Best "Unlimited" 80/20 provider?

I'm currently with BT, on Infinity Option 2. Due to various hassles, I've hated them since I signed up in February. They've let me leave contract due to their pending price rises, so I'm off. To be honest, I'd rather have broadband over a wet string than pay BT more money.

I'm in Bristol but Virgin won't do my street, so whoever I go with is going to be an FTTC based service which unfortunately means BTO still make money but hey...

Looking at my router, I can see I currently average ~275GB a month, so I'd really prefer an unlimited deal. I'd quite like a static IP, but I've had to live without one up to now, so not a firm requirement.

The girlfriend makes calls to her mum from the home phone and I'd like free calls at least E+W.

I seem to have the options of:

PlusNet:
Still gives money to BT as they are owned by BT. Have a traffic prioritisation system which I believe knocks a bit off my max speed (at full sync). Supplies some random router, I'd stick with my R6300 and Openreach modem. Works out quite cheap at £28.45 for the first 9 months. Average cost over the 18m contract is £30.92 PCM with £35 quidco cashback. Static IP a one off £5. E+W calls.

Sky:
With them for TV but no discount on their fibre products. Sky Hub is [censored] and using my own router is hassle. Do offer static IP on Fibre Pro. £50 install charge even though I'm migrating, and no offers at all on fibre pro, but at least it's only a 12m contract. Works out £50.07 PCM over 12m. Only weekend calls. Seems very expensive.

Zen:
No router, can just use my own kit. Offers static IP. Anytime calls without the stupid 60 minute redial rubbish. Even more expensive than Sky at £52.96 PCM.

AAISP:
I love them so I did consider, but Home::1 works out at £60 PCM without line rental, and I'm limited to 300GB which would be a problem in a month where I watched lots of Sky OnDemand, or redownloaded games from steam.

TalkTalk:
These guys are actually in front for me right now. Cashback makes it £30.78 PCM over 18 months, their super router actually might be good, which means the R6300 can go elsewhere for more wireless coverage, and that's with Anytime calls. No static IP, so I'd have to live with Dynamic, but, are talktalk actually OK? I've heard their support sucks but I'd be bringing over a stable FTTC line so can't see it being a massive issue. Will I feel congestion at peak times etc?

I can't believe I'm actually considering talktalk, so if anyone has negative feedback on them please let me know!!

Move to Sky fibre 40/10 to avoid the £50 install and it's only £10 pm. After that finishes upgrade to Sky Fibre pro.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Move to Sky fibre 40/10 to avoid the £50 install and it's only £10 pm. After that finishes upgrade to Sky Fibre pro.

But no static IP, 18m contract, difficulty setting up my own router, and half my speed for 6 months...

I did consider that though

Perhaps a typo on your part but Zen is actually £52.06. This gives you anytime unlimited calls with no 60 minute hassle. Compared to Sky ,gives better value for that extra £2. While you do have to supply a router, I regard that as an advantage.

Sky does have merits but being technically obliged to use their router and no opportunity to have a fixed IP is unfortunate but maybe not a show stopper. The myriad of prices and "bundles" makes it difficult to compare prices with other ISPs. Not sure how you concluded that the price would be £50.07.

TalkTalk Business with anytime calls, not only to UK landlines but also UK mobiles and a fixed IP, is £40 but I think you need to add VAT on top; even so is good value for money. I can confirm from bitter experience that the administration and support is absolutely dire but unlike BTs support, they do speak English and actually sort issues out if you are prepared to 'do time' on the phone. Examples of administration failures is failure to supply what you actually ordered.

Be clear in your mind of possible issues of switching to another ISP at the end of your contract to see if any exit fees are payable, or unexpected costs, and whether you can move over your phone number.

What your research does show is that line rental and FTTC 80/20 comes in around the £50 mark once all the introductory offers and/or installation fees are out of the way.

There is a static ip address on Sky Fibre Pro.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

There is a static ip address on Sky Fibre Pro.

Glad to see you were awake! An unfortunate error on my part. Sorry.

I had major issues with TalkTalk support. If you ever are in need of support it takes a while to get past the script monkeys before you get to someone who knows what they are talking about. I wouldn't touch TalkTalk again if they offered it to me for free for life.

I am with PlusNet and they have been the best ISP I've used since the early days of PIPEX (before they got ruined by all the take overs).
As for Plusnet traffic prioritization knocking a bit of maximum speed? Never ever noticed it. (But then I did go from a 2meg ADSL to a 70+meg FTTC/VDSL connection).
I do have a fixed IP using their one off payment.
I did use their pro-package (£5 a month extra) but recently switched that off and I've seen no noticeable drop off in performance.
I'm doing a lot of IPTV streaming at the moment for 'work' (really !!), and that has pushed my monthly average up to around 200-250GB of traffic with a peak last month of over 450GB and not a peep from PlusNet about usage. Truly unlimited.

