Moving to BT Broadband (Are you Happy?)

Chances are you'll always see more bad posts than good about your chosen ISP on here, as when things are going well nobody jumps online to post about it.

So then... who here is happy with their BT Broadband service? I am currently with Zen Internet but I have ordered an additional line and have chosen BT Broadband unlimited service.

Will I regret it?

That will depend on what you expect in return of you cash, and also how you want to use the connection,as when something does not perform how you thought it would,or the type of use or amount of usage is not welcomed or is not sufficient then you may regret it,
Personally i would check out the samknows web site and see which isp's are providing their services ,it does pay to research as much as possible before getting in to a contract, i only wish i had before i signed up with my first isp,"Tiscali"
the only research i did prior was price comparisons,lol
I learned that sometimes you gotta pay that little bit more than going for the cheapest deal,and visit several sites such as this one to get a good picture of which is the best choice for you

Bit too late asking now isn't it? Whatever replies you get .

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Bit too late asking now isn't it? Whatever replies you get .

yup but it still worth knowing if BT Broadband customers are happy on the whole at the moment im gonna be stuck with them for 18 months but worth knowing anyway.

BT throttle p2p mercilessly outside the wee small hours. Everything else is fine in my experience.

A bit pricey compared to other ISPs and they do shape and not just P2P. I not unhappy with BT broadband, but I am out of contract now and looking around to see if anything will suit me better for less cost.


I got 2 phone calls in two weeks asking me to sing up for another 12 months and they will knock £5 a month off, I refused both times, I want to look around first.

In reply to a post by Scoot:

Chances are you'll always see more bad posts than good about your chosen ISP on here, as when things are going well nobody jumps online to post about it.

So then... who here is happy with their BT Broadband service? I am currently with Zen Internet but I have ordered an additional line and have chosen BT Broadband unlimited service.

Will I regret it?

I have both BT + BE. Currently i have lost the BE connection due to the phone line being disconnected. Which was BT (The telecom fault) i have been forced to use the BT connection for everything. For a simple comparison for the last 1-2 weeks the BE connection performs around 10 times better for anything other than web traffic where they are around the same. The BT connection has a 2mbit high sync speed advantage as well due to newer cables etc...

I also have another direct comparison of BE + BT in work where it is exactly the same however. The BT line has just be upgraded to adsl2+ and has a max upstream speed of 440kbit vs 1.1mbit (BE) both have about the same downstream and the same again. Port 80 / webtraffic are the same. Everything else on BT is slow in comparison.

I have delt with BT support many times over the years. They are unusible for attempting to get things fix and it is typically more efficent / better use of time / resources to simply move the connection. The only reason why we are still with them on the 2nd line's is because we are waiting for contracts to expire. I didnt initially setup / choose BT in either case and would stronly recommend against them.

When you consider the number of issues on this forum reported by people who can not achive simple goals / issues resolved though normal tech support channels and have to have it fixed by "BT_Care" on a public forum shows what a waste of time calling their "customer service" / "tech support" numbers actually are. Typically it takes them around a week todo *anything*

I've been a BT Broadband customer before between the years 2001 - 2006. I never had any problems whatsoever with it, mainly because where I lived was in a rural village with minimum contention anyway. The speed was a fixed 2Mbit service.

I moved in 2006 where the house had already been wired for as was then Telewest broadband, again, superb service.

I have moved now to Silsden which is a village not far from Keighley, West Yorkshire on the MYSTE Steeton exchange approximately 1.5 miles at most. I had this installed on 08/03/2010 and so far no problems with speed, dropouts, congestion, traffic shaping at all.

My point is, I wanted interleaving turned off and instead of ringing BT India I sent an email to BT Care and within 24 hours the interleaving was turned off. I also had another query today 23/03/2010 at 16:53 to be precise, not that it makes a blind bit of difference, however, the email was answered within 20 minutes of sending it and my query resolved.

It's amazing to read all the bitching about BT Support, which yes I admit, sometimes is very frustrating, especially when you get through to BT India who are reading from a script AND are only taught "Basic English". If only people would realise that all they need to do is email said BT Care and problems would be resolved without the need for raised blood pressure and loss of hair.

My overall experience with BT has been absolutely perfect.

Rant over!!

By the way, what an excellent forum!

Edited by bogtramp (Tue 23-Mar-10 22:54:30)

I was forced really into going to BT after moving house. I moved to a small village and BT were just about the only option available, luckily I am no more than 500 meters away from the exchange though and my speed is a constant 6 meg.
Due to the extra cost compared to my old ISP I decided to go with option 2 but with 3 people in the house using laptops I found myself getting fined for overuse (20 meg a month between 3 is not enough) the fines varied between £3 and £11. After my initial 18 month contract was up I still had no option but to stay with BT but I put the ball in their court and emailed asking what they could offer if I were to upgrade to option 3 (unlimited but with a fair usage policy) on a 12 month contract. I got exactly what I wanted for just over £2 more per month and since then I have been very happy. I am not a gamer but do play online poker a lot but have never suffered from slow speeds at any time of the day or night.
I have only had one problem since upgrading and that was my speed dropped like a stone for no apparent reason, an email to support (India) was answered the following day with a call to my mobile and after a lot of line testing etc was corrected in 3 days (it was a fault at the exchange) Since then no problems whatsoever and no fines. Like most people I dreaded dealing with India but the person that dealt with my issue did so very efficiently and politely and kept me in the picture all the way by phoning my mobile every day.
Yes BT tend to be more expensive but I guess "you get what you pay for" I am currently paying £19.67 / month with a free Hub Phone. I consider that reasonable.

I've been with BT Total Broadband for around 6 years, moving from a USB modem and 2Mb connection in the good old days to an 8Mb Router configuration. In my experience I would recommend BT but only because its been very reliable, only two major issues in the time I've been with them. One was the phone line being faulty following all the snow we had this winter and the 2nd was a failed card in the exchange. I find speed is good - I only generally surf the web, play games, streaming audio and do email. It is expensive but also I live within 200mtrs of the exchange so this helps. I have found tech support useless until you get to a UK based person. Especially if you use your own hardware! Not keen to troublehoot. so I hope you get a Home hub, they are supposed to be pretty good. I will be moving at some point so I don't know if I'll stay with BT or move to another provider (depends on where I go). Best of luck.