Which ISP would be best for me?

Hi guys

I currently have Orange broadband - I pay £30 for my mobile phone contract which enables me to get broadband for an extra £5. I`m soon switching my mobile phone contract over to O2 to get an Iphone so I`m assuming I`ll lose my broadband for a fiver.

So I was wondering if anyone had any good suggestions for a new ISP. I do a bit of downloading and play a bit on XBOX live but I wouldnt say I`m a massively heavy user. I`m also not against the idea of having line rental and calls bundled in but I live in rural Wales and we only can get standard ADSL.

As I said my current bill for broadband and mobile phone is £35. If I could get broadband for around £15 to take my total to £45 (with the £30 going to O2) I`d be happy.

Any reccomendations would be glady recieved!

Andrew

You can get O2 Access, which is the usual "up to 8Mbps" standard ADSL. That will cost you £17.13 per month as you will have an O2 mobile. That leaves you with £11.25 per month to pay BT for the phone line, with free evening and weekend calls plus free "Privacy at Home" (that's a bundle of the Telephone Preference Service and Caller Display that is normally costs £2.95pm) if you sign up for 12 months.

Just at the moment O2 Access is getting quite severe congestion in places, caused by rapid expansion, but most places are fine. However, although it is a 12-month contract there is also 30-day money-back guarantee, so you could see how it goes and bail out quick if you are badly affected.

Normally these problems are sorted as quickly as possible, but of course they are dependent on BT lead times to get extra kit in and working.

The only line and broadband bundle I know of that you can get would be Plusnet, and unless you are a very light user, (under 2GB per month), or a gamer then I don't recommend them. Because of this throttling regime. Probably more expensive than the O2 option in the end.

Good ISPs are IDNet, Zen and Newnet with no problems I know of at the moment. No shaping or throttling and consistently good speeds. See this comparison.

Edit - I had forgotten the XBOX stuff. Plusnet BBYW Pro is aimed at gamers and not throttled. They have a 90-day getout as well, so safe to try.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 03-Feb-09 13:45:39)

...plus free "Privacy at Home" (that's a bundle of the Telephone Preference Service and Caller Display that is normally costs £2.95pm) if you sign up for 12 months.

It's strange that they seem to be placing a monetary value on the TPS which is free.

"Be wary of people calling you claiming to be from the Telephone Preference Service asking for payment to complete your registration. TPS is a FREE service."

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

TPS seems to require Caller Display, no doubt a techie bit of software needs it. Caller Display is chargeable, so I expect that's it.

I don't think TPS requires caller display. All TPS is is a list of people that don't want to be cold called - companies that agree to abide by TPS terms will not call anyone on that list unless they have prior dealings with them. There are no technical requirements for that to work at the end users line.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

TPS seems to require Caller Display, no doubt a techie bit of software needs it.

I am certain the TPS does not require a specific Caller Display service, I registered with the TPS a few years ago and have never had Caller Display. It worked, as at the time I was getting a lot of marketing calls which soon stopped.
It seems, 'Privacy at Home' is basically 'Caller Display' with a free service bundled in, it appears to be misleading.

Edited by deleted (Thu 05-Feb-09 16:22:24)

I think it was BTs way of getting people to sign up to TPS by sweetening the deal with free caller display - but I don't know what BT get out of it because surely they make money out of all the marketing calls.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I think it was BTs way of getting people to sign up to TPS by sweetening the deal with free caller display...

The opposite would make more sense, getting people to sign up for Caller Display by offering bundled TPS, without informing them of the fact that the TPS is free anyway.

Edited by deleted (Thu 05-Feb-09 16:30:40)

I used to pay for caller display and had signed up to TPS. BT then offered privacy at home which gave me caller display for free - I can't see what BT are getting out of that even if TPS was a driver for take up - I could have continued to pay for caller display and not have TPS but I can't see any reason I would be silly enough to do that.

Yes, I see your point, I misread the post and was under the impression they charged for the 'Privacy at Home' service.