Need Advice- Switch From O2?

Hi everyone

I don�t know a huge amount about broadband services so thought I�d seek advice concerning an issue I have.

I am currently on O2 broadband. I signed up to it many years ago as I also had an O2 mobile.

I never upgraded or changed the service so it�s now a rolling contract at £9.50 a month.

The issue is I plan on leaving O2 for my mobile, which will increase the price to I think £11.50 or £12.50, and I don�t want to top-up on a pay as you go every few months to keep the discount.

Is there a better deal out there for me?

Through media consumption and downloading I use about 10-15gb a month, but would like the flexibility to use more should I need to (so I would rather no cap, or one fairly higher than my normal use).

I should add that when O2 introduced their new packages some years ago, I was advised on another forum not to switch to them or upgrade, as my service was under the old terms (before throttling and certain restrictions were introduced?). I assume I still have that old 8mb package.

How does that stand up to what�s on offer now?

I have a Primus landline which I�m currently tied to and very happy with so I wouldn�t want a broadband package that requires a landline switch. Are you aware of any standalone providers who you think I�d be better off with or should I stick with O2?

Most of the best deals require you to move the telephone line too, and for Sky and TalkTalk this involves full LLU, which may end up costing more when you move away from them in the future (£30 to £120, depending on offers at that time).

Primus is probably saving £5 a month compared to most phone line rental deals, so moving to a combined phone/broadband may not benefit you much.

Have you looked at Plusnet? 60GB a month for £11.49 (if in their cheap area).
o2 is £5 a month more for non-mobile customers, and the unlimited All Rounder would be £17.50. O2 might be open to discussion over the price, have you tried them, or even if not cheaper, let you have all the usual sweetners which is an XBox 360 user look attractive at this time.

If you use Freeview, and want a HD Freeview box, then the YouView deals via TalkTalk might be worth a consideration, long contracts but if staying put for a while, and happy dealing with their support online (e.g. if broadband breaks pop down to local cafe, rather than use telephone) then as a bundle it may be good.

Please can you confirm your exchange details by posting the URL of the result of this checker?

Please can you also post your line stats from the O2 box, or whatever router you are using. Help on the O2 box here. (You should by now have that speed uncapped - maybe you need to contact support).

It's probably a Market 2 or 3 exchange, which means you could get ADSL2+ (up to 24Mbps) with a 60GB peak allowance and unlimited overnight on Plusnet, for £11.49. P2P throttled to 2Mbps 8pm-10pm. Leaving your line where it is. However, that isn't much lower than your O2 price. Have O2 stopped doing retention deals? Before I left I was the same as you but only paying about £5pm.

(A possible tip. Initially, to get the O2 discount for a mobile, I got a free SIM and stuck it in an old mobile. Went on the Favourite Place PAYG plan. Month 1 of the plan you get 500 minutes to any network including landlines, month 2 and 3 you use up the £11 for outgoing calls, month 4 you top up again and restart the cycle. So really cut the landline calls bill. Doesn't work if you have an Anytime Call Plan of course).

Or if you can keep the downloads below 10GB peak, £6.49pm on PN. (Uploads are counted as well on both).

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Most of the best deals require you to move the telephone line too, and for Sky and TalkTalk this involves full LLU, which may end up costing more when you move away from them in the future (£30 to £120, depending on offers at that time).

Primus is probably saving £5 a month compared to most phone line rental deals, so moving to a combined phone/broadband may not benefit you much.

Have you looked at Plusnet? 60GB a month for £11.49 (if in their cheap area).
o2 is £5 a month more for non-mobile customers, and the unlimited All Rounder would be £17.50. O2 might be open to discussion over the price, have you tried them, or even if not cheaper, let you have all the usual sweetners which is an XBox 360 user look attractive at this time.

If you use Freeview, and want a HD Freeview box, then the YouView deals via TalkTalk might be worth a consideration, long contracts but if staying put for a while, and happy dealing with their support online (e.g. if broadband breaks pop down to local cafe, rather than use telephone) then as a bundle it may be good.

Thanks for your reply. I wasn�t aware of Plusnet so I�ll look into that offer further.

