Which UK ISP?
July 28th, 2013
we are currently with Sky but the router they supplied is a piece of crap in sense of range and reliability (it drops the line every hour or so and doesn’t work at all in one of my flatmates rooms). i’ve tried to install my own proper router but Sky is making that exceptionally hard to do and i simply can’t get it to work.
Now we are looking for a new ISP. these points are important to us:
– we want to be able to use my own router (i don’t care if that means they don’t provide technical support)
– truly unlimited data allowance (it is amazing that some ISP advertise with unlimited and then you read in the small print that it’s 40gb!)
– price under 30 GBP a month (including line rental)
– the max speed doesn’t really matter as i am sure we will only reach up to 8meg anyway
would be great if someone could give me some advise/share their experience as i am sure i’m not the first to run away from sky! thanks in advance!
Virgin Media..
Cable is the way to go..Most phone lines around the country are not capable of delivering high speed…
I installed a new router in a matter of minutes..No restriction ..No problems..
30 MB connection..And Virgin media will upgrade you to 50 MB connection as part of their latest promotion..50 MB to 100 MB..
No line rental needed..
Does Virgin Media offers unlimited data allowance?
Thanks for your replies! yes, virgin offers unlimited data allowance for 13.99 + 13.90 line rental. virgin would definitely be a good choice as it is also no problem to use my own router. the only (and big) downer is the high connection fee…
Line rental only necessary if you are ordering the phone as part of the package..Broadband only…No line rental..
Depends where you are – if you’re up north, you are screwed for speed with whatever isp you go for.
No one has cable or fibre up here; BT promise infinity, but they won’t be rolling it out to anywhere small soon..
Idealist replied: Thanks for your replies! yes, virgin offers unlimited data allowance for 13.99 + 13.90 line rental. virgin would definitely be a good choice as it is also no problem to use my own router. the only (and big) downer is the high connection fee...
Plus the fact that unlimited rarely actually means unlimited with virgin. Use too much bandwidth and they send out warning letters. Seriously considering leaving them.
Virgin Media definitely !!!
As a current 50MB customer, I will be getting upgraded to 100MB in the next couple of months, and then they will boost me up to 120MB when the connection in my area becomes available automatically
I have downloaded GIGS a day, no problem at all. No limit with my connection, constantly running at full speed. No warning letters.
Virgin for me, has been the BEST by far.
Every time I have phoned them to ask for certain packages, and arrangement times I have ALWAYS spoken to someone that is ENGLISH.
Not meaning to sound racist or anything – BECAUSE I’M NOT!!, but speaking to someone English is far better than trying to explain something to someone that can barely speak the language.
Virgin do throttle if you download too much during certain hours of the day, a few of my neighbours here in London have this problem.
My ISP is unlimited (they have never enforced their FUP for excessive usage) but they are now expensive for new customers. There fastest package at the moment is adsl2+ annex M, up to 24/2.5, but they do have their own DSLAMS at the BT exchanges, and are due to roll out FTTC at some point.
http://www.bethere.co.uk
I know it’s not the fastest in the country, but I can quite happily download about 9GB data per hour 24/7 with no fear of being warned, capped, traffic shaping etc. They do have an extensive supportive on-line forum run by staff too, unlike others.
Just bear in mind, if you are signing up with a new ISP, you will more than likely be tied into a lengthy contract, so do plenty of research first, eg. check Samknows for the rough distance to your local exchange to guesstimate speeds over copper. Obviously fibre only gets affected by the length of the copper from the street cabinet to your property.
I switched from Virgin Media and had to switch back from bethere..
As I mentioned in my previous post…BT phone lines can be rotten and outdated…
I been with them before they changed to Virgin Media..And If there is any trotteling..I never noticed it..
lionden replied: BT phone lines can be rotten and outdated...
That is so true. You can usually check what you will get with a new dsl provider by the line attenuation, but switching from cable/SKY you have nothing to compare. BT had the option of laying fibre when Maggie Thatch was in power but they never did it.
I think most people are waiting for FTTC/Infinity to roll out across more of the country, but they won’t be doing it to places out in the country. Bethere were talking about renting fibre from another provider, but have decided to go it alone as far as I can tell. They do have FTTC enabled at one exchange as a trial, can’t remember off-hand which one. They’ve even stopped new sign ups for line-bonding, I used to have that. I know there is another poster here that has line bonding with them still.
