Recommended Fibre Providers

Hello,

Who are currently considered decent providers nowadays, I know at one point TalkTalk Business was considered a decent supplier has that changed since the hack on their consume side? Who else is out there that is considered decent for fibre?

Thanks
Sam

Edited by deleted (Wed 28-Oct-15 17:26:06)

Depends on what you want and your budget.

The hack of TalkTalk doesn't necessarily impact on the wholesale side so using companies that wholesale their services might be an option.

Pulse8 have been pretty popular lately here but they are quite small and may not scale well - time will tell.

Andrews and Arnold are a good ISP but can be expensive.

Zen is still generally considered to be a decent ISP.

PlusNet are going through a series of support issues.

BT are OK - support is not the best but their network tends to be pretty good.

Sky also are looking OK.

Uno may suit you. Or possibly Vivaciti.

But, it all depends on your budget and requirements.

I've just moved to SKY Fibre Pro. So far really impressed, dedicated support number / forum for Pro users, fixed IP and great speeds.

Consider EE for FTTC (Fibre To The street Cabinet) and take a look at the website to see your given line speed.

https://broadband.ee.co.uk/

I moved from Plusnet to Zen in September due to many issues with PlusNet's network, support and invalid changes to their contract agreement with myself,

I'm rather pleased with the service provided by Zen and the support has also been very good, pricing is around the same for BT's packages so not exactly what I would consider expensive, I went for their small business fibre 2 and enhanced care line rental which will mean faster resolution times for faults.

Note to make though, my connection uses Zen's own network from the exchange, and depending on your regional location most Zen connections will connect via BT Wholesale though other using BT Wholesale's network have reported just as good performance.

Sky's network is considered pretty good but not really a great business option if you want to use your own or more advance routing equipment as Sky only support the service being used with there own router and do not let users have the details required to login to the network, however extraction o these is possible.

The exchange you are connected to may depend on the performance of providers, so if B where to only be available I would recommend BT Business to have best chances of priority on the network.

Providers using the same network as TalkTalk Business may be OK but currently I've not had the experience of using or dealing with any yet and the only thing I would say is Pulse8 seem to have been popular on here but there's a great deal of confusion with relation to costs of connecting,

Some reporting higher than usual connection costs and I personally asked them for a quote on a new line and they wanted a extra £50 payment for something that would not be required, recently it was reported in another thread that the charge for migrating a line over is now £75 where it should be around £30.

I Hope This Helps!

Hello,

I am considering Sky Pro as it seems to be a decent product and offers a static IP which would be nice. Sky are also enabled in the Drumchapel exchange. May even consider BT Business as I understand it has a higher traffic priority.

Resellers of TalkTalk (Pulse8 etc) haven't been affected by the hacking that took place last week. The only thing they provide to TalkTalk is the information required to perform the provide...

Have had a few performance issues with Sky Fibre Pro lately. Don't get me wrong Sky have sent out a BT OR engineer to check the line, checked exchange congestion and so on but nothing has fixed the peak time drop in throughput so far. It isn't helped by the fact that you have to use the provided kit to comply with their T&Cs. I dumped it anyway, went with a BT OR modem and my own router and the latency spikes disappeared.

Also remember that Sky line rental is going up to £17.40 a month, Sky Fibre Pro is £30 a month and if you want a call package it is now £8.

I would have considered Zen except they do not have LLU on my exchange so it would be WMBC, which might not be a problem but I don't want to be stuck on a 12 month contract to find out.

Then there is Pulse8, Adam is very open and have spoken to Sam in support as well. Their residential and business packages all run on TalkTalk Business so from the start your traffic is prioritised over TalkTalk residential (whatever that actually means ). It is a rolling monthly contract, the migration costs did confuse me a little and they cannot do a straight Sky LLU to TalkTalk LLU at the moment so it would be a downgrade to ADSL and then an upgrade to Fibre again, elapsed time at least 20 days. So it is easier (for me at least as I work from home) to order a new line at £130 and get the old one disconnected.

Residential fibre is £44 a month including line rental, no call packages but you do get per second billing.

I don't work for them and as I mentioned Sky are my current provider who I would happily stay with if they can sort this throughput issue out.

In reply to a post by Skilty:

Residential fibre is £44 a month including line rental, no call packages but you do get per second billing.

Not just per second billing, but the daytime call charges are 1ppm and night 0.8ppm. At one penny per minute that's 800 minutes before you catch up with an £8 per month call package.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by Skilty:

Residential fibre is £44 a month including line rental, no call packages but you do get per second billing.

