FTTP 900/120 suggested short list please?

Hi Guys
Am I missing anybody from my short list? this is my situation.
I went back to BT some time ago as I heard they were upgrading from fttc to fttp, they have been fairly good and I have enjoyed my stay but we are not reaching the end of my current 2 year contract.
the price has went up several times and I am currently paying £110 a month for FTTP, IP calls with 500 mins and 12gig unlimited texts and calls on mobile on Halo 2.
their offer to me was to lose the IP landline all together and they drop to £96 for another 2yrs contract,
What I am thinking is I can move mobile to sim only deal with more data elsewhere for under £10 a month. I am happy to use my Snom voip phone and use another provider.
I really want good quality reliable and fast FTTP sticking with 900/120, with good uk based support.
Hardware: I currently have free smart hub2 and 2 BT disks - I am not a big fan of but will need to purchase new, looking at Fritzbox or Ubiquiti Dream Machine or similar but ££££

I have looked at the following.
AAISP - looks great but possibly just too expensive.
IDNET - looking like the favourate currently.
BT - staying with BT for fibre only and not having to buy hardware.
Zen - worried about some recent complaints on here saying not what they used to be.

Opinions please, and should I be adding anybody else to my list?

Thanks for your time

K

Not sure why your broadband is that expensive? I have the 900Mb package with Halo 3 and it is about £62 per month - I did have mobile with 12GB a month data that added about £10 to that but moved to EE on a black friday deal for a similar price as my contract is up in March. Currently via the BT site I am being offered 900Mb Halo3 for the same price for additional two year or for £1 more I can get Halo3+ with the hybrid data backup with EE and complete wifi.

I don't have any minutes on the landline but you have said even without that it would be £96 - something doesn't seem right with the pricing unless you have other services on BT that you are paying for.

Hi Ian
Thank you so much for taking the time to go through all my saga.
Previously I had Halo 2 900/120 with family mobile pack and 500 mins calls on landline for £110
now they offering Halo3 900/120 with no landline and family sim pack for £96
I tried calling Idnet for a run down of what they can do but the guy I spoke to didn't seem overly interested and directed me to their website.
I wondered if talktalk business were worth considering?
Am i being over cautious? just want to make sure I am making correct decision before commit to 2 years!
thanks

Hi,
I just had my FTTP installed.
I managed to snag Black Friday deal for BT FTTP 900/110mbps

Its a Very fast connection..

Deal included: SH2 No-voice data-only + Free 12mo XBox Ultimate game pass
x6mo half price then £56pcm month 7 onwards. Plus Cashback due ~£89.

Its a very quick line and will have a hard job utilising this kind of speed.. 500mbps package would more than be sufficient for me personally.

What I learned along the way?
- Lead time was about 4wks from initial order to install (today) [worth the wait]
- Talktalk are [censored] and didn't even bother to send confirmation email when I originally placed order (So, Cancelled lack of customer support seem like some back office issues going on there IMO)
- 900Mbps / 110mbps connection is very fast.. More than what I was expecting coming from 50mbps VDSL2.
- Nokia Modems are really quite small.
- The BT SH2 router is ok ..but I much prefer my RT-AX89X router and XT8 Mesh nodes for my Wired/wireless connections and its a beast of a router than suites a 900mbps line.

HTH's

PS. I was impressed with the 2 guys from MJQuinn/Openreach engineers who attended to do the install..
Its like minus -5 deg Celsius outside atm and these guys had to use a boiling kettle full of water to unlock the manhole chamber before they could get to connecting my up. Dedication right there..
they done a nice clean install and more importantly Left my home in tidy condition just as was like before they arrived.
BT paying slight premium but IMO its worth it when compared to TT.

I assume then that it is your family sim pack increasing the price - I guess that is costing you over £30 a month?

Hi
I think £25, thanks
Roy

EE are an option, though beware they lock in price rises. But you can get discounts via work and/or cashback deals pretty regularly. Can use your own kit with them too.

Just to throw in my two penny worth to say that your VoIP service doesn't have to be with the ISP selected for FTTP. Splitting the two services may mean that the ATA built into the router is unconfigurable for the service of your choice though. Separate hardware then becomes necessary.

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

Just to throw in my two penny worth to say that your VoIP service doesn't have to be with the ISP selected for FTTP. Splitting the two services may mean that the ATA built into the router is unconfigurable for the service of your choice though. Separate hardware then becomes necessary.

oh really? thank you

In reply to a post by keymaster:

the price has went up several times and I am currently paying £110 a month for FTTP, IP calls with 500 mins and 12gig unlimited texts and calls on mobile on Halo 2.

