BT Infinity 2 to Plusnet / something cheaper - questions

Hi all,

I'm new here!

I have been on BT Infinity 2 for 2 years and service-wise I have been very happy. I am close to the cabinet, roughly 100 mt, and I am always able to reach 75/19 Mbps as real speed (Speedtest).

However, the price they charge for this service, in my opinion, is too much: £30 + £17.99 (line rental). Recently BT sent an email, saying that by July 1st it will raise to a total of £51.93.

What recommendations do you have for me? I only care about speed. Maximum speed. I don't care about the phone line number, weird security packages, free cloud space and dodgy child safe-browsing systems.

I have put my eyes on Plusnet. They offer 80/20 Fibre for £22.49, without phone line (and rental). PlusNet does cap speed using rate limits based on activities, and I would buy the Pro package, £5, to get the maximum priority on most network services. This would be £27.49 compared to £51.93.

I also have another question: if currently my link speed is 79999/19999 (ish), and line stats are very good overall (I can post details), will I get the same speed and line quality with another ISP?

With PlusNet and Pro package I am expecting to have the same speed as BT. Is my assumption correct?

I don't mind paying an extra bit for speed, but not twice the price.

Many thanks in advance.

Post deleted by WelshWArrior

In theory you should get the same speed from all providers, as basically they are all using the same system (except Virgin Cable). I will leave it to others with more knowledge to discuss the details of any Plusnet restrictions and duplicate profiles.

I have been using Plusnet for about 8 years and have a rock steady connection, though not as fast as yours.

Customer service definitely went through bad patch recently when they had to cope with a hugely increased customer base, however when I rang them a couple of weeks ago I was through in 4 min. The support when you get through has always been good.

Of course there are people who are not happy and the Plusnet forum on here will give you some prime examples, however the nature of a forum is that people only tend to post when they are unhappy and there lots of similar posts in most of the others.

There are some ISPs who always stand out as being better, however they tend to be rather more expensive, so do not meet your criteria.

In reply to a post by WelshWArrior:

Surely there's still going to be line rental (£17.99 ish) on top of the £27.49 - making the total more like £45.48?? Still cheaper than BT though

I simulated the order. I can say "I don't want phone" and avoid to pay the rental price. In this case I will pay a one-off activation fee of £50.
I can post a screenshot
By looking at your signature, I can see your speed tests with PlusNet. What's your link rate and distance from the cabinet?

In reply to a post by philippercival:

In theory you should get the same speed from all providers, as basically they are all using the same system (except Virgin Cable). I will leave it to others with more knowledge to discuss the details of any Plusnet restrictions and duplicate profiles.

I have been using Plusnet for about 8 years and have a rock steady connection, though not as fast as yours.

Thanks for your answer. Have you bought the Pro package?
Anyway I am in Milton Keynes, Virgin is not available (sadly).
Last time I rang BT I had to wait 15 mins, and took another 15 mins to let them understand that I work in IT and no, I am not using Wi-Fi for speedtest (seriously, they are terrible...)

Edited by deleted (Thu 12-May-16 15:40:08)

TalkTalk is pretty good value as well right now.

£15 for fibre 80Mbps + Line rental. You can likely get cashback at topcashback or quidco as well.

Pro is a legacy add-on for older packages that had specific traffic management. The traffic management on current products is simply a prioritisation system to ensure things like VOIP and gaming get through their in-house routers as fast as possible, taking priority over torrent downloads and the like.

This is applied at individual line level, which benefits the user, and also at network level where it should also help. Link. In the past one user has claimed he gets better performance on Pro. However you can try it with and without, as Pro is a monthly option not subject to a minimum term.

There does seem to be a slight loss of maximum throughput, possibly on your line about 2Mbps. This thought by some to be mainly due to the buffering inherent in the traffic prioritisation system. Plusnet also apply a copy of the IP Profile rounded down to the 200kbps below the IP Profile. Some others also do similar but generally don't disclose it. It is to do with avoiding packet loss at the MSAN/DSLAM.

Re line rental, WelshWarrior is correct in a way. You have to pay it to someone. Just if you don't take Plusnet rental on top of the connection charge they are charging you £2.50pm more than they do if you have their rental, as well as that £50 setup, and there are no introductory cheap offers.

If you go back to the relevant website page you will see it says "from £22.49 a month + line rental".

I recommend Pulse8broadband for the line rental. (That link normally opens on the Business line tab, so click the Home one if it does). I used that for a while when on Plusnet broadband and still use it now on AAISP.

