Contact with BT ends in 6 days.

My BT contract for broadband & landline ends on 21 Sep 2022 & mobile (sim card) on 21/02/23. If I switch to another supplier sim card doubles in price to £10 plus CPI. Total current cost per month for landline, broadband ( 36MB), & SIM card is ~ £50 per month.

I want to keep the land line and I am happy with a speed of 36MB. I'll also need to look for a new sim card provider.

I don't watch TV or do any streaming of TV programs

Firstly, I'd like a reliable ISP who looks after my data (unlike TalkTalk)

Secondly, I'd like a fixed price contract not linked to CPI.

I've been with BT landline for decades, but have had several broadband suppliers (Compuserve, Talktalk)

I think it is time to look for a new provider.

Is it a good idea to use uswitch?

Many thanks

Edited by Tantalus (Thu 15-Sep-22 03:23:32)

Use uSwitch (and similar) by all means but be very aware that none of them is a whole market comparison site. Those providers that are listed on there are paying to be there either by direct upfront payment or by a cashback-type arrangement.

Eyes wide open.

Plusnet offer broadband, landline and mobile.

I have a Virgin mobile sim card as there is no Plusnet EE mobile signal where I often am. There is a weak Vodafone signal.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

I have a Virgin mobile sim card

Whom use O2 now as they exited the Vodafone deal after the merger.

Re mobile SIM, gf uses Lebara at £5/m, this gives enough data and calls to suit her plus enough international call minutes to ring the rellies in Oz every month, it uses Vodafone network, and although she should get wifi calling it doesn't work, but that's Vodafone for you.
I use 1p mobile at £10/m purely to get the rock solid EE wifi calling.

Seconded for Lebara, if your data usage requirements are moderate - we now all use it in our household. There are some links on MSE which give you slightly better blagged deals.

Broadband deals without the CPI+ mid-contract price rises are getting harder to come by, and they aren't the cheap ones. It will probably be cheaper overall just accepting the rise and factoring it into the total cost.

I'd suggest Plusnet 40/10 FTTC: £23.99 per month (line rental included), 18 month contract, no activation fee. Even if inflation is 13% and it rises to £28 after 6 months, plus another £5-£6 for Lebara SIM, that's still much less than you're paying today.

I'm sure Plusnet were selling that at £22.99 a week or two ago, and with £70 cashback thrown in, so it's a shame you missed that. Prices do fluctuate and it's worth checking out for Black Friday type deals. However, since you've only 6 days left, it's a bit late for that now - paying one or two months at out-of-contract rates will likely wipe out any savings.

There are also 1-month contracts available from the likes of Pulse8 and Cuckoo I believe.

I live in London. Plusnet & all the other providers I've looked at do not support land line and would require me to stay with my existing provider (BT). Even the offers provided by BT excluded landline.

If I stay with BT now my contract has ended, costs will rocket.

Presumably, if I accepted one of these non-land line offers, I would be able to retain our existing phone number and our landline phone would plug into the back of the router.

We are both in our 70's and I don't like the idea of not being able to call out if there is a power cut and our mobile phones are out of action.

Yikes, I have 3 days left. What on earth should I do?

I see you opened a separate thread for your questions specifically about voice, and it seems you're not being allowed to renew on FTTC and are required to move to FTTP:
https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/which_isp/t/472167...

Let's take the discussion over there.

Edited by candlerb (Sun 18-Sep-22 10:00:28)

Buy a UPS.