Fixed line fibre providers - anyone tried VFast or Love Your Broadband?

adrichardson81 · 3 Dec 2016 at 21:15

Hi guys

I'm moving to a new build apartment, but the developers are limiting our ISP options. It looks like the choices are VFast, SeeTheLight, DirectSave Telecom and Love Your Broadband.

I've started looking through the reviews, but it's a nightmare working out which reviews are genuine and which are paid... It looks like SeeTheLight and Direct Save Telecom are both ones to avoid. Vfast is pricey, but seems to review ok. I can't find much on Love Your Broadband, which could be a good thing, but the website looks like it was designed by a 14 year old.

Has anyone got any recommendations?

Caged · 3 Dec 2016 at 21:18

Ask whichever supplier you are looking at if they give you a real IP or if they use CGNAT. A lot of the smaller providers don't have enough addresses or budget to buy more.

adrichardson81 · 3 Dec 2016 at 23:36

Thanks - I'd be amazed if it's a real IP but that's definitely not a question I'd have thought to ask.

Tck · 8 Mar 2017 at 15:02

I'm facing the exact same options as OP. OP, who'd you end up going with? What's your experience so far?

Caged - my cursory googling didn't really clarify why CGNAT might be a drawback, as I'm not looking to host anything. Might you be so kind as to elaborate why I should avoid CGNAT? Is the reliability issue that great?

Also, SeetheLight has historically terrible feedback, but their home page accepts this and states the below:

One of the most common problems reported to seethelight is apparent slow speeds or service drop outs. seethelight has investigated many of these types of issues in customers' homes over the last few months. The problem is usually caused by the Wi-Fi used to link devices to the router and is especially common in new homes which often have foil backed insulation inside internal walls. seethelight offers to upgrade customers routers, free of charge[1], and if you are having any problems, or you believe your router is of an older type, please call us now on 0800 331 7638

I'm wondering if anyone has any recent experience with seethelight - their pricing is really low so if they've addressed some of the issues expressed in forum posts from like 2011 that would be great to hear about.

adrichardson81 · 8 Mar 2017 at 22:22

Unfortunately our buyer pulled out at the last minute, so the move fell through. We're planning on buying a different property on the same development, so if anyone's got some tips it'd still be appreciated.

I take their point about wifi speeds being an issue in newbuilds, but I'm struggling to believe that none of the reviews I read had tried ethernet/powerline...

Caged · 9 Mar 2017 at 19:39

Tck said:
I'm facing the exact same options as OP. OP, who'd you end up going with? What's your experience so far?

Caged - my cursory googling didn't really clarify why CGNAT might be a drawback, as I'm not looking to host anything. Might you be so kind as to elaborate why I should avoid CGNAT? Is the reliability issue that great?

Also, SeetheLight has historically terrible feedback, but their home page accepts this and states the below:

I'm wondering if anyone has any recent experience with seethelight - their pricing is really low so if they've addressed some of the issues expressed in forum posts from like 2011 that would be great to hear about.

CGNAT will cause you issues for anything that needs to establish an inbound connection - sometimes it will work fine, other times it will be a nightmare to troubleshoot. If you use PSN/Xbox Live, Skype/FaceTime etc. then it's worth spending the extra £5 a month or whatever these providers charge to get a 'proper' IP address.

With CGNAT you can also give up the idea of having a NAS accessible externally, for example.

edGfaCTor · 29 Oct 2017 at 20:15

My brother is moving in to a place which has the same options.

Any update from other users?

They all appear to charge high install fees and prices on upper tier packages are per month £10+ over the likes of VM/BT

Is the RT-AC1200 any good? for £72 one of the providers offers it with free connection

adrichardson81 · 29 Oct 2017 at 21:03

Still waiting to move in (long story) so anything from anyone would be appreciated. All I have found out is that BT definitely can't cover the property - as far as they're concerned, even the properties that have been up since last year don't exist.

edGfaCTor · 3 Nov 2017 at 14:00

My brother went with SeeTheLight in the end I suggested PureBroadband so he would get Asus router and connection/install is free if you purchase a router from them at the same time but you can't order online they contact you via phone and he didn't want to do that also for some reason he wanted landline which PureBroadband do not offer yet are same price as SeeTheLight who include it with free evening/weekend calls.

fraged · 5 Nov 2017 at 22:29

edGfaCTor said:
My brother went with SeeTheLight in the end I suggested PureBroadband so he would get Asus router and connection/install is free if you purchase a router from them at the same time but you can't order online they contact you via phone and he didn't want to do that also for some reason he wanted landline which PureBroadband do not offer yet are same price as SeeTheLight who include it with free evening/weekend calls.

Hey man! I only have these choices, seen nothing but bad reviews online ha. Any recommendations on which seems the better? thanks

AlbertoM · 2 Dec 2020 at 10:51

Hi folks, sorry for resurrecting an old thread - we're in the same situation, looking to move in before end of the year in a newbuild served by Open Fibre Network, with a similar choice of ISPs.

How did the chosen providers work in the end? Any update or advice?

adrichardson81 · 2 Dec 2020 at 11:13

AlbertoM said:
Hi folks, sorry for resurrecting an old thread - we're in the same situation, looking to move in before end of the year in a newbuild served by Open Fibre Network, with a similar choice of ISPs.

How did the chosen providers work in the end? Any update or advice?

Vfast has been largely OK for me during lockdown. I'm getting advertised speeds. We've had a few outages but usually fixed relatively quickly.

AlbertoM · 2 Dec 2020 at 11:21

Fantastic, that's great to hear, thanks. Do you have their Fibre to the Home? (I realised they offer other services too). And, may I ask in what area you are? No specifics needed, just broadly (we'll be in Southeast london).

adrichardson81 · 2 Dec 2020 at 11:36

It's to the home. Replaced the router without any issues. I'm in Cambridge but I think we're hooked into a London exchange (or at least when rats ate a cable in London, ours went down).