You could of course go the whole hog and take the P8 line and FTTC at £44pm inclusive. It is based on TalkTalk Business full LLU (MPF) and unless things have been sorted out may involve migrating on ADSL2+ then upgrading .

In reply to a post by WelshWArrior:

Post deleted by WelshWArrior

See my reply to the OP. You were right in that they have to pay line rental to someone.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

TalkTalk is pretty good value as well right now.

£15 for fibre 80Mbps + Line rental. You can likely get cashback at topcashback or quidco as well.

Hmm, how dodgy they are on traffic management?

Have you spoken to the retentions team at BT and advised them that you're thinking of leaving?

The might well be able to give you an incentive to stay.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Re line rental, WelshWarrior is correct in a way. You have to pay it to someone. Just if you don't take Plusnet rental on top of the connection charge they are charging you £2.50pm more than they do if you have their rental, as well as that £50 setup, and there are no introductory cheap offers.

If you go back to the relevant website page you will see it says "from £22.49 a month + line rental".

Thanks for Pulse8Broadband, I'll have a look, although I do not think it's worth for the price.
Regarding Plusnet and no line rental. Yes, I would pay £22.49 instead of £19.99, activation fee and no introductory offers, but in the end it's always cheaper.

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I recommend Pulse8broadband for the line rental. (That link normally opens on the Business line tab, so click the Home one if it does). I used that for a while when on Plusnet

Sorry, what do you mean with this? Line rental with a provider an fiber with another?!?

Edited by deleted (Thu 12-May-16 16:30:33)

In reply to a post by lee111s:

Have you spoken to the retentions team at BT and advised them that you're thinking of leaving?

The might well be able to give you an incentive to stay.

Good! I will have a try.
Do you think that I should chat or ring them?

they (talktalk) are not into any kind of traffic shaping at all, Plusnet are though, I was with plusnet and was driven mad by it. now my downloads are at full speed day or night.

Support though is all through foreign call centres which is a pain.

Just call and advise you're thinking on cancelling and have seen company A and B can do the same speed for £xx a month. Worth a shot!

You will probably find although you are not taking a phone service to PlusNet you will still have to pay line rental to BT.

In reply to a post by solchain:

they (talktalk) are not into any kind of traffic shaping at all, Plusnet are though, I was with plusnet and was driven mad by it. now my downloads are at full speed day or night.

Support though is all through foreign call centres which is a pain.

Good.
Two years ago I was living in London, the landlord put TallkTalk fibre. Their router was a nightmare, but was using the Openreach box.
Regardless the current TalkTalk router quality, does it still use the Openreach box?

EDIT:
That's what Talktalk says for my line
Download Speed: 59Mb to 80Mb
59 is too low, or maybe it's how their estimate works?

Edited by deleted (Thu 12-May-16 16:39:22)

In reply to a post by olivercer:

Sorry, what do you mean with this? Line rental with a provider an fiber with another?!?

Yes, that's exactly what I do, FTTC with Plusnet and Line Rental with Pulse8; works out cheaper even with the extra £2.50 to Plusnet.

In reply to a post by solchain:

I was with plusnet and was driven mad by it. now my downloads are at full speed day or night.

That must have been a very long time ago, I have never had any issues with it.

In reply to a post by olivercer:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I recommend Pulse8broadband for the line rental. (That link normally opens on the Business line tab, so click the Home one if it does). I used that for a while when on Plusnet

Sorry, what do you mean with this? Line rental with a provider an fiber with another?!?

Yes. You have to have line rental from someone, as I showed you with the quote from the £22.49 product.

I'm on my sixth ISP and my line rental has always been with BT until the middle of last year - never with my ISP. P8 call charges are laughably low as well.

What do you mean Pulse8 isn't worth it for the price? £44pm including line? The service itself is well spoken of, and the CS is good. Plusnet CS isn't wonderful.

In reply to a post by simon194:

You will probably find although you are not taking a phone service to PlusNet you will still have to pay line rental to BT.

No. Any Openreach WLR3 supplier, of which there are many.

Hi, Not quite a correct comparison, I think. With the £27.49, you've not added the line charge: that would make it £2.51 cheaper - surely (22.49+5+17.99).

In reply to a post by olivercer:

Two years ago I was living in London, the landlord put TallkTalk fibre. Their router was a nightmare, but was using the Openreach box.
Regardless the current TalkTalk router quality, does it still use the Openreach box?

