Which ISP for TWO homes

I'm thinking of switching from PlusNet to another ISP, if I can get 25 Gig+ on my exchange and 4 Gig+ on my Dad's, for a lower overall cost (currently £32.02/month). Any suggestions? I'm not bothered about download speed or gaming. I've so far avoided Tiscali, TalkTalk, AOL, etc for performance and service reasons. I like not being tied to long subscriptions, and I have my own routers.

My father and I live 4 miles apart in Shrewsbury, on 2 separate exchanges (he's on Shrewsbury and I'm on Harlescott, details from samknows below).

I switched to PlusNet at my place a couple of years ago, and am paying £22.27 for PlusNet Broadband Premier Option 1 (Monthly Contract, NoModem). I use quite a lot (25 Gig+) of p2p and streaming, etc. I'm a SkyTV subscriber, currently with Orange PAYG for mobile though I'm thinking of switching to a different mobile network as I want to get a cellular data policy.

In December 08 I got tired of being offline when at my Dad's house, and got PlusNet Broadband Your Way Option 1 (Monthly Contract) for £9.75, thinking that I've been happy with their service and I'll get a referral discount (a big 25p as it turns out!). The package has a 2 Gig ceiling. At his house I don't use p2p, but I do use streaming from time to time, and I've found this adds up to over 2 Gig. 4 or 5 Gig would probably do it. Dad doesn't subscribe to any bundlers' other services.

Thanks in anticipation!
Richard.

My exchange: Harlescott - WNHAT
3.3K premises
ADSL: Yes
SDSL: No
LLU services: Yes
Cable: No
Wireless: No
BT Wholesale information
ADSL status: Enabled as of 25/02/2004
ADSL Max status: Enabled as of 31/03/2006
SDSL status: Not available
21CN WBC status: RFS date set : 31/03/2010
21CN PSTN switchover target: Q4 2011
LLU operator presence:
TalkTalk (CPW): Enabled as of 18/02/2008
Ofcom Classification: Market 2

Dad's exchange: Shrewsbury - WNSY
29k+ premises
BT Wholesale information
ADSL status: Enabled as of 31/03/2000
ADSL Max status: Enabled as of 31/03/2006
SDSL status: Enabled as of 30/11/2004
21CN WBC status: RFS date set : 31/03/2009
21CN PSTN switchover target: Q3 2011
LLU operator presence:
AOL: Enabled as of 05/11/2007
C&W / Bulldog: Enabled as of 15/07/2005
Orange: Enabled
TalkTalk (CPW): Enabled as of 03/02/2007
Ofcom Classification: Market 2

I suggest you look at just paying for extra bandwidth at your Dad's when it is needed, and stay as you are if you are still happy.

The only ways you could save any money would be the new ADSL24 Home 30 for yourself (from 30 March) but have a read of the Entanet forum - things are pretty terrible at the moment but may improve, or O2 Access which is also in a bad state but upgrades expected mid-April.

Note that on the ADSL24 package you would still be on "up to 8Mbps/448kbps" until your exchange is upgraded to WBC.

On O2 Access if you signed up quick you could get one month free and Quidco cashback of £70, (£65 after annual first transaction deduction). Trouble it is a 12-month minimum term although it has a 30-day money-back getout, so if it went pear-shaped again you would be stuck. This would quite likely happen as they are gaining customers rapidly and kit provision tends to lag behind.

To get the good price you would switch your mobile to O2. You can sign up before you have a MAC and add it later (in case the £70 cashback goes at the end of the month, the free month certainly does). Same with the mobile to get the discount - add it any time even if you have gone live.

Edit - I forgot, there is also Newnet Home S which is not really a saving, but from 1 April it will have an unmetered period from midnight to 7am. If you could schedule some of your streaming into that period then Home M with the same unmetered period would save money, and they are about the best cheap ISP. No throttling or capping. You get 70%-90% of profile all the time.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 23-Mar-09 23:06:15)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I suggest you look at just paying for extra bandwidth at your Dad's when it is needed, and stay as you are if you are still happy.

Thanks for the reply Bob. I may just pay for extra bandwith as you suggest, but wondered if there was a cheaper overall solution as it costs £1.22 / Gig.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Note that on the ADSL24 package you would still be on "up to 8Mbps/448kbps" until your exchange is upgraded to WBC.

I'm not really worried about speed so long as it's enough for iPlayer etc, and leisurely downloading.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

On O2 Access if you signed up quick you could get one month free and Quidco cashback of £70, (£65 after annual first transaction deduction). Trouble it is a 12-month minimum term although it has a 30-day money-back getout, so if it went pear-shaped again you would be stuck.

I try to avoid minimum terms unless I think they'll remain the best deal going.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

To get the good price you would switch your mobile to O2.

I am thinking of switching to another mobile operator (from Orange), but the Ofcom website shows that Vodafone have a GSM+UMTS mast 460m from my house while the next nearest (3) is 880m

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Edit - I forgot, there is also Newnet Home S which is not really a saving, but from 1 April it will have an unmetered period from midnight to 7am. If you could schedule some of your streaming into that period then Home M with the same unmetered period would save money, and they are about the best cheap ISP. No throttling or capping. You get 70%-90% of profile all the time.

I'll look into NewNet as you advise, although I do most of my streaming before midnight (or I should be doing, anyway!). For instance I want to catch up on Red Riding, but Channel4 prohibit downloading.

Edited by rich2 (Tue 24-Mar-09 19:47:37)