Which ISP would you choose?

Roady · 21 May 2012 at 13:41

Hey all

Moved house a couple of weeks ago, was previously on virgin's national services (ADSL) and although good, the absolute nightmare they gave me trying to transfer 10 months into my contract (£74 to transfer) they didn't give me any choice but to bite an early cancellation fee (£78) and to totally berate their customer service. Found out they don't keep any 'notes' of previous customer service conversations, or any call recording for that matter!

Previous experience with Talktalk (was an old Nildram customer) means i'll not use them...

But i need a new ISP! Be don't support my area, so who would you go for?

Here's my exchange.

Fibre is supposidly out here end of June, although speaking to a local BT Engineer he say's it'll "no way be ready by then".

I want a 12 month contract if possible with a call package, my usage is probably 60 GB a month (max) and i could manage on a 40-50 GB contract.

Pings will be more important to me than actual speeds (gaming - BF3) as nobody around here gets more than 4mb...

Plusnet has me tempted at the mo as their overnight usage isn't capped n call packages look good... How are they for ping? Was with them for dialup back in ISDN & Force9 days...

gavindo · 21 May 2012 at 13:43

have you looked at adsl24 ? they also do phone/internet all in one packages now

khevolution · 21 May 2012 at 13:47

i had a similar situation, although i've had no problems with virgin media, but my new flat i only really had the choice of SKy and im pleasantly surprised, the speeds are no where near as fast, but i havent found me wanting any faster then the 8mb im being given

Roady · 21 May 2012 at 14:08

gavindo said:
have you looked at adsl24 ? they also do phone/internet all in one packages now

Looks promising as they use C&W LLU... Looks like I need to find out from BT what's still active on my new line first tho, don't wanna pay for a new one (£89) if its not been disconnected!

KIA · 21 May 2012 at 14:14

Sky, in preparation for FTTC.

xb8browney · 21 May 2012 at 14:16

I'd go with Sky, I moved from VM National to Sky and I get no peak time slowdowns any more.

Hyper · 21 May 2012 at 15:51

Defiantly go with sky,

You no longer even need to be a sky tv customer to get the broadband.

Orcvader · 21 May 2012 at 16:16

Sky is one of the best LLUs to have, stable service and unlimited. Not to mention they also do FTTC which is better than BT. So once FTTC is avaliable contact Sky and ask if they can upgrade you to it.

RSR · 21 May 2012 at 16:41

I'd recommend looking at Zen Internet.

Indy500 · 22 May 2012 at 11:19

ADSL24.

sid-180 · 22 May 2012 at 12:14

TitanADSL

Mr_Orange · 22 May 2012 at 12:38

I was originally going to say Xilo Pro 16 Home on a rolling monthly contract. But the fact that you want to make the move to fttc means that Sky are probably your best bet as their fttc product isn't shaped etc. and you may be able to move mid contract without extra costs and hassle.

Roady · 22 May 2012 at 13:54

Think i'm gonna go for Sky because of the reasons mentioned above - mainly the move to fibre!

Spoke to BT and they can't even tell me what is active on the line, or what was! Installation and Inception (!) departments have raised faults and I need to call back in a few days to see if they can then help me... (lolmuch?)

Guy · 22 May 2012 at 16:16

Zen Internet, but I am biased towards them. Are Sky using their own equipment in the exchanges for FTTC?

StonedPenguin · 22 May 2012 at 16:18

KIA · 22 May 2012 at 16:58

Guy said:
Are Sky using their own equipment in the exchanges for FTTC?

Yes.

demonix · 23 May 2012 at 13:18

[RXP]Andy;21970124 said:
I'd recommend looking at Zen Internet.

Guy said:
Zen Internet, but I am biased towards them.

If you haven't checked yet Zen internet doesn't have a LLU presence in the OP's exchange so it has to be sky (I doubt anyone would suggest talktalk)

Christmas themed thank · 23 May 2012 at 17:06

demonix said:
If you haven't checked yet Zen internet doesn't have a LLU presence in the OP's exchange so it has to be sky (I doubt anyone would suggest talktalk)

Zen isn't LLU. It runs over BT's network, but it is not limited at all. They are truly excellent (I use them here).

Roady · 24 May 2012 at 20:29

Have business connections with Zen (2), Demon (1) and Plusnet (9) with work... All great business services, but personally i've always been dubious of the 'standard' packages with big providers as i'm not what i'd consider a standard user... But in todays connected world i'm nothing more than a gamer that wants low latency with low contension over the actual 'speed' they market...

Any real benefits to asking for fastpath anymore, or will i just confuse Sky Customer Services?!

agw_01 · 24 May 2012 at 20:36

Roady said:
Plusnet has me tempted at the mo as their overnight usage isn't capped n call packages look good... How are they for ping? Was with them for dialup back in ISDN & Force9 days...

I joined Plus.net when I moved into my new flat recently. I was given an estimated speed of 6Mbps but I've seen as high as 9 after playing with the SNR settings on my router. Was a bit flaky at first but seems to have settled down now. Well priced at the moment with 6 months free call plans on some packages. Pings seem to be ~20ms as reported by speedtest.net

Provision time was excellent! I ordered on the Friday, my phone line was activated by the Tuesday and my broadband came online a day earlier than they said.

Customer service seemed great the few times I've called. Even calling around 6pm on a Friday evening, the wait was only a few minutes.

I'm only on the 10GB bundle but with the unlimited overnight downloads, I don't feel that I need any more. You can keep track of your usage with the online portal too.

Which ISP would you choose?

Mobster