Not just per second billing, but the daytime call charges are 1ppm and night 0.8ppm. At one penny per minute that's 800 minutes before you catch up with an £8 per month call package.

Yep which is what makes it so attractive for me. Checking our home phone I think we used 150 minutes last month.

You do pay £2 per month per fixed IP and £1 for caller ID, which I forgot to mention earlier. Taking it to £46 a month if you want a fixed IP for BQM.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by Skilty:

Residential fibre is £44 a month including line rental, no call packages but you do get per second billing.

Not just per second billing, but the daytime call charges are 1ppm and night 0.8ppm. At one penny per minute that's 800 minutes before you catch up with an £8 per month call package.

But if you make a lot of calls to mobiles from your landline then pulse8 will only give you 100 mins for £8 (@8ppm) whereas with the Sky anytime call package it includes unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles and 0870/0845 numbers. Also I imagine the latter would cost you a small fortune with pulse8.

I think the number of times I've called a mobile from my landline can probably be counted on my fingers. The very rare 0870 is worth paying for. Isn't 0845 normal landline rate now?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Isn't 0845 normal landline rate now?

No.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I think the number of times I've called a mobile from my landline can probably be counted on my fingers. The very rare 0870 is worth paying for. Isn't 0845 normal landline rate now?

0845 and 0870 numbers have now changed in their charges thanks to OFCOM. You pay an access charge and then a service charge which is supposed to make the costs clearer on your bill.

Some companies who used to have 0845 numbers are now moving to 03 numbers. You can also use SayNoTo0870 to find a 0800, 01, 02 or 03 number.

In reply to a post by Skilty:

You can also use SayNoTo0870 to find a 0800, 01, 02 or 03 number.

Quite. That nearly always works for me, but even that I only need once in a blue moon.

IDnet?

In reply to a post by dsch:

IDnet?

Who also don't require you to take their landline. Leaving Pulse8 available if it fits the poster's landline usage pattern.

In reply to a post by Skilty:

the migration costs did confuse me a little and they cannot do a straight Sky LLU to TalkTalk LLU at the moment so it would be a downgrade to ADSL and then an upgrade to Fibre again, elapsed time at least 20 days. So it is easier (for me at least as I work from home) to order a new line at £130 and get the old one disconnected.

New line provide by Pulse8 as quoted "Twice" for confirmation is as follows...

£90 New Line Installation
£50 DSL Activation
£30/75 Fibre Activation

Since the quote they have increased the charge for fibre activation from £30 to £75....

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

In reply to a post by Skilty:

the migration costs did confuse me a little and they cannot do a straight Sky LLU to TalkTalk LLU at the moment so it would be a downgrade to ADSL and then an upgrade to Fibre again, elapsed time at least 20 days. So it is easier (for me at least as I work from home) to order a new line at £130 and get the old one disconnected.

New line provide by Pulse8 as quoted "Twice" for confirmation is as follows...

£90 New Line Installation
£50 DSL Activation
£30/75 Fibre Activation

Since the quote they have increased the charge for fibre activation from £30 to £75....

Arghhhhh! I actually asked on the phone and was told £130!

Oh OK.... some more conflicting information from Pulse8 then....

Well, Just makes me think they are having a laugh at some peoples expense.

Could you confirm this is new line for fibre or is that to ADSL?

I wouldn't say they are having a laugh. They aren't that sort of firm.

There would seem to be some sort of misunderstanding between Skilty and them however. Those figures are silly.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I wouldn't say they are having a laugh. They aren't that sort of firm.

How do we know this??

I've seen nothing to support that, personally i think they are a one of a kind provider that currently owns a corner of the market (no contract FTTC) and until there have competition they will take as much advantage of that as possible...

I also thought providers like this where supposed to give good support, however it took me 3 months of regular communication attempts to get an answer from them and I had to get in touch with their parent company to pass a message of for that to even happen...

Apologies if these views aren't agreed with by others but these are the facts...

On the other hand, a dozen or so here get almost instant and sensible responses from them.

You repeatedly seem to have problems. As you did with Plusnet, and IIRC your previous ISP.

That's strange.

Erm pardon!

I had no issues contacting Plusnet or any other providers thank you very much,

I will take this as you have no evidence to back up that Pulse8 "aren't that sort of firm"

PS, On an unrelated note I've seen a few posts in the past that state that Pulse8's service is prioritised over TalkTalk's Business service.... now why the hell would TalkTalk do that.... they might match the priority but I highly doubt they would put a 3rd party before there "family" lets say!

