Broadband, which provider?

[Marf]

Right, after my current provider screwing up my line and decreasing the speed following an "upgrade", I've decided to jump ship.

I'm looking for 8mb with around 40gb transfer limit for under a tenner a month.

Top of my list currently is BE, they have an 8mb/40gb package for 7.50 a month.

Anyone here using them? What is there support like?

[bonsai]

Marf said:

Anyone here using them? What is there support like?

It is in India, but when I've had to use them they've been pretty helpful. In my opinion they're the best ISP in the UK.

[theboyfold]

I've used BE for the last 3 years and have nothing but good stuff to say about them, I think the support is actually based in Eastern Europe but it's very very good.

[fastfreddy]

Have you checked to find out what the maximum speed is you can get down your line? This may have a bearing on which ISP/package you choose.

[Marf]

fastfreddy said:

Have you checked to find out what the maximum speed is you can get down your line? This may have a bearing on which ISP/package you choose.

Thats where it gets interesting.

Prior to my "upgrade" I was on my providers 8mb/10gb package. The router would sync at 81xx kbps and I'd see max transfer speeds of around 750kb/s.

The upgrade took me to 20mb/unlimited and now the router syncs at 61xx kbps and I'm lucky to see 500kb/s transfer speeds.

So all being well I should be able to get what I had, i.e. 8mb.

[fastfreddy]

Well I don't know BE so can't really help there but £7.50 sounds good value if the contention ratio isn't too bad and they provide proper support.

[pies]

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

check who's got there equipment in your exchange first

[Marf]

Proper support is the big one.

I've spoken to four people at my current provider.

Two were very helpful and told me I should be receiving around 8.8mb and sent requests to the 2nd line team to up the speed. These were the first two I spoke to, unfortunately the problem did not remedy itself.

The next two were down right rude, and told me I'd only be getting 4mb and 6mb, and that I should be happy to have that regardless of the speeds I was receiving previously.

I know I should be able to get at least 7.5mb or so based on previous performance.

Edited by Marf on Sunday 14th February 17:57

[Marf]

pies said:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

check who's got there equipment in your exchange first

Thanks for that. BE have their equipment in my exchange.

[rfisher]

DO NOT EVER EVEN THINK ABOUT GOING WITH TALK TALK.

Ever.

For the rest of time.

Even after the end of the Universe.

At all.

This etc.

[Marf]

Point taken

[NORFE]

Was with F2S for many years but then they were sold to some big gun like pipex.

Went over to BE who have been great so my vote goes with BE

[Marf]

Cool.

Good to have some positive feedback on BE.

Well my "provider" sent me an apologetic e-mail this morning again confirming my line speed should be up around 8mb, that they'd manually reset the line and my speed should be back to normal.

Will check when I get home.

If it isnt sorted I'll be setting sail for BE at the end of the month.

[eybic]

I am with plusnet, very good. UK based call centres and a normal (0141) phone support number.

[eps]

Check Quidco, we got £50 cashback for switching

ETA :

£40 for Plus products and £25 for all others atm.

Edited by eps on Monday 15th February 12:52

[anonymous-user]

OP Sorry for a slight hijack

I am moving soon and when I go to BT it says for my postcode I will get 3.5MB

I assume this would be with all providers apart from Cable then?

[Marf]

eps said:

Check Quidco, we got £50 cashback for switching

ETA :

£40 for Plus products and £25 for all others atm.

Edited by eps on Monday 15th February 12:52

Cool thanks for that

[wiggy001]

Have nothing but praise for O2 - very efficient service, higher than predicted speeds and very cheap. As before, go via Quidco for £75 cashback (or it was when I signed up in October)

[.:ian:.]

+1 for BE, though if you have an 02 contract phone you can get a cheaper package from http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/packages.jsp (basically the same network as BE)

Packages are similar, but, f.e. the £7.50 is unlimited download cap on o2, the top 2 packages are up-to 20Mb/s on o2 (24Mb/s on BE)

Either way, sign up through Quidco for at least £25 cashback (and up to £100 for the highest o2 package..)

[LordGrover]

bethere for home/domestic and zen internet for business/commercial here. Both top ISPs.
Unlike Demon/Thus from where I switched.