Uno vs Cloudscape & the usual suspects on Market A

I posted earlier in the fibre forum, really just to understand better what certain ISPs are doing to deliver what they promise. A few people have posted suggestions and alternative deals. I'd already looked at some of them and I probably already have all the info I need now.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions already on the other thread, in case it helps anyone else this is a brief summary of my short list for fibre migration. The original aim was to try and get something for <£40/month if possible without resorting to the bargain basement suppliers and stay as close to £40/month if not.

This is probably all a bit specific to my circumstances and most people would no doubt be able to sign up with BT, Sky or Plusnet without issue and get a good compromise of reliable speed and service vs price per month.

12 month contracts:

Uno - nothing against these guys except unlimited is beyond budget at £52/month inc line & my typical calls. 100GB is £43/month, 200GB £46.50/month. While I could probably go back to scheduling downloads as needed for myself I need to be sure that someone who may rely on internet during the daytime is never restricted (this is a quality of life issue, not a business critical issue.)

Cloudscape - a bit of unknown quantity as they are a small ISP. There are a few positive comments on ISPreview, of course they could be fake but I'm not able to find any rants on any other forum so maybe there is nothing to worry about? The main doubt seems to be whether they might suffer from network congestion at peak times. They can do uncapped fibre for £25/month while BT phone line rental can be with any provider you like. Cloudscape's is £12.50/month which looks OK if you're not making many calls.

18 month contracts:

Vodafone - may be OK for speed/congestion but 18 month contract and customer service has a bad rep. Very inconsistent on whether you can use your own router/modem.
Origin - mixed reputation, but may be using Plusnet on some exchanges (traffic management may be an issue?) Plusnet weren't good for the last 1-2 years we had ADSL with them. Own router/modem is not a problem.
EE- their rep is quite bad, I suspect it may be fine for some people given the price, but if there is a bad line or congestion they aren't going to be much help.

Not considering:

BT - with BT now, out of contract but the retention deals offered aren't good. BT more interested in keeping the monthly high while upgrading us to 76/20, which will be insignificant going from 52Mbps to the low 60s.
Plusnet - was a previous customer, but the deals for market A exchanges are not competitive even though we would now qualify as a new customer.
Sky - cancelled Sky recently, no deals & limited to their router/modem.
SSE - possibly the cheapest, but feedback re restrictive traffic management and service is pretty bad.
Zen - was on the short list, but £46/month seemed a bit too high vs some of the others (would more likely choose Uno 500GB at this price)
Pulse8 - they are now able to do fibre to BTW exchange, however with no TTB on market A exchange the cost is £38 + separate line rental + calls.

Edited by deleted (Thu 20-Oct-16 15:41:53)

Sky fibre currently £10 per month, line rental £17.40
http://www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/fibre-optic/
I use my own modem and router with Sky Fibre Pro.

It's a good deal, but for new customers which we're not. We did the retentions deals dance with Sky before so we now won't look at them again until next year at the earliest.

I thought you are with BT. Are you also with Sky?

We had Sky TV until recently and apparently that excludes us from any kind of good deal or cashback offers. Also, because we had a refurb Sky+ box for £50 some 8 years ago we also can't have any deal on any newer kit. I probably will look at them again in future but only if the price is right.

Line & fibre is with BT currently..

Uno are un-metered between 8:00pm - 8:00am and ALL weekends.
You could also consider Pulse8 - Line and FTTC £44. Calls 1ppm, no connection fee, no contract tie-in and per second billing.

Edited by professor973 (Thu 20-Oct-16 16:50:28)

I covered Pulse8 on the last line of the first post. For home lines it's:

£38 inc. line + calls, if you are on a TalkTalk enabled exchange. For everyone on non-TalkTalk exchanges it's £38 + BT line rental + calls, which if you take Pulse8 line rental will be £51 + calls.

The advert I pointed you at is quite clear who it's available to - "New Sky broadband, talk and line rental customers."

Yep, they've been advertising like that for a long time. When you log in as a current customer and click through to the 'personal' deals it ain't the same. We phoned them about it to see if we could get a better deal by taking combined TV + fibre and it wasn't anywhere near competitive. Since then we bought a couple of Freesat recorders so Sky is off the table for us for the foreseeable.

In reply to a post by Berk:

Yep, they've been advertising like that for a long time. When you log in as a current customer

I didn't think you are a current customer, but whatever.

Why not go with Origin?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I didn't think you are a current customer, but whatever

I agree with you and I don't think the rep I spoke to could've been any more embarrassed or apologetic - especially after he saw old the Sky+ box was and the system still blocked him from offering any kind of HD kit/multiroom deal as an alternative to reducing the overall monthly.

As for Origin, they are a very similar price vs Vodafone. Origin take less up front and monthly increases later. With Vodafone the monthly is the same for the duration, but they're both in my short list now.

Edited by deleted (Thu 20-Oct-16 17:49:10)

Origin broadband are very competitively priced for Market A they charge the same no matter where you are , it would be a resold PlusNet package, so in the main no problems with congestion or capacity.

40/10 mb : £3.59 per month for first six months £13.59 thereafter. + £17.99 line rental , 18 month contract, free setup , free router

80/20mb £10.00 per month for first six months £20.00 thereafter. + £17.99 line rental , 18 month contract, free setup , free router

Both within your budget, have moved a few lines (Market A) to them recently for phone and bb , so far , really good, 24/7 uk support

Edited by deleted (Thu 20-Oct-16 18:02:12)

Useful comparison, thank you!

WRONG - If you take Pulse8 Broadband, then their line rental is only £6 - LESS than wholesale cost!

