# Broadband who do you use and why?



## phil67 (Mar 17, 2008)

Should be moving house soon and after having so much hassle with my current provider talk talk with regarding the move. 

I am in the market for some fresh broadband in my life when I move in, the main things is the speed of installation which currently appears to rule out BT and Plusnet as the first date on the website is the 6th August.

So I am looking for a company that can get the install done quicker and also has a good customer care

Any suggestions, im not too bothered if its fibre or standard broadband and I don't live in a Virgin covered area.

Thanks


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## Andyblue (Jun 20, 2017)

With BT and overall pleased with them, good service and great speeds, but they have upped my price roughly once per year over past 3 years mid contract - not on in my book. You sign for a 12 - 18 month contract at £xx per month, that is what it should stay at. It appears a lot of broadband suppliers seem to do this - I remember seeing a TV advert advertising they won't do this, but can't remember who ...

Could be worth a few phone calls to see if any of them can sort it out sooner for you ?


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## ianrobbo1 (Feb 13, 2007)

I was going to say don't bother with Talk Talk, but it appears you already know!!


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## phil67 (Mar 17, 2008)

ianrobbo1 said:


> I was going to say don't bother with Talk Talk, but it appears you already know!!


Yes indeed, its taken a lot of time to get away from them and due to the incompetence of some of their staff ive managed to be able to leave with out the termination fees after only 4 months into an 18 month contract and hopefully the next supplier will have a router I wont have to reset most days


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## sevenfourate (Mar 23, 2013)

SKY and have been for 13 years - mainly for the ability to talk to a person in a UK service centre when problems occur. Which will happen at some point. Their customer service is second to none.

Talk-Talk's actual service / Broadband speed etc was epic for me - infact until such time you needed help they were great.

BT i'm not going to even waste too many keystrokes telling you about. #pathetic.


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

Sky must have changed since I left as my service was dreadful and the call centres were foreign and useless. 

BT were evwn worse. 

Talk Talk are also poor. The line I've got here is so slow and unreliable. 

When at home home it's Virgin cable. It's on a different planet in comparison. Hopefully it'll be available here soon.


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## Philb1965 (Jun 29, 2010)

Been with BT on fibre for the last few years. Also had them up my payments every year so with the latest rise I tried to get them to price match EE at £34 a month for 72mb BB and anytime calls. They knocked an amazing £2.60 extra off bringing them in at £46 so I change over to EE on the 25th July. Sad really as the service has been good. Been with EE before and they were fine. At the end of the day it's the same line as BT so their loss. Also getting a £75 reward card for changing over.

That's for 18 months and guaranteed no price rises, worth checking for that with whoever you go for.


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## Darlofan (Nov 24, 2010)

Im with sky. Tv(basic) phone and broadband. Never had issues with any of the services. Only thing is haggling a month before end of contract. Call centre is abroad until you ask to cancel then you're transferred to Scotland.


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## Soul boy 68 (Sep 8, 2013)

Plus net for me, UK call centres and service is pretty decent. Worth a punt.


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## phil67 (Mar 17, 2008)

Soul boy 68 said:


> Plus net for me, UK call centres and service is pretty decent. Worth a punt.


The only problem is how long to wait, I believe as they are part of BT and allowing other companies access to the equipment they have to allow them some early access and Openreach is also owned by BT


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## angel1449 (Apr 15, 2012)

Im with virgin myself but moving to a new house that virgin is not in the area now when I ring to tell them im moving will they hit me with fees etc as im not out of contract


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## phil67 (Mar 17, 2008)

angel1449 said:


> Im with virgin myself but moving to a new house that virgin is not in the area now when I ring to tell them im moving will they hit me with fees etc as im not out of contract


That's not good about the fees, but couldn't you try and go down the line that's its not your fault that they do not cover the area that you are moving too and ask for a bit of compassion as you really like the service and would of love to carry on using them?


