"Premium" Home Broadband

[bitchstewie]

I'm with Plusnet but out of contract and spending more time working from home now.

I've been considering moving to Zen for some time.

I know I used the word "premium" in the title but more because it looks like for a few quid more than Sky/Vodafone/whoever else you get what I think is still regarded as a damned good ISP.

Anything I'm missing?

Anyone else to consider?

[Brainpox]

What you get with Zen is competant customer service and you will never get any unexpected price rises. If you sign up for their £34.99 Unlimited Fibre 2, that's all you'll pay for as long as you keep the contract rolling.

[jonwm]

Zen were my first broadband provider back in the early days of 512mb.

Never had an issue with them back then.

I've been quite impressed with BT fibre the last few months I've had it.

[bitchstewie]

jonwm said:

Zen were my first broadband provider back in the early days of 512mb.

Never had an issue with them back then.

I've been quite impressed with BT fibre the last few months I've had it.

Yes they've certainly been about a while.

I might be unusual in that I just want good broadband I don't really want/need/care about a TV bundle and all the other stuff.

In two minds if I even need > 40mbps and at that point £30/month for top notch broadband almost seems a bargain.

[mmm-five]

I'd happily move away from Virgin (200mbps), but the only other option around here is (guaranteed) 17mbps to (not-guaranteed) 38mbps 'full fibre' from Zen/BT/everyone else.

I think my next cheapest/fast option is EE 4G Max - as I can get 80mbps out of that, but the cap is 100Gb/month.

Not sure 17-38mbps is good enough for 4k Netflix on upto 3 devices.

[buggalugs]

I have my parents on Zen, that way I can tell them to call them when there’s an issue and it will actually get resolved rather than me having to drive up there. They’re really good.

[Bill]

We're with Zen and I do occasionally mutter about finding a cheaper deal, but then something goes wrong and I remember I don't have to deal with BT...

[nmd87]

Bill said:

We're with Zen and I do occasionally mutter about finding a cheaper deal, but then something goes wrong and I remember I don't have to deal with BT...

But based on my experience with BT Infinity (Fibre), nothing will go wrong (not in the 3 years I've had it, anyway) so not really any point in paying more for customer service you are unlikely to use if the product is reliable in the first place?

[bitchstewie]

nmd87 said:

But based on my experience with BT Infinity (Fibre), nothing will go wrong (not in the 3 years I've had it, anyway) so not really any point in paying more for customer service you are unlikely to use if the product is reliable in the first place?

Tends to be my view based on how many times I've needed any sort of support in 20 years or whatever it is of assorted ADSL.

Question was more on the "performance" side as I assume that the likes of Zen don't do shaping or any of the stuff that some cheaper ISPs do.

[CzechItOut]

What makes one BB supplier premium over another when they all go across the same physical wires?

[bitchstewie]

CzechItOut said:

What makes one BB supplier premium over another when they all go across the same physical wires?

The bit that happens inside the suppliers network.

[Bill]

nmd87 said:

But based on my experience with BT Infinity (Fibre), nothing will go wrong (not in the 3 years I've had it, anyway) so not really any point in paying more for customer service you are unlikely to use if the product is reliable in the first place?

Fair enough. We're rural and the line gets tree rubs etc. We've just gone over to fibre and Openreach messed up a couple of appointments that were sorted/compensated swiftly and easily.

[CzechItOut]

bhstewie said:

The bit that happens inside the suppliers network.

In what way? The only thing I can think of is that they buy capacity and then share it between fewer customers than say BT or Sky. However, I have absolutely no idea what that means in a world of high speed fibre compared to the old copper networks.

[mmm-five]

CzechItOut said:

What makes one BB supplier premium over another when they all go across the same physical wires?

Usually just the customer service & the price.

[bitchstewie]

CzechItOut said:

bhstewie said:

The bit that happens inside the suppliers network.

In what way? The only thing I can think of is that they buy capacity and then share it between fewer customers than say BT or Sky. However, I have absolutely no idea what that means in a world of high speed fibre compared to the old copper networks.

Pretty much what you said so far as sharing capacity and you're quite right that if you're on copper that will often be the limiting factor i.e. if your copper phone line can only support 11mbps paying more for a different ISP won't get you a faster connection over the same copper.

But the internet provider does control what happens in their own network.

Imagine you have a choice of ISP at £5/month or £10/month (I wish!!!) for what is on paper the exact same service i.e. "unlimited" at whatever speed your copper line can support.

The reason the £5 might be selling unlimited broadband for £5 is because they're piling it high and selling it cheap but they may be using some tricks on their own internal network to throttle/limit what customers can do.

The £10 is more expensive but may not be doing that.

You may find if you're a gamer that you get lower latency with a more expensive ISP too (not saying it is the case but it's an example of how it's not just about download speed).

Of course at a domestic level both are doing some calculations and making assumptions that not all of their customers are online pulling lots of data down at the same time

[xeny]

CzechItOut said:

What makes one BB supplier premium over another when they all go across the same physical wires?

A better experience when it steps working and you're on the phone to the company. Essentially you're paying for insurance.

Pick the right ISP, and https://xkcd.com/806/ works.

[nmd87]

Bill said:

Fair enough. We're rural and the line gets tree rubs etc. We've just gone over to fibre and Openreach messed up a couple of appointments that were sorted/compensated swiftly and easily.

Yep, can appreciate that. We're in a suburban location so different use case. I have heard good things about Zen and their router is said to be a lot better than those provided by the "big" suppliers. I just couldn't quite justify spending an extra £12 a month when my existing BT 55mb connection does the job. But I can understand why you would.

[jamoor]

You can try idnet too

[bitchstewie]

jamoor said:

You can try idnet too

Thanks, perhaps a little too premium for what I think I need which is just a decent connection for work and personal purposes

Do you use them and any issues or obvious pros/cons against someone like Zen?

[jamoor]

bhstewie said:

Thanks, perhaps a little too premium for what I think I need which is just a decent connection for work and personal purposes

Do you use them and any issues or obvious pros/cons against someone like Zen?

Yeah I used to have two lines with two ISPs for failover purposes zen was the first and idnet was the second. Didn’t really have any problems with either but the few times I did contact idnet for billing etc they were responsive
You can’t go wrong with either.

At home I have zen and haven’t had any problems in years but speeds etc always fine.