Heavy Home User Seeking Reccomendations for New ADSL Package

Hi folks. I was hoping I could pick your brains about what broadband provider to switch to. I was a member this forum a number of years ago, but have since misplaced my login. It was my membership of this forum that led me to join ADSL24 as my broadbrand provider following years of bad experiences with AOL, BT and TalkTalk.

ADSL24 were awesome. Their 1 month contracts really gave you confidence that they actually believed in the value of their product. Although I live out in the countryside of NE Scotland, I consistently achived 3.5mb/s connection speeds. Their customer service was faultless, and available at evening and weekends. I was on their 65gb on-peak a month package, and managed to exceed that limit a few times.

Since ADSL24 were bought out by Coms, I've been migrated over to them. For the same price they upgraded my limit to 100gb. However it's not all so perfect. Although I'm getting more download limit for my money, they're charging me my old ADSL24 rate which means I'm paying £10 a month more than new Coms customers. I've been trying to get in touch with them for a month to talk about this and am having no joy at all. I phoned their customer service line (ostensibly open till 8pm) last night at 1820 only to hear an automated message saying the office was closed. Compared to ADSL24, Coms customer service absolutely sucks. My connection speeds have also dropped noticeably. I'm now lucky to get 1mb/s.

I've been unsure whether I might be moving shortly for over a year, so I've been reluctant to change broadband and phone provider if it involves getting tied into a lengthy contract. This has resulted in me paying rather a lot more than I should. I'm paying Coms about £30 a month for Broadband and my BT phone bill tends to run about the same.

So far in January my on-peak broadband usage has been 68gb. Can anyone recomend a proivder (perhaps one that offers a combined phone and broadband package) who will provide out in the sticks?

Edited by deleted (Sat 31-Jan-15 10:42:38)

Does the exchange have LLU from Sky or TalkTalk on it?

No LLU and no Fiber I'm afraid. That's one of the big limiting factors for me.

BT probably cheapest unlimited during minimum term, plusnet another but paying higher rate.

Not sure which entanet reseller is in favour.

Zen and idnet probably good but price will be higher.

You could try Xilo on monthly contract. If you browse a few months of this forum you will see many Coms users have gone there and been happy.

You totally sure no LLU things may have changed.

In your case....
My recommendation would be BT (cheapest) or PlusNet.

Customer service not brilliant, but frankly it's not anywhere nowadays unless you pay a fortune... still should get as good speeds as with any other ISP.

Post deleted by MHC

Definitely no llu. Are you sure about Bt? If you include my off peak usage I'm pushing 100gb a month. On Bt unlimited packages I imagine I'd run into some pretty huge throttling issues.

I stay over on the NW coast miles away from the exchange which is still 20CN, no LLU no FTTC.
Most folk in the village use BT as if they have a Sky Sports package they get free BT Sport, I use Plusnet for BB and phone and so far so good for me, no point in paying more to a niche ISP out here in the wilds.

Always check the cashback sites like TopCashBack and Quidco for deals as the headline grabbing prices for Plusnet BB only apply if you live in a "low cost" area so you'll pay more than that I would guess living where you do, so any cashback is wellcome.

In reply to a post by AbrasiveScotsman:

Definitely no llu. Are you sure about Bt? If you include my off peak usage I'm pushing 100gb a month. On Bt unlimited packages I imagine I'd run into some pretty huge throttling issues.

A few years ago I would have agreed and advised you to avoid BT however the situation has changed.

Most providers have significantly increased their network backhaul due to fibre optic, i.e. BT deliver infinity which can give download speeds of around 9Mb/s, so you can get 100Gb in around 3.5 hours.

6 hours of Netflix on high quality uses around 13.5Gb.

So you can imagine plenty of people are way over this 100Gb you speak of.

They also removed restrictions, fair usage policies and traffic management. As such there is no such thing as "throttling issues" on BT anymore. You get the full speed, any slowdowns are due to congestion which is fixed in due course. They no longer "slow down" torrents or reduce speeds at peak times etc.

I am sure that at 100Gb you will be fine. In my eyes this isn't really "high" usage anymore (of course it's still above the average but certainly not uncommon).

I have pulled over 750Gb in a month on BT, never had a single issue. I have their fibre optic and I have never seen it fall below 7Mb/s.

I generally use my Sky connection though as that's my personal (not work) line.

Both work perfectly.

Order BT soon they have a big sale on right now. I am pretty sure you will be pleasantly surprised (at the connection, not their customer service hehe).

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sat 31-Jan-15 13:50:11)