New Broadband and phone recommendations

Hi I am just finishing buying a new property in central Reading. I seem to have some good options for broadband but need a phone as well. I have an Orange mobile phone but have heard horror stories about service and quality of billing. I would welcome recommendations on which service to get. My exchange details are in the line below. If I need to provide more details then please let me know.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/THRG

Thanks,

Nui

In reply to a post by nui:

Hi I am just finishing buying a new property in central Reading. I seem to have some good options for broadband but need a phone as well. I have an Orange mobile phone but have heard horror stories about service and quality of billing. I would welcome recommendations on which service to get. My exchange details are in the line below. If I need to provide more details then please let me know.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/THRG

Thanks,

Nui

Choice of three.

If you do a lot of gaming go for Be Unlimited or Be Pro. Not Be Value.

If not, and you have or want Sky TV look very hard at Sky. But only the top package. They could provide the phone as well, cheaper than BT, but would probably put you on full LLU which would make leaving them very difficult as it wouldn't be a BT phone line.

The best of the lot as a pure ISP is O2 - same underlying system as Be but better value for money for non-gamers.

Even better if you moved your mobile to O2, or used an old mobile to put a free PAYG SIM in. Top up by £10 once every three months (and they add £1 to it making £11), so that's £3.33pm, and get £4.89pm reduction in the broadband price.

I did that and get 500 free minutes from my Post Code area in the first month of the three and use the £11 up in the second two. My main mobile is still Orange.

Have a read of MKD's exellent O2/Be comparison and also have a look at this ISP comparison.

You should definitely consider TalkTalk. A great value package they offer. If you feel that your internet/phone isnt functioning properly, or want to squeeze the best broadand speed out of your line, then their Members Forum is the place to go.

RobertoS Thanks for the detailed reply. While I do game I prefer single player so while gaming is an issue for my broadband it is not a big one. I do need a phone line as the current vendor will unfortunately not carry on paying for the one there!!! What is you opinion of Talk Talk? Unless I am missing something then they look cheaper than Sky as I am not too worried about watching TV in general free view or free sat will take care of my needs.

Most of all thanks for the assistance.

Thanks Recoil, i am seriously considering it.

TalkTalk had very bad press in its early days but now seems to be pretty good for large numbers of people, particularly non-geeks. My brother has had it for a couple of years now and is still very pleased.

From this further comparison you can see that the only really bad choice (of the ones mentioned so far) would be Orange.

In view of your latest comments I think your choice is between TT and O2, getting a phone line from the Post Office if you choose O2.

Again, migrating from TT is a bit messy as the line is not with BT.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 14-Jul-09 15:23:13)

I've started to wonder whether the best strategy with TalkTalk (and anyone else who does full LLU) is to bank the first N months of savings as a fighting fund to pay for any eventual migration back to BT and (perhaps) pay for a mobile BB stick or phone as modem data bundle to cover the "offline" weeks.

And that should probably be factored in when estimating the real overall cost of such a service.

Good thinking. Also from Deadbeat in reply.

Yeah - its one of those difficult ones as there can be times for most of us where a saving now may be more useful than an expense risk in the future. Its a bit like buying something on credit - you gain an immediate advantage but incur a longer term cost.

I've been a bit tempted by TT on LLU myself a couple of times but as I've even said to them in surveys its the contract length and the potential exit costs that make people avoid them. And you do have to add up all the little extra costs and savings to make such a decision. If you make the right phone call mix too it could be an easy choice, and you'd have the exit fund "saved" very quickly. Tricky.