Who should I sign up with

Hi. I'm with Zen at the moment but my speed slips a lot during the evening and I'm not too happy about that. I had myself all geared up to go with Xilo but I'm not confident about the online registration. I like to talk to somebody and give them all the details over the phone but got knocked back on this by Xilo customer service who said the only way I could sign up for their service is online. Had to think about that. As I was dithering over it I got a phone call from Talk Talk Business (don't know how they got my number). They were offering lots of nice speeds through ADSL2+. I'm on up to 8mb and on an EO line. Talk Talk would sign me up over the phone but I'm not sure because of their poor reputation. I was hoping for Xilo but really would like to sign up over the phone.
Would really appreciate advice from the forum members here.

Thanks.

Caley.

As an ex-Zen user who had no complaints (I changed address and opted for a less expensive option, as I'm a light user), here's my take:

"Hi I'm with Zen, and am considering a move to Talk Talk"

Most folk here would wonder at that thinking, and here's why:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html?isp_2...

I suggest you browse the forum sections of the ISP you're with, and compare it with the ISPs you are considering. Compare a few ISPs and draw up a short list based on price (perhaps try the ThinkBroadband ISP search.

I recommend Plusnet as they are one of the better lower-cost options in my opinion, but they have their moments and no one is perfect.

You could also consider that the evening line slippage is something that will continue across any or all ISPs, and look into it (here or with Zen).

I'm a Plusnet User currently switching to Zen (must be one of Plusnet's "moments" as I'm very dissatisfied with them).

I'm not seeing a slowdown in actual line speed in the evening at the moment, but a massive increase in latency and terrible lag spikes, which have been going on over the last week or so, so it might be worthwhile considering what Camieabz said, that the evening line slippage is something outside of the control of the ISP.

Did Zen have anything to say on this when you contacted them?

Have you checked the samknows web site

sam knows
to see which other suppliers have their llu kit in your exchange, because as you appear to be on the old 20cn upto 8mbps product their isn't any BT 21cn (ADSL2+ )BTwholesale based product available at your exchange ,

if you switched to any other ISP that also could only provide resold BT wholesale 20cn upto 8mbps (same product) chances are that you wouldn't see any improvement,(Plusnet included) the evening slow downs are more than likely down to the BT kit virtual path becoming swamped at those times,

there is also the possibility that due to the costs of bandwidth most isp's don't buy enough of it, because they have to keep costs as low as they can, and to properly provision it ,would cost you £50+ per month

if talk talk have their llu in your exchange, then if you where to move to an isp that sells tt wholesale based products, xilo is one of them , you would see near full speeds with the attenuation figures (indicate a short line) using their ADSL2+ , LLU
The TT wholesale is different to the TT retail products, different support, no throttling of P2P and you would be free of BT's 20cn poor service
3 LLU providers in your exchange C&W ,SKY,TT

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 05-Apr-14 14:38:53)

Hi thanks for the response. I know my exchange (Inverness Culloden) is an old one with nothing new done since 2006 but it has both C&W and Talk Talk which made me look at Xilo as it does LLU through TTB or so I've read on this forum. As I said previously Talk Talk Business phoned me at home and offered really fast speeds but I'm not too sure if that's true. Talk Talk has such a reputation on these forums. However Xilo has such a good reputation with it's LLU offerings that I would jump to them but they only allow sign up online and I'm not sure what that entails. I'm not confident about signing up online. Has anyone here signed up with them? Could anybody give me a pointer on what to expect signing up online? That would be so helpful. I've emailed Zen and asked for my MAC code so hopefully I should have it next week and then I'm ready to go.

Caley.

If indeed TalkTalkbusiness called you then i would highly recommend you go with them. Unlike their residential arm, they have very good UK based phone support and you get a pure unfiltered unadulterated connection free of throttling. You get network priority over TalkTalk residential customers. You will also get a static ip address and they have a decent iphone app. I transferred over to them a few weeks ago and been very impressed with their phone technical support...the're almost as good as AAISP

I belive that vivaciti and Aquiss & AAISP also offer TT wholesale products now that o2 wholesale are no longer or soon wont be due to sky buying o2 out,
So you have a choice of ISP's
As for signing up online, a lot of isp's offer this, Basically you would run their availability checker then select the package you require, then input some personal detail along with MAC code & banking details to set up a DD or card details for payment
It should then offer dates to choose from for activation , then after you have checked all the info you input for errors ect, and correct them,if needed, you submit the order, the isp should then send confirmation of the order you have placed , and a short time later another confirmation regarding the date selected for activation would be sent,
there really isnt much to it, the talk talk wholesale products offered are listed as the Pro Products on the xilo site ,

Pro Unmetered Advanced is annex M upto 2.5 mbps upload speed (should work well on your short line)
Pro Unmetered is the standard asdl2+ upto 24mbps down and 1.3mbps up
So unless you don't mind useage caps those 2 options are the ones to look at ,

Both Extreme 24 & Extreme 16 i think are/where the no longer available o2 wholesale llu
If you wanted to go full llu the do offer Talk & Surf Unmetered , this would mean that your current phone provider would change, and you would pay line rental to ttwholesale /xilo

Don't forget xilo also charge £40.00 to migrate onto llu

I have seen evidence to suggest differently infact some have found the support to be poor for the tt buisness products, They also want your line you cannot just have broadband only, so FULL LLU only, and at £4 per month,lol they can really offer a proper buisness grade service for that amount? no chance, also for their FTTC options they want 2yrs (24mth min term) and no sla's,
The only thing tt are good at is there unsolicited often unwanted heavy handed sales/lies tactic's, there's a number reasons that they have (cold called ) the op, and doing the op any favour's isn't in that list

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 05-Apr-14 16:32:10)

I have a tendency to agree with you but I've no experience of Talk Talk in any form except when my now defunct isp ADSL24 switched me onto their Talk Talk llu and I must admit that my speeds increased dramatically. I only found out recently why my speed increased. I also want to keep my BT line. I've seen too many others stuck in a contract because both their phone and broadband were with the same isp. Just to clarify, I have no idea where Talk Talk Business got my phone number from. I was posting a lot on the ADSL24 forum so they might have got some details there but not my phone number.

Caley.

Actually TT business do offer partial LLU broadband where you can keep your BT line (unlike their residential arm) its not something they show on their website, you need to call them to take that option.

As for being cheap, i don't think so. I'm paying £48 a month for their FTTC + landline service and granted, its a 24 month contract but they allow you 2 house moves in that period so unless you live a gypsy lifestyle its no big deal.

Support-wise, they've been very good in the few times i've called them. They pick up the phone within seconds, and their technical team know what they're talking about. There was a TT fibre break last weekend and when i called them up i assumed at the time it was an external line fault...an openreach engineer was booked within 5 mins of calling them....none of this rigmarole of change routers, change filters, treating me with kids gloves etc. I came to know later in the day that it was a fibre break affecting all TT users so obviously i cancelled the appt.

Give them a try, you might be pleasantly surprised

Edited by deleted (Sat 05-Apr-14 16:59:37)