Me again: anyone know of a really good, cheap broadband provider/package?

[BendyCowgirl]

I'm currently on Tiscali (ugh, bane of my life) with a anytime broadband +free landline calls anytime package for £19.99 a month only in reality I pay around £30 +. Wondering if I could get the same package with somene else who's more reliable and cheaper.

[Loopy Linda in La La Land]

I know a lot of people knock AOL but I have been with them for 7 years with no problems.

We pay 14.99 per month and that's for unlimited Broadband and completely free phone calls 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I only pay for calls to mobiles and that's at a 25% discount..and of course for my BT line rental

Linda

[BendyCowgirl]

Ah my line rental is in with mine

[Margaret N]

I am with Virgin and only get Broad Band for £17.99 no contract. I have found them excellent except for the cost. They have other packages but none to suit me.

Yesterday, I signed up for TalkTalk a 'special offer' not on the web and cannot do it over the phone only in a Carphone Shop. They still tried to sell me a normal package.

It is going to cost me £10.50 phone line + £1.50 caller display + £4.00 anytime calls including many oversea's USA etc. 0845 and 0870 still have to pay for with other odd numbers.

Broadband is 'FREE' for twelve months and then it will be £6.49 a month. It is an eighteen month contract and I feel a little nervous as I am so pleased with my present ISP but have just got to control my budget.

Their is no such thing as a Free Lunch so have not yet worked out what the catch is. Fingers crossed it will be OK. I put two of my neighbours on talktalk on different packages last year and they seem happy.

[TrevorFranklin]

I use TalkTalk
£16.50 per month for 8MB connection includes phone and line rental
All Evening and Weekend calls to land lines are FREE

Had no problems with them at all in terms of connection or services

[MarionH]

For what it is worth - I have no personal knowledge of service providers in the UK but I was talking to OH's cousin the other night and for what it is worth he reckons he has tried several and thinks the best is Zen.

[Orangeblossom]

If you have Sky, you can get it pretty much free at the moment.

[Margaret N]

Trevor,

I am logged into many sites some with account numbers. When I go to log in using TalkTalk how will they link to my account. Like Ancestry where I have a user name and ISP address but the account number does not appear at log in.

I really have got rather alot of sites to go through this process so it will keep me busy for weeks.

[TrevorFranklin]

Hi Margaret
If I read your comment correctly, you are saying that you use the current ISP email address as your ID for these sites?

If so, there will be no problem with you continuing, it just means that the site will not be able to send you info or contacts, as it will be trying to deliver to an email address that will no longer exist (if you change providers).
This is something you will come up against if you change ISP, what you should do is use a generic email address from Hotmail or Yahoo for this reason, then take your time to change all your accounts to that email address.
That way, if you ever change ISP again you will not need to go into all your accounts and update the email address.
I learnt this lesson a year ago when I changed from Virgin to TalkTalk.

[Britec]

Virgin Media seems to be the best. get some good deals with them.
I have been with them for years and found them to be great.

[Margaret N]

Britec + Trevor

I agree Virgin are good but so expensive now. I do not want any of the packages that they have on offer and they cannot match TalkTalk. I expect to save about £170 per year by making the change.
I know you only get what you pay for. Now that I do not need an ISP for business I just have to make the move.
Virgin.net may well suit many users of this site.

Trevor, I thought of your idea after I posted the message last night and have changed half of my log in addresses to my Gmail account. It is a long job just going to have another go at updating them.

[rob123]

I'm currently on Tiscali (ugh, bane of my life) with a anytime broadband +free landline calls anytime package for £19.99 a month only in reality I pay around £30 +. Wondering if I could get the same package with somene else who's more reliable and cheaper.

I was with Tiscali and had a lot of problems with them, left and went with Talk Talk and was very disappointed with them - in fact to me a major mistake, after a lot of research I went back to Tiscali and in fact have never been happer, there is no free line rental yet in my area so I pay around £27.00 a month and get free calls anytime and to any country, I did have a few teething problems at first with download speeds but am now on a good day getting up to 5mb download and on a poor day 1.5mb. the only calls I pay for are to mobiles and 0870 numbers. My advice would be to talk to Tiscali if you ring this number 0207 087 2000 you will get through to the head office in England. ask to speak to the complains department opening hours Mon-Fri 8.30-5.30. This is want I did threatened them with watchdog, offcom etc and my problems were resolved with 72 hours. Well worth a try.

[TrevorFranklin]

All ISP's have their problems
Mainly they tend to be geographicaly related
Where I am Virgin broadband is a joke, with an average speed of 2MB
Masses of complaints, group meetings with engineers and 'half truths' did not resolve it.

I have never had a problem with TalkTalk since install 18 months ago

What youo need to do is not just ask for forums advice, but check out what local users have as good/bad service

[TrevorFranklin]

This is want I did threatened them with watchdog, offcom etc and my problems were resolved with 72 hours. Well worth a try.

So you are saying it takes a threat at that level to get good service?
I would say it reinforces they have bad customer service and not good.
As for speed dropping down to 25% of the expected service, that again is poor.

[Lindag]

Just to reinforce Trevor's point about your location. I'm not that far from Trevor (Cambs) and Virgin doesn't seem to be a problem. With our 10MB service we seem to be getting a good average of about 9.5 (according to the speed tests we have done), which I think is very good going. Some of my neighbours are also with Virgin I've never heard them complain about it, so they can't be having a problem either. My daughter has changed recently from Virgin but that was a price issue for her, as she needed to lower her outgoings.

Linda

[Cherub]

With virgin media services it will depend if you are using cable broadband for those in a cabled area (do not need a phone line) or virgin national for those not in a cabled area having to use a Bt phone line.

Cable broadband speeds should be faster and Virgin can offer upto 50 meg
National broadband ie virgin.net will depend how far you live from the BT exchange, like any other provider.

Use this link to see what speeds to expect on your BT line

Samknows Broadband - Broadband Availability Checker

Be aware of companies providing Broadband with a gig allowance, if you exceed the limit charges are quite high.

Margaret,

Talk Talks offer is very good at the moment, however it is not available to everyone.

Terms and conditions

Talk Talk Essentials Package: You must take line rental. A one-off £29.99 connection fee & min term of 18 months applies. You will be charged £6.49 for TalkTalk essentials from month 13 onwards. If you are outside the availability area, you may still be able to get the offer for an additional £15 a month while you remain a customer on the Talk Talk Essentials package & take line rental. Offer ends 02 March 09.

lots of people have to wait a long time to get it..

[BendyCowgirl]

Just to make clear how bad my probs were with Tiscali...I have always been with them, for as long as they have been going really and never had any probems but I was on the cheaper £15.99 package, slower speed ect then I decide I'd be saving money by putting my phone in with it as well...I switched over on 21st December 2007 and got cut off for three months while I phoned and emaield and ranted and raved every day...got called a liar, got all sorts of excuses until FINALLY I was passed to the higher level complaint department where thy realised the probelm was as simple as changing my profile. This only happenned after Trading Standards got involved. Had a few problems since but finally it's all stable. Always swore though that once I was out of contract I'd change.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Im with talktalk and my broadband is free.