The Openreach modems are no longer issued by Openreach. AIUI all suppliers now offer combo boxes, though of course you (in most cases) you don't have to take their offering.

EDIT:
That's what Talktalk says for my line
Download Speed: 59Mb to 80Mb
59 is too low, or maybe it's how their estimate works?

All estimates by ISPs basically come from the database that this checker uses.

The only thing that should cause your connection speeds to change if going to a TT or TTB line would be the stability settings they order from Openreach. They may be a higher stability than BT Wholesale, so a bit slower. As you seem likely to get full whack anyway that isn't likely to matter.

Re throughput on TalkTalk, the TalkTalk service apparently has seven internal priority levels, with Retail being on 7, (the lowest), and Business/Business Wholesale on the higher ones.

In reply to a post by lelboy:

Hi, Not quite a correct comparison, I think. With the £27.49, you've not added the line charge: that would make it £2.51 cheaper - surely (22.49+5+17.99).

Where does the £17.99 come from? That's the expensive BT Retail isn't it?

Plusnet is £16.99 and if he took that would get all the offers, save £50, and get the broadband for £19.99.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 12-May-16 17:00:45)

All,

Thank you all for the great answers.

Pulse8 line rental is nothing compared to ISPs, £6 vs £18ish! Good, good to know.
How do I get this in place? All ISP support this setup?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

What do you mean Pulse8 isn't worth it for the price? £44pm including line? The service itself is well spoken of, and the CS is good. Plusnet CS isn't wonderful.

I meant that £44 all included is not much different than my current charges. I don't doubt about the service!!!

TalkTalk + Pulse8 line would be damn cheap. Plusnet a bit less.
Tempted.

TalkTalk insist on you taking their LLU line. As a result so do Pulse8broadband who are reselling TalkTalk Business Wholesale. You cannot buy TalkTalk Retail yourself and line rental separately from anywhere.

If you go for line only with Pulse8, which I and kasg and some others have, and your broadband elsewhere, the line rental is £13. I pay £1 on top of that for caller display, but my call charges per month are a low number of pence.

I did post in my early plusnet days with better throughput on pro, but all my time on the ipv6 testing account (which didnt have pro priority) speed was fine as long as I wasnt been routed over a dodgy BTw MSIL.

So I think on the unlimited accounts pro is not needed now, its just an insurance policy just incase plusnet become a bottleneck which seems unlikely now.

Of course if one doesnt want the priorities plusnet set on their own line, then pro is good for making traffic equal as well. As it makes most traffic gold.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The Openreach modems are no longer issued by Openreach. AIUI all suppliers now offer combo boxes, though of course you (in most cases) you don't have to take their offering.

That's bad. I don't want to stick to terrible ISP routers, but VDSL router are very expensive. What's the alternative here? Get an old Openreach box and the router I want?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

All estimates by ISPs basically come from the database that this checker uses.

Allright, I know well that website. 59 is the impacted line rate, which is not my case.

---
At this point, if I can get the line rental via Pulse8, shall I go for TalkTalk or PlusNet?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

TalkTalk insist on you taking their LLU line. As a result so do Pulse8broadband who are reselling TalkTalk Business Wholesale. You cannot buy TalkTalk Retail yourself and line rental separately from anywhere.

If you go for line only with Pulse8, which I and kasg and some others have, and your broadband elsewhere, the line rental is £13. I pay £1 on top of that for caller display, but my call charges per month are a low number of pence.

Pulse 8 + PlusNet: £13 line rental + £22.49 p/m = £35.49

TalkTallk: £32.70 for the first 12 months, then £40.20.

PlusNet would still be cheaper, but just without the Pro pack.

uSwitch shows that SSE is offering good deals as well: £21 for 18 month of unlimited 76 Mbit fibre. I have never heard them before.

Edited by deleted (Thu 12-May-16 17:32:18)

Hi Bob, I just took a typical line rental charge and added it to the figures - £22.49 and the £5.00 as quoted by the OP (I edited a little adding up error). BT - as you know - are increasing their prices in a little while, so I'll be shutting down one of my lines with them! Cheers, Les.

I always try to compare like with like. So for example I would spread the £50 Plusnet setup across the first year when comparing with other first-year costs. £4.17pm.

I don't see where your TalkTalk figure comes from at all. Their website is far from easy. It looks to me to be more than you have found.

Are you not interested in what Quidco or TopCashBack might come up with?

