Time to change again

BT Infinity deal coming to an end and its time to jump before price goes up.

Previously with Uno on ADSL and looking at their FTTC prices, they are nudging AAISP prices although unlimited.

Toying with going quality isp again like Uno, IDNet, Pulse8 but also considering budget.
I get good speeds with BT so wondered if Plusnet would be the same given they are the same company under the hood these days?

So my options atm are:
Quality ISP with
Uno £50+
IDNet just short of £50
Pulse8 Just short of £40

or
Plusnet £23 (with cashback)

Not interested in anything that is over 12 month contract; ideally 1 month.

So my question is, other than being able to get through to support and it being someone who knows what they are doing, what are the other benefits of going quality? Are they worth a minimum of £17 extra per month?
I appreciate plusnet is a gamble and they are not the company I left (just after force9 days) but the price difference is compelling. Shame its not short contract.

At one point even considered the possibility of another line and having a cheap adsl deal with a lower usage AAISP package on fibre - lol

EDIT: [censored] hell, looking at https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Order/bd-p/MyOrders it seems its more than a risk. Its asking for trouble :-/ Anyone had a good experience migrating to Plusnet?

Edited by deleted (Wed 16-May-18 21:21:28)

Ask BT cancellations dept if they will match the Plusnet price.

That is a possibility but suspect it would tie me in to their new minimum length of 18 months

If I was in your shoes I'd go with AAISP.

NJSS

Do you use the line for either incoming or outgoing phone calls? If so, how much? Bear in mind that most �Anytime� call packages are a complete ripoff these days for most people that take them.

Re AAISP, their Home::1 package on the allowance options is now monthly contract and 50% of unused allowance rolls over, cumulatively. On 80/20 Home::1 200GB I pay £35pm for the broadband component and because I don�t use it all now I start each month at over 370GB.

Line only with AA is £10pm. I have line rental with Pulse8broadband at £14pm including caller display and call charges are peanuts. Importantly, per second billing and no call setup charges. Most other cheapo line rentals when you don�t take a calls package have huge call setup costs.

Further to �Anytime� packages, for one costing £8pm like Plusnet�s, that would get me over 800 minutes. With per-second billing and a lower price at off-peak, that�s a lot of calls.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 17-May-18 10:19:22)

Thanks RobertoS,
Did consider AAISP and the roll over certainly makes it more appealing, however, we do stream nearly all our tv viewing over netflix, iplayer etc and a son who is always playing his xbox online. Checked router last night for usage stats and burned 200Gb so far in may, so unlikely to get any rollover. Just a shame they don't do 500Gb
£60 a month for a tb is just a bit too far to stretch I think.

As for phone calls, its always incoming - mainly mother-in-law! Really don't use it at all these days, but agree that inclusive packages really are a waste. I did consider as you say, P8 rental and FTTC elsewhere, but when I stop and think about it, the extra £4 to use p8 isn't worth it considering we really never make out going calls on it.

After some more digging around last night, I'm about 80% settled on giving IDNet a try as there are no set up charges coming from Infinity1 and monthly contract. Absolutely no risk. They offer the BT 55/10 speeds and allow you to chop and change packages on a whim.
Pulse8 FTTC, despite being cheaper per month would cost circa £50 up front and move me to TTB so going to IDNet afterwards would cost a further £75 to move back to BTW.
Could always return to BT after a couple of months as a 'new' customer with all the cashback and pre paid cards etc (except they break my rule of 18 month contracts now!)

IDNet also include phone line features like caller id so I can see its the mother-in-law calling even though I already know its the mother-in-law! They are per minute though.

Make sure you are looking at the Vat inclusive prices on IDNet when in the ordering pages. I looked at them for someone else earlier today, and they were defaulting to Vat-exclusive. Though the main product/price page was inclusive.

I saw a small toggle-switch at the bottom of the blue panel on the right during the ordering process.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 17-May-18 16:16:35)

Yeah, already noticed that having been a Uno customer before. Slightly cheeky way of getting headline price down huh

In reply to a post by MrMoo:

Yeah, already noticed that having been a Uno customer before. Slightly cheeky way of getting headline price down huh

you mean the pretty big toggle switch that says in big print:-"business(ex vat)" and "home(inc vat)" ??
I find it more of an issue that they don't include aa and zen in comparison charts they show

Edited by steve195527 (Thu 17-May-18 22:42:29)

Hmm, hadn't noticed the blue button on the first screen which to be fair, isn't brilliant ux, but on the prices screen its a small hyperlink at the bottom. Why always default to no vat? perhaps display price with and without rather than toggling? Clearer to everyone then.

Understand your point about comparisons being selective, but can only guess they are targeting customers from the mainstream isps. If i were Idnet, i wouldn't be worried about AAISP as I think the caps and cost would put a lot of people off anyway. Zen is possibly more of a competitor on price, but there is the 12 month contract and £50 set up fee too.
Lets be honest, 99% of people that happen to be looking at IDNet are likely to be aware of AAISP, Zen Uno etc.

Anytime calls package does work for us but I appreciate we're in the minority. Anyone making comparisons shouldn't forget the iniquitous call setup charges which may apply to certain out-of-package calls. Also agree that some utility companies are rather fuzzy when quoting VAT and ex-VAT figures, though I'm sure they don't intend to mislead. Much.

That's the beauty of Pulse8 lines. No call setup charges. The ones I see from others are 20p or more.

Yes, the likes of BT call setup charges are beyond the joke. IDNet charge 8p setup and 1p per minute, but still a no-brainer for those of us that make very few calls, as the line is about a fiver cheaper than what we pay at Pulse8.

Bundled with your broadband . Similarly on Pulse8, line rental when bundled with broadband is £6 .

Yes and LLU

I use call over ride service from 18185 to avoid high BT call charges. There is a 5p set up charge but at under 2p per minute its cheaper than BT rip off call charges.
http://www.18185.co.uk/index2.php

I gave up call override services years ago as they are too expensive now. I have 1p per minute calls from Skype out, Sipgate, which gives me another free local number and https://www.1pmobile.com/ so worry little about landline call cost.