Need new Fibre provider

Fortunately my plusnet contract is comming to and end and its only going to cost me £12 if I end now. Personally I can't wait to get away!

The Fibre speeds have not seen anything more than 15Meg download and the tech support is useless, they have still not sent an engineer despite months of promises.

Not only that, but the download allowance is limiting enough to incurr extra charges for various addon's and £1 per GB. As a full house, everyone using iplayer and even my dad likes to catch up using the Wii! My allowance is closing in on 40gb every month and that is only because I'm constantly telling them off!

The other thing is that im constantly bombarded with calls about PPI and Insurance, they want me to buy a £4 a month product just to block them, and it doesn't work with the majority of the calls because they are all international!

So, I'm looking for a DECENT provider that has no usage restrictions, and has good customer care, and willing to help with nuiscance calls.

I have seen SKYs unlimited offer, but having seen my friends experiences with them, I want to look elsewhere if possible...

Based on the above, does anyone have suggestions or recomendations for a fibre internet provider?

Your maximum acceptable spend per month for phone and broadband is what? I don't know about TalkTalk, but if they aren't unlimited your only other unlimited provider is BT Infinity. Good luck with the support there , and with nuisance call blocking.

Incidentally, your existing 40GB (peak, unlimited off-peak) PN product can be upgraded to 250GB/unlimited for a mere £3.50pm over what you pay now.

What does this checker say about your phone number, and what does it say if you use the pure postcode checker option in it instead of the phone number?

Even where privacy services exist they generally only deal with UK based calls.

So International stuff would require you to have an International block put on the line.

In reply to a post by GavinJenkins:

... and the tech support is useless ...

I think you will find that most people will say Plusnet's tech support is better than most, certainly in anything like their price bracket. Have you posted about your problems in the Plusnet community forum, because they tend to jump on things fairly quickly?

what was wrong with your friend's experience with sky?

to me they look the best of the bunch but whats scaring me of is that their new hub doesnt have a solid workaround yet to get the user/password so may be forced to use it.

I considered plusnet after rebortos's comments but I see the top FTTC package has lower priority for traffic than the old adsl pro package so plusnet not confident enough to give FTTC traffic a high banding and on top of that plusnet graphs seem to show peak time congestion issue still existing so that has scared me of plusnet.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

what was wrong with your friend's experience with sky?

Pretty much getting any sense out of them, especially with tech support always going to indian call centers and always having to go through the whole procedure of turning the modem off and on again when theres clearly a fault with their line.
I understand its needed to rule things out, but as a techie, shes already done all the fault checks and tried different computers etc... but the support cant seem to ever fathom things out...

Has this changed?

Its useless!
I call them up, or send them a ticket, they tell me to do line tests using the bt checker and go through the whole process of connecting the openreach modem directly to the PC and creating a new connection etc.

They confirm that theres a fault and then 'pass it on to the faults team' and they will be in touch. They only did so when I first joined them, and around xmas last year when I had a fault. They seem to have gone pretty bad over the summer months?

250gb isn't unlimited when you have a whole family demanding 'on demand' =)
people wanting lovefilm, downloading games, watching tv and all the rest of it soon chews it up - or would do if I had a decent fibre speed

The checker says just over 18, but Ive had close to 30 in the past, so I know the line is more than capable.

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 1Mbps. However due to the length of your line the 1Mbps service may require an engineer visit who will, where possible, supply the broadband service.


Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL Max broadband line speed of 2.5Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 1.5Mbps and 5Mbps.


Our test also indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL2+ broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 1Mbps. However due to the length of your line the 1Mbps service may require an engineer visit who will, where possible, supply the broadband service.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 3.5Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 2Mbps and 6Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 18.4Mbps and upstream line speed of 4.2Mbps.

The actual stable line speed supportable will be determined during the first 10 days of use. This speed may change over time, to ensure line stability is maintained.

Furthermore your exchange has been enabled for multicast services on fibre lines, please contact your provider for further details.

If you decide to place an order, a further test will be performed to confirm if your line is suitable for the service you wish to purchase.

Thank you for your interest.


Please note that postcode and address check results are indicative only. Most accurate results can be obtained from a telephone number check.
Note: If you already have a Broadband service and you want to switch service providers, you will need to contact both your current provider and your new provider to get your service changed over new and existing service provider to have this service transferred.

Also provision of some services may not be allowed due to product withdrawal, please contact your service provider for further details.