While you can pay in the £200 region for your own VDSL router, basic modem devices are cheaper and can pair with an router that accepts an Ethernet WAN connection, the price of that router depending on how fast you want the wireless side to be.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I don't see where your TalkTalk figure comes from at all. Their website is far from easy. It looks to me to be more than you have found.

Are you not interested in what Quidco or TopCashBack might come up with?

Talktalk £ is what I get when simulating the order, but now the website is looping and I can't even check availability lol.

Not interested in cashback at all, thanks.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

While you can pay in the £200 region for your own VDSL router, basic modem devices are cheaper and can pair with an router that accepts an Ethernet WAN connection, the price of that router depending on how fast you want the wireless side to be.

TP-LINK Archer VR900 AC 1900 (VDSL modem included) is £115 now, but there is no other choice at the price.

Is there a thread or a list of recommended VDSL modems? I'd like to get AC wireless, but no more than £100

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I always try to compare like with like. So for example I would spread the £50 Plusnet setup across the first year when comparing with other first-year costs. £4.17pm.

Just curious, but is the setup fee payable even when migrating FTTC service?
If so, it seems unjustified to me.

Something tells me some have had variable experience with the Archer in terms of VDSL2.

Standard recommendation is

TP Link W9970 at £33 running in bridge mode i.e. wireless and router off so just a modem linked to something like the TP Link Archer C8 at £66 down from its usual £115 and is a fast dual-core CPU device which is better for fast VDSL2 PPPoE based connections.

In the email from BT is there not a link to a personalised offer?

It gave me the choice of infinity 1 for £10 or infinity 2 for £17.50 (both need line rental added)

If I was to leave I'd have gone to plusnet for both line rental and calls via topcashback.co.uk.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Something tells me some have had variable experience with the Archer in terms of VDSL2.

Standard recommendation is

TP Link W9970 at £33 running in bridge mode i.e. wireless and router off so just a modem linked to something like the TP Link Archer C8 at £66 down from its usual £115 and is a fast dual-core CPU device which is better for fast VDSL2 PPPoE based connections.

Thank you very very much.
That's a great configuration! £33 for a VDSL router, looks like a joke

I think I am going for Talk Talk if BT cannot offer anything better. I will take the risk of their not so good customer support. As said earlier and specified here, they do not apply any traffic shaping at all.
PlusNet is not so clear on this, and I am an heavy streaming/downloading/uploading user.

In reply to a post by Kr1s69:

In the email from BT is there not a link to a personalised offer?

It gave me the choice of infinity 1 for £10 or infinity 2 for £17.50 (both need line rental added)

If I was to leave I'd have gone to plusnet for both line rental and calls via topcashback.co.uk.

I would stay in BT for £17.50 on Infinity 2, that's a great deal actually. No link to personalised offer, they told me they are increasing prices!

In reply to a post by olivercer:

TP-LINK Archer VR900 AC 1900 (VDSL modem included) is £115 now, but there is no other choice at the price.

Is there a thread or a list of recommended VDSL modems? I'd like to get AC wireless, but no more than £100

Just to add to this thread, I contacted TP Link UK sales regarding VDSL Modem routers (with the ability to add guess access) and got this reply.

Thank you for your interest in TP-Link Products.

For high end VDSL router, Please have a look at http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/cat-15_Archer... , Price on Amazon is around £195
For middle tier VDSL router, Please have a look at http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/cat-15_Archer... , Price on Amazon is around £100
For entry level VDSL router, Please have a look at http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/cat-15_TD-W99... , Price on Amazon is around £33

The "low end" is a TP Link WD9970 which retails anything around £30. I am tempted to start with one of these BUT I may go with a Archer VR600 (AC1600) which is around £100. My argument with getting a standalone VDSL router/modem is that you can configure and monitor it!

Yes.

Basically the extortionate line rentals of the big ISPs subsidise the broadband. Remove that from your contract and they make far less money from you, so do all they can to (a) recoup that in other ways, and (b) discourage you in this sort of way from not taking line rental.

Sky and TalkTalk only allow you not to have their line rental in very special circumstances. BT Consumer don't advertise a broadband product detached from their line rental but I believe they do have one - Solus. I've no idea what the pricing structure for that is.

In reply to a post by olivercer:

PlusNet does cap speed using rate limits based on activities

Not really. It's more like a QoS system. It ensures your most latency critical activities aren't impacted by other things you are doing. So if you're playing a game and someone else in your house kicks off a download PN's systems will (if/as needed) limit the download stream to ensure that your game playing doesn't suffer. From their description it sounds like this is applied both individually and across their entire network.