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## andy__d (Jun 27, 2018)

Virgin for me
been with then 20+ years (birmingham cable who were bought by blueyoner who were bought by virgin type thing)
speed , quality of service, Consistency of service all excellent
how fast they would be at a new install "pass"


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## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

I'm with sky. Really first class. Get on the phone with them and haggle the price way way down. They will do excellent deals for first time customers, to get you on their book.

My mum is with BT, and they are truly pathetic. Simple. 

Cooks

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## Jack R (Dec 15, 2014)

Another one for virgin, been with them 15 years now and can’t fault them, and as long as you know how to play the game you’ll get the best deals.


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## tosh (Dec 30, 2005)

If you move house and they cannot provide service to your new address, you will be let out of your existing contract. 


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## Kenan (Sep 7, 2015)

I'm with BT, but only because I work for them and get a good deal. When anything goes wrong I will regret it . . 

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## pxr5 (Feb 13, 2012)

I'm with BT 80/20 VDSL (I get 76/20 mbps). I'll never have anything to do with Sky. I was with Be Internet before Sky bought them and O2 out. Jumped to BT then. TalkTalk and Plusnet have poor reputations. Vodafone are another company I would never use. Zen and AAISP (both good reps) I considered, but a bit dear for me. So I was left with BT really. Service has been generally pretty good, but I've never had an issue that required any support (which I've read can be a nightmare with the overseas call centres). I'd go with Virgin if they had cable where I live and I'd consider FTTH if it were available too. Hoping at least for Gfast some time soon.


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## GP Punto (May 29, 2007)

Also with Virgin, plagued with an area fault where my signal just goes down with all sorts of flashing lights on the V6 box, many engineers have had a look but because it is intermittent, around 5 times a day, goes down for 2 minutes and then ok for 2 hours, some days no problems at all. 

Virgin cannot find where there is a fault. 

In terms of customer service though I find them to be much above average.


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## Andy1972 (Jan 12, 2014)

Cookies said:


> I'm with sky. Really first class. Get on the phone with them and haggle the price way way down. They will do excellent deals for first time customers, to get you on their book.
> 
> My mum is with BT, and they are truly pathetic. Simple.
> 
> ...


I'd second that.

Been with Sky for for over 15years now and I whinge about the fibre speeds of 45mbps we were promised are actually only 25-30 but it still is more than I actually need. Even when both myself and son are playing on separate playstations and daughter is streaming you tube, it still works fine. I can count maybe 1 or 2 times its ever been an issue. When it comes to haggle time they usually knock 40% off the total bill. You get contracted in for 12 months but the discount lasts for 12 months also.

However, im going to stop the tv in October as im finding I watch Netflix more now. Or just good old fashioned BBC etc.

My only gripe, if you can call it that is why do they wait for you to threaten to leave before discounting your package. They must have the software to see that im a customer that always haggles so just save me the hassle.


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## phil67 (Mar 17, 2008)

Well I have decided to try the Sky fibre and got a reasonable deal as I've had the tv for years and got it on an 18 month contract, but the con if even though you are on an 18 month contract the price could still rise  

Think I may invest in either Netflix or Amazon as I have gone down to the lowest package Sky does just to get a bit more choice


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## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

We recently moved to BT fibre, Was with EE for years (infact it was Orange before that and Freeserve back many many years ago). EE was expensive and slow and unreliable. Constant arguments over problems with the connection. Do live in a nice area but this means from what i know we are the furthest street from the exchange. The cables are overhead and suffer problems with the weather at times as well as many more houses being added to the line as more have been built in my lifetime down this road. We have seen a significant improvement not only in speed but quality, dont think if seen it disconnect at all yet, We are classed as 'Fibre to Cabinet' and the best could expect with EE was about 2meg, its now nearer to 30meg which am more than happy with, expecially considering neighbour is also BT but not fibre by sounds and get 5meg, we were told that would be the best we could hope for without fibre. I really didnt expect such and increase to be possible and know friends that have internet twice as fast but when your used to it being so painfully slow i do think would i really notice such a improvement from where we where before.


