At The Risk Of Being Crucified

FinnegansLog

FinnegansLog

FinnegansLog

Associate
Joined
1 Apr 2014
Posts
155
Location
Birmingham
Hi All,

So its looking like I shall be moving out of the Parents house into my own property within the coming couple of weeks to stand up on my own two feet as an adult (why do we have to grow up), so at the risk of being crucified I have the following question:

What internet service provider and service figures should I be looking towards?

I will be directly connecting the following through ethernet to said providers router:

1 PC
1 PS4
1 Xbox One

There will be plenty of heavy gaming being done as, lets be honest, I am not going to have the cash to do anything else. I've looked at Virgin Medias "Big Kahuna" package with them boasting the "200mbps" service, the TV add on's are my little bonus to myself, but quite frankly I haven't got a clue about if this provides for my needs.

I am from Birmingham living in the B14 area if this helps in anyway, if no one has a direct answer does anyone have any sites in mind that could help me find an answer?

Thanks in advance.
 
I'm currently on BT Infinity and even though after moving I 'only' get 40 down/7 up it's still a deccent sold connection with consistent low pings, all good. Worth checking their speed checker, it's pretty good these days and if it says 80/20 then it's a pretty decent service imo, yes the top VM package is higher download but that's all it's got going for it and 80 is still 'ok' :p

I'm contemplating a switch to VM in the next few months, cheapest way I think is to get the BB+Phone (not that I want/need the phone) and pay the first 12 months line rental in one go (£164 rather than 12x£17.99).

If you go for a package without TV then you can avoid the £12 a month for the TV Licence, assuming you don't really need/want to watch live TV :p I happily get by with Netflix and Amazon Prime, even then could probably live without.

EDIT: Also forgot to mention, whatever you go for check quidco etc, think the VM packages I'm looking at are £60/70 cashback, £110 for the top one, on quidco at the moment. BT sometimes also offers sainsbury's gift cards as well (which works if you actually show at sainsbury's but otherwise meh)
 
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Sky or Plusnet for VDSL, VM for cable, personally go for what's best value for you after cash back via Quidco or TCB/discount etc. personal preference is a nice stable VDSL connection, VM 200mbit sounds nice, however the reality isn't always what it's cracked up to be if you're in a congested area. Only word of caution about Plusnet is they have changed from the normal 40/10 service to 40/2, the 80/20 service is still the same as everyone else.
 
If you want to save some money, my advice would be to consider whether you really need the top end package. You probably won't be using all the devices to stream 4k video at the same time :D. Think about how often you download really big files, and whether you can wait a little bit longer or plan ahead (e.g. kick off a download/game update before lunch/dinner). I've found a 50MBit package to be perfectly adequate and reasonably priced, after trimming the TV channels to the ones that actually get watched and carefully calculating whether keeping the phone line for the triple-play discount makes things cheaper overall.

The ISPs should be happy to upgrade your package if you find it's not good enough, but it's highly unlikely they'll let you downgrade after you've signed up for a contract.
 
m01 said:
If you want to save some money, my advice would be to consider whether you really need the top end package. You probably won't be using all the devices to stream 4k video at the same time :D. Think about how often you download really big files, and whether you can wait a little bit longer or plan ahead. I've found a 50MBit package to be perfectly adequate and reasonably priced, after trimming the TV channels to the ones that actually get watched and carefully calculating whether keeping the phone line for the triple-play discount makes things cheaper overall.

The ISPs should be happy to upgrade your package if you find it's not good enough, but it's highly unlikely they'll let you downgrade after you've signed up for a contract.
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Agreed, Listen to some sage advice.
 
Its brilliant advice thank you, the only reason why I have looked at Virgin Medias top end bundle is simply due to the fact its the only package that contains the BT Sport channels.

I very rarely watch TV but when I do I like my comedy central and I watch all my sports on Sky Sports and BT Sport so they are an absolute must. As for the top end internet package that was just all about a bigger number seems to suit me for what I require, my whole day off is just simply playing all my gaming systems.
 
I most certainly am not going with BT for that exact reason. In the past my mom and dad have had Sky and their, at the time, "top of the range package" and it was awful. We had nothing but problems and that was the reason why we switched to Virgin and we haven't really had too many issues so thats what motivates me to stick with them aswell.
 
Ive tried doing a lower bandwidth package (up to 100mbps) and then adding the BT Sport and Sky sports packages on but that still equates to close to the same price for the "Big Kahuna" package.
 
FinnegansLog said:
I most certainly am not going with BT for that exact reason. In the past my mom and dad have had Sky and their, at the time, "top of the range package" and it was awful. We had nothing but problems and that was the reason why we switched to Virgin and we haven't really had too many issues so thats what motivates me to stick with them aswell.
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Unless you're on the exact same cabinet it's probably not that simple. You hear plenty of horror stories about all the big providers in various parts of the country.

I moved from Virgin to BT Infinity in the same town and both services have been great. Actually the BT has lower pings and a lot less traffic shaping.
 
FinnegansLog said:
I most certainly am not going with BT for that exact reason. In the past my mom and dad have had Sky and their, at the time, "top of the range package" and it was awful. We had nothing but problems and that was the reason why we switched to Virgin and we haven't really had too many issues so thats what motivates me to stick with them aswell.
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When I was at university we had Virgin and it was absolutely horrible, <1Mbps in the evenings.

That's not to say you shouldn't use Virgin, but to point out that it depends entirely on circumstances. They'd heavily over-sold our area so their systems couldn't handle the traffic.

I'd be looking very carefully at Sky Fibre, BT Fibre and Virgin to work out what will be the most cost effective combination since you're keen to get the sports. As I'm sure you're aware though, the sports will cost a small fortune.
 
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