For an individual connection it sounds like a good idea. Without that system in place your gaming stream will have to fight with the other resident's download stream and you may find yourself struggling. Of course the person doing the download will be happier as they will get a marginally faster download rate.

For the entire network I'm not sure. I suppose it means that if a significant number of PN customers are doing latency critical things those downloading might notice poor performance. But I've been a customer for over two years now and have enough trust in their network planning to be happy that either the system rarely has to do anything or else the way it works is transparent.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Plusnet CS isn't wonderful.

It seems better than it was. Unfortunately too many people seem to need it during the installation process. There's a continuous trickle of people who switch from ADSL to FTTC and PN's systems (or their agents) forget to update the profile. Luckily that wouldn't impact you or the OP.

But I also followed your suggestion and switch to Pulse8 for line rental. It did mean I lost BT Text on my landline but it wasn't a critical service. My land phone supports SMS but the user interface for it is unpleasant.

Edited by Andrue (Fri 13-May-16 09:18:07)

In reply to a post by solchain:

Plusnet are though, I was with plusnet and was driven mad by it.

That must have been several years ago. Their current systems are only for QoS (so they claim) so your downloads will only be throttled to make way for other more important traffic. I've never noticed any throughput issues (except last year when there was a known fault on their network) and there's never any mention of issues in their forums.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

In reply to a post by solchain:

Plusnet are though, I was with plusnet and was driven mad by it.

That must have been several years ago. Their current systems are only for QoS (so they claim) so your downloads will only be throttled to make way for other more important traffic. I've never noticed any throughput issues (except last year when there was a known fault on their network) and there's never any mention of issues in their forums.

So their priority system is applied to clients within the same line and not on the line itself?
The key questions is: If I am the only user connected on my line, can I get a download in full line speed?
Anyway I still don't like this kind of systems - If I'd wanted QoS I would enable it on my router.

In reply to a post by CJT:

The "low end" is a TP Link WD9970 which retails anything around £30. I am tempted to start with one of these BUT I may go with a Archer VR600 (AC1600) which is around £100. My argument with getting a standalone VDSL router/modem is that you can configure and monitor it!

Well, the low-end could even be without Wi-Fi, it doesn't really matter to me. As MrSaffron suggested, WD9970 can be used just as a modem, and then connect whatever router you want.
Although I will end up in 2 devices, I prefer to have the flexibility to choose the router I want without having to worry about the VDSL part.

In reply to a post by olivercer:

No link to personalised offer, they told me they are increasing prices!

Try this link

Though may be worth trying them on the telephone/online chat as well to see if the offers differ

Edited by gt94sss2 (Fri 13-May-16 10:53:59)

I believe you can only manage the priority of packets you send. Therefore to be able to manage download priority it has to be done at the other end hence why PlusNet provide QoS.

In reply to a post by gt94sss2:

In reply to a post by olivercer:

No link to personalised offer, they told me they are increasing prices!

Try this link

Though may be worth trying them on the telephone/online chat as well to see if the offers differ

Uhm. That link is saying that I can get my offer for £28.50 instead of the upcoming £32.5.
That's not bad, I would save a bit, but maybe by calling them I can have a better discount.
Thanks!

I would definitely call as I mentioned above, telling them what deals you can get elsewhere.

In reply to a post by lee111s:

I would definitely call as I mentioned above, telling them what deals you can get elsewhere.

Yes, I'll do this later.

I had a quick chat with TalkTalk, I think with a 1st line guy, he didn't know much

- £50 should be paid even if I have fibre optic already setup. The engineer will have to visit the cabinet.
However, I don't think I will be moved within the DLSAM, isn't?
- I must use their horrible Super Router, I cannot use other VDSL routers. Our services work only with the provided Router.
I doubt about this as well, it's an OpenReach service.

In reply to a post by olivercer:

If I am the only user connected on my line, can I get a download in full line speed?

Yes.

In reply to a post by olivercer:

and took another 15 mins to let them understand that I work in IT

What difference does that make. I work in IT too but there are some really stupid people who work in IT and I don't see the relevance at all.

You can use ANY router on Talktalk.

SSE are basically an electricity company who have branched out into phone and broadband. This is using Daisy Wholesale (part of the Daisy Group) who seem reputable.
The deal looks good so I have signed with them for Ultrafast Fibre after being with Plusnet for many years. I am currently paying over twice as much for the same service. In addition I will get £131.30 cashback through Topcashback. In 18 months I will need to reevaluate my options.

