impressive 4.09Mbps 4 miles from the exchange. We switched to BT (after positive comment by friends, because of the sports channel) and I have to say I have been pleasantly VERY surprised. Service for switchover was excellent, their little wireless router is at least as good as any I have had, speed still over 4Mbps -service very reliable. Just touched wood, but can't fault BT so far (3 weeks) :)
All good info, keep em' coming guys and thanks ;)
I am tempting to stick with BT, but they will have to offer me at least what other folk can get as a new customer. Madness, you can sign up today for Unlimited Broadband at £16 a month, but all they will let me have via my account upgrade page is Unlimited+ (which I don't want) at £21.00 a month!
Beobloke
17-12-2013, 14:27
We have BT out in the wilds of Hampshire and it's OK. The local telephone junction box is ancient which slows the speed down but I don't stream stuff or download music or movies, so as long as I can access email, eBay and hard-core turntable smut sites, I'm happy.
The entire phone line died recently but was up and running again and about four days after I reported the fault online. I have no desire to change because, as mentioned, we have no big streaming requirements, I prefer to watch televsion on a television rather than a PC but mainly because my sister has worked for BT for over 25 years and I'm too scared of her to change provider... :(
Oldpinkman
17-12-2013, 14:40
We have BT out in the wilds of Hampshire and it's OK. The local telephone junction box is ancient which slows the speed down but I don't stream stuff or download music or movies, so as long as I can access email, eBay and hard-core turntable smut sites, I'm happy.
The entire phone line died recently but was up and running again and about four days after I reported the fault online. I have no desire to change because, as mentioned, we have no big streaming requirements, I prefer to watch televsion on a television rather than a PC but mainly because my sister has worked for BT for over 25 years and I'm too scared of her to change provider... :(
Regarding the "entire phone line died recently". I'm dreading it. It's the season. Every tax return season the pikies steal all the copper cable in the village (its overhead). The poor BT engineers spend at least a week installing new cable and reconnecting everyone. I will get the apologetic little call "is that 12345678? Oh good thank you - only 417 more to go..." and be trying to file tax returns from the cafe at my David Lloyd gym. It's not the download speed I want glass for, its its lack of scrap value :(
I have BT and Talk Talk broadbands going to the same exchange (they would, they're for the same house). They both work pretty much at the contracted speeds. I've never needed to test out their service as nothing's gone wrong.
kenworthy100
17-12-2013, 14:52
bt infinity unlimited for just over a year, expensive but good speed (75mbps using ethernet from home hub), locked in for eighteen months so will shop around in a few months time.
MikeMusic
17-12-2013, 15:32
ICUK at work. 9/10
Fibre, so fast. Good guys to talk to and you can
Plusnet at home, took over Metronet and us.
We have a crap connection that will be the same from anyone but not happy as they are sloppy on admin and that results in me paying more money.
Have an ongoing beef with them about a recent upgrade where they stopped talking.
I said I was unhappy with deals to swap up to unlimited so a girl rang me - (no email proof !)
Gave me a great deal and now I can't get it.
Support not bad but be careful with Plusnet
6/10
I've always found reasonable advice on this subject at the thinkbroadband forums.
I was with Entanet in the early days of ADSL2, switched when that went down hill with ADSL2+ to a small ISP whose name I've forgotten. But I got fed up with BT's profiling system and getting speeds well below my line's capability. So I took the plunge to go LLU a couple of years ago and went with C&W reseller XILO for unlimited 16Mb broadband. Stuck with them, and have had very little down time and maintain speeds close to the service's 16Mb max. But then I'm only about 1Km from my exchange as the crow flies. Of course, it all depends on what's availalbe at your exchange, as shown at "SamKnows" http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search, your distance from the exchange and picking the right router.
Thing Fish
17-12-2013, 16:55
I have used Virgin 60gb for about 4 years now without any complaints.
I particularly wanted a broadband company that didn't use a land line as I didn't want or need one. I also didn't want to subscribe to Sky as I don't watch much telly nowadays.
BT broadband, via landline.
I know little of computer or internet matters, so made my choice after consultation with those that had already chosen BT: one a bit of a computer 'expert', who knew all about speed, security etc., and the second who chose it as being the best value for money (someone who always shops around for the best deals when it comes to home insurance and car insurance). Both are still with BT.
Been with them for 5 years and have no real complaint, but since BT changed the front page from BT Yahoo to their own, logging in takes longer and has to be done every time you want to check your e-mails, unlike Yahoo where once you logged in you were set up for the rest of the day.
