Spec me an ISP!

Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
18,975
Location
Birmingham
I've just phoned Virgin to query a missing £9 discount on my bill, only to be told that when I last renewed my contract it wasn't actually renewed, so I'm currently out of contract!

I'm currently on their 50mb + weekend calls package, paying:

Full price = £37.98
Loyalty discount = £7.50 (ends in October)
Speed test panelist discount = £6 (no contract on this one, so it could end without notice)
Total = £24.48

They've offered a further £8 discount, which would bring the bill to: £16.48 till October, £23.98 thereafter, but would involve a new 12 month contract.

Wondering if I'm better to wait until the £7.50 discount expires and see if I can get a better discount for the full 12 months, or try to get them to extend it now?

Am I likely to be able to better this with anyone else?
 
normal line rental is about £17, cant see you getting 50Mb fibre from any other supplier for the extra £7 a month, stay where you are.
edit IIRC sky do 40/10 limited to 25gb download a month for £5 (half price) + line rental for a year
 
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I'll be interested in knowing as well.. I can get virgin 300 and also Infinity2... which one should I go with?

Stelly
 
Depends entirely if you're in a typically over sub'd Virgin area. I had VM's 152 connection and 40Mbit FTTC was infinitely better.
 
Depends entirely if you're in a typically over sub'd Virgin area. I had VM's 152 connection and 40Mbit FTTC was infinitely better.

booo! That is what I'm afraid of... is there any website that tells you about over sub'd areas?

Stelly
 
booo! That is what I'm afraid of... is there any website that tells you about over sub'd areas?

Stelly

Not really, the best bet is to search for the start of your postcode on the VM forums.

Do you already have VM? As you can run a ping monitor to see what the connection is like.
 
Not really, the best bet is to search for the start of your postcode on the VM forums.

Do you already have VM? As you can run a ping monitor to see what the connection is like.

nah just moved into the area... I can see that they do Virgin300 but I can also see my cabinet for BT about 3 doors down from my house... so I'm spoilt for choice :(

Stelly
 
As above, the VM forums is the best place to check for congestion problems.

Another thing to factor in is upload speed, if you need fast upload speeds, then go BT. If you're purely after download, VM is good as long as you're in a good area.
 
nah just moved into the area... I can see that they do Virgin300 but I can also see my cabinet for BT about 3 doors down from my house... so I'm spoilt for choice :(

Stelly

I was supposedly in a decent area, but I had problems watching Youtube, or any other streaming. Download speed was great though all the time, so my Newsgroup downloads flew. But for me the actual real world usage experience, especially gaming & streaming, were miles better on the 'slower' FTTC package. The only way I would consider VM now would be as a supplementary connection to my existing FTTC as a dual WAN setup.
 
Can you get FTTC?

Sorry for the slow reply!

Yes I can get FTTC.

normal line rental is about £17, cant see you getting 50Mb fibre from any other supplier for the extra £7 a month, stay where you are.
edit IIRC sky do 40/10 limited to 25gb download a month for £5 (half price) + line rental for a year

Couldn't handle a limited package, do a lot of streaming and gaming (superhub is showing 25GB downloaded in the last 3 days!)

I might speak to Sky and see if they can offer me anything as an existing customer.
 
I was supposedly in a decent area, but I had problems watching Youtube, or any other streaming. Download speed was great though all the time, so my Newsgroup downloads flew. But for me the actual real world usage experience, especially gaming & streaming, were miles better on the 'slower' FTTC package. The only way I would consider VM now would be as a supplementary connection to my existing FTTC as a dual WAN setup.

I have just ordered Virgin Media while I wait for BT... went for virgin300 and I can cancel within 14 days... I'm in area 20 so I will see what happens... will cancel anyway I think as I can get 78 with infinity 2

Stelly
 
I have just ordered Virgin Media while I wait for BT... went for virgin300 and I can cancel within 14 days... I'm in area 20 so I will see what happens... will cancel anyway I think as I can get 78 with infinity 2

Stelly

Are you 100% sure that the 14 day period extends to broadband after the installation date? I recall looking into it a while ago and it wasn't so straight forward.
 
what upload speed do you have ?

20mbps on something called homework plus... the said that they dont limit the upload on that service

Are you 100% sure that the 14 day period extends to broadband after the installation date? I recall looking into it a while ago and it wasn't so straight forward.

No but I complained and they have just extended it for another two weeks, so I'm gunna try both BT and Virgin and see which one I want :)

Stelly
 
How does BT infinity 52mb compare to virgin 50mb?

Tempted @ £31.50/month + £58 up front with a £40 next voucher and £80 prepaid MasterCard offer

I spoke to Virgin earlier and the best they could offer me was more expensive than the prices on their website!!
 
How does BT infinity 52mb compare to virgin 50mb?

Tempted @ £31.50/month + £58 up front with a £40 next voucher and £80 prepaid MasterCard offer

I spoke to Virgin earlier and the best they could offer me was more expensive than the prices on their website!!

BT is better.
 
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