Which broadband to go for?

TehBluebear · 3 Dec 2013 at 12:24

Hi all.

Currently we're on O2/Be, and as you probably know, this is now changing to Sky. (Sky have just sent us out a letter and we have a week to decide if we want to continue with their package or look at others.)

Anyway, having heard of appaling customer service with Sky from family friends and from the internet in general, we're thinking about changing provider.
We're not interested in TV (Freeview is fine for us), but as I use Steam a fair bit and game online, I'd love a decent connection. Unfortunately, where we live, it's never going to be a fantastic speed (too far from the exchange apparently, even though we're in the middle of Burnley), so as long as we get decent CS and a stable connection, we'll be happy.

Samknows.com says that the following is available:

BT Wholesale ADSL
BT Wholesale ADSL Max
BT Wholesale WBC (21CN)
AOL LLU
O2 / Be LLU
TalkTalk (CPW) LLU
Sky Broadband / Easynet LLU
Tiscali LLU
Virgin Media (Cable)

...and I've just tried the Plusnet site and we can get their normal broadband stuff, up to 6mb download. The £2.75 price plus line-rental is tempting, but how are they for service and connection stability?

So, any recommendations?

bremen1874 · 3 Dec 2013 at 12:30

There are many happy plusnet customers on this forum. I've only used them for a FTTC connection, rather than ADSL, but they've been fine.

andicole0 · 3 Dec 2013 at 12:33

Plusnet have a good reputation.

Andi.

camerongray · 3 Dec 2013 at 12:35

For DSL I am also a big fan of PlusNet (my parents use their DSL and it's pretty fast). That said you have stated that you live far from the exchange, this means that all DSL providers will be slow.

If you can get a cable connection from Virgin that's probably your best bet - Faster than DSL connections (Starts at 30mbps down and 3mbps) and will not be affected by distance from the exchange so you should be able to get the full speed you pay for. I'm on their 100mbps plan and it's absolutely fantastic, had a couple of hours of downtime in total in the last few months but nothing major at all.

Steveocee · 3 Dec 2013 at 12:57

+1 Virgin.
Good speeds and I've probably had 1 hour downtime in the 3 years I've had it.

CS isn't amazingly easy to get through but I rarely if ever use them so not a problem.

TehBluebear · 3 Dec 2013 at 13:01

camerongray said:
For DSL I am also a big fan of PlusNet (my parents use their DSL and it's pretty fast). That said you have stated that you live far from the exchange, this means that all DSL providers will be slow.

If you can get a cable connection from Virgin that's probably your best bet - Faster than DSL connections (Starts at 30mbps down and 3mbps) and will not be affected by distance from the exchange so you should be able to get the full speed you pay for. I'm on their 100mbps plan and it's absolutely fantastic, had a couple of hours of downtime in total in the last few months but nothing major at all.

Steveocee said:
+1 Virgin.
Good speeds and I've probably had 1 hour downtime in the 3 years I've had it.

CS isn't amazingly easy to get through but I rarely if ever use them so not a problem.

Despite what Samknows.com says...

"Sorry, your home isn't in a Virgin Media area

We've checked your postcode and unfortunately we can't bring you any Virgin Broadband, TV or home phone services."

Funny thing is we've had flyers through the door from time to time advertising VirginMedia. Oh well.

roadie · 3 Dec 2013 at 13:58

I've found Sky to be very reliable in the past. No complaints from me about them. Certainly a better experience than Virgin in my opinion.

RTXIII · 3 Dec 2013 at 14:02

TehBluebear said:
Despite what Samknows.com says...

"Sorry, your home isn't in a Virgin Media area

We've checked your postcode and unfortunately we can't bring you any Virgin Broadband, TV or home phone services."

Funny thing is we've had flyers through the door from time to time advertising VirginMedia. Oh well.

Trust me your postcode and i'll check on our internal system here

Sometimes they do the flyer drop to get feedback and that if there is enough demand for it in your area they'll look into getting it done.

Caged · 3 Dec 2013 at 14:13

That's such a daft system, I get stuff through the door advertising VM and it doesn't make me think "maybe if I phone up they will consider rolling it out here", it makes me think "here's a communications company that doesn't know what addresses their network serves".

RTXIII · 3 Dec 2013 at 14:15

Caged said:
That's such a daft system, I get stuff through the door advertising VM and it doesn't make me think "maybe if I phone up they will consider rolling it out here", it makes me think "here's a communications company that doesn't know what addresses their network serves".

