ISP advice... I'm out of touch!

Hi,

I've been out of the country for a couple of years, and I've lost track of broadband issues a little bit.

I'm moving into a new property, where there is no cable - so I'll need ADSL.

I don't know much about the combination packages that are on offer, but there's a fairly high likelyhood that I will be moving out of the country again in 12 months time. Therefore, I cannot take up any 18 month contracts unless the termination fee is low.

I have fairly heavy usage.. say about 30 gig a month.

I used to be with Zen and I'm thinking of perhaps getting a BT line and going with Zen again since I can't see any 12 month package deals that give any significant saving, unless I'm missing something? Zen used to be worth paying a little extra for, not sure if this is still the case.

I think Zen still have a good reputation. Another decent ISP is Be/O2 on LLU, but as you say the savings may be insignificant over a 12 month period.

Check who is available at your exchange here: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

In reply to a post by john2007:

I think Zen still have a good reputation. Another decent ISP is Be/O2 on LLU, but as you say the savings may be insignificant over a 12 month period.

Check who is available at your exchange here: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

On O2 Standard LLU the 8Mbps unlimited with the current three months free and cashback from a number of sites varies from £16.07 if the customer has an O2 mobile phone, to £46.06 with an O2 PAYG phone, to £60.07 with no O2 phone for the whole year!!!

I expect that is significantly cheaper than Zen, is free of the BT Profiling System, is true unlimited download allowance, and does not suffer from the BT WBC/WBMC/IPSC mess that is about to hit all the BT Wholesale based ISPs that it hasn't already.

does not suffer from the BT WBC/WBMC/IPSC mess that is about to hit all the BT Wholesale based ISPs that it hasn't already.

Can you explain this to me?

Most ISPs buy the underlying service from BT Wholesale. Until recently ADSL Max (IPStream).

Link to an explanation of WBC/WBMC/IPSC.

IPSC seems to be reasonably sorted now. WBC/WBMC don't work properly for a large number of users, though many seem to be OK.

Speeds tend to start not bad after initial connection then drop dramatically over the next few days as the DLM settings of Noise Margin go wrong. That screws the IP Profile as well.

See the menu on the left of the page linked to above for more info on those, and also the LLU page.

In Useful Links go to samknows and that shows you a list of LLU suppliers for your exchange on the right, and BT WBC status on the left. Some of the LLU suppliers are to be steered clear of though.

I'm with ZEN having moved from Plusnet and find the connection is very stable for speed and ping times. The support people also answer questions properly and don't just use copy and paste. I do only sync at about 3200 so am not a very high speed user.