Which ISP? (BT/PlusNet/Virgin)

JonnyT

JonnyT

JonnyT

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,149
Location
Cambridge
Hello,

I've been vacillating over this decision for some time now and thought I'd seek other opinions. I've bought a new place in a small town in Cambs, which seemingly can get broadband from all major suppliers. There's a OpenReach socket in the lounge, and what looks like a coax connector for cable nearby. The availability checkers confirm that I can get:

Standard Broadband
Fibre Broadband (estimated speed 40-60Mb)
Cable up to 200Mb+

I've been looking at the major providers (BT/PlusNet/Virgin) and am struggling to make a decision(!). My thoughts so far:

I want the fastest BB I can reasonably afford (obviously!)
BT's Infinity 2 offer (expires tonight) is very expensive - £49.99 plus £50.00 activation (plus £10 delivery for the HomeHub)
PlusNet are seemingly cheaper for a similar service - £38.50 plus £25 activation
Virgin have the best speeds available for the price - 100Mb for £32, 200Mb for £37, £20 activation.

Have been with Virgin Media at my shared house I'm leaving for years without issue, but was just wondering what the general opinion was?
 
I'd go with plusnet unless you absolutely know that VM in that area doesn't have any utilisation issues.

Don't forget TopCashback.
 
I would check on the VM forum for issues in your area before deciding to go with them.
 
I checked on vm forum for my area and either i couldn't find owt but s6 is a bloody big area so when i see problems in s6 it dosnt necessarily mean it will affect me.
 
I've moved from BT Infinity 1 to Plusnet faster fibre, connected at approx 75mbit and really pleased with the service so far, very responsive an no evident peak time slow downs. The blue latency blip is when my connection was saturated downloading a usenet article.

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I was with VM for many years and happy, then a few years ago it all went bang up and no end of drop outs etc.

I went with BT and am happy with them now,only had one outage since March.
 
APM said:
I was with VM for many years and happy, then a few years ago it all went bang up and no end of drop outs etc.

I went with BT and am happy with them now,only had one outage since March.
Click to expand...
Same - great service for years and then completely fell apart, with no plan from VM to fix it. They won't actually tell you if you're in an affected area so it helps to ask around.

They might be a bit more upfront after next Wednesdays Watchdog airs though...
 
JonnyT said:
BT's Infinity 2 offer (expires tonight) is very expensive - £49.99 plus £50.00 activation (plus £10 delivery for the HomeHub)
Click to expand...

Do it through TopCashBack and it's £5 cheaper per month, plus you should get £100 cashback in addition to the £125 reward card offer.
 
Out of those options VM obviously gives a better headline speed, unfortunately VM has a history of moving the goal posts over the years, from limiting downloads/throttling to local congestion depending on the area. Plusnet is cheap and generally stable, I base my purchases on the combined cashback offer from the supplier and TCB/Quidco, in our case at the time BT came out on top giving us 52/10 for less than anyone else was offering even a 40/2 profile or even a humble ADSL 2e package, sadly we can't get virgin. If you're going to hammer the connection then consider Virgin, if you value reliability and truly unmetered service then consider PN, but if the price is basically the same after offers, then i'd probably go Virgin.
 
How long does that topcashback money take to come through?

I'm still waiting from when I used them in March.
 
Sometimes it doesn't, but I've only had a few problems on low value items.

The TopCashback site should show what the expected time should be for the transaction. If it has gone past that give them a kick using the Missing Cashback Claims option.
 
Already did,supposed to be £150 BT cashback on the offer I signed for but tracked at £120 so I submitted a ticket back in March/April.
They said wait and I still am,maybe it's worth giving them another nudge.

Also EDF energy,supposed to be £50 there but nothing after 6 months,all my low value items track fine it's just the £'s I'm having troubles with.

Apologies hijacking the thread there.
 
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