Edited by rjh321 (Sat 14-May-16 12:29:26)

Thank you all, for suggestions and your expertise. I have learned a lot just in a 6 pages discussion.

I have called BT and after a bit of push I managed to get Infinity 2 (my current package) down to £22.5 p/m plus line rental. (£10 discount); £40.5 p/m including line rental. They will keep this price for 12 months, excluding line rental that will go up anyway in July.

Not a huge deal compared to other provides, but at least now it's a reasonable price.

Thanks again!

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

You can use ANY router on Talktalk.

I was referring to the VDSL modem, the customer service said I had to use TalkTalk one.

Edited by deleted (Mon 16-May-16 15:19:45)

May be worth trying http://www.bt.com/myoffer again in a few days once you are in your new pricing package and see what it offers you then.

Any VDSL2 modem too, the TalkTalk router I believe has an Ethernet WAN port you can use - the Sky Hub is certainly happy in this arrangement, i.e. it auto detects how the connection is arriving at the router.

Andrew

In reply to a post by gt94sss2:

May be worth trying http://www.bt.com/myoffer again in a few days once you are in your new pricing package and see what it offers you then.

It may be hilarious if any offer would be available after this discount I will try anyway.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Any VDSL2 modem too, the TalkTalk router I believe has an Ethernet WAN port you can use - the Sky Hub is certainly happy in this arrangement, i.e. it auto detects how the connection is arriving at the router.

Andrew

That's what they said, I didn't investigate much, but I'm sure there's a way to not use their router!

Edited by deleted (Mon 16-May-16 15:34:10)

In reply to a post by olivercer:

That's what they said, I didn't investigate much, but I'm sure there's a way to not use their router!

Do you mean modem or router?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by olivercer:

That's what they said, I didn't investigate much, but I'm sure there's a way to not use their router!

Do you mean modem or router?

TalkTalk provides their "Super Router" which includes a VDSL modem (earlier were two boxes).

I'm not switching to TalkTalk anymore, but my idea was to remove their lovely piece of craB, and use a VDSL modem/router bought by me. However, customer support said that TalkTalk fibre works only with their Super Router.
That means 100% you can attach any router to the Talk Talk one, but you cannot use another VDSL modem instead of the Talk Talk router. However I think there's a way to do this, I have seen some threads on Google about this.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but you can use any modem on talktalk as they don't use any authentication so any modem or modem/router will just work

In reply to a post by olivercer:

Do you think that I should chat or ring them?

I rang them to give them the required 14 days notice of intention to leave (as per the email about price increases) and I was offered a new 12 month month deal that easily persuaded me to stay. I am already on a deal due to some other problems I had with them around billing. My new deal is even better than the existing one let alone the one after the price increases.

To make matters even better they look to have screwed up my BT Cloud and BT Mail subscriptions - might be time to escalate them again and get an even better deal !!!

I am with TalkTalk. They do not even have a username and password, so anything that supports VDSL2+ works. I did not use their equipment on my line for a while, but I do now use their Superrouter without too many issues. There is some error build up on the wireless side but the latest firmware sorted this out to be usable.

Re traffic management, I have never seen this and I get full speeds 24/7. I actually get much better speeds, pings and general connection with TT than my BT line. I have 2 lines in my home though, always have, as I often work from home.

Also worth noting, if you make an order and then ring retentions in the 20 days cooling off, telling them your existing provider offered you a better deal, they will match it immediately. I have fibre medium for just the price of line rental

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 17-May-16 07:49:32)

Any open reach modem will work on TT if you want to use your own equipment.

I would say give the TT router a go first, as in my testing it has better range than my netgear nighthawk £140 router which has significantly less range despite having antennas as tall as me.

Also my super router can sustain 2 months uptime without any issues, never have to reboot it etc. I was really unhappy with it before the latest firmware but now I'm happy

Yes, the BT Infinity has been nice service-wise.

I'm fairly happy with BT's reliability although their helpdesk is useless so instead of moving I moved to Infinity1 unlimited 55/10 which was £15/mth less.
I have a massive SNR overhead now at 12db with attainable at 77/30 so the line is very stable and I haven't noticed the drop in speed TBH.

I think I was offered £41 per month for Infinity 2/Line rental and all call as well i think. I still moved to Plusnet as it was cheaper.

Also, the connection is 3% faster down, 11% faster up and pings dropped from 11/12 to 7.

I use the Hub one supplied and have no issues with it, pump around 200 GB up/down a week and it all just works

Can recomend Plusnet !