Sky broadband in one place but not fibre - when it works it is fine but service is interrupted frequently because BT is unwilling or unable to upgrade the line it comes down and it fails frequently. Most of my postcode has fibre but they seem to have forgotten us and we are furthest from the exchange (natch). I work from home and cannot rely on the connection so I have a mifi dongle to guarantee connection. I only have the sky because it is effectively free with the dish and phone at the moment.
Andrews and Arnold in the other place - exemplary service, rock solid and reasonably fast.
I've used Virgin in the past and my experience is such that I will never touch them again.
Ali Tait
17-12-2013, 19:24
Regarding the "entire phone line died recently". I'm dreading it. It's the season. Every tax return season the pikies steal all the copper cable in the village (its overhead). The poor BT engineers spend at least a week installing new cable and reconnecting everyone. I will get the apologetic little call "is that 12345678? Oh good thank you - only 417 more to go..." and be trying to file tax returns from the cafe at my David Lloyd gym. It's not the download speed I want glass for, its its lack of scrap value :(
Don't kid yourself, nicking fibre cable and shipping it to China is big business!
mr sneff
17-12-2013, 19:30
Orange broadband for a number of years now, no complaints, always found their tech people very helpful on the rare occasions that I've had a problem.
Virgin on fibre-optic, for many years now. Had one problem where it turned out my connection in the junction box had come loose when they fitted another, so it still worked but very slowly, That was years ago and fault free since, but if you do have an issue their customer service is offshore and it sucks.
Nevertheless I always said when there was an alternative to BT I would take it as they were monopolising rob-dogs for years, supporting ridiculous over-manning, especially in mid to senior management, high salaries and pensions, waste and general complacency. A pal of mine did some contracting for them a few years ago and he reported that nothing had changed. I wouldn't go back to them if they put a gun to my head.
i have used Zen for a few years now. before that it was pipex (who were bought out by tiscali then talk talk, these proved to be utter shite for me.)
Zen are not cheap but i have had no trouble at all with them.
cant get fibre in my village and not likely to from what i read. :-(
have considered changing to bt to save money, but reluctant to change as i have had no bother.
Hi Tim,
No complaints with BT Infinity. Have used then for about a year now and have to say that
the service has been exemplary so far. Free BT Sport is a bonus.
Regards
Tony
Absolutely the same for me. I'm about 150m from the road side box which is fibred and about 500m from the local exchange, both as the crow flies. Only complaint I have is that I found it paid to monitor the speed about once a month in the early days of the contract as it had a habit of 'slowing down'. After a few such complaints I now have no speed problems.
Dave.
BT here too. Long term customer - ISDN 2e originally then upgraded to ADSL as soon as was available on the exchange in 2005. Great service with pretty much no downtime. Had been on Infinity for the last two years until recent house move - new house is too close to the exchange (<100m) - and new house has an EOL (exchange only line) and can't get Infinity, so am now downgraded to ADSL2+ @ 17.5 mbps down and around 1mbps up. Not too happy about this, but nothing I can do about it.
Virgin here, have used them as long as I can remember. We had some problems at first, but (fingers crossed) service is now very reliable. We only use them for broadband/landline as we don't have a TV anymore, but they do good 'bundles' if you want TV as well.
The Barbarian
18-12-2013, 14:11
I was on AOL ever since i first went on line however the last two years i have been with Sky Broadband with no problems at all.Nice looking router too.
I'm weighing up SKY and Tesco at the moment, I can get a years Unlimited Broadband with Tesco as I'm a Tesco mobile customer, all it will cost me is the line rental of £14.90 a month, which is pretty good compared to what I'm paying now. I'm hoping the service should be OK as I'm only 300M from the exchange, but I have read they supposedly throttle the bandwidth at peak times :scratch:
MikeMusic
18-12-2013, 14:50
I'm weighing up SKY and Tesco at the moment, I can get a years Unlimited Broadband with Tesco as I'm a Tesco mobile customer, all it will cost me is the line rental of £14.90 a month, which is pretty good compared to what I'm paying now. I'm hoping the service should be OK as I'm only 300M from the exchange, but I have read they supposedly throttle the bandwidth at peak times :scratch:
Have you had a look at the comparison sites to see if there are any special deals ?
Stratmangler
18-12-2013, 15:08
I'm hoping the service should be OK as I'm only 300M from the exchange, but I have read they supposedly throttle the bandwidth at peak times :scratch:
They don't throttle the bandwidth, but the contention ratio of the node you'll be connected to will be quite high, so this will slow things for users at peak demand periods.
hifi_dave
18-12-2013, 15:30
We use BT and have no complaints.
Out in the sticks, all Broadband comes via the telephone line and BT equipment. If something goes wrong, they fix it but if you use a different provider they and BT blame each other. I might save a pound or two per month with another provider but I'm quite happy with BT and their technical help srvice is great. Especially for a numpty.
