ISP recommendations and recent bargains

[EvilBoris]

I think I have the fibre unlimited. I went with Sky because it was the only package that didn't have a bandwidth cap for the price.

[k0pp0]

I have Talktalk broadband over ADSL. I live in a little village with it's own telephone switch, but because of the 'small backhaul pipe' it's a blistering nearly 7Mbs in the morning, and then at around 5pm drops to a crippling .5Mbs

Talktalk on the whole are abysmal if you ring their customer services, but their support account on twitter seem to be pretty pro-active.

I still wouldn't recommend them to anyone. The local switch is being 'assessed' for Fibre, so as soon as that's in (with FTTP most likely) I'll switch to sky or virgin.

[charlesr]

Switch to vivaciti business account. You won't be able to get youtube above 240p during the day (fine after 7pm), but netflix works and all other traffic gets priority over the rest of the village on residential contracts, so VOIP (skype etc) is perfect, and gaming gets better pings (almost half if you switch to fastpath if you are close enough to the switch). ?30 a month.

[fallenangle]

I have Talktalk broadband over ADSL. I live in a little village with it's own telephone switch, but because of the 'small backhaul pipe' it's a blistering nearly 7Mbs in the morning, and then at around 5pm drops to a crippling .5Mbs

Talktalk on the whole are abysmal if you ring their customer services, but their support account on twitter seem to be pretty pro-active.

I still wouldn't recommend them to anyone. The local switch is being 'assessed' for Fibre, so as soon as that's in (with FTTP most likely) I'll switch to sky or virgin.

I'm with Talktalk ADSL too and I wish i was getting that sort of speed at any time. I was told I'd get between 2.5Mbs and 7Mbs but the best I get, according to their own and independent speed test is 3Mbs. Typically it is 2.5Mbs and some of my downloads have proven I'm sometimes getting well under 1Mbs and that is irrespective of time of day. TR Guardian Of Light from the Xbox store (2.1GB) took two hours and earlier this week it took two and a half hours to download 1.15GB of old skins for XBMC4XBOX.

Second the comment on Talktalk's customer support but I've found their web site forum (beta) seems to have quite a few staff fielding complaints, offering advice and more importantly actually doing something about it even if it still takes them some time to respond.

[EvilBoris]

I have Talktalk broadband over ADSL. I live in a little village with it's own telephone switch, but because of the 'small backhaul pipe' it's a blistering nearly 7Mbs in the morning, and then at around 5pm drops to a crippling .5Mbs

Talktalk on the whole are abysmal if you ring their customer services, but their support account on twitter seem to be pretty pro-active.

I still wouldn't recommend them to anyone. The local switch is being 'assessed' for Fibre, so as soon as that's in (with FTTP most likely) I'll switch to sky or virgin.

Can you complain when they cost all of ?3.75 a month?

[fallenangle]

Can you complain when they cost all of ?3.75 a month?

Yes. You do have to line rent from them too so the total BB package is actually around ?19/month.

If they offer a service and promise a certain speed range, based on their own line test, then that is what they should be contractually obligated to provide. I was told 2.5Mbs to 7Mbs and I'm actually getting 0.5Mbs to 3Mbs. If they can't or don't give you the BB service you signed up for then that is misrepresentation.

[Lyris]

Can anyone here give me some advice re upload speed?

I called Virgin Media Business and asked, if money was plentiful, what the fastest upload speed they could get me.

5mbps.

5.



Does anyone here get reasonable upload speed?

[Adrock]

I'm looking again at the prospect of changing ISP. Currently with Virgin and I'm looking at either going with BT or Sky.

What do you guys reckon? Im looking towards BT so I can get BT Sport included, which can be added to my Sky TV. It'll only cost me ?5 a month extra compared with Sky. But overall I'll be saving money once I remove Virgin.

So, any glaring problems with BT or Sky?

[charlesr]

@Lyris I get the maximum my line can handle. 832Kbps. If that makes you feel any better

[Robster]

@ Lyris - I get about 15 meg up on BT infinity 2.

@ Adrock - Im on BT inifinity 2 and its really good speeds and unlmited. BT Sports is free too, the only thing about BT is their customer service is appalling.

From on the phone to installation its so so bad (see me dilemma earlier in this thread) but once its up and running its good. Price wise I pay about 40 a month including line rental.

Other people have not had my experience and enjoyed a seemless transition but its the chance you take. My only advice is if you get problems email the customer service director of the uk direct like i did and my BB was installed 2 days later after waiting about 4 weeks.

Good luck !.

[ETC]

I'm looking again at the prospect of changing ISP. Currently with Virgin and I'm looking at either going with BT or Sky.

What do you guys reckon? Im looking towards BT so I can get BT Sport included, which can be added to my Sky TV. It'll only cost me ?5 a month extra compared with Sky. But overall I'll be saving money once I remove Virgin.

So, any glaring problems with BT or Sky?

I went from BT infinity to Sky. For me Sky was/is way better from customer service (I had an outage and had an engineer in 3 hours) to speed and price. But in my area Fibre is crap I went from 21MB down on fibre with BT to 15.5MB on normal copper with Sky for 1/3 of the price.

[nakamura]

I only get 3mb upload with Virgin. Why is that so low?

[nakamura]

Ok, getting 60/3 on Virgin with a TiVo box I rarely use and a phone I never use for ?47 a month. BT will offer me up to 76/19 with a phone and BT sport for ?26 a month. Free installation too. Seems like a no brainer.

[Robster]

Nakamura,

I get nowhere near my max speeds using wi-fi. I only get max speeds using cables, might be something to bear in mind before your change.

[nakamura]

I only use cables for consoles. Wi fi is rubbish.