Advice for new resident

I am moving to the UK soon and am researching which broadband service to use. I use P2P fairly often as well as online video streaming of US sports games, so I would like something with unlimited downloads that hopefully doesn't slow down P2P too much.

From looking, it seems like my best options are BT, Post Office, or Virgin, but I don't know anything about any of these providers. The prices between the three seem relatively comparable, but in terms of price range, I am hoping to pay around 25 GBP a month, including phone line (I will rarely use my phone, but it seems I have no choice but to get a phone line in order to get internet).

Also, I will be moving into a newly built flat so a phone line will need to be installed. However, it seems the price for this is pretty close across the board, but being new to the UK I don't know if this affects what my best option is.

I'm not sure what other information is needed, but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
David

edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that I will most likely only be in the UK for 12 months or so, so am not interested in services with 18-month contracts which is why I seem to be limited to the three options above.

Edited by alngtheway (Thu 03-Sep-09 12:24:18)

Do you know what exchange your new flat will be connected to? This will allow us to see what other providers may be available as someone like BeThere or O2 might be ideal for your stated requirements.

If you put in the postcode to samknows it will tell you if any LLU providers are available - let us know which ones are listed as available and we can advise further.

My exchange will be Ringwood (exhange code: STRINGW). O2 does not seem to be available.

I realized that I had misread the pricing for BT so right now I am leaning with going with Post Office. A quick search here seemed to show that Post Office is bad for customer service, but I haven't read specific things against the speed or anything. I figure I can deal with crappy customer service though.

Edit: According to samknows, the following LLU providers are available: AOL, Orange, Talktalk, tiscali, sky/easynet.

I am pretty sure I looked into most of those providers and they did not work for one reason or another (no unlimited plan or 18-month minimum).

Edited by alngtheway (Thu 03-Sep-09 15:40:33)

The only good ISP in the LLU list is Sky/LLU, and the Sky Max package (which requires you to have Sky TV) is one of (so far as I know) only ones that will get you true unlimited at anything like the price you want to pay.

Sky can also install the phone line, supplying the complete bundle.

I don't know about their contract lengths. I gather you may have already researched those. However if they require 18 months, then once you weigh up the costs of anything else offering high/unlimited allowances it may pay you to buy yourself out of it at the end it with the savings compared to the others.

The only other low-price unlimited I know of is O2 Access, but the performance of that tends to be good for 2-3 weeks then bad or very bad for 10-12 weeks, then more kit so good, then more customers so bad ....

Others to look at are AAISP, IDNet and Zen. See these comparisons.

Thanks for the reply. Based on your response, are you implying that it is not worth it for me to get Post Office? I will look into the others you mentioned though.

I don't think the Post Office will be suitable for the broadband. Do a search of All Posts for Post Office in this forum and have a browse.

If you don't go for Sky or find a suitable phone/broadband bundle the the Post Office for the phone line is probably best, with broadband from one of the others.

Note that although AAISP is tiny daytime allowances, the off-peak and short unmetered overnight allowances are good.

Edit - you may not have picked up that nearly all "unlimited" offers really mean an FUP (Fair Use Policy) of under 100GBpm.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 03-Sep-09 16:28:04)

Post Office broadband is fine, it is a BT Wholesale white label service resold by the PO. It has a Fair Use Policy as described on the web site. Sky's "dish tax" means the PO is cheaper at £24.95 per month, 12 month contract.

If you're in a Virgin Media cable area you don't need a phone line, though you may get a discount.

I'm not sure I understand your point. Are you saying that Post Office does not have reliable speeds? I skimmed through some of the Post Office threads and it seemed the majority of complaints had to do with their customer service which as I said above is annoying but I am willing to deal with that stuff.

They offer a package that works for what I want, at least in theory. And since it combines line rental with the broadband, it is definitely the cheapest. My worry is that I will end up with extremely slow download speeds. I don't necessarily expect the max they say I can get, but even half of it or so should be sufficient. I am not too worried about my P2P downloads as they are not usually time-dependent and I can therefore leave them overnight, etc. My biggest worry is for streaming video for watching sports. I am currently in Switzerland with 5Mbps download speed and have been more than happy with everything.

The HomePhone with Broadband Extra package is 24.95 per month including line rental, unlimited downloads, and speeds up to 8Mbps. Based on my research of the area I am moving to, 6.5 Mbps is the fastest the lines will allow so the "up to 8" seems good enough.


Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

edit: Saw that you edited it and there was another reply before I sent this.

I do realize they have FUP, and having skimmed the Post Office one they don't mention a GB limit, just leave it open. However, I don't expect to do more than 100GB per month, at least not consistently. I have just never lived anywhere with limited downloads and like the option of having it open so I can stream video, download from P2P or use things like Skype with video without worrying too much.

As for Virgin, unfortunately cable is not an option in my area. That is what I have always used in the past which is why this is so confusing for me. I am not used to a phone line being a necessity for internet...

I think you were replying to another poster, as I have no issues with PO speeds.

Someone linked to a forum and the second page of postings about the PO was over a year ago which is hardly a big condemnation in terms of volume of discussion.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

I think you were replying to another poster, as I have no issues with PO speeds.

Someone linked to a forum and the second page of postings about the PO was over a year ago which is hardly a big condemnation in terms of volume of discussion.

Yeah, I combined my reply to your post and the one above it in one. Sorry for the confusion. My only reference to your post was about not being able to get Virgin.

Thanks for the input on PO though.