Does such a product exist with other providers? I'm failing to see one with plusnet

You answered kasg's first question, but not the second.

If you want your speed issue sorting out, the best place to post about it is on Plusnet's own forum.

In reply to a post by GavinJenkins:

The other thing is that im constantly bombarded with calls about PPI and Insurance, they want me to buy a £4 a month product just to block them, and it doesn't work with the majority of the calls because they are all international!

...
and willing to help with nuiscance calls.

As others mention, most actions you can take will normally only affect UK calls. We are registered with TPS, and that works most of the time, but only for UK.

Where it doesn't work, and particularly with International calls, we use our answering machine in conjunction with caller display. The answering machine is normally switched off, but if I get a call displayed as either "Number Witheld" or "International", I send it to the answering machine (using a key on the cordless handset). Invariably, no message is left.

I tend to do the same if there is a number I don't recognise... at the same time as searching online for one of the "who calls me" services. Again, a message isn't often left - but if it turns out to be someone "normal", then I can swiftly intercept the call anyway.

In reply to a post by GavinJenkins:

250gb isn't unlimited when you have a whole family demanding 'on demand' =)

That's certainly true - but your original post suggests you are currently only hitting the limits of 40GB at the moment... so 250GB should present plenty of headroom.

Cant fault BT, was with Aquiss for a year on FTTC and tbh BT's connection has proven more reliable so far (been with them about 9 months now) ... only thing that was better on Aquiss was tech support as you basically speak to the same person each time you ring up (Martin) and he really knows his stuff and has been in the industry a long time. If tech support is a big thing for you then Aquiss is probably one of the best.

Not had a reason to phone BT tech support yet though so cant 't really complain or compare them.

I even like the Home Hub BT provide, I was using a Cisco E3000 previously but the homehub has proven to be just as reliable and the WiFi signal covers the house better than my Cisco router did.

I have plenty of reasons to dislike BT and hadn't used them as an ISP for about 10 years before swapping to them earlier this year but I have been very pleased with what I have found since the swap, not to mention the savings!

TPS (Totally Pathetic Service as I call it) is pretty rubbish tbh, its not just international sales calls that get through, plenty from the UK do too because many companies just don't bother to check whether someone is registered or have the proper automated systems in place to prevent calls to them.

Despite that, BT's Privacy at Home service (which includes sign up to TPS) is worthwhile registering for because you get free Caller Display which they normally charge for.

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8112/...

Be aware that BT will charge for the Caller Display if you don't make a couple of calls each month (or was it quarter)?

Not sure, did a quick look but answer did not jump out at me.

Seems in some places people suggest not doing an international bar, as it can also block those who use the cheap call prefix services (some CPS services)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Be aware that BT will charge for the Caller Display if you don't make a couple of calls each month (or was it quarter)?

Two calls per month if on monthly billing, six per quarter if on quarterly.

The calls can be the "free" type included in your call plan, they don't have to incur an actual charge.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Be aware that BT will charge for the Caller Display if you don't make a couple of calls each month (or was it quarter)?

You were right it is per month, that's what you call a flaming cheek.

I can't answer your question about fibre as am on ADSL but do have the following advice about your nuisance callers.

If it's the same one and its actually a person politely ask them to stop, if they keep calling be as rude as you like and add in a few choice expletives as remember you pay for the line.

Hopefully they will not want to call back, it worked for a couple for me although it did go against every instinct as I was brought up to be polite but I got so fed up with them,

Alas there's not really much that can be done technicallly as the call centres are (or appear to the phone system to be anyway) overseas.

Hi there,
It's getting a little off topic now but yes many tickets and posts have been raised, all have said they will need to pass it on and will require an engineer visit but I have never heard a thing back after its been 'passed on'.
Personally I've now had a guts full hence my looking for a new provider

Hiya,
Yes might be confusing in my original post...
The only reason I'm below 40gb, and only JUST below, is that I pretty much stop them from doing anything during the daytime :/

Just out of interest, we haven't seen the results of a BT Performance Test. I'd like to see how it compares with that BT Wholesale estimate. Please use the Diagnostic option, and copy/paste the full contents of both the down and up results text boxes. (The graphics don't matter). There is more info there than the pure speed, and that other stuff is what I would like to see.

Bear in mind that the estimates are based on Openreach's expectation once there is significant takeup on the cabinet. Most people see a drop after first connection, though not as bad as yours.