Moving House New ISP Recommendations?

I'm currently on Virgin Media cable broadband but in a few months will be moving and they dont currently have cable there, so its through the phone line.

I'm not currently up to speed on it through a phone line so bare with me...

This is will be my exchange... pretty naff but better than nothing.

Currently it looks like with most of them the max i'm going to get is 2.5mb, which is not terrible as i dont do lots of downloading but i do use it all day, so needs to be reliable.

The only difference from admittedly limited research seems to be the cost?

TalkTalk have (CPW) LLU enabled on the line, will this make their speeds quicker and worth considering?

I think the current occupant has Post Office broadband.

With BT owning the line would it be worth considering them if anything goes wrong, if you go with someone else wont they have to contact them to sort it out?


Cheers for any input

The main question you need to understand is how much are you downloading per month. is it 2G, 10G, 50G, 250G etc....

The second questions is when downloading, is this via web, email, P2P.

Most ISP's have a limit as to the monthly download, and is you use that, the line is 'slowed'. They then also slow down some services when busy, e.g. P2P download (bit torrent).

You then need to trade off cost (£) vs. download needed (50G) vs. usage (Web/email/p2p).

At you exchange I would suggest you look at: talk talk, vivaciti, zen, xilo, BT, Plusnet, Post office, and make your choice from there.

No t does not work like that, if you went with BT Retail, and there was a line problem, they would have to call the same people as every other ISP would call, there is no preference to BT Retail in getting any services sorted out.

In reply to a post by vivaciti:

No t does not work like that, if you went with BT Retail, and there was a line problem, they would have to call the same people as every other ISP would call, there is no preference to BT Retail in getting any services sorted out.

But there seems to be great difficulty in getting them even to accept there is a problem that isn't caused by the customer's filter or similar. "You have a broadband connection, so that's fine".

Thanks for the replies guys.

Why should i just consider those isp's over others?

I work from home a web developer so although i never p2p i'm downloading html,css all day and do the odd film from iTunes etc, so i think i need unlimited just incase. I know its not actually unlimited, my current VM Cable is the same but never had any fair usage letters.

As i mentioned BT are due to upgrade that exchange to infinity next March, so worth going with them ready, or will that boost the line for all providers?

See my FTTx page, and on the suppliers page under it is a list, with a link to orly/yarwell's comparison spreadsheet.

Infinity is the best value for money, as they seem to be pricing at a very low level to grab the market, at the expense of profit. I have a feeling that business use is prohibited in the T & Cs though.

NetWorx includes a very good usage monitor.

When BT upgrades that exchange around March next year, will it upgrade the speeds for everyone, all isp's?

Or only folk with BT Infinity?

I read that its different technology, so if your not on BT you could be stuck with the old exchange speeds, whilst folk on BT could have improved speeds?

This doesn't sound right to me..

?
What is unclear about my page, and list, and the third-party spreadsheet?

I couldn't find it or really understand it.

Infinity is not currently at the exchange that provides the property i'm moving to.

Trying to determine if its worth going with BT now ready for when it is, as i'll get faster speeds when they do set it up there.

Even if you go with BT now, you will not automatically get faster speeds when your exchange is enabled.

Infinity is a BT Retail broadband product, based on a BT Wholesale product just like nearly all ISPs ADSLx products (including BT Total Broadband) are based on BT Wholesale. Only LLU ISPs don't use BT Wholesale broadband.

There are many other ISPs who can provide that BT Wholesale FTTC product, click here to get a list. Infinity is just BT Retail's name for their packages.

When your exchange is FTTC enabled you will be able to order FTTC from any of those, including Infinity if you are close enough. (Infinity is only available to customers if the estimate for their line is above 15Mbps. The other ISPs will normally accept orders even if BT won't).

Because FTTC products are a different technology from ADSLx, no-one gets upgraded automatically. If you have a Ford Focus, and they bring out a better engine, you don't get an upgrade. You have to buy a new car.

So if you go to BT now, you will still have to "migrate" to Infinity when it comes. Or you could go to any ISP you want now, as all you have to do is migrate at the time. Assuming you get a monthly contract.

Is that better?