Which ISP - Norwich exchange

My brother is moving house in a few weeks, he is on VM cable at the moment but wont be in their catchment area when he moves. Everything i've read over the years about VM ADSL network is very bad, so have advised he looks elsewhere for a good ISP.

This is the exchange - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/EANCC

LLU is available but mostly for pretty awful ISPs, talk talk, tiscali, pipex, aol etc

The only one i'm not sure on is sky/easynet...are they any good? He's not a really heavy user, maybe 50-60gb per month, but would prefer a clean connection without rate limiting or trafic shaping.

All suggestions welcome, thanks

Sky LLU is probably his best bet, especially if he wants Sky TV. Sky LLU has a good reputation.

I figured as much, if you're in their catchment area you can get Sky unlimited which the FUP doesn't apply to according to their site.

I take it their network is quite good? He isn't likely to see more than 10mbit anyway due to line length so I doubt getting that will be a problem. Gotta be better than VM ADSL anyway xD

Sky LLU Unlimited has a good reputation and no FUP - it used to have one but it was removed last year. Sky TV is no longer a requirement.

Sky Talk call packages with it may be a good idea, but Sky Talk line rental I don't reckon on as that would get him on full LLU not partial LLU, and that is a real pain if he wants to migrate away for any reason. See my What is LLU? page.

Long contracts of course.

The other worthwhile but far more expensive LLU providers there are xilo/uno and vivaciti. Both supply wholesale products using Tiscali tails (the 75GB expensive ones) and C & W (the unlimited ones.

Reports on here are that the C & W ones are perfectly good, the Tiscali ones may be better. Monthly contracts, with perhaps a reasonable exit charge if leaving within a few months. Good in-house support operations.

Vivaciti can supply a BT line at lower installation cost than BT standard price, but BT are currently offering £29.99 connection on an 18-month contract.

Thanks for the in depth reply, exactly what I was looking for.

The upshot of "full" LLU then is basically you have to get your line disconnected from Sky and then find both a line provider (probably BT as "normal") which presumably means connections charges and wait times while you're disconnected and then reconnected, as well as having to find another broadband provider on top of that.

Is there any asshattery going on with switching away from full LLU connections, like businesses refusing to release ownership or whatnot? Thats my only real concern

In reply to a post by anon123456:

Thanks for the in depth reply, exactly what I was looking for.

The upshot of "full" LLU then is basically you have to get your line disconnected from Sky and then find both a line provider (probably BT as "normal") which presumably means connections charges and wait times while you're disconnected and then reconnected, as well as having to find another broadband provider on top of that.

Is there any asshattery going on with switching away from full LLU connections, like businesses refusing to release ownership or whatnot? Thats my only real concern

No asshattery as you put it that I'm aware of. So far as I know there's only TalkTalk and Sky do full LLU anyway at the moment, and Sky don't do it as long as you don't take Sky line rental, like I said. Sky Talk calls package is fine.

I don't know at what stage the service is lost at the full LLU supplier, but see this post. I have a sort of remembrance that shifting the line first back to a BT Wholesale based provider, possibly with no real loss of phone service, then order broadband from any ISP is quicker but does involve a few days with no broadband.

I don't think there is ever a guarantee of keeping the same number when returning to BT-based, but I've never heard of anyone not doing.

There is no option to take just the LLU package without also taking a line with them, when i visit the site it says I have to add it, although maybe there is no registered line at this place yet, they've not moved in and set that up yet!

I don't think they're worried about keeping numbers and all that, I think the primary concern if tryign to move away from someone one like Sky LLU would be the downtime while swapping lines and disconnection/reconnection fees.

Well BT are doing a line install at £29.99 on an 18-month contract and you can have the Sky LLU on that - just have to wait to order it till the line is running. Not sure if the Sky Talk calls could go on that though, with the BT 18-month contract, or whether that just applies to the rental.

That way there is no problem at all migrating out. Except for the Sky Broadband contract length itself.

Then there is the vivaciti line possibility. I have a feeling that is monthly contract, and certainly you can have Sky LLU on it. They don't insist on their own broadband.

Third - a Post Office installed line. Again Sky LLU is fine on that.

Quite a few ISPs count a migration in from any LLU as a chargeable connection, even if already on a BT Wholesale-based line, as it involves a change of DSLAM connection by Openreach at the exchange, and they charge the ISP. Shouldn't involve significant downtime though.

Ah OK, got it!

Thanks for all the info, very informative, nice site by the way, had a bit of a read of that toady and was also very informative, good job.

But I'd appreciate it if you correct the typo in you compliment .

Let us know what is decided on the way to go.