TalkTalk Business or Pulse8?

Down to a final short list of 2.

On the one hand Pulse8 offer maximum flexibility with their one month contract. TTB on the other hand tie you into a 24 month contract, but look as though they are going to come out about £6 a month cheaper over the first two years once the cost of our fairly minimal calls are taken into account.

In terms of tech support, I suspect Pulse8 maybe marginally better, but then they are only open 9x5, whereas TTB are open 12x7.

It just feels like a straight forward cost vs flexibility decision, but would welcome anyone who has direct experience of either ISP (or ideally both, although I suspect that is a bit of a long shot!!)

TTB here - I can't recommend them enough. The cost of your calls won't be an issue If you get the complete package. Also there is 2 premises moves within that contract so if you do more around it can soon pay off.

I can only speak of TTB tech support which so far has been very good.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/talktalkbusiness.co.uk

There is one for pulse8 too I am sure.

I can't remember if this has been mentioned, but aren't the TTB prices excluding Vat, which needs adding? Or have you already worked that out?

In reply to a post by 23Prince:

TTB here - I can't recommend them enough. The cost of your calls won't be an issue If you get the complete package. Also there is 2 premises moves within that contract so if you do more around it can soon pay off.

I can only speak of TTB tech support which so far has been very good.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/talktalkbusiness.co.uk

There is one for pulse8 too I am sure.

Thanks for that 23Prince.

The Pulse 8 equivalent is very dated and only features comments on their web services. Searching Pulse8 on this site gives a much better feel for their service offering.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I can't remember if this has been mentioned, but aren't the TTB prices excluding Vat, which needs adding? Or have you already worked that out?

I'd already worked that out, although I made a mistake cut and pasting in my spreadsheet. Once I had my mistake, the £6 a month costs saving from TTB have all but disappeared.

So now it comes down to the fact that TTB Complete package includes landline and mobile cals and provides things like caller display, but at the cost of a 24 month contract compared to the 1 month contract at Pulse8.

A bit more certainty against a significantly less flexibility. The ball appears to be swinging back in Pulse8's direction at the moment, despite 23Prince's endorsement for TTB.

The Pulse8 landline is very basic but very cheap. No call plans. All I've added is the £1pm for caller display. The rental component when bundled with broadband is of course quoted as lower.

Do you ever make calls outside call plans? P8 could be miles cheaper there, as there are no setup charges. I don't know about TTB's, but BT and Plusnet setup for out of plan are horrendous. IIRC now looking at 8 or 9p per such call.

In reply to a post by jaydub:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I can't remember if this has been mentioned, but aren't the TTB prices excluding Vat, which needs adding? Or have you already worked that out?

I'd already worked that out, although I made a mistake cut and pasting in my spreadsheet. Once I had my mistake, the £6 a month costs saving from TTB have all but disappeared.

So now it comes down to the fact that TTB Complete package includes landline and mobile cals and provides things like caller display, but at the cost of a 24 month contract compared to the 1 month contract at Pulse8.

A bit more certainty against a significantly less flexibility. The ball appears to be swinging back in Pulse8's direction at the moment, despite 23Prince's endorsement for TTB.

Well, That'a fair enough. Best thing is to maybe try Pulse8 and if it does not work out for you then try TTB instead? take advantage of the 30 day contract in the first instance if you need to.

There is a hefty setup charge for Pulse8 FTTC. £75. Precisely for that idea.

It used to be free but too many people took advantage of that to get onto FTTC then migrated away pay after a month to where they wanted to be without having to pay installation there.

I'm with TTB and would highly recommend them:

1) If you go for their 'complete' plan it includes unlimited calls to UK landlines & mobiles, however you can also use this plan on your ios/android smartphone (talk2go app) on up to 5 smartphones so you could save some serious cash on your household (or friend/relative) mobiles by downgrading the minutes purchased and possibly increasing the data allowances though talk2go calls don't use much 3G/4G data when out & about.

2) The 'complete' plan includes up to 4 static ip address free of charge. AFAIK pulse8 charge a few quid each month for 1 static ip address. Landline Voice mail, caller ID, 3 way conference calling etc all come as free of charge on TTB.

3) TTB allow you to pay your monthly bill by credit card online so you can use a CC which offers you loyalty points/rewards/cashback. Obviously this overides the DD you have setup and no DD will be taken provided you make your CC payment at least a few days before DD due date.

4) Yes the 24 month contract on TTB makes you wanna puke on the sofa & throw the cat out of the window. However you're allowed 2 free house moves in that period and more importantly, TTB will let you leave penalty free if they cannot fix any fault within 28 days, even if the fault is down to Openreach. Something to do with a Ofcom Business Broadband ruling which TTB have signed up to.

5) While I wouldn't put their customer support at the same level as AAISP, they are still very, very good and operate 7 days a week from 8am to 8pm. Many of their support staff used to work for a well known Rochdale based ISP so aren't your typical script readers. I guess Mr Tang wasn't paying them well enough

Edited by deleted (Sun 16-Oct-16 06:45:44)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The Pulse8 landline is very basic but very cheap. No call plans. All I've added is the £1pm for caller display. The rental component when bundled with broadband is of course quoted as lower.

Do you ever make calls outside call plans? P8 could be miles cheaper there, as there are no setup charges. I don't know about TTB's, but BT and Plusnet setup for out of plan are horrendous. IIRC now looking at 8 or 9p per such call.

On P8 Fibre the landline cost is included in the package cost, so it doesn't make any sense not to move the landline over.

We don't make a lot of landline calls, but roughly half of them are non-weekend calls. Our calls for the last year with BT cost £31.04. Running the same call durations through P8, the cost comes out at £7.44. the difference isn't going to make me rich, but it does show what how the major providers rip us off.