Broadband Provider recommendations
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Boudicca
Seaside Queen
I'm moving house and am having problems getting BT to be reasonable.
I currently have their expensive Halo mesh system (£56 pm) as I have a large house and lodgers and it was the only system which guaranteed a signal in every room. I unfortunately signed up for 24 months about a week before I put the house on the market so still have a year to go.
I'm downsizing, planning living on my own and will not need this fancy system. All they will offer me is a non-fibre system for £45 per month, despite the fact that if I pretend to be a new customer I can get fibre for £30.
I'm stuffed, aren't I?
I currently have their expensive Halo mesh system (£56 pm) as I have a large house and lodgers and it was the only system which guaranteed a signal in every room. I unfortunately signed up for 24 months about a week before I put the house on the market so still have a year to go.
I'm downsizing, planning living on my own and will not need this fancy system. All they will offer me is a non-fibre system for £45 per month, despite the fact that if I pretend to be a new customer I can get fibre for £30.
I'm stuffed, aren't I?
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Sounds like you'd have to pay an early termination fee to get free
To late now but I'd never pay more to get home networking kit from an ISP such as a mesh system, I'd always want to buy it so I controlled it.
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
I did look into it, but there was no guarantee that it would actually work whereas with the BT system, they guaranteed a strong signal in every room and kept adding extra disks until it worked.
I think the early termination fee is £350 so I probably have to continue until the contract runs out. But what also pisses me off is that they say there is no fibre availability at my new address, but when I input it as a new customer, it seems to be available.
Ooh bit then if they can't provide fibre, they can't honour the contract, can they?
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Am I right in saying. . .
You are moving to a new house and BT say you can take your fibre with you to a new address?
But they can't offer you fibre at the new address?
Do the T&Cs say they can offer you another deal if they don't provide it at the new address?
If you terminate early you have to pay six months of contract anyway? Is this at their current rate or the lower non-fibre rate they are offering.
Community fibre are doing 500mb of fibre for £18 at the moment if that is in your new area.
If you use the referral code I have you get £100 of amazon vouchers (as do I) which might take the edge off the early termination fee (if you still have to pay it under BT's T&Cs). Link below.
Full Fibre Broadband up to 3 Gbps | Unlimited Fibre Broadband | Community Fibre
BT gave me nothing but trouble. I hate them.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
If you can get it as a new customer then it sounds like it's available and you need to find the right person to shout at!
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
I've just had a second attempt with a nicer customer service agent and more success. As the superfast service isn't available at my new address, I don't have to pay cancellation charges, hurray! And I will effectively be a new customer so eligible for new customer deals. So worth asking the same question twice.
Still £30 for something not very fast though. I could go with Virgin but everyone is always complaining on FB that Virgin is not working.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I've used them in a few places, including my current one and it's always been amazing speed (normally a little faster then advertised), but a problem with the order caused all sorts of headaches when I moved.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
I am with Virgin, a few minor problems over the last 12 years, but nothing compared with a couple of providers using the BT Openreach network I had been with before I moved into town and had the option of Virgin, I would never go back to using any provider on the BT Openreach network.
Although I am lucky as we have a new third network player available now, City Fibre, which like Openreach is an open network, with over a dozen providers using their network locally so far, so competition is now very strong.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
That is good news.
Can you not get community fibre your way? I've never had a single issue as of yet and paying something like £20 for 1gig. Round my way virgin is always being complained about.
Plus net were good, but they don't do fibre here and run on bt lines that are constantly screwing up. . . Plus they were twice as expensive.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Community fibre is only available in London, so no use to Boudicca.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
I see.
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
Formerly a Brixtonite ATOMIC SUPLEX but now on the south coast.
I don't think I actually know what community fibre is.
I don't think I actually know what community fibre is.
I think its going to have to be Virgin, although I vowed not to use them because of the amount of junk mail I got from them when I moved in.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
If out and out speed isn't important and customer service is, then I'd go Zen, but they won't offer anything speed wise BT can't. When I deal with them at work though they are excellent.
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
Not a great deal here alas, 36 mbps for £30pm. Virgin is £26 for 132mb and an £85 Amazon voucher.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
Other people have always managed my broadband connections and now I'm moving (out of London) and have to do it myself I'm finding it a right pain. I don't really want an 18mth contract yet none of the good options do a 12mth contract. You can't really seem to find out how good different companies are in your area either.
Also, since they have to install new hardware bits, I'm wondering if it's worth finding out what the previous residents of the house used so we don't need any new installations. Is that worth doing?
Also, since they have to install new hardware bits, I'm wondering if it's worth finding out what the previous residents of the house used so we don't need any new installations. Is that worth doing?
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
I am in a similiar position, moving out of Worthing where three networks run past the place - BT Openreach, Virgin and CityFibre - to a village that only has the Openreach network.
So, up to date recommendations for the best providers using Openreach would be much appreciated.