They don't throttle the bandwidth, but the contention ratio of the node you'll be connected to will be quite high, so this will slow things for users at peak demand periods.
Just been reading about this and it seems they have what they call a Traffic Management Policy - its under their T&C. Certain services are slowed and others given priority at peak times 1730 - 2230 I think. I just tried to get a link to the page as its an interesting read, but it keeps timing out which doesn't bode well! Their website is very slow right now, maybe the free broadband offer is attracting a lot of traffic? I was able to navigate the whole site earlier today, now I can't even get to the front page! A cynic might say BT is stopping me :lol:
Also their 'Unlimited Usage' actually means a Fair Use limit of 100GB and if you go over 100GB a month, they slow you down or can terminate your contract if you keep exceeding it. There's a lot of fine print with a Tesco Broadband account, but you can sign up for a rolling 30 day contract, so I might try it, if it's rubbish I can go back to BT I guess? Not sure if the hassle would be worth it though :scratch:
Covenant
18-12-2013, 18:58
I have been with Talktalk for a few years without much problem but the speed has recently reduced. I phoned them and they are sending an engineer out free of charge to see what the problem is. I think that is pretty decent of them.
twickers
18-12-2013, 20:26
Been on Sky unlimited for a couple of years with minimal fuss. It went down last year around christmas time, and they sent someone out within a couple of days ( replaced all the old wiring ). Quite impressed. About £15 line rental plus £10 a month for Unlimited broadband. According to the speed indicator it's currently 36.0 Mbps. ( although it varies ).
09mike69
18-12-2013, 22:46
Kingston Communications (K.C.) in hull its pretty much all you can get, they got the monopoly in this town, they know it and they treat their customers like shit.
Sky and they do the job, I guess… and are a darn sight cheaper than the alternatives at the time we got them :)
P.
Looks like I'm sticking with BT - just gave them a call to cancel my service and they reduced my monthly fee by £5.00 and have increased my monthly bandwidth allowance from 40GB to Unlimited, so that'll do me.
Thanks for all the replies guys :)
MikeMusic
19-12-2013, 15:34
Looks like I'm sticking with BT - just gave them a call to cancel my service and they reduced my monthly fee by £5.00 and have increased my monthly bandwidth allowance from 40GB to Unlimited, so that'll do me.
Thanks for all the replies guys :)
Result !
Mark Grant
19-12-2013, 15:39
Kingston Communications (K.C.) in hull its pretty much all you can get, they got the monopoly in this town, they know it and they treat their customers like shit.
:)
I am in the same area and as you say no other choice, it's KC or nothing.
Service is OK though and the technical people on the business support answer quickly if something needs resetting etc.
Maybe one day we will have fibre to our house.......might be a long wait though.
Mark Grant
19-12-2013, 15:44
Looks like I'm sticking with BT - just gave them a call to cancel my service and they reduced my monthly fee by £5.00 and have increased my monthly bandwidth allowance from 40GB to Unlimited, so that'll do me.
Thanks for all the replies guys :)
result :) :D:)
We cant make such threats as there is nothing else here in Hull.
Unlimited for me would be £60 month, £720 year just for ADSL + the line rental.
Result !
Yeah I'm pleased with that Mike and it saves all the hassle of a change over, which from past experience can be a nightmare. Funnily enough the new cost at £13.65 a month plus £11.75 for line rental (I always pay up front) means a combined cost of £25.40 a month, which is exactly the same price as a SKY Unlimited Broadband service, with phone line and free weekend calls.
I was reading a lot of negative reports about Tesco Broadband and the Traffic Management Policy with 100GB 'unlimited cap' really put me off, plus the maximum possible speed is only 14Mbps and I get more than that with BT (16Mbps), so it would have been a reduction of speed. And since when does 100 = Unlimited :scratch:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w63/greatgig/broadband2_zps14b6fcce.png (http://s173.photobucket.com/user/greatgig/media/broadband2_zps14b6fcce.png.html)
16Mbps down and 0.9Mbps up is pretty good for a copper line, but the exchange is literally around the corner. I wish I could get Infinity, but its not at my nearest box yet.
I'm onto Unlimited already and have not long made the call, so that's good - it also means I can now watch Season 5 of Breaking Bad on Netflix! I had hit my 40GB limit for December already and was about to go over, so I stopped using the net . . . full steam ahead now and Season 5 here we come :D
Unlimited for me would be £60 month, £720 year just for ADSL + the line rental.
Ouch!
Virgin fibre, 30meg measured, no issues so far. :)
unfortunately there is not enough revenue in Hull for anyone else to be interested in getting a license up there,
its the councils fault for not joining with the other councils to form BT way back when
MikeMusic
20-12-2013, 08:05
result :) :D:)
We cant make such threats as there is nothing else here in Hull.
