Church broadband & telephone

As we now have someone willing & able to do administration work, we're looking to get telephone & broadband installed in our church office. As it's Church of England the church has charitable status (if that's relevant).

The phone was discontinued about 4-5 years ago, as far as I know there's never been broadband in the office. There is a telephone socket behind one of the desks. Probably and old style unit.

The usage will probably be fairly light. Apart from updates and similar, I doubt there'll be more than 5GB / month downloaded. A speed of 2-3Mbps or more should be fine.

The telephone usage will also be fairly light.

Clearly a combined package is likely to offer the best value, as long as any future migration elsewhere is not compromised.

Any thought/suggestions on a suitable provider?

If you arent going to be using your connection for much, why not someone like Talk Talk? I know they dont have the best reputation but for a light user they should be fine and cheap

What does the BTW Address option checker give for it, or perhaps houses next door to it?

Similarly what does samknows have to say? Easiest to give the result URL or just the exchange code.

The telephone for the vicarage, in the church grounds, isn't BT (I think it's TalkTalk) so BT's checker doesn't give information. Putting the church address (same as the Vicarage) in to the BT Broadband Availability Checker gives...

Address xxxxxxxxxxxxx on Exchange GATLEY is served by Cabinet 35

Featured Products       Downstream Line	Upstream Line	Downstream	Availability
			 Rate(Mbps)	 Rate(Mbps)	 Range(Mbps)
                        High 	Low 	High 	Low 	
FTTC Range A (Clean)    80 	76.9 	20 	20 	-- 		Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 80 	61.9 	20 	12.2 	-- 		Available
 
WBC ADSL 2+ 		Up to 8 	-- 		5.5 to 12.5	Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M 	Up to 8 	Up to 1 	5.5 to 12.5 	Available
ADSL Max 		Up to 5.5 	-- 		4.5 to 8	Available
WBC Fixed Rate 		2 		-- 		-- 		Available
Fixed Rate		2 		-- 		-- 		Available
Other Offerings
Fibre Multicast		-- 		-- 		-- 		Available
Copper Multicast 	-- 		--		-- 		Available

The fibre cabinet is just across the road, hence the good figures, but that sort of speed really isn't needed.

The Samknows URL is https://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/MRGAT

Must admit I was thinking along the lines of TalkTalk or Plusnet. Looking at TBB's ISP data suggests first year costs of £30 Plusnet, £60 for TalkTalk. Plus of course line rental. Though weekday call costs are not included in either case.

From that, at least we know ADSl2+ will more than cope .

I would in the past have unhesitatingly recommended Plusnet. Given the chaos at Plusnet at the moment, clearly driven from the top, I can no longer do that.

I am so dismayed by what is going on I am highly likely to leave them, increasing my costs by so doing, despite the fact my broadband itself is currently satisfactory. In particular, I think that if I had a serious broadband problem it would be pot luck whether I got the previously normal excellent help or a useless fob-off. That's assuming I could contact them in the first place.

Having said that, yesterday late afternoon I had a perfect Live Chat experience regarding a billing problem, apart from the initial 9-minute wait.

That's assuming I could contact them in the first place.

I've phoned PN CS a few times over the last 12 days, the afternoons are bad, once connected after 35 minutes a few other times I've ended the calls after 40+ minutes.
Got through on a Sunday after 10 minutes at around 6.00pm so there is room for improvement, will it happen even with the forthcoming changes who knows, I doubt it.

Used "Chat" last month no problems making contact, the issue was resolved after much typing with a refund after the incorrect monthly direct debit had to go through first due to the way their systems work ....... or doesn't.

Can't see the ADSL1 BB service getting worse for me but I too will move on if it does.