Their FUP does rock though.
*Edit 07-2-12
Sort of an update from Be’s Managing Director last night on their forum about FTTC, may be even FTTP.
http://www.beusergroup.co.uk/
I use TalkTalk….
*goes and sits in the corner*
*huzibizi needs to stay in that corner
Another vote for BeThere, I switched from Virgin Media as they throttled the crap out of my connection.
Go for virgin media
another vote for virgin media here !
if you have fibre optic then Virgin media 50mb internet which becomes 100mb with their double speed thing I managed to download 1tb in 3 days with their connection and they never complained.. unfortunately I have BT here and they have caps for going over the limit which i have already done and we are only one the 12th
I’m with ~love~/~love~ (talk/talk) and its rubbish
get 4mb download and 56kb upload…so cant wait til contract runs out in August as i’ll be swaping to virgin,
BT is old skool and so far behind,Virgin will always be doubling thier broadband when BT doubles thiers and virgin will always be @least double the speed of BT
zombie_booze replied: I'm with ~love~/~love~ (talk/talk) and its rubbish
get 4mb download and 56kb upload...so cant wait til contract runs out in August as i'll be swaping to virgin,
BT is old skool and so far behind,Virgin will always be doubling thier broadband when BT doubles thiers and virgin will always be @least double the speed of BT
Actually BT Infinity is going to be 80/20 shortly. From what I have heard from friends who use the 40/10 connection at the moment, at least they don’t cap/traffic shape like Virgin do.
Why bother getting 100 meg with Virgin if they are going to cap you to 10% if you are a heavy downloader at certain times ?
Bethere are releasing FTTC soon, and SKY are now doing fibre – so the competition should start
the Meerkat replied: zombie_booze replied: I'm with ~love~/~love~ (talk/talk) and its rubbish
get 4mb download and 56kb upload...so cant wait til contract runs out in August as i'll be swaping to virgin,
BT is old skool and so far behind,Virgin will always be doubling thier broadband when BT doubles thiers and virgin will always be @least double the speed of BT
Actually BT Infinity is going to be 80/20 shortly. From what I have heard from friends who use the 40/10 connection at the moment, at least they don't cap/traffic shape like Virgin do.
Why bother getting 100 meg with Virgin if they are going to cap you to 10% if you are a heavy downloader at certain times ?
Bethere are releasing FTTC soon, and SKY are now doing fibre - so the competition should start
BT are too far behind laying cables…BT Infinity wont be aviable to most area’s as u need alot of people signed upto have BT Infinity in your area
when i was on virgin.. i downloaded 380gb worth of music and never got capped
zombie_booze replied: the Meerkat replied: zombie_booze replied: I'm with ~love~/~love~ (talk/talk) and its rubbish
get 4mb download and 56kb upload...so cant wait til contract runs out in August as i'll be swaping to virgin,
BT is old skool and so far behind,Virgin will always be doubling thier broadband when BT doubles thiers and virgin will always be @least double the speed of BT
Actually BT Infinity is going to be 80/20 shortly. From what I have heard from friends who use the 40/10 connection at the moment, at least they don't cap/traffic shape like Virgin do.
Why bother getting 100 meg with Virgin if they are going to cap you to 10% if you are a heavy downloader at certain times ?
Bethere are releasing FTTC soon, and SKY are now doing fibre - so the competition should start
BT are too far behind laying cables...BT Infinity wont be aviable to most area's as u need alot of people signed upto have BT Infinity in your area
when i was on virgin.. i downloaded 380gb worth of music and never got capped
The problem with BT is that while they ARe putting the fibre to and through places, they AREN’T doing all the street cabinets.
These bastaards can run fibre somewhere but you could be stuck on the shiity 2Mb with your over-the-road neighbour getting 20Mb – he’s just on a different cabinet.
Yeah, BT had the option of running fibre everywhere (FTTP) when Maggie Thatch was in power, but they wouldn’t do it as their shareholders voted against it due to the expense. That’ll teach them for not looking to the future, they would be raking the money in now leasing their infrastructure
Now the best you can really hope for is FTTC, and then shite copper from the cabinet (if it’s even upgraded).
@zombie_booze – everyone I know on Virgin (quite a lot of people) who are heavy downloaders get capped to 5 meg from 50 meg atm, and are looking to get out of their contracts.