Yes, these outages are indeed happening mostly between 1am to 4am. I've experienced it once at 12am for 10 minutes and at 12:10am connection returned. Initially when I experienced this I thought something was wrong with my network adapter but then when connection was down for the other computers as well, I knew it was not my computer.

Now of-course most people who have a different sleep pattern may not be affected by those outages but that's also why they are not noticing problems.

Most users don't login to router settings to find out if connection has been stable or not. Also in the case of TalkTalk on many occasions the router connection sync doesn't reset or show as disconnected. That makes it even worse because you don't know that the connection was down but you look at router settings and it may show 10, 20, 30, 60, etc day connection uptime but there were still outages while the connection was on. The light will also not necessarily lit orange.

This is a very unique problem that I've experienced. I've been using the internet since my first ADSL service in 2003 with Tiscali. Before that in 1999 I used Dial Up and I've never had such an experience with another ISP that would show connected but for it to have outages with the ISP while the core network being unaffected at the exchange or cabinet.

That's why you see happy customers because they are not affected as they go to bed during that time or only do speed tests and are happy with the speeds or latency and that's all that matters to them.

That's why I don't rush to write positive or negative reviews. I'd need to have to spend enough time with an ISP before I conclude whether I'm satisfied or not.
My experience with BT FTTC last 13 months since switching to them has been positive and never experienced those intermittent outages during late night.

With TalkTalk I've also experienced multiple outages on the same day night time where briefly connection would go down at 1am for a few minutes and then again around 5am for a few minutes again. This may be due to their maintenance but again, that's not acceptable.

I genuinely believe all TalkTalk customers at some point have experienced connection downtime even when the router was on.

No one is saying we dont have down time what we are saying is TT are not the unreliable steaming pile of **** their haters would have us believe.

Many of these haters (as has been said) left them years ago but still jump on the bandwagon every time it passes by!
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In reply to a post by ionic:

I believe with another ISP like Andrews & Arnold they'll follow up because I read reviews from other people using more reputable ISPs that they follow up to confirm that everything was fine.

You need a reality check.

Having ordered a new copper broadband line from A&A and 2 VOIP lines (years apart) I've never once had them (or any other provider) contact me to check how the install went.
I've never seen anyone else comment that they have had their provider do this either.

A&A have a good reputation because of their good network and good reactive customer support.
They don't routinely go around messaging customers proactively checking that installs went smoothly.

They can see from their monitoring when things go wrong and even then they are likely to wait for the customer to report issues to them.
Even a small provider like A&A has way too many customers and too many orders to be messaging them all asking how an install went.
It's a very small team of staff who work at A&A.
There may be the odd exception to that but there's no way they contact all customers who have made orders or are having installs done just to see how it went.

You're making comment on a provider you have absolutely no experience with.
You're also expecting way too much even from a pricey provider, nevermind from a budget provider.

Edited by j0hn83 (Tue 08-Aug-23 19:52:58)

It's true I've never ordered a service from A&A but I've read good things and reviews from people including BT, Plusnet, EE customers where when they have had technical problems customer support was much more helpful in promptly organising and booking an Openreach engineer appointment. But the same cannot be said for TalkTalk. You'll read loads of reviews in broadband.co.uk and trustpilot saying TalkTalk were slow to inform them when an engineer will be booked.

I myself did contact TalkTalk a couple of years ago when my upload speed had dropped significantly to 10Mbps following a connection drop and they had call centres from India trying to help sort problems when they are not well informed what's going on.

I have also received text messages from BT asking for customer feedback and ratings based on recent broadband experience.

In the past I have had Sky engineer visit my property when I had ADSL problems with constant drop-outs and I did receive an email, based on recent engineer visit to ask whether it went well. I also once had to call out Sky to inform them that there was a fault with no telephone line working but broadband was working and that was resolved within an hour following my phone call an engineer came to visit my property connected some device to the telephone socket for testing and fixed the issue. I did then get an email saying the problem is now resolved and if it has not, to contact customer service again.

With TalkTalk the only positive was that I had a £5 bill credit refund following a complaint regarding service outage.

Paradoxically TalkTalk is no longer a budget provider. If you look at their recent monthly contracts they have raised their prices to £28 a month with a £15 activation fee. They are now more expensive than Sky, Vodafone, Shell Energy, Plusnet, Now Broadband, Onestream, etc. While at the same time no longer offering vouchers.

When I signed up initially they were £20 a month and they price hiked mid-contract to £22 and then eventually it jumped to £36 and then £40 a month after the 24 month contract had ended. This happened without being informed, I only went to login to the TalkTalk account page and saw this steep price rise.

The service you get from TalkTalk isn't in ratio to what you're paying.
Actually BT is now around £1 cheaper a month than TalkTalk! £29.99 a month with £50 reward card on a 24 month contract. If you calculate at the end that's the equivalent to £27.90 a month. But with TalkTalk if you multiply 28x18=£504. 504+15 (setup fee) =£519. £519÷18=£28.83 a month.

That is actually almost a pound more expensive per month than BT while BT are also offering a much more reliable service. You're also getting access to over 5 million WiFi Hotspots which is really beneficial when outside and want to save data or if there is a service outage in your area.

If I'm expecting way too much then I wouldn't be here to say how much of a better service experience I am getting with BT these past 13 months compared to TalkTalk. Never came across an outage yet, but with TalkTalk it will happen every few weeks. And these are not 1-2 minute drop-outs they are 10-50 minutes without an internet connection!

I heard that BT do this, but not A&A.

Hi j0hn83

I had FTTP installed last Monday by A&A and yesterday received and email from A&A Sales asking me to give them a call if I had any comments or technical issues. It went on to say that, "As an ISP, we invest far more into our networks, facilities and support staff than we do into our advertising, relying almost entirely on word of mouth, and reputation." They also asked if I will rate A&A on Trustpilot (I will be doing that later)

I have been with A&A for some years, ADSL, VDSL when it became available and now FTTP I'm obviously a happy customer as otherwise I can always vote with my feet. I have also been responsible for installing A&A in another premises and their VoIP elsewhere.

Cheers!

I was surprised to learn a few months ago that A&A still publish everyone's ONT serial numbers on their website, IDNET were told by Openreach to stop doing it.