Broadband UK

Your opinions on service providers

[limbo]

I have been talking with some of you about home Broadband in the UK as a result of this thread [webmasterworld.com]. Thought it needed public discussion.

So who provides the best service at the right price? Onetel? Wanadoo? BT? Tiscali? NTL? Other?

What features or elements of the package/service wind you up? what makes you happy? Which would you choose or have chosen, and why?

Ta, Limbo

[Syzygy]

This service has come recommended by a mate of mine - plus.net [plus.net] - there are a few package options to wade through, however, if you buy your own modem the monthly cost is significantly cheaper apparently...

As mentioned in sticky's, but for the benefit of anyone else in the UK who may be interested, onetel [onetel.net] are offering an unlimited monthly download package with free modem at the moment. Cost is £23.99 p/m.

Syzygy

[rj87uk]

Ive not been with any other broadband provider, so im with BT at the moment only due to ease of payment through my phone bill.

It takes 50 minutes to get through to them if you have a problem.

Im on 512 download, and dont think i have a limit per month as I download lots of things and never hear anyword and dont get charged extra like some others.

Lets rate the companies out of 10?

BT = 6/10

RJ

[g1smd]

TalkTalk. CarphoneWarehouse. Unlimited 512KB broadband. 5 email addresses. 15MB webspace. Free Modem. GBP 19.99 and that includes free evening and weekend calls to the whole of the UK for a whole year too. 5 quid more for 1MB.

Shame I'm stuck on a different deal for another 3 months.

[Sparrow Nine]

I've been with Virgin since March now, looking to switch. Signed up for unlimited broadband at £24.99/month. Never had a problem with bandwidth caps. Virgin "asked" heavy users (1gb+ / day) to slow down at one point, but never enforced restrictions.

I don't pay particular attention to the e-mail/webspace, so I'm not sure about that.

Connection sometimes drops for several hours during bad weather (lightning, storms, snow). Noticed several periods of slowdown recently. Ping times can vary; sometimes online gaming can lag.

Unfortunately, I signed my sister up for broadband and specifically paid for the modem pack. It didn't come. After many attempts to get in touch with Virgin I got no response. I myself won't be using them again for that reason alone. Shame, though, I was quite satisfied with the rest of the service.

Virgin = 5/10

[vrtlw]

Pipex - 1mbit approx 30gbp/m - awesome customer service

[The_Expert]

Was with Virgin.net for about 2 years, then with Tiscali, but net kept on being downed, connection problems and hefty charges while using tech support (£1 per minute!).

I'm with BT now, where it's easy to pay, better service, and they don't force you to change your email address every time you want to stop spammers.

It's better than Virgin and I got a free modem. I suppose one complaint though, if you have 2 phone lines, watch out as they connected me to the wrong line, took 3 months to sort that, and sent me the wrong modem for my package - oh and faulty modem disk too. Jeeze lol.

But it all worked out, and got a big refund from them.

[pete_m]

I can definitely vouch for plusnet.

I'm on the 512K unlimited package (£22 per month), which seems the best deal if you're a medium to heavy user.

Reliability is excellent - I've only had one day's downtime in over 18 months. Telephone support is prompt, although some knowledge seemed to be lacking (I spoke to three different advisors before I got the right information when I moved house and needed to move my ADSL *and* phone number at the same time).

I've never had cause to use my email address or web space, but you do get 250MB, PHP, MySQL, a shared SSL certificate, and can get a .co.uk domain name with it for an extra quid a month.

Overall - 8/10 (10 for reliability, 7 for service)

[limbo]

Thanks for all the reviews. plenty to look at. No real surprises that the big players don't give the quality of service as the smaller companies. I had not heard of Pipex but they look like pretty good service providers and for the price/package are leading the pack at the moment.

[SuzyUK]

I went over to demon [demon.net] having been very disillusioned with BT and dialup .. Our company use them already so I went too, no problems very good custmer service and free modem deals different size packages going at the minute..

Suzy