Leaving BT but who to go to?

I am finally able to leave BT after a few issues with their Trails service. Suffice to say it's time to try someone else.

Quite like the idea of using a 3rd party router as sometimes the ISP one's can be naff.

Ona decent line, can get near 80/20 on FTTC.

Narrowed down to a few choices:
PlusNet (parents are with them, they haven't had any issues and the CS seem to be fairly good)
Pulse8Broadband - Small provider seem fairly good value for money. Also very fast/knowledgeable when I contacted them.
UNO - Same as above regarding service.
IDNet - Small provider, bit more expensive but seem good quality
All seem to offer 1 or 12 Month contracts as well.

Other options: Vodafone - Against a 24m Contract but tempted by Apple TV+ on them plus free Apple TV box.

Does anyone have any recommendations, or advice to stay away from any of the above providers?

Thanks in advance.

In reply to a post by CJT:

Other options: Vodafone - Against a 24m Contract but tempted by Apple TV+ on them plus free Apple TV box.

Does anyone have any recommendations, or advice to stay away from any of the above providers?

I'd say stay away from Vodafone on FTTC. their tech support is really shocking should you ever need it. If it was FTTP (GigaFast) you were considering with them, I'd say go for it, as their separate tech support team are brilliant. But FTTC, no.

In reply to a post by flilot:

I'd say stay away from Vodafone on FTTC. their tech support is really shocking should you ever need it. If it was FTTP (GigaFast) you were considering with them, I'd say go for it, as their separate tech support team are brilliant. But FTTC, no.

Hi filot

Thank you, I shall take that on board

Do you have your own router or modem? Some ISP's will chuck one in free of charge, others will charge. Mainly the smaller ISP's will charge.

EE and Plusnet are forks of BT. You don't get IPV6, they run their own networks and have their own support but they are BT sister companies.

I'm on EE now and they are great, get line speed all the time. I have been on Plusnet and they were the same. Both give you a modem/router. EE use a rebranded BT Business Smart Hub. The Plusnet Hub I believe is an old BT HomeHub 5. The EE one providing better wifi.

Uno I have been with on ADSL, solid connection and excellent support. I'll be looking at moving back to them at the end of my EE contract - if they can provide a bundled phone and broadband service.

Zen are an ISP I keep hearing great things about. Manchester based support, run their own backhaul like TalkTalk and Sky.

Edited by wolvesmad (Fri 02-Oct-20 09:28:34)

Do you have your own router or modem? Some ISP's will chuck one in free of charge, others will charge. Mainly the smaller ISP's will charge.

I intend to purchase one as I am fed up of the ISP supplied ones, which is why some of the niche ISP's interest me.

Uno I have been with on ADSL, solid connection and excellent support. I'll be looking at moving back to them at the end of my EE contract - if they can provide a bundled phone and broadband service.

UNO was the first company I e-mailed when I reaslised the deal I was on, had come to an end. They replied very quickly (in fact I am sure Matt on here replied) and they were VERY informative over my current situation.

Until 7/10 I cannot use the online checker with my number to check any of their options, but I will look.

Thanks for the info

I’ve has Zen FTTC for a couple of years now. They provide a Fritz! Router although I use me own Draytek hardware. Tech Support is first rate and apart from a bad patch over the summer where their supplier ran into capacity issues in both the London & Manchester hubs - now all resolved - their service has been flawless.

My 80/20 service usually gives 73Mbps/18Mbps day or night with latency around 7ms. I’m 300m from the PCP.

They also guarantee the price you pay won’t increase. I don’t use their phone side, although line rental is through them, as it’s a spare line. I believe on my exchange, the backhaul used is TalkTalk Business. Highly recommend them as an ISP.

The niche ISP's I would look at are Uno, Pulse8, Aquiss, IDNet, AAISP.

I believe Pulse8 is a rolling 30 day contract.

So, you with EE now? I know their router are lots better than PN Hub One. My parents want to leave PN soon and might switch over to TalkTalk or EE. I told them they are better off with EE as they both do have EE mobile.

I always tempted to try EE G.fast 160/30 but I can't be bother and stayed with PN with 80/20 as the monthly cost for Unlimited Fibre Extra only cost me 96p a month for 2 years with LRS (12 months already pay upfront)

Unlimited Fibre Extra £20.99
LRS for line only £0.00
Discount for fibre broadband £20.03 (24 months)
total per month £0.96p

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

The niche ISP's I would look at are Uno, Pulse8, Aquiss, IDNet, AAISP.

I believe Pulse8 is a rolling 30 day contract.

IDNet is also a 30 day contract for FTTC and 30 dat contracts are also available at a slightly increased cost from AAISP and Uno. Aquiss, is a 12 minth contract, but do offer a significant discount for the first three months,

All good choices in my book.

The EE Smarthub is a re-branded BT Business Hub. It allows more customisation like you're own DNS and has a WAN port so you can hook your own modem up. It performs well on wifi. No idea what the DSL side is like as i've only ever used it as a router.

I only used it for a couple of months and then bought an Asus as I wanted to mess about with Merlin.

Would I recommend them as an ISP, yes? Ping times are low, speeds are always max and the price is £27.99 a month. Customer support are very helpful and based in Plymouth.