ISP recommendations and recent bargains

[wod]

i dont get it with virgin media, you can get 120mb but a rubbish upload speed, how does that work is the cable network in the uk badly designed or something ?

i'm still with Be and havent heard when i'll be migrating over to sky as i'm tempted to try out skys fibre option but i think they only do 40/10 at the minute.

[bash]

I'm same as you Wod but any fibre wont be available in my area until March

[bash]

Right, so have a letter from Sky now telling me they'll switch me over to there Sky Broadband Unlimited Pro, Sky talk Freetime and Sky Line rental for ?27.90 a month, I have a similar deal with BE for ?28.26 (so saving a whopping 30 odd p WHOO HOO!)

BUT

Sky label they're unlimited pro service as UP TO 16meg and I'm on BEs 24meg service so not sure if I should kick off. I have until 15th Feb to call them up to discuss options but really dont know what outcomes are likely other than join or cancel. I dont want to cancel as that will most likely result in the ceasing of my landline (and require a nasty re-activation charge for my new supplier) however I hate Sky and dont want to join them, especially if my speeds slow down.

I guess I'll just stay and wait for some Fibre to make itself avaliable, I'm not getting tied into a new 12 month contract or anything so thats a relief.

[bash]

Right, just called them and they offered me the same service (apparently) for ?7.50 a month, they'll send their sky hub 2.0 which has dual band and is meant to improve the wi-fi signal in the house. Admittedly mine is pretty crap these days. I told them I didnt want to be tied in for 12 months and wanted fibre. They said i could upgrade to fibre when it became avaliable but this deal was just for Be customers. After a lot of umming and arring they offered ?40 credit which meant I wouldnt pay anything until for nearly 6 months. After EVEN MORE umming and arring they offered ?75 credit which means I get nearly 10 months free off that contract so I'd end up paying around ?20 for the year of what they call 11-18meg service.

I told them to call me back at the end of the month as I wanted to shop around. Need to see the reviews on this Sky Hub router and get a firm answer as to when fibre is coming and for how much but overall pretty good deal.

I ****ing hate Rupert Murdoch and his mates though!

[ETC]

Right, just called them and they offered me the same service (apparently) for ?7.50 a month, they'll send their sky hub 2.0 which has dual band and is meant to improve the wi-fi signal in the house. Admittedly mine is pretty crap these days. I told them I didnt want to be tied in for 12 months and wanted fibre. They said i could upgrade to fibre when it became avaliable but this deal was just for Be customers. After a lot of umming and arring they offered ?40 credit which meant I wouldnt pay anything until for nearly 6 months. After EVEN MORE umming and arring they offered ?75 credit which means I get nearly 10 months free off that contract so I'd end up paying around ?20 for the year of what they call 11-18meg service.

I told them to call me back at the end of the month as I wanted to shop around. Need to see the reviews on this Sky Hub router and get a firm answer as to when fibre is coming and for how much but overall pretty good deal.

I ****ing hate Rupert Murdoch and his mates though!

If it's the normal sky hub it's simply just a white box couple of Ethernet ports on the back, not much more, not customisable. Fwiw I changed to sky in July last year and was promised 15mb and that's pretty much what I always get, it seems really solid. Iirc when I read the reviews Sky are more bothered about stability than speed so it will depend on your noise levels as to what you will get with them, I can post mine up later to give you an idea if you like?

[Robster]

Bash Im a bit late to this sorry but BE broadband is part of Sky now, they were taken over last year and I decided to switch to BT Infinity.

[bash]

How much is your BT Infinity?

[Robster]

All in Im ?44 a month - Approx breakdown:

?15 line rental.
?8 For TV Box Documentary channels including BT Sports HD (Free)
?21 for Infinty 2.

Major teething problems trying to get it installed and BT customer service is shockingly bad, I must admit though once its up and running the speeds are quite enjoyable.

See my previous posts on speed, also I remember seeing BT have some deals on just now for infinity.

If you can stand the drama to install it then I would say its worth it.

[bash]

After the excellent service of Be I dont think I could stand the BT muppets (no offence to your avatar)

Having said that I wouldnt want/need the TV box so might be able to get it cheaper.

[nakamura]

I'm with Virgin and the prices are crazy. ?52 for basic tv, 60mb BB and a phone I don't even want. I don't even want the TV.
Looking at BT Infinity but leaving them last time was a pain.

[EvilBoris]

You can do virgin without a phone line if you want.

[VR46]

I think the saving without the phone line is next to nothing ie, they charge more for the other services if you don't have the phone line. Was last time I checked a couple of years back.

Nak, you tried going through to the cancellation dept and say you're thinking of leaving as it's too expensive? you could get a fiver or so a month knocked off depending who you speak to.

[wod]

Well I've had my offer letter from sky today and as I'm with Be they have offered to move me to sky fibre unlimited pro, sky talk free time with line rental for ?30.40 a month seems good to me.

I was paying similar price with Be anyway.

On the back of the letter it says I get a welcome discount of ?15 per month for 12 mths otherwise it would be ?45.40.

Stated on the letter is I'm not going to be tied into a minimum term either which is good.

Just wondering what to do as I'm thinking get bt back for the sport channels.

[bash]

OK so been with Sky officially since the 22nd Feb, the new router is not bad in terms of improved WI-Fi reception and speed BUT I'm noticed the other day downloading a torrent via piratebay was stuck on a measly 50-80kbps. not only that but my browsing speed also slowed to a crawl unless I stopped the torrent. Then normal service resumed. Switched to a private tracker and it wooshed back up to the normal 1.7-1.8Mbps. This is throttling/traffic shaping right? It was Sunday evening so probably peak time for most people.

I called Sky to complain and the bird just wanted to run through tests at home (I was in the office so couldnt do this anyway) but she wasnt understanding that I was accusing Sky of throttling and all she could do was state that Sky Unlimited customers do not get throttled!

What should I do? my cooling off period runs out in a couple of days

[QualityChimp]

I'm with Virgin and I'm paying just under ?50 a month for cable broadband, Medium Tv, Tivo and landline plus cheap weekend/evenings.

I rarely use the landline and I only seem to watch the five terrestrial channels anyway. All the recordings are of shows on the BBC mainly, plus a couple of Sky shows that I've never gotten around to watching.

Has anybody sacked off Virgin to streamline their requirements and cut costs?

I'm worried if I go back to standard 3 to 6Mb download speeds that online gaming, browsing and Amazon Prime Video streaming will practically stop working.

Can I buy a YouView box off eBay? Will I still be able to record and catch up on TV?

Any helpful suggestions or similar experiences welcome!