Rural broadband

We are in a market 1 area with no prospect of improvement.
We are with PlusNet at the moment coming to the end of the contract year.
Post Office broadband and line rental are considerably cheaper, but there are bad reports of this service.
However, there is no TalkTalk provision anywhere near here, so I wonder if the service will be unchanged in fact from what we get via BT at the moment.
Any advice please?

In no TalkTalk LLU then connection speeds would be the same.

Quality of service may be the factor that varies, since TalkTalk is not renowned for buying lots of capacity on the more expensive BT Wholesale exchanges. Check what price PostOffice offer at your phone number.

NOTE PostOffice has a 100GB fair use policy on its unlimited service.

The Post Office prices are ridiculously cheap compared to PlusNet or BT - £10 pm compared to £16 (BT) or £16.99 (PlusNet).
We only use about 15GB a month as the speed restricts the usefulness!!
From what you say there is little downside to this offer if there is no TalkTalk here..

Thanks for your help.

Check if your exchange is going to get FTTC from a BDUK project, you don't say where in the country you are so we cannot tell you the BDUK site to look at..

Use your phone number in here to see if anything shows in the immediate future. This will give some idea of the potential for a better service and a wider choice of provider.

I'm in the same boat up here in the NE , rural clapped out exchange with no chance of ever getting fibre or even 21cn I've tried a few isp's and find Enta net to give the best performance and lowest pings , the one i'm with at the moment is a waste of time night time , I'm lucky to get 512 kbps down on a 7150 profile , day time is fine 7300 kbps all day
good luck finding a decent isp anyway

These resell the same service as the Post Office.
http://www.primussaver.co.uk/unlimited-broadband.htm...
If you are looking for calls around 1p from a top phone provider, look here.
http://www.zen.co.uk/business/voice/phone-services.aspx

Edited by professor973 (Sat 07-Jun-14 23:00:32)

EASY !

Phone PlusNet, ask for retentions department and ask them to match the PO offer.
They have made promise to do that, and it has worked for me for years.

Usually they give you 'special discount' for another year, sometimes even two years.
Regards,
Martin
Market 1 victim.

The broadband and phone service I had from the Post Office on my market 1 exchange was flawless. My only problems were the bills they sent to the wrong address all year (I assumed I was paperless until they dropped them all round) and the fact I left during the Talk Talk and customer service switch over which caused a great deal of confusion.

In short, the service they provide is good, the way they organise themselves is poor. This can work to your advantage though, I was meant to pay £60 for the phone line to be installed... never got charged!

I tried Primus, but they don't provide broadband here.

They resell TalkTalk EXACTLY the same as the Post Office.
See note at bottom here - http://www.broadband.co.uk/broadband/providers/primus/

Edited by professor973 (Sun 08-Jun-14 13:51:02)

I understand that, but TalkTalk don't offer broadband here (I've tried on their website).. Nor do Primus. We're in a Market 1 area..

If you use EE, orange or T-Mobile Mobile Phone service . Then could be one option, they use BT Internet.
Problem is Tie ins with most suupliers.
Zen has only 1 month tie in. Phone cost is competitive, Broadband more expensive
Could use Zen for phone others for broadband
Uno (Xilo.net) £14 if CN21 enabled

Edited by flippery (Sun 08-Jun-14 14:58:38)

Orange and T-Mobile use EE broadband and give a £10 per month discount for their mobile users.

In reply to a post by professor973:

Orange and T-Mobile use EE broadband and give a £10 per month discount for their mobile users.

That's because Orange and T-Mobile are just names on mobile price plans from EE.

Not at all - Orange and T-Mobile joined forces and raised the EE flag. Anyone holding an active Orange or T-Mobile sim gets a £10 EE discount for phone and Broadband, which is not to be sniffed at and offsets the rubbish customer services.

In reply to a post by professor973:

Not at all - Orange and T-Mobile joined forces and raised the EE flag. Anyone holding an active Orange or T-Mobile sim gets a £10 EE discount for phone and Broadband, which is not to be sniffed at and offsets the rubbish customer services.

But now Orange and Tmobile are just price plan names. EE is the company, as all the invoices are from EE Ltd, as the former companies merged. Existing customers keep what they had, but we were all notified of the legal name change (around 2010/2011). The discount for broadband is a nice if you want EE broadband (its not got many features).

In reply to a post by professor973:

Orange and T-Mobile use EE broadband

Actually EE BB is Orange BB! "Orange, brought to you by EE"!

No BB is sold under the T-Mobile banner.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by professor973:

Not at all - Orange and T-Mobile joined forces and raised the EE flag. Anyone holding an active Orange or T-Mobile sim gets a £10 EE discount for phone and Broadband, which is not to be sniffed at and offsets the rubbish customer services.

But now Orange and Tmobile are just price plan names. EE is the company, as all the invoices are from EE Ltd, as the former companies merged. Existing customers keep what they had, but we were all notified of the legal name change (around 2010/2011). The discount for broadband is a nice if you want EE broadband (its not got many features).

I am using ORANGE Broadband here. Also, my Nowmobile PAYG that was a vitual operator on the T-Mobile network, stil runs as nowmobile - Not EE, though it gains the same discounts as a T-Mobile proper sim.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

No BB is sold under the T-Mobile banner.

Never has been, but Mr Saffron wasn't convinced

In reply to a post by professor973:

I am using ORANGE Broadband here. Also, my Nowmobile PAYG that was a vitual operator on the T-Mobile network, stil runs as nowmobile - Not EE, though it gains the same discounts as a T-Mobile proper sim.

Any MVNO will still brand as the virtual operator, but can now use all EE masts. Orange and T customers phones show EE as the network name, as its one network. Virgin (should) no longer show the difference between "virgin" and "Virgin" for former T and O masts. Your Orange broadband should now be branded EE, and if you have a brightbox router it should have changed its menu graphics automatically.

I suspect EE has to pay a royalty to Orange SA and Deutsche Telekom to use the Orange and T-mobile brands, thus the removal of the old websites this year.

Thanks,

seems like the best starting point!!

In reply to a post by jchamier:

thus the removal of the old websites this year.

Not yet! E.g.:
Orange Home
EE Broadband Members' Account
still reside on www.orange.co.uk

Edited by XRaySpeX (Mon 09-Jun-14 02:08:19)