Pulse8 for rural market 1 exchange? ADSL option differences?

I want to leave Plusnet and I'm considering Pulse8 as potential alternative to Sky, the 1 month contract is appealing and useful as it might be easier to get fibre once it becomes available again. Pulse8 offer the following IPstream broadband options for my phoneline, which is on a poor line connected to a market 1 exchange:

8Home : £28 + line rental
8MB : £30 + line rental
8MB+ : £36 + line rental

There isn't any obvious difference, except perhaps business users won't be accepted for the home option. With Plusnet our profile is now 2mb, for a time I had the modem tweaked to get 3mb-3.5mb but something changed and now I can't improve it, but that's another story...

So there is no advantage here with the more expensive monthly options? I should get the same performance and service as a home user, regardless of the Pulse8 package?

N.B as a household our monthly usage for the last few months has been 100GB - 300GB, but this high figure is extremely heavily skewed upwards due to downloading an entire video games library from scratch. From here on we'll probably be below 100GB per month.

Telephone calls are 7-8 hrs per month, mostly daytime.

Feel free to suggest other providers, but I don't want to be locked into a long ADSL contract. I'd like to have the option of those attractive 'new customer' deals that are available as and when I can finally order FTTC.

Thanks

EDIT: spoke with Pulse8 so I can update with a little more info - The IPstream products listed above are priced ex. line rental. Pulse8 definitely will not offer fibre on my exchange unless it goes LLU and Talk Talk Business is available.

Edited by deleted (Wed 29-Jul-15 13:49:47)

On a market 1 (A) exchange I have experienced slow single thread downloads and speedtests with the post office, ee and even zen; I would not veer far away from BT or plusnet.

I am currently with plusnet.

You could try pulse8 (no long contract).

I think (it is not clear on the website ) you have to add line rental to your quoted prices.

https://pulse8broadband.co.uk/docs/Pulse8-Broadband-...

Ahh a discounted line rental of £8

Ian

If TalkTalk LLU is on the exchange might be worth a try, but otherwise sticking to the larger IPStream capable providers would be safest bet.

If you are on Sky and not on their LLU then 100 to 300 GB is pretty impressive for the old Connect product.

As has been pointed out, the exchange is important. Which is it please?

The Market 1 in samknows and applied by Plusnet isn't always relevant.

Edit: Is there a page showing those packages, as I can't find them? I assume they come up because of your phone number.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 29-Jul-15 09:58:02)

What exchange are you on? Is ADSL2+ or LLU available? - If so, there is possibly more speed and lower price available than the 8mb service. If not, Sky connect could be a bad move. 7 -8 hours of daytime calls with Pulse8 still cheaper than an anytime call package, up to £17:99 line rental and contract tie-in with some others.

Edited by professor973 (Wed 29-Jul-15 12:04:06)

In reply to a post by professor973:

What exchange are you on? Is ADSL2+ or LLU available? - If so, there is possibly more speed and lower price available than the 8mb service.

ADSL2+ doesn't make prices any cheaper, will just mean BT have upgraded equipment at the exchange... also ADSL2+ on a line getting 3mb won't get much more and actually would be worse for performance.

Any particular reason you want to leave Plusnet?

I know Plusnet aren't exactly in the good books with myself and most others here currently, but as suggested BT/Plusnet will be your best option, if you where loking for alternative without contract then I would suggested Zen, though there might be some issues with that also.

Knowing the exchange your connected to would be great, though if Pulse8's checker only gave you the options you listed then I very much doubt there is any TalkTalk LLU presence at your exchange.

If moving from Plusnet is important then BT would maybe be the best alternative, but will require contract!

or just stick with Plusnet without a contract and see how it goes

See his thread in the Plusnet forum for his reason.

As you say, there probably isn't TT LLU in his exchange, but we want to check and also see what alternatives there are.

ADSL2+ isn't necessarily dependent on BT Wholesale and any decent modem should be able to be forced to ADSL2 and ADSL. ADSL2 is often the best of the three on long lines.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

ADSL2+ isn't necessarily dependent on BT Wholesale and any decent modem should be able to be forced to ADSL2 and ADSL. ADSL2 is often the best of the three on long lines.

Yeah I'm aware of that, was pointing out that ADSL2+ has no affect on pricing and as you said ADSL1&2 are most recommended on long lines...

ADSL2+ has a huge effect on pricing in some non-WBC exchanges.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 29-Jul-15 12:45:31)