Unlimited for me would be £60 month, £720 year just for ADSL + the line rental.
What a rip off !
They need a shake up.
Would OfCom be interested ?
MikeMusic
20-12-2013, 08:08
I was reading a lot of negative reports about Tesco Broadband and the Traffic Management Policy with 100GB 'unlimited cap' really put me off, plus the maximum possible speed is only 14Mbps and I get more than that with BT (16Mbps), so it would have been a reduction of speed. And since when does 100 = Unlimited :scratch:
16Mbps down and 0.9Mbps up is pretty good for a copper line, but the exchange is literally around the corner. I wish I could get Infinity, but its not at my nearest box yet.
I'm onto Unlimited already and have not long made the call, so that's good - it also means I can now watch Season 5 of Breaking Bad on Netflix! I had hit my 40GB limit for December already and was about to go over, so I stopped using the net . . . full steam ahead now and Season 5 here we come :D
I like Tesco for deliveries. Not so keen on their stores and their financial bit is poor
We're stuck with the speed of up to 2Mb on a good day. Streaming is usually a problem. The village is being upgraded - apart from our bit
:(
What a rip off !
They need a shake up.
Would OfCom be interested ?
ofcom can only promote competition, they can't force other people to go operate there
MikeMusic
20-12-2013, 10:27
ofcom can only promote competition, they can't force other people to go operate there
If they had enough complaints could they force Hull to do something ?
They are well out of line with normal pricing
My understanding is that Hull was used as guinea pig for telecoms privatisation back in the early 'eighties and they had a very cheap service for many years until events caught up and took over. After privatisation the poorer areas of the UK seem to get the upgrades for some reason. I live in the ghetto but I have fibre-optic all the way to the modem, 70 meg or something like that. I've no use for it really but it may come in handy one day.
If they had enough complaints could they force Hull to do something ?
They are well out of line with normal pricing
ironically the size of hull and the fact that KC don't have a license anywhere else means that they don't have the economies of scale that BT has elsewhere
regulation doesn't necessarily translate to lower prices either, BT could actually sell cheaper if Ofcom would allow it, but ertain areas they have to charge more to allow the competition to operate at a comparable price
Hull wasn't used as the guinea pig for privatisation persee. Way back when most telephone services were operated by the local councils, everyone bar Hull Council voted to merge into the GPO as it was back then.
Central government opted to privatise BT
Hull council opted to privatise Kingston Communications
very similar issues in the channel islands and IOM
MikeMusic
21-12-2013, 09:50
ironically the size of hull and the fact that KC don't have a license anywhere else means that they don't have the economies of scale that BT has elsewhere
regulation doesn't necessarily translate to lower prices either, BT could actually sell cheaper if Ofcom would allow it, but ertain areas they have to charge more to allow the competition to operate at a comparable price
Hull wasn't used as the guinea pig for privatisation persee. Way back when most telephone services were operated by the local councils, everyone bar Hull Council voted to merge into the GPO as it was back then.
Central government opted to privatise BT
Hull council opted to privatise Kingston Communications
very similar issues in the channel islands and IOM
Perhaps a cable company ?
Perhaps a cable company ?
They would have to lay the cable. Where I live back in about '95 NYNEX came in and dug up all the pavements for miles and installed fibre optic cable to every building. I can't imagine how much that cost. Back then they only offered analogue cable TV and a cheap telephone service. They couldn't make any money so they sold it to Cable and Wireless. They couldn't make any money so sold it to someone else (forget who) who sold it to Virgin. Virgin were trying to sell it but then, 2008, the markets crashed and they were stuck with it. Over that time broadband internet and digital TV came in so the uptake now I would imagine is pretty high but they are still going to be paying off the massive cost of installing the infrastructure in the first place so I doubt they will run a profit for many years.
possible if they thought there was sufficient revenue, however no offence to anyone living in hull but most companies don't see it as wealthy enough to get a return on investment, and rolling out a new fibre network is not a small investment
They couldn't make any money so sold it to someone else (forget who) who sold it to Virgin.
NTL ;)
Yep, that's the doozie :)
Stratmangler
21-12-2013, 11:21
What a rip off !
Not necessarily the case.
They are not afforded the economies of scale that BT enjoy.
Something I didn't know until I Googled about their ownership is that the entire backbone is cabled up on smaller diameter wire, which in turn means that sensitive services like ADSL require more expensive DSLAMs in the exchange.
I have a lot of respect for Hull doing it Hull's way, very proud city, and Kingston Comms should be something to be admired even if economies of scale do make it a bit more expensive.
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