Wow ! - Those monthly BT costs seem to be really high and the constant price increases with BT seem like a real huge BT negative.

I have been with Zen for some years: at first I was on Zen FTTC, (which was second to none), and then with Zen FTTP, (which was often dire).

Up to a few months ago I had a lot of FTTP performance issues with Zen and my finger has often hovered over the transfer/migrate to BT FTTP button but in the last few months Zen FTTP has mostly been OK.

Previously Zen prices were always much higher than others but over recent years Zen prices have become far more competative and since I have been with Zen for some time; I now only pay around £51 per month including VAT, (Price for Life), for broadband only which means that I will pay the same price for life as long as I stay with them on the same contract, and at present Zen are OK which creates a dialema and us an incentive to stay while they remain OK.

Therefore, I will stay with Zen while they remain OK but if Zen start to deriorate again I will probably quickly head to BT.

Just a few weeks ago in the BT Black Friday Sale, BT 2 year cost for 900 mbps, (Broadband Only), worked out at about £49 but this would be subject to the usual regular BT Price Rises and since you are happy with BT. - Personally, I would try again to negotiate a new customer Broadband Only deal with BT and possibly use other VOIP and mobile phone providers.

Let us know where you go and how they compare with BT.

Regards,
Fido

I'm very happy with my Aquiss FTTP connection. They have a six months half price offer currently, which twisted my arm to move from iDNET when I upgraded from FTTC

Hi Fido
Thank you so much for such an in depth response, very interesting, yes with the 4 or so years I have been with BT the RPi linked increases, especially more recently, have been punchy.
Zen were one that I considered as I used them way back in the dark old 5meg download days, they were good then but I discounted them from my list from the many stories on the forums similar to yours.
I think that fixed price deal you have would help make me loyal to them too, and I hear such good things about the Fritzbox hardware.
I have started to migrate my services away, starting with the mobile and landline services but the extra expense on buying new hardware and what hardware to buy is making me consider staying for the 900/120.
Thanks again
K

Hi Ferret
Thank you for that, yes, I have spoken with Martin from Aquiss a long time ago and he comes across as a decent chap on here, thanks for the reminder.
K

In reply to a post by keymaster:

I have started to migrate my services away, starting with the mobile and landline services but the extra expense on buying new hardware and what hardware to buy is making me consider staying for the 900/120.
Thanks again
K

Hi K,

Personally, I would separate the FTTP broadband provider, the landline equivolent / ie. The VOIP provider and the mobile provider as whenever you change one of these the others can stay just as they are.

For VOIP I only have a rolling one month contract and my own hardware is a Gigaset N300A Base Station, (one off cost was about £50), and four Gigaset C575A Phones, (one off cost was about £25 each). - I presently have two VOIP Providers both working off the one N300A base station. (ie. Sipgate Starter and Voipify). - Sipgate Starter is ending in 2023 and has already ended for new customers. - Voipify does have a base cost of £4.20 per month, (including VAT), which is higher than some but with Voipify most UK calls costs are very low, (0.6p per minute including VAT), and overseas and mobile call costs are also low so it balances out and overall all VOIP providers seem much cheaper than landline. - I did not bother porting the old landline number when I went over to VOIP and all if the nuisance calls went away. - Landlines are all supposed to be ending in 2025 so VOIP is the way to go if you do not just want a mobile but in a power cut or loss of internet VOIP does not work.

The are lots of good mobile Sim Only deals.

Regards,
Fido

In reply to a post by ferretuk:

I'm very happy with my Aquiss FTTP connection. They have a six months half price offer currently, which twisted my arm to move from iDNET when I upgraded from FTTC

Just to echo this, I went live on an Aquiss FTTP connection yesterday having moved from VM - spoke to Martin as initially I couldn't get connected (turns out I had to specify a gateway in pfsense) but been very pleased so far. Connection quality is far better than my VM connection.

Edited by deleted (Sat 17-Dec-22 15:32:37)

|Hi Fido
Thanks again for advice, I have ported 2 of the 3 sims for mobile away this weekend, the landline from BT is already voip, but I will move that away also, I used to have a call plan with voiptalk, so may try that again and dig my Snom Voip out the cupboard.
As I have a smart hub2 and a couple of the BT disks I think that new hardware would be expensive for me to replace with something decent.
I have the old style ONT on the wall with the battery back up.
thanks again
K