ISP required for mother in law!

Currently with tiscali paying for Broadband and calls.
Tiscali support is shocking (as everyone knows!)
The line is very far from the exchange it can sync at 3.5mbit but the line drops frequently, tiscali dont seem to understand about setting a higher target margin for loss of some speed.
i have removed the ring wire and fitted a filtered faceplate, this brought the speed up from sub 1mbit to the 3.5 above.

Needs UK support , cost effective, would be nice if could bundle line rental and calls in on the package, but not overley fussed about line rental happy to pay the normal �10.50 to BT,and have the calls and broadband elsewhere.
(edit - They dont want a pay tv package so Sky is not really suitable)

Thanks in advance.

Edited by bookey (Fri 19-Dec-08 13:11:19)

Depends on her usage pattern. Browsing, email, maybe internet shopping and banking, a Plusnet phone/broadband bundle could be suitable. (Don't get confused by anything about VOIP - steer clear of that).

Otherwise a straight BT line and one of the bottom two Newnet packages.

I suggest you avoid Post Office broadband.

Usage is email and browsing it has not been used for much else as the line is that unstable.
one member of the household uses the line for P2P now and then but that is few and far between.

Be wary of Plusnet for P2P. The have awful traffic shaping.

So Newnet looks like the best bet.

The P2P user should not be using it anyways as they have a habit of just downloading viri and such.
NewNet seems expensive for just broadband compared to PlusNet.
But thanks for both of your comments

I put my father-in-law on Madasafish earlier this year, 5GB a month, �9.65 for the first 6 months, �14.65 thereafter (but they do seem very keen to do deals on contract expiry). No port blocking or traffic management. Not a bad option at all, and they do phone packages as well but I don't think they are really any better than BT's phone packages.

Regards,
Steve

The downside of both BT and PlusNet for Line Rental is the both of these suppliers charge you a CONNECTION CHARGE per call. This is between 4.5p and 6p per call before the per minute charge applies.

Primus Planet Talk Option 2 has NO Connection charge and calls are 3p/ minute charged pro rata per second. Their international call rates are also the lowest I have seen.

As they say, you get what you pay for.

Very true, might give them a call and see how they respond.
Thanks again

Have a look at Idnet. Very reputable and honest. They cna talk any beginner or non-techie person through all aspects of Broadband. Everyone is friendly and helpful.

Check them out at www.idnet.com

They offer a phone service also.

Unfortunately not the cheapest but one of the very best.