Didn't say it was a good system. I get flyers and I work for them (Yes I have TiVO etc), but hey it's general flyer drop.

MBH38 · 6 Dec 2013 at 10:17

Swapped to Sky from BT at my old house and went from a steady 15mb to barely hitting 1mb...never again.
I would say BT, they aren't as cheap as the others but I am a great believer of you get what you pay for (which is why I got my PC from Over Clockers).
Also keep an eye on BT's website and check if Infinity broadband is due in your area.

Columbo · 6 Dec 2013 at 10:58

I've just moved from Sky to BT last week (mainly for the free footy).

The process was pretty smooth and took 13 days. I was on the Sky Fibre Pro 80mb package which is a totally unlimited and unmetered package, I got 61mb down.

I'm now on the BT 76mb package which is again totally unlimited and unmetered and for some strange reason I'm getting 69mb down now.

In the 6 years I was on Sky LLU & Fibre I really didnt have a single issue with the the broadband reliability, however the CS can be painful at times depending upon which tier you get, I only moved for the free footy which was helped by the fact that I'm saving around £11 p/m against Sky.

One thing I will note though is that my ping times on games seems to higher on BT. With 2 servers I regularly play L4D2 on I got around 15-20ms on Sky, I'm now averaging 35-40ms with BT. Not a big deal but if you are a gamer it might be worth looking at.

krnsniper · 6 Dec 2013 at 19:00

Don't be fooled by your initial download speeds as chances are it will eventually drop at some point as what happened to me and other customers which have had stable 75Mb down which SUDDENLY drops to 40-50 mb... Your ISP will then say it has to do with DLM and tell you to just wait for it to increase again... but after months it doesn't move an inch.

Nealio · 9 Dec 2013 at 11:58

Im in the same position as the OP, having had 02 LLU ADSL, now being moved to Sky. We're also coincidentally just coming off a deal and no longer receiving an O2 mobile discount so there's a corresponding significant price bump. The connection is only 6meg on a good day but the ping is good and 100% rock solid, never any issues even at peak times.

Previously I tried Virgin Media as they had just rolled out in my area. In the end I invoked their 28 money back guarantee and went back to O2 as the connection was atrocious. Outright download speed was fine, but the ping, jitter and packet loss made gaming all but unplayable a lot of the time, especially peak.

That was well over a year ago though so I'm wondering if they've done anything to sort their 'overutilized' network out in the meantime, in which case I might give them another try.

Anyone know? I'm in Southampton, SO18

FrenchTart · 9 Dec 2013 at 12:32

Stay away from VM - too much of a gamble on whether or not you'll get anything decent.

edit: I see you can't get VM anyhow - lucky escape

TehBluebear · 9 Dec 2013 at 13:12

Well, we've just gotten switched over, and now our speed is atrocious, barely hitting 1mb on Speedtest.net!! Definitely going to be looking at changing to Plusnet.

FrenchTart · 9 Dec 2013 at 15:32

TehBluebear said:
Well, we've just gotten switched over, and now our speed is atrocious, barely hitting 1mb on Speedtest.net!! Definitely going to be looking at changing to Plusnet.

Sky will almost certainly be applying interleaving (which your line may need but may not..either way it will reduce sync speed and increase pings) and also may have a much higher SNR profile set than you need. You might be able to tweak this last bit.

Switching is definitely worthwhile though. I think you've made the right decision with Plusnet

Craigius · 9 Dec 2013 at 19:49

TehBluebear said:
Well, we've just gotten switched over, and now our speed is atrocious, barely hitting 1mb on Speedtest.net!! Definitely going to be looking at changing to Plusnet.

Have you tried contacting them to get the settings altered at there end,I'm in the same position as you I'm on the BE network and keep waiting for the letter to land saying they are moving me to sky, when i get the ltter i will be leaving i think to Plusnet.

Sparx · 9 Dec 2013 at 19:51

TehBluebear said:
Well, we've just gotten switched over, and now our speed is atrocious, barely hitting 1mb on Speedtest.net!! Definitely going to be looking at changing to Plusnet.

Can you post your router stats?

You will be in the training period as you are on ADSL, so this should increase over the next few days. You have 30 days if I recall correctly? Give it a week or 2.