Shall I change to BT?

Currently I am with Goscomb on a one month contract at £31.25pm, but 60GB cap including upload. I was with IDNET for a couple of years but left when they had email problems that they blamed on me. I see that they have increased their allowance but don't want to go through the hassle again. BT is attractive at £18pm Unlimited but get lousy feedback on the comparison sites. Not including Demon, they have the worst speed, reliability and worst customer service, but I am blinded by the 6 months free. I now have BBC iPlayer and ITV iPlayer so I am probably going to need an unlimited service.
I am in a rural area and only get 5mg download speed and don't see upgrading coming here or if ever.

How about Zen Active, 100GB at £25.52 a month with unlimited uploads. http://www.zen.co.uk/home-office/broadband/home-offi...
Do you really need unlimited? Two hours a day of iPlayer/ITV Player will use about 1.5GB a day or around 45GB a month. That still leaves 55GB to play with which is almost your current entire allowance. OK it isn't as cheap as the BT offering but you get what you pay for.

Do it BT can easily get you 5Mbps no problem. They manage the full 80Mbps fine on their backhaul on fibre services.

I had this debate on this forum a few months ago. It was shown that a 1 hour SD program on BBC iPlayer used up to 2GB. 2Hours a day, 30 days, that's 120GB. In addition Sky's On demand and other offerings are between 500MB to 1GB.an hour,
It would not be hard to use up 200/300GB per month.

Edited by deleted (Wed 17-Oct-12 13:20:41)

Where was it shown that a 1hr SD program on BBC iPlayer uses 2GB? I could believe that an HD program would chew through that but I find it hard to believe that 2GB/hour for SD is right.

SD can run at 1500 Kbps

HD 2800 or 3500
SD is still fairly high.

18 month contract has always kept me away from BT. Stuck if service falls short
Freeola offer 60G Peak plus unlimited after 7PM and at weekends.
Also only 1 month notice and £10 first month then £23 after.

At three months in, Freeola still seem top class to me. had a small query this week and once again the ticket was answered in a few minutes on a weekend - Yes, their CS staff the office on a weekend also.
Being un-metered from 7.00 pm and all weekends, I find even the 40gb service as good as any other, with no need to stay up all night so that iPlayer does not eat up the allowance.

I didn't like the premium rate support.
Went back to IDNET

In reply to a post by woodroyd:

I didn't like the premium rate support.
Went back to IDNET

I don't call the 4p per minute via Zen to call Freeola Premium rate. Never needed to use it with such a good online support system, and in any case, 4p is much cheaper than BT calls. You get what you pay for, with good customer service and peace of mind worth every penny. Much easier on the blood pressure than a free call to an Indian bod with crib sheet.

If you look at the site you will see that it is 10 pence a minute.

And if you look at my post above, you will see that i pay 4p per minute including VAT to dial a 0871 number like Freeola via Zen, not that you will need to use it. I will leave it there as if you are prepared to avoid a top ISP over a very rare phone call, any further explanation seems pointless.
http://www.zen.co.uk/business/voice/phone-services.a...

Edited by professor973 (Thu 18-Oct-12 09:06:26)

In reply to a post by professor973:

At three months in, Freeola still seem top class to me. had a small query this week and once again the ticket was answered in a few minutes on a weekend - Yes, their CS staff the office on a weekend also.
Being un-metered from 7.00 pm and all weekends, I find even the 40gb service as good as any other, with no need to stay up all night so that iPlayer does not eat up the allowance.

Hi

I am actually looking at possibly moving isp.
Currently I am with Aquiss on their 30gig per month package and feel that sometimes I really do need more usage allowance when I want to use iplayer etc.
Do you do any online gaming with freeola because I need a low ping for online games that I play a lot ?

Thanks

I am not a gamer. My ping this morning http://www.pingtest.net/result/70920649.png Often better than that.

Pointless being calling Freeola via Zen. Why on earth if I subscribe to Freeola would I sign up with Zen to Call Them. Prof. Ha Ha

In reply to a post by woodroyd:

Pointless being calling Freeola via Zen. Why on earth if I subscribe to Freeola would I sign up with Zen to Call Them. Prof. Ha Ha

?
Have you fully researched what you are talking about? Prof appeared to me to have got himself a very neat and cost-effective setup when he first told us about it.

(I did try to pick holes in it, and failed! s at the prof ).

In reply to a post by professor973:

I am not a gamer. My ping this morning http://www.pingtest.net/result/70920649.png Often better than that.

Thanks for the ping results they look ok to me.
Do you notice any drop in your internet speed etc when 7pm arrives (off peak starts) ? It would not be great if you have more allowance but it is to slow to stream movies etc.

Thanks

In reply to a post by professor973:

in any case, 4p is much cheaper than BT calls.

Not when you have a BT Call Plan.

Then you can look up their 0871 # on SayNoTo0870 and call them free on the geographic # 01376 556080 .

There's your hole: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/which_isp/t/4170051...

In reply to a post by drphibes:

In reply to a post by professor973:

I am not a gamer. My ping this morning http://www.pingtest.net/result/70920649.png Often better than that.

Thanks for the ping results they look ok to me.
Do you notice any drop in your internet speed etc when 7pm arrives (off peak starts) ? It would not be great if you have more allowance but it is to slow to stream movies etc.

Thanks

My speed is constant round the clock. I am a very happy bunny. Many here will confirm that there are not many ISPs that keep me happy!!
http://imageshack.us/a/img545/8364/freeolaspeed.png

In reply to a post by woodroyd:

Pointless being calling Freeola via Zen. Why on earth if I subscribe to Freeola would I sign up with Zen to Call Them. Prof. Ha Ha

Because Freeola don't do a landline service ... Stupid boy!!

Thank you Roberto. Sorry I have not been making waves here recently, Senior management hospitilised with another stroke, But I am back now and still happy with my choice of providers.

Not when you only make a couple of landline calls per week. It works out at over 20p per minute per call. At 1p per min, no connection charge and per second billing, my calls with Zen are less than a pound per month. Much better than the inclusive call package with PN or BT. £3.50 can buy a hell of a lot of minutes at 1p and no rip off additional charges.
I am aware of saynoto0870, but I would not pay for a call package over an ISP number i don't need to contact, plus many numbers have no alternative on that site.

Edited by professor973 (Thu 18-Oct-12 14:12:39)

My advice applies generally to peeps who do use their landline, incl. the OP, not just you.

Even you could call the 01376 # with Zen for less than the 0871 #.

P.S. I pay £1.90 pm for inclusive call package with BT

Last time I lashed out for BT Option 3 anytime calls it was around £4.99 if I remember correctly. Evening and weekend call packages are no good for calling companies in daytime working hours.

Been with BT since 28k dial up, yes odd problems but all sorted out with no hassle, since FTTC no problem at all.

In reply to a post by drphibes:

I am actually looking at possibly moving isp.

No your not, it was just a really bad dream

Just our of interest, have you contacted our sales desk to see if we have other options available to you?

In reply to a post by aquiss:

In reply to a post by drphibes:

I am actually looking at possibly moving isp.

No your not, it was just a really bad dream

Just our of interest, have you contacted our sales desk to see if we have other options available to you?

Hi Martin

I dont want to leave Aquiss because your service has been spot on since I joined you a couple of years ago.
I will have a chat with sales and see if they can come up with anything.