PlusNet support is far superior IMHO but I am aware of increased delays in getting through to them if what I read online is to be believed. I had a BT line fault a couple of months back and was resigned to sitting on a call for 40mins only for support to answer within 5 rings. 1 call, engineer booked, offline for 5 days due to BT, not Plusnet but they kept me informed daily, and got back to me post fix several times to confirm line was performing ok. Even if you do have to wait to get to speak to them, they are UK based and it doesn't take as long to get to someone who knows what they are talking about.

I just can't justify paying a Zen / AAISP type of rates, when I get the performance I do from PlusNet.
All the time BT management stay away from PlusNet and let them run things they way they are doing right now, I will stay with PlusNet. The instant BT interfere, I'm off.. BT are 2nd behind TalkTalk of my providers to avoid.

Sky aren't even on my radar...

I have been with talk talk for a number of years did have a problem when on 20 meg connection but since having fibre 80/20 have only had one day of problem which was sorted within 4 hours I have according to a sam knows device an average speed of 72meg download and 18.7 upload if you have problems use their online forum or phone it is up to you as I said I don't seemto get any now. with the full fibre you get a tv box with free sky one on it and a couple of other sky channels which are not affected by poor signal as they are web based..

In reply to a post by shinerweb:

I just can't justify paying a Zen / AAISP type of rates, when I get the performance I do from PlusNet.

Just out of interest, what do you actually pay? What does that include?

On all of them I've factored in migration/connection charges, router delivery where applicable etc.

I agree that Zen is better than Sky, I can use my R6300 as I am now, and unlimited calls without 60m limits.

Overall I'm still leaning towards Talktalk, which is something I never thought I'd say but based on price they seem to have it.

Indeed. The cheapest is always the best choice.

That's why the government (of whatever flavour) keep losing tens/hundreds of millions of our quids on projects that fail, or run years late and more tens/hundreds over budget.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 25-Aug-14 21:54:53)

I'd recommend Sky any time. It's GEA-FTTC which uses the same high capacity backhaul used for their LLU network. So none of those slow downs and outages you might get with a BT Wholesale FTTC service.

Taking TV and phone with Sky Fibre as well opens up further discounts... I'm actually paying £20pm for Fibre Pro and that is for the full contract length and TV is reduced from £32 to £16pm.

However at the end of my contract I'll be looking for something cheaper and will probably ditch Sky TV as I'm not really making good use of it.

In reply to a post by 5km:

So none of those slow downs and outages you might get with a BT Wholesale FTTC service.

?
Does BT Wholesale frequently cause slowdowns and outages?

I think so but can't (be bothered to) back that statement up with any real fact... lol.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/zen/t/4352403-re-wo...

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Indeed. The cheapest is always the best choice.

That's why the government (of whatever flavour) keep losing tens/hundreds of millions of our quids on projects that fail, or run years late and more tens/hundreds over budget.

Linked statements that don't qualify for stating "always". The race to the lowest price frequently brings forth cr*p hardware, software and/or service that cost a fortune to put right. A simple example: I have never had a decent install from Kelly's but always a quality job from BT.

Have you considered EE home broadband with landline phone? Best move I made when I switched from BT to EE for home phone, you are still with BT but pay EE prices.

https://broadband.ee.co.uk/home.do

https://broadband.ee.co.uk/macCode

https://broadband.ee.co.uk/switchbroadband

In reply to a post by 5km:

I'd recommend Sky any time. It's GEA-FTTC which uses the same high capacity backhaul used for their LLU network. So none of those slow downs and outages you might get with a BT Wholesale FTTC service.

Taking TV and phone with Sky Fibre as well opens up further discounts... I'm actually paying £20pm for Fibre Pro and that is for the full contract length and TV is reduced from £32 to £16pm.

However at the end of my contract I'll be looking for something cheaper and will probably ditch Sky TV as I'm not really making good use of it.

While I'm hating BT, I can max out my 79987 sync any time day or night, I don't get congestion issues. Maybe I'm lucky with my area, but that's one thing I can't knock them for.

I did phone sky but they won't do anything for me on price, possibly because I'm already on 1/2 price TV for 12 months. I won't be paying full price for it when that ends in 8 months.

Sky look good except for the idiotic router restrictions, and the stupid price for Fibre Pro over Fibre.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Indeed. The cheapest is always the best choice.

That's why the government (of whatever flavour) keep losing tens/hundreds of millions of our quids on projects that fail, or run years late and more tens/hundreds over budget.