Anyway, bed time night

It's for fibre, however it could be that the person I spoke to didn't take into account the fact that when I said new line that actually meant a new drop from the pole to the house.

I wouldn't say they are having a laugh at all. It could be a plain and simple mistake which is easily rectified.

Also never had a problem contacting and the phone is picked up very quickly and email is responded to promptly as well.

Their activation fee of £75 appears to be the same for a "self install" using an existing modem or for an engineer visit inc supplying a modem.
Found the list of boltons reasonably clear - at least I didnt have to go searching for it unlike with many other ISPs.

As TalkTalk Business is essentially ran in a similar way to the old Tiscali network with regards wholesale, yes it is possible that resellers can buy higher QoS than TalkTalk residential, the reseller decides what grade of service to pay for, same, better or worse and many variations in between

In reply to a post by Skilty:

I wouldn't say they are having a laugh at all. It could be a plain and simple mistake which is easily rectified.

Also never had a problem contacting and the phone is picked up very quickly and email is responded to promptly as well.

The Having a laugh could of been replaced with a better phrase, it didn't refer to them having a laugh at your expense but rather them taking advantage of their one of a kind service and inflating costs to get connected to their service...

In reply to a post by rarrar:

Their activation fee of £75 appears to be the same for a "self install" using an existing modem or for an engineer visit inc supplying a modem.

So why do they charge £45 more than any other provider (small or large) to connect you using existing setup??? specially as migration costs these days are supposed to be as low as free (at wholesale level)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

yes it is possible that resellers can buy higher QoS than TalkTalk residential,

Yes, "Residential" but I'm talking about it having a higher priority than TalkTalks own Business products.

Also the same applies with TalKTalk business i.e. even their own business products use different QoS variables

The only issue I now have is that I would be charged £90 for a line installation and then £125 for a fibre installation. Doesn't make sense to me as the BT OR engineer needs to run the line, work at the exchange and the CAB anyway.

I actually just rang TalkTalk business and for a similar package which includes unlimited calls to UK landlines (01,02,03) and mobiles plus caller ID is £54.60 a month (inc VAT).

Now that is locking you into a 24 month contract but the connection fee is only £60 for a new line:

Complete Fibre (Free Installation)
� Unlimited Fibre (speeds upto 80mg)
� Free Wireless Router
� Unlimited Landline Calls
� Unlimited Mobile Calls
� 4 Static IP's
� Industry Leading Network Security, Worksafe
� All Inclusive Price- No Bill Shocks
� Business Call Features (call divert, call waiting, caller display etc)
� Line Rental
24 Month Contract
£45.50 ex VAT (£54.60 inc VAT)
One off connection fee £50 ex VAT


The question is, what value does a rolling monthly contract have?

Edited by Skilty (Fri 30-Oct-15 10:57:09)

In reply to a post by Skilty:

The question is, what value does a rolling monthly contract have?

NONE!

I would say its just good to sty flexible but Pulse8 told me that if I leave within the first 3-4 months I would be charged normal cessation fee's (normally around £30) and then more because "apparently" they get charged more for a customer leaving in the first 3 months....

So not so flexible... however prices for activation jumped since then, so can't see why the cessation fee might not have jumped up too!

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Also the same applies with TalKTalk business i.e. even their own business products use different QoS variables

OK, So the reality of it is that Pulse8 isn't necessarily holding priority over TT Business as they operate multiple priority profiles for connections anyway.

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

In reply to a post by Skilty:

The question is, what value does a rolling monthly contract have?

NONE!

I would say its just good to sty flexible but Pulse8 told me that if I leave within the first 3-4 months I would be charged normal cessation fee's (normally around £30) and then more because "apparently" they get charged more for a customer leaving in the first 3 months....

So not so flexible... however prices for activation jumped since then, so can't see why the cessation fee might not have jumped up too!

Looking at the T&Cs:

9. Termination and suspension

9.5 You may terminate this agreement with respect to the Broadband Service after the 1 month term providing all setup charges (if any) for a new line or broadband service have been paid. We do not provide refunds if you migrate away to another provider mid-month, but will refund any line rental or broadband charges paid if you are moving from one of our broadband and or line packages to a Pulse8 Fibre package.

We do not charge cease fee�s

Those are the only T&Cs I can find, and it does not differentiate between ADSL and fibre...

And the fact the "anti" poster keeps ignoring is that the £75 FTTC setup fee was introduced a few months ago as too many people from these forums had become aware of their monthly terms for FTTC. They were migrating in on/from ADSLx, upgrading cheaply to FTTC, then migrating out immediately to whatever ISP they wanted to be with, such as BT with Sport.

