In reply to a post by 4M2:

Did you check the "flexible 12 and 18 month contracts" that TalkTalk Business are offering with their Superfast Fibre Broadband deal when you migrated from uno a while ago? It seems that if one wishes to take a shorter contract than the standard 24 months then a connection fee is charged - the fee (which I can not find on their web site) may not be excessive if one wished to reduce the contract to one year...

I must have missed that in November when I migrated. I went for the cheapest option on a 2 year contract with free install then upgraded a month later to the complete package. Currently in touch with one of their fibre specialists as CityFibre phase 1 is in my area. Just waiting on dates and prices.

Yes the "Complete" deal looks pretty good if one wants unlimited UK landline and mobile calls. Also the supplied free modem/router (if needed) might mitigate the costing disadvantage incurred by the connection fee if perhaps the OP opted for a one year contract.

Zen use TTB, BTw and their on LLU network.

Basically depends on what is available at your headend exchange.

Yes I have heard that before, which again all suggests TTB is a viable option in terms of speed and reliability. I am surprised TTB is not mentioned more often, both here and in broadband comparisons. It might do something to repair their image more generally, since their reputation for residential broadband is not the best.

My TTB unbundled exchange has not stopped Zen from keeping my line with BT and as far as I'm concerned nothing needs to be done to 'repair' their reputation. Low latency that doesn't miss a beat and even supplied me with another Fritz!box recently for free when their IPv6 had a wobble.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/...

Edited by professor973 (Tue 06-Apr-21 20:22:56)

I meant TalkTalk residential has a questionable reputation, regularly coming near the bottom for customer satisfaction, whereas Zen is invariably at the top.

I actually emailed Zen support last week to ask a question and followed up with a tweet which had no response either, whereas Pulse 8 came back to me pretty quickly, so I signed up with them and I guess I will find out how TTB works compared to Vodafone,

To give Pulse 8 a fair shake I may need a new router. The Asus I have works but it was never great.

In reply to a post by Chippy_Tea_:

I cannot answer your question but i have been with TT over 10 years and am happy with the rock steady speeds and lack of downtime, TT have a bad reputation for customer service but in the handful of times i have had to use them they have always been very helpful and have always got my problems sorted quick.

I am on Fibre 65 -






Edit to add package details.

Are you on a home package or business package? As they have different call centres.
The business package goes through to a UK call centre and you get much better support.

Thanks
Dan

I was with TT retail for 3 years on FTTC and they were superb. Not once did I have to speak to customer service.

I did use my own kit though - like I always do.

I was with TT retail for 3 years on FTTC and they were superb. Not once did I have to speak to customer service.

I did use my own kit though - like I always do.

That is certainly encouraging and does raise the question over how awful some of the ISP supplied routers might be. I know the old Vodafone router came in for a lot of criticism and I had one that died without warning, which was replaced with the improved newer model.

Right now I am wondering whether to try an old Asus DSL-AC56U or just go for something new and if so which one.

My advice would be to get rid of any old Asus DSL modem/routers and never connect them to your phone line. They all have the notoriously bad Mediatek modem chipset known to have a load of problems with Openreach VDSL2 services. Poor speeds, dropping connections often resulting in DLM banding the line are likely to happen.

The list of bad devices includes the following :- N17U, AC52U, AC56U, N66U, AC68U

If you really want an ASUS device the DSL-AC88U has the much more acceptable Broadcom modem chipset and is generally considered a good choice, it is several years old so there may be newer models available for which I have no details, but don't get one with a Mediatek chipset.