I detect a hint of sarcasm here

If someone can give me a reason to spend more I will, I'd be willing to go to Zen (probably prefer them to Sky due to the 60m limit on calls and no router restrictions), but there is no point in spending money without purpose.

Talktalk may have [censored] support, but I can deal with that by arguing with them, taking them to an ombudsman, etc, if I have to. The reality is that I have a stable max sync line with 60 days of sync uptime, so I don't plan on needing to call them.

The quality of the backhaul, the ping times, etc, are more interesting to me.

The fact that AAISP use Talktalk wholesale extensively makes me feel positive about their backhaul, but is it the same for retail customers?

Unless I'm likely to experience congestion, I'd rather go with them than Plus.net as they are BT owned.

Zen I feel are giving good value but probably suffer from being more of a "techie" isp meaning the users like myself go there, it's more expensive (per user) to run a network for 1,000,000 100-300GB a month users than it is to run one for 15,000,000 users, half of them old grannies that check email once a month. This likely makes their costs higher and therefore I wouldn't be surprised if their margins are lower despite their higher price.

Not what I'd call sarcasm, but I can see what you mean .

It was more an allegory, just to remind you that the cheapest can be a disaster even if it is more often good value.

Zen.

You can actually get £131.25 from Topcashback if you take out the Unlimited Fibre Extra Broadband and Homephone from plusnet at the moment.

Lol I love how the exclusives deals switch between the cashback companies. Top cashback were offering about £100 then down to £35. Quidco then offer £100 and when that ends top cashback goes back up

Im a little annoyed about it as got the adsl broadband deal for £1.49 from plusnet with £50 cashback from quidco last week but had i waited till this week I woud have got £84 from topcashback. As you say they seem to rotate the cashback deals between each other.

Thankfully the difference between my quidco cashback and the potential topcashback offer is only £1

In reply to a post by nemeth782:

The fact that AAISP use Talktalk wholesale extensively makes me feel positive about their backhaul, but is it the same for retail customers?

Absolutely! Been with TalkTalk for nearly 4 years now and been very happy with the speeds. Was lucky enough to be given a static ip on their ADSL2+ offering in 2010, but was told to bog-off when asked for the same on 80/20 FTTC. Moved to TT Business a few months ago to get a static ip and been very happy. You pay slightly more with TTB but you get top class UK based phone support almost on a par with AAISP but certainly as good as the likes of Zen, IDNET etc but without the eye watering prices

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

Just out of interest, what do you actually pay? What does that include?

I'm on the "Talk Anytime" call plan which costs £4.50/month
Plusnet Unlimited Fibre - Market 2/3 charge - £19.99

So for that basic package: £24.49

I then have Caller Display @ £0.99

Last month I made 3hrs 25mins of calls to UK Landlines (£0.00) and my kids made 11mins of calls to mobiles via the landline instead of using their mobiles which added an extra £1.88

I paid the line rental upfront using the Line Rental Saver which as of Nov 2013 cost me £137.88 at £11.49 a month. (I've just checked today and I can actually renew for the next period at that same price of £11.49 which I might do in order to beat any potential price rises given BT have just increased theirs to £16.xx).

So including line rental, I pay a minimum of £36.97 / month.

I'd recommend sky been on the pro fibre package for 15 months

£50 a month is a bit steep though.

I can echo baby_frogmella's TalkTalk experience.

I was very nervous about switching to TalkTalk due to all the bad press.

However, the speeds have actually increased on our line and the connection is wonderfully stable. No issues with support either from the TalkTalk Community online.

If you get into bother, email Dido Harding, she'll sort out any of your problems

Sky Fibre Pro 80/20 with Static IP myself but only thing thats bad about it is there CDN as is up and down! Other then that is an ok ISP, If you wont "The Best" you would have to pay bit more and don't go with major/oversubscribed ISPs like TalkTalk/Sky/Virgin etc look into AAISP/Zen/Xilo but saying all that is what kinda area we all live in, Some areas are fine some are quite bad.

Edited by francisuk25 (Sat 06-Sep-14 16:05:25)

In reply to a post by Zadeks:

Zen.

nope useless company. ok when bt are behaving. [censored] useles when they actually need to do some work.

Edited by deleted (Mon 22-Sep-14 18:39:55)

Incredibly helpful post, bro.

In reply to a post by Zadeks:

Incredibly helpful post, bro.

want voice recordings , want online beatings of garner? and i do have them.
what do i need to give you?

helpful. im way past helpful,

maybe i should post the video of zebedee boinging up and down in the rugby club car park?

Edited by deleted (Mon 22-Sep-14 18:48:36)

Edited by deleted (Mon 22-Sep-14 19:13:12)

I see you've edited your previous post. A little better than "nope useless company" but still pretty vague.

You are aware of the site rules on commercial solicitation?