So, up to date recommendations for the best providers using Openreach would be much appreciated.
spudulike
Well-Known Member
18 months ago I posted in this thread about 4G broadband. This is stronger than ever here ... and cheaper than ever. I'm currently using a £35 secondhand 4G router with a £3 30-day Lycamobile "unlimited" SIM (FUP = 450GB), both from eBay and getting a download speed around 200Mbps. I was wondering how many people use just a 5G phone or a 4G or 5G router for their household more details here . Last week my daughter was able to dump Vodafone broadband and took over my 4G router from Three. She has run for a week on my spare PAYG iD Mobile SIM (added a 30-day unlimited bundle), all is well so she's going with a £10.50 /month unlimited Three SIM.
souljacker
innit
I've had a letter from a company called toob who are offering me full fibre 900 up 900 down for £25 a month (plus a £50 Amazon voucher). Seems too good to be true when Zen charge £40 and can't guarantee the full 900. I'm tied to Virgin for a year anyway but would consider taking a cancellation charge for that deal. Anyone used them?
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
I was looking to switch to Toob, when I was still living in Worthing as they use the new CityFibre network, the only one doing full fibre into the home, both the Virgin and Openreach networks were still only offering fibre to the street cabinet. I don't think I know anyone using them, but I do know people using other suppliers on the CityFibre network and they are getting incredible speeds compared to Virgin.
In this village, Openreach is the only network available, but they are doing full fibre into the home already, and I signed-up with PluseNet, only for their 145mb package, I am normally getting over that, I used to average around 50mb with Virgin in town.
Exactly the same happened with me, they even had guys putting boxes on the poles and running fibre through the conduits almost a year ago (this after digging up the main road a few months before that). I was super excited as our internet is shit and we were coming up to the end of our broadband contract. Came to end of contract and our old broadband price doubles as it's out of contract rate, no update from community fibre, helpdesk had no idea when it'd roll out on our street. Managed to get a 12 month extension on the current broadband (rather than 24 months they were pushing) - there were a bunch of people painting marks on the ground the other day maybe around fibre.Community Fibre keep putting stuff through the door. Now when I check it's gone from 'we're there soon' to 'we don't have any plans'.
We've also had loads of naff little signs from Open Infra in the area (but not our street) so maybe they've taken over from community fibre in your area too? Making Fibre Happen - annoyingly they list our street but only the even numbers - tried their help desk and got told someone would be in touch but nothing.
I suspect as these operations are scaling and the money dries up they're falling into the same shit service trap as the more traditional providers.
Epona
Sonic: 1 Nov 2006 - 8 Jan 2022
Community Fibre keep putting stuff through the door. Now when I check it's gone from 'we're there soon' to 'we don't have any plans'.
Same here, it said "we'll be there soon" to "no plans to come to your area" within the last fortnight - am really quite pissed off.
We get max 30meg dl speed from BT and pay a fucking fortune for it, and it keeps dropping out (daily downtime) because the wiring from the cabinet to door is utter fucking shit.
My parents who live in the middle of fucking nowhere have better internet provision now due to the rural broadband scheme, some of us need an urban broadband scheme with sweeteners for companies putting in full fibre in cities
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Same here, it said "we'll be there soon" to "no plans to come to your area" within the last fortnight - am really quite pissed off.
We get max 30meg dl speed from BT and pay a fucking fortune for it, and it keeps dropping out (daily downtime) because the wiring from the cabinet to door is utter fucking shit.
My parents who live in the middle of fucking nowhere have better internet provision now due to the rural broadband scheme, some of us need an urban broadband scheme with sweeteners for companies putting in full fibre in cities
I mean I don't exactly like them as a company, but is Virgin an option where you are?
Epona
Sonic: 1 Nov 2006 - 8 Jan 2022
They haven't cabled our road either.
Max speed we can get is BT fibre to the cabinet, 30 meg dl speed.
It's shit. I'm in E13, not on some sort of island in the middle of nowhere.
Wondering whether to get some sort of unlimited data sim type arrangement instead, but the tech side of it (in terms of using it at home to connect my PC to the internet instead of broadband) is a bit beyond me, it's times like this when I feel a bit old and like tech has left me behind somewhat!
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
You might be better in the middle of nowhere. I'm in rural Scotland and just got 150 on my phone. I'm sure there would be plenty here willing to help, but it should be fairly simple, to connect to the new WiFi (and get a USB wifi adaptor if your PC needs it)
Epona
Sonic: 1 Nov 2006 - 8 Jan 2022
Aye, the thing that really puts me off is as I'm an online/MMO gamer, I've always avoided using wifi - download speed doesn't actually count for much with gaming (well except for downloading patches!), but latency does and typically a wired ethernet connection to a router is better when you're in the middle of combat, even with a slow dl speed (and as you rightly guess, my PC doesn't have wifi, I'd need a USB adaptor for it).