That was unsustainable, as there is still a 12-month Openreach term for a new FTTC connection.

What the "anti" poster is saying is that correct, but the "anti" poster is also saying that Pulse8 told him that people couldn't leave until after 3 months without being issued with an additional charge on top of a cease charge...

However apparently a cease charge doesn't exist now.

Anyway, sounds like an excuse to me as anybody in the right mind would just require people paid a deposit and then had it refunded after so much service.

Also "anti" seems a bit of a libellous claim... I'm in no way biased against Pulse8 or any other provider in that fact... I just point out flaws and concerns.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

And the fact the "anti" poster keeps ignoring is that the £75 FTTC setup fee was introduced a few months ago as too many people from these forums had become aware of their monthly terms for FTTC. They were migrating in on/from ADSLx, upgrading cheaply to FTTC, then migrating out immediately to whatever ISP they wanted to be with, such as BT with Sport.

That was unsustainable, as there is still a 12-month Openreach term for a new FTTC connection.

Which is more than fair, no company can be expected to make a loss etc.

I do have to hand it to Pulse8 though, they are good at communicating and both TalkTalk and Pulse8 have both said migrating from Sky is problematic requiring a downgrade and then a migration followed by adding fibre again. My problem is that I cannot have three weeks of 12mb ADSL, it is simply too slow as my wife and I both work from home.

It boils down to whether a rolling monthly contract is worth the extra £155 vs being locked into a contract for two years. In my mind the freedom to move if the service is not up to scratch for whatever reason is probably worth the cost of a couple of coffees a month, which is what it boils down to!

In reply to a post by Skilty:

The only issue I now have is that I would be charged £90 for a line installation and then £125 for a fibre installation. Doesn't make sense to me as the BT OR engineer needs to run the line, work at the exchange and the CAB anyway.

I actually just rang TalkTalk business and for a similar package which includes unlimited calls to UK landlines (01,02,03) and mobiles plus caller ID is £54.60 a month (inc VAT).

Now that is locking you into a 24 month contract but the connection fee is only £60 for a new line:

Complete Fibre (Free Installation)
� Unlimited Fibre (speeds upto 80mg)
� Free Wireless Router
� Unlimited Landline Calls
� Unlimited Mobile Calls
� 4 Static IP's
� Industry Leading Network Security, Worksafe
� All Inclusive Price- No Bill Shocks
� Business Call Features (call divert, call waiting, caller display etc)
� Line Rental
24 Month Contract
£45.50 ex VAT (£54.60 inc VAT)
One off connection fee £50 ex VAT


The question is, what value does a rolling monthly contract have?

Perhaps going with TalkTalk business directly is the way to go, something I am also considering.

-Sam

In reply to a post by ansam:

[Perhaps going with TalkTalk business directly is the way to go, something I am also considering.

-Sam
[/quote]

In the end I went with Pulse8, the £150 was worth it not to be locked in for 2 years. Made the same mistake with plusNet and don't want to get bitten again!

When I was comparing Pulse8 and AAISP the possibility of using TTB itself also occurred to me. A bit of browsing came up with the disconcerting fact they had in the past, I think more than once, kicked off non-business customers from the service. I didn't fancy that.

In reply to a post by ansam:

Perhaps going with TalkTalk business directly is the way to go, something I am also considering.

-Sam

Yep definitely worth considering. I've been with TTB direct for a few years now & a very satisfied customer.. Line speeds 24/7, top class Warrington based phone support 7 days a week and many of their phone support staff are ex-Zen broadband so won't be script monkeys. They also do a very nifty iOS/Android app which lets you use your landline calling plan on your smartphone and even lets you receive landline calls on your mobile. This app works abroad so you can save a few bob calling home free of charge. For what TTB offer, its a bargain as BT Business would charge you >£70pm for a similar package. TTB offer features such as 4 static ip addresses, free call waiting, caller ID, conference calling etc as standard whereas other ISPs would charge you an arm & a leg for it. On the downside they lock you into a 2 year contract but they offer free house moves. However during the 2 years you could leave without penalty if they increase their prices as they did recently.

Edited by deleted (Sat 31-Oct-15 12:59:53)

My logic now is that if TTB works out then there is nothing to stop me switching from Pulse8 to TTB directly on a 2 year contract. I just don't want to find that there is congestion etc and I am locked in for 2 years.

I can book it through my wifes company anyway if need be