need to switch from BT

i got a bill from BT today saying i owe £136 pound to them and my monthly payment has gone up from £54 to £87 i am normally getting speeds of around 2.5 meg with them.

i am looking to change to another company that will offer me the same speed or better and for alot cheaper price and unlimited downloads.

i am on this exchange here
and i mostly only use the internet for xbox live posting on forums and downloading the odd album

if i am just doing this is there any need to have unlimited?
also when i change how long should i expect to be without internet for??
thanks

That exchange is enabled for a number of LLU services. These days the only way to get unlimited ADSL is to subscribe to an LLU based service. The samknows page you linked to lists the available LLU operators.

We're now able to offer an LLU based connection at your exchange on a three month contract. pm me if you want details.

"These days the only way to get unlimited ADSL is to subscribe to an LLU based service. "

Not strictly true - Sky and Be/O2 are sort of there at a consumer price point, but if willing to pay the cost then unlimited is available no matter where you live in the country.

£54 to £87 a month sounds an odd number for broadband, or is this telephone and broadband together? Or are BT billing you for usage over and above your usage allowance?

What do you do with XBox live? Since an XBox can mean just playing online games, which if you played every minute of the day would be around 1GB a day, or it can mean buying movies or downloading games demos which can vary in size enormously.

So long as you migrate between providers using a MAC (Migration Authorisation Code) it should all happen the same day. Be or O2 look to be your best bet, they are the same company, so O2 will be cheap if you have a mobile with them too, but Be is there more geeky service with some interesting options like higher upstream speeds (handy for hosting games)

they were taking out £54 a month every month but i must have been going over on the phone calls or something. they didnt give me a straight answer.

on xbox live i alway play online and download the odd game/demo but never movies.

im also looking to get the phone with them too if thats possible

i just looked at 02 and the standard broadband seems fine for me i think because thats unlimited. also talk talk keep ringing me to go with them. are they any good?

O2 standard at £7.34pm or £12.23pm is excellent and truly unlimited. Currently also 2 months free, and if you sign up through Quidco possibly £50/£45 cashback.

I feel TalkTalk is probably better these days than is reported here and would be your cheapest option with the full bundle of phone and broadband.

However it has at least two limitations relevant to you. It has a 40GB per month limit unless you double that for another £4pm. And any P2P downloading is severely throttled. I don't know about pings/latency - you would need to ask in the TalkTalk forum here.

The TT help line has a poor reputation but they have their own on-line forum where apparently some good support staff help. O2 support has a good reputation.

The three compared.

As a first step you definitely need to go through your quarterly phone bills and understand why your charges have changed so much.

Little value in saving a little on your broadband bill, if it is the phone calls that are causing the problem.

it has to be the calls

In reply to a post by lew87ys:

they were taking out £54 a month every month but i must have been going over on the phone calls or something. they didn't give me a straight answer.

£54 pm seems very high even for 'phone + BB. If you are going over with your 'phone calls, then changing BB, or even phone, provider is not gonna help you one iota!

You seem uncertain as to the reason why your bill is so high. Surely the bill you just received will tell you in the detail? Is it a 'phone or BB bill, or do they combine them? You can also easily register and see your 'phone bills online at http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProduc...

If you make a lot of geographic or 0845/0870 calls, maybe you need to switch to the BT Unlimited Anytime Calling Plan; a typical rental for which is £20 pm.