In reply to a post by professor973:

WRONG - If you take Pulse8 Broadband, then their line rental is only £6 - LESS than wholesale cost!

Sorry, but I confirmed it with Adam (& Sam) at Pulse8. The devil is in the details - the £6 concession rate for the bundle doesn't apply to the fibre, only the ADSL unfortunately.

I just checked, having read the OP's reply. The "info" button text and fibre page has changed. The price hasn't.

In reply to a post by Berk:

The devil is in the details - the £6 concession rate for the bundle doesn't apply to the fibre, only the ADSL unfortunately.

You are/were both right. The fibre packages until quite recently showed including line rental from £6. The bundle prices haven't changed.

IIRC not even "from", as the fibre was only available as far as I know via TT Business. Are you sure they now do BT Wholesale fibre at the same price? I'd be very surprised to do that "unlimited".

I don't see the different packages (BTW/TTB) listed.

In reply to a post by Berk:

Pulse8 - they are now able to do fibre to BTW exchange, however with no TTB on market A exchange the cost is £38 + separate line rental + calls.

I've just reread this.

it is certainly possible to have Sky fibre and I would have thought TalkTalk fibre on some Market A exchanges. Those where the fibre for the exchange is fed from a larger "headend" exchange. In particular, many Market A ones that can get BTW fibre.

Have you actually checked you can't get the TTB Wholesale from Pulse8? Rather than just assumed it because TT haven't LLU'ed it?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Are you sure they now do BT Wholesale fibre at the same price? I'd be very surprised to do that "unlimited"

I'm not sure how you're interpreting it, maybe the previous posts were unclear. In any case, I spoke to Adam last year, this year and have an email chain with this.

This time last year Pulse8 fibre was available only on TTB LLU exchanges. Pulse8 can now do it on BTW only exchanges, but the price is £51 (£38+£13) vs £38 assuming you take the Pulse8 phone. It doesn't have to be Pulse8 line rental, but you must have a BT phone line from someone at whatever cost in addtion to the full £38 for the Pulse8 fibre. One of Adam or Sam said that they have been trying to get a better deal for those us on Market A, but there is nothing is moving on the price any time soon.

It's disappointing, but I remind myself that we are already much better off since we finally got fibre.

Edited by deleted (Thu 20-Oct-16 22:09:56)

Yes, replied to your other comment. Emailed/spoken with Adam/Sam at Pulse8 several times.

N.B. TalkTalk/TalkTalk Business show as not available when I checked.

Edited by deleted (Thu 20-Oct-16 22:07:22)

Would you mind telling us your exchange please, save me searching to see if you already have done?

Just to add my two penneth Bob - As you know, I was one of the early adopters to Pulse8 FTTC around a year ago. The first question I asked before joining was what service they resold. The answer was simple and the one I expected - BTW if your cab enabled, or TTB LLU if your exchange unbundled. As far as I know, most all ISPs have always been able to sell on BTW FTTC where it exists. My only worry about TTB LLU was losing my long held number should I migrate away, but I was persuaded that would not be a problem - As you know, problems usually find my service in one way or another, but glad to be back to a BTW based line.

It does, it's simply always been included in the FTTC price, which possibly puts Pulse8 ahead of the curve with regard to current legislation !

I don't what to tell you then. I can only speculate that Pulse8 choose not to do the £6 line rental with BTW fibre or that it requires a 12 month contract and that would go against Pulse8's philosophy and unique selling point.

Given their good reputation I certainly would consider a 12 month contact with Pulse8 as a means to reduce the higher cost due to lack of LLU, but if they don't offer that option there's nothing to think about.

Suspect that the £6 rental is related to a MPF service some how as that is more expensive than the wholesale cost where compared against WLR, it would be sold at a loss.

Matt

Line rental has always been included in the P8 FTTC price, which equates to the same £6 per month that is detailed in their ADSL2+ service. Also, no contract tie in for their FTTC - Been there and worn the T-shirt.

I had multi-room about 15 years ago and recently received a letter saying "Please come back to multi-room for half price for 6 months ( full price for following 6 months)"

Didn't take them up on the offer.

I just wanted to add something regarding Sky, and that's not to suggest you join them but to point out, if someone in the household, say a partner, takes out a new contract with Sky (having ensured the old contract is cancelled) then "technically" they are a new customer.

It's an awkward way to do things, but it is possible.

Just don't make it obvious to Sky.

Can't comment on Uno, but I've personally been with Cloudscape for the past 4 months.

They have been rock solid for me, I'm on full 80/20 sync and my download speeds are consistantly around 76mbit with 19 up (usually around 40-50 from my bedroom desktop but thats due to wifi distance from modem and not the connection) . Current ping time is around 14ms according to Speedtest (16ms on Think Broadbands speed test).
I haven't noticed any traffic throttling, certainly I've never had any issues streaming HD movies on my TV with Netflix at peak times anyways.

The one guy I did speak to on phone at the beginning seemed very polite and knowledgeable, thats the beauty of the smaller independents, better customer service.

I'm on their £30 per month FTTC (thats price inc VAT) with my line rental still with BT

This is unlimited, it is subject to a fair usage policy but, I really doubt you'll be exceeding that. When I look at my invoice breakdown, on the part which lists (unlimited) next to bandwiddth column it shows 999999MB.
In other words, their ulimited is roughly the equivalent of 1TB a month bandwidth usage, so unless you're constantly watching 4K 60FPS videos 24/7 I think you'll be just fine

Edited by deleted (Mon 07-Nov-16 16:57:57)