I�m not an Xbox user and don�t watch Freeview too much. I also haven�t yet tried contacting O2; to my detriment I�ve paid little attention to the development of broadband services since being relatively content with O2, so I�m unable to gauge what a good offer might be.

But your post has given a good indication, and if my line is capable of benefiting from the increased speed Plusnet can give for relatively the same price, then I feel it�s a good option if O2 can�t offer a decent deal.

Hi and thanks for the help. The URL of the checker is this http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/LNHAT

And the line stats are as follows:

Uptime: 0 days, 10:17:25

DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.3

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1.252 / 6.830

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 80,72 / 1,26

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12,3 / 18,8

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 17,5 / 39,0

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 6,6 / 9,2

System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----

Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / BDCM

Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0

Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0

Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0

Loss of Link (Remote): -

Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 28 / 0

FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 18.668

CRC Errors (Up/Down): 61 / 41

HEC Errors (Up/Down): 43 / 29

I�ll have to give O2 a call and see what retention deal they can offer, as paying something closer to £5 a month would be satisfactory for me. If not then one of those Plusnet deals sounds pretty good.

I also wasn�t aware of the O2 top up being kept as credit on your phone in addition to the minutes etc you receive. I may very well do that which should cut out all my landline calls.

Strange figures in those stats.

They show you are on ADSL2 rather than the expected ADSL2+.

From your earlier post I gathered you are on "O2 Standard", so if still capped you should also be connecting at 8190-8191kbps on that attenuation. Not 6,830. Have you ever had faster speeds than now? In any case, as before, I believe many O2 Standard users are now uncapped for speed, without moving to the newer products with their traffic management, (and allowance cap on The Basics).

On uncapped ADSL2+ with O2 or PN you should connect at getting on for 11Mbps.

I wonder if you have ever tried the test socket - on the wall at the back in this pic, using just a filter and short ADSL cable to get to the router. The stats like that would be interesting.

Do I gather lowest cost is important? What does this checker say about your line?

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 18-Sep-12 22:57:07)

In reply to a post by richard_j64:

I also wasn�t aware of the O2 top up being kept as credit on your phone in addition to the minutes etc you receive. I may very well do that which should cut out all my landline calls.

Note that I said to choose the Favourite Place tariff. The write-up for that implies you have to top up every month, but that's not necessary. Every three months is what you need to keep the discount. If you miss a quarter-start month it doesn't matter except you lose the discount that month.

At the time my wife didn't have a mobile, so as well as replacing the landline for outgoing it gave her a phone to summon me as taxi-driver when she needed me.

Yes the O2 broadband package is the standard one. I have checked my O2 account now and it states �O2 Home Broadband Standard�. It also says my download speed is up to 16 meg. I always thought it was 8mb as it�s stayed pretty much the same for as long as I can remember. And I can�t recall having faster speeds than what I�ve had now.

It states to the side of my account:

"You get a download speed of around 6.0 meg.

Other customers with lines like yours get between 4.0 meg and 9.0 meg"


And the link for the checker about my line says the following:

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 2Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL Max broadband line speed of 5Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 3.5Mbps and 7.5Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 6Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 4Mbps and 8Mbps. Our test also indicates that your line could support an estimated ADSL 2+ Annex-M broadband upstream line speed of 1Mbps and downstream line speed of 6Mbps; typically the downstream speed would range between 4Mbps and 8Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 31.3Mbps and upstream line speed of 5.9Mbps.


I haven�t tried the test socket before, but could do to see if that makes a difference.

Cost is quite important. Ideally I�d like to go back to the sort of price before the O2 hike, especially as my Internet needs aren't particularly demanding.

But having said that, your top-up tip sounds pretty good, and I would probably rather opt for that than move to Plusnet, or accept an O2 retention offer, which makes my broadband subject to traffic management.

I�ll likely give O2 a call and see if they can lower the price without changing the other terms of my service, and if not, then top-up as you suggest.

In the past, but O2 may have stopped doing it, and they did it with hearts in mouth, quite a few got retention deals whilst staying on the legacy products. Have you actually asked, or are you just assuming it can't be done? It is important to ask for the retentions department, not ask standard support. Only Retentions can/could do it.

Standard support may not even know.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 22-Sep-12 09:31:02)

This may be a bit late, you may have already got your deal or moved



I got 6 months free and then £9-50/month on same product as you