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## Darlofan (Nov 24, 2010)

phil67 said:


> Well I have decided to try the Sky fibre and got a reasonable deal as I've had the tv for years and got it on an 18 month contract, but the con if even though you are on an 18 month contract the price could still rise
> 
> Think I may invest in either Netflix or Amazon as I have gone down to the lowest package Sky does just to get a bit more choice


Been with sky for years and yeah it can and will go up mid contract but it's only when line rental goes up so usually less than a couple of quid per month and you do have the option to cancel if not happy with price increase. They only hike it up at the end of your contract which is why I suggest haggling/giving 30days notice a month before it's due to finish.


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## Derek Mc (Jun 27, 2006)

Been with Plusnet for about four years but the signal from our router started to get patchy in the house, and drop connection to laptop and other equipment intermittently, so recently took a deal with BT. They were a nightmare to deal with as they mixed up and messed up our order, but once sorted the wifi and having the hotspot service out and about is just amazing. 
By far the most reliable signal and strength, I have had I have to admit.


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## Deathstar (Jan 13, 2013)

Plusnet, generally bombproof.

Faults I get are with the Openreach infrastructure, and not ISP end.

I've moved to a two box solution, modem and separate router. Since then my line has been exemplary. 

Remember, most faults are outwith your ISP's control (BT Excluded). So it's how they handle them that's important.
You can generally replace the ISP supplied hardware too, as it's functional rather than excellent (Vodafone is a bit more difficult).

If you have an Asus DSL-AC68U, bin it or go two a two box solution as it's not approved for the network and can introduce problems (been there). That is the reason to why I am now 2 box.

Since going to a supported modem, I've gained around 18Mb is sync and throughput.


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## mar00 (Jun 24, 2018)

generally avoid BT, TalkTalk EE, Plusnet were very good but going down hill quickly no BT are involved, If you're on a locked exchange the ISP speed wise doesn't matter that much will all be similar, what what will affect the speed is traffic shaping, most ISP's won't admit they do it but they all do in some form, SKY are probably the better ones and customer service isn't too bad, not easy to use a third party router though, but you may find you don't get the fastest and cheaper packages on locked exchanges,


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## daydotz (May 15, 2011)

Been with plus net since 2013


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## Stoner (Jun 25, 2010)

I have used the following over the last five years:

Virgin Fibre - great speed, minimal latency and reliable. I only switched away because the they don't supply to the area I moved too.

Vodafone - a joke of a provider. And without equal the most difficult company to deal with at any level. The service dropped every week for at least a few hours and speed was very erratic. I now avoid them at all costs!

Sky - now with Sky Fibre. Not the fastest but consistent and mid-range latency. The WiFi is especially good because the Sky Q box acts as a repeater. Although it's been reliable, if Virgin started to supply to my area, I would swap immediately.


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## Dannbodge (Sep 26, 2010)

I've been with Virgin for about 5 years now.

Currently paying ~£40pm for 200mbps. I've never had an issue with anything. The customer service has always been good and I've never had below the advertised speed, in fact it's normally over by 5/10mbps.

The one issue I had was intermittent internet drops a few years ago, so they replaced the cable from the box to the house within a week and I've not had an issue since.

When I joined Virgin they were by far the best value for money. I got a decent deal through broadband choices.


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## J306TD (May 19, 2008)

Been with sky for 7 years now. Only 1 major issue and that was down to an electrical fire at the exchange 

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## Sim (Feb 18, 2008)

I work from home and need a relatively fixed IP address, so I was with Zen for years, but because I'm 'Lucky enough' to have an exchange only line I can't get FTTC to FTTP :wall:

I moved to Virgin 18 months ago and it's been solid and reliable so far...


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