Does an ISP like this exist...

Sumanji · 28 Jul 2006 at 20:31

Hey,

Mate is looking for an ISP:

Less than or around £12 a month
Free line activation (would be nice to get a free modem too)
Doesn't care about caps
Doesn't mind being tied in to a contract

I've looked around but can't find anyone that fits the bill

Can anyone help us out?

Cheers,

Suman

ste_bla · 28 Jul 2006 at 20:35

Take a look at metronet - PAYG BB from £13 a month iirc

Eclipse £14.99 a month for 2gb

tolien · 28 Jul 2006 at 21:24

As long as you remember Metronet = Plusnet now.

Nildram PAYG at £15.99 with a 2GB included allowance, or £13.99 with 250MB?
Free activation and modem's a bit of a pipe dream at that kind of price.

Sumanji · 28 Jul 2006 at 21:49

Hey,

Just found Tiscali doing 1MB unlimited with free modem and activation for £12.99 pm! However this is part of their "Broadband and talk" package... does this mean an extra charge for the "talk" part is applicable? Can't find anywhere that mentions this, just states £12.99.

Cheers,

Suman

tolien · 28 Jul 2006 at 21:57

Either way, you'd have to be insane to suggest Tiscali

Sumanji · 28 Jul 2006 at 22:03

Are they really that bad :confused:

seems like a cracking deal to me!

ste_bla · 28 Jul 2006 at 22:05

Dont do Tiscali

Spend an extra £2 and go with eclipse;

Upto 8mb
Free Modem
20gb peak limit

tolien · 28 Jul 2006 at 22:07

Sumanji said:
Are they really that bad seems like a cracking deal to me!

It's not so cracking when you realise it's (rarely) 1Mbps, a (crap, USB) free modem, and unlimited (unless you use too much).

Sumanji · 28 Jul 2006 at 22:28

ste_bla said:
Spend an extra £2 and go with eclipse;

I've reccomended loads of £15 packages to him, but it's for his mum's house and she doesn't want to spend more than the £11.99pm for dial-up they have atm

tolien said:
It's not so cracking when you realise it's (rarely) 1Mbps, a (crap, USB) free modem, and unlimited (unless you use too much).

Why is it rarely 1MB?

Free modem = free modem, as long as it works!

Being unlimited is a bonus, I did say the cap doesn't really matter.

But do they actively have frequent outages, bad CS etc.?

Cheers,

Suman

OllyM · 28 Jul 2006 at 22:36

It costs them £8.40 a month + VAT just for the DSLAM port (on IPStream), so £9.87 inc. VAT

Activation is £47, and a modem, say £10, so £57 / 12 = £4.75 a month to pay that off.... as you can see, they don't even break even at £12.99/month.

That doesn't include BT Central bandwidth either, which is really expensive.

Packages that cheap are unworkable, and loss leaders - what do you expect the service to be like?

Richdog · 28 Jul 2006 at 22:37

Sumanji said:
I've reccomended loads of £15 packages to him, but it's for his mum's house and she doesn't want to spend more than the £11.99pm for dial-up they have atm

Why is it rarely 1MB?
Free modem = free modem, as long as it works!
Being unlimited is a bonus, I did say the cap doesn't really matter.

But do they actively have frequent outages, bad CS etc.?

Cheers,

Suman

Tiscalis CS is diabolical, go to ADSL Guide and read the stories there. It's a bad ISP, that's all there is to it.

zetec452 · 28 Jul 2006 at 23:02

Sumanji said:
I've reccomended loads of £15 packages to him, but it's for his mum's house and she doesn't want to spend more than the £11.99pm for dial-up they have atm

Tell them to up their budget or stay on 56k.

benjo plz. · 28 Jul 2006 at 23:04

IDNet > * tbh.

Sumanji · 28 Jul 2006 at 23:38

JonRohan said:
Tell them to up their budget or stay on 56k.

So you'd rather be on 56k than broadband? Don't be silly mate :rolleyes:

Phnom_Penh said:
IDNet > * tbh.

Thanks dude, but they're also out of the price range

zetec452 · 28 Jul 2006 at 23:45

Sumanji said:
So you'd rather be on 56k than broadband? Don't be silly mate

Why are they being so silly with the budget then? If I wanted to get a decent broadband connection i'd be willing to spend a fiver a month more than dial up for a hasstle free service.

Richdog · 28 Jul 2006 at 23:46

Sumanji said:
So you'd rather be on 56k than broadband? Don't be silly mate

What I think he's trying to say is that not getting a ghood ISP for the sake of £3 extra a month is quite frankly ridiculous in every conceivable way. I bet your mum spends that £3 many times over on random stuff she doesn't even remember about. Just doesn't make any sense when that extra £3 a month guves you a much superior service.

tolien · 28 Jul 2006 at 23:47

Sumanji said:
So you'd rather be on 56k than broadband? Don't be silly mate

56k or a broadband service that performs like 56k. Not so simple?

Why is it rarely 1MB?

Because it isn't an 8Mbps (ie 1MB/s) service?

Congestion, traffic shaping et al will get in the way. As Olly says, if they aren't breaking even, they're hardly buying lots of bandwidth with your money, so expect it to slow to a crawl, especially at peak times.

Free modem = free modem, as long as it works!

And if it doesn't?

Being unlimited is a bonus, I did say the cap doesn't really matter.

Forget unlimited.

But do they actively have frequent outages, bad CS etc.?

Mostly the latter.

Sumanji · 29 Jul 2006 at 00:09

JonRohan said:
If I wanted to get a decent broadband connection i'd be willing to spend a fiver a month more than dial up for a hasstle free service.

Go tell his mom then, no point making unhelpful posts in this thread! I do realise that only the lower-end ISP's can provide a service for that price. And let's have a tiny bit of maturity, there wasn't any need to plaster that picture in your post was there?

Richdog said:
Just doesn't make any sense when that extra £3 a month guves you a much superior service.

Yes I know. I've said many times to them, but they don't wanna spend any more

tolien said:
...

Without doing the whole quote thing

56k ADSL wouldn't tie up the phone line, which automatically makes it better. Take your point about the congestion etc. but as I said he doesn't expect to get a perfect service for that price. If a modem doesn't work, it's broken, and you ask for a new one... :confused:

Anyway it's the best deal I can find for the price & requirements, and unless any of you can find a better one, I'd appreciate it if the flaming died down a bit

(feel free to go and shout at his mum if you like!).

Cheers,

Suman

tolien · 29 Jul 2006 at 00:14

Sumanji said:
If a modem doesn't work, it's broken, and you ask for a new one...

It can not work without being broken.

You've also ignored my suggestion at £13.99 a month, or is an extra £24 a year too much too?

If they won't stretch any more, the best you can do is point out that the service is likely to be crap and leave them be. They'll soon work it out when it breaks/doesn't work as fast as they'd like it to/gets cut off because they've used too much on an "unlimited" service.

zetec452 · 29 Jul 2006 at 00:15

Sumanji said:
Go tell his mom then, no point making unhelpful posts in this thread! I do realise that only the lower-end ISP's can provide a service for that price. And let's have a tiny bit of maturity, there wasn't any need to plaster that picture in your post was there?

Im not being unhelpful im just saying that what he wants isn't going to happen. BUT for an extra £3 odd per month, a price of a pint or glass of wine they will get a much better service.

At the end of the day when their broadband stops working who are they going to call and complain to? I bet its not the ISP.