Plusnet, BT or Post Office?

Hi all

I have been with Freedom 2 Surf for broadband since 2003. Yes - I am well aware that F2S no longer exist and that I am stuck on a legacy product! The latest take over saw me paying my bills to Talk Talk Business, and I have to say that for the last 6 months or so it is like being back on dial up when trying to use the internent at peak times.

My exchange is not unbundled. FTTC is available to half the village but I am not one of the lucky ones and there is no indication as to when (if) this will change. Therefore, my only option is ADSL MAX. I have 2 teenagers who use xbox live (alot) and all the usual youtube, iplayer etc. so am looking at an unlimited (well whatever passes for unlimited) package from either plusnet, the post office or even bt. The plusnet one currently works out at £27.48 a month - line rental, anytime calls, caller display and unlimited BB, as they have a half price BB offer through uswitch. BT have just offered me £31 for the same package (currently my phone is with BT) and the Post Office works out at £32 a month for same package. All 3 are 12 month contract (Actually the Post Office might not be?)

Questions is - Am I likely to experience any actual difference in performance between them? WIll the peak time slowness continue no matter who I go with? I have read all three's policy on traffic shaping/throttling and see that BT claim to no longer shape, plusnet have a priority shaping system that looks quite fair, and the post office seem to be ok as long as you don't go over 100GB a month. To be honest, although I do use torrents its only about 4 tv progs a week that I d/l so don't think I'd show up as excessive user.

Finally - BT renumbered my landline last year (due to years of annoying fax calls at all hours). F2S/Talk Talk Business still have my old number as when I enquired (before agreeing to the re-number) if this would affect my BB they told me they would have to cease the line and re-provide! So I just never bothered telling them it had changed and my BB carried on as normal). Will this be an issue when getting a MAC code?

Thanks for reading - sorry it's longwinded!

Plusnet Unlimited would be my choice but at the moment there are some issues with latency depending to some extent which gateway your connection is using.
Plusnet are obviously looking into the problem and hopefully it will be solved soon but it's something to be aware of.

There's a lengthy thread about it here on the Community forum.

Edited by Apprentice (Fri 08-Mar-13 19:08:46)

With the prices you quote, it looks like you are including calls, in which case they are not quite the same, especially the Post Office. The Post Office is still an 8mb Broadband service at the moment, which is all your exchange can offer anyway, they also include calls to 0845, 0870, 01, 02 in their call plans, along with calls to mobiles and 40 countries at weekends. No penalty for not taking direct debit and now that they have added an anytime call plan I have switched my calls and rental back to the P.O. All for £17.75 per month. Not much more than B.T. line rental and price guaranteed for all this year.

hmmmm... I think it's just a case a me picking one of them out a hat then really. It was between Plusnet and Post Office till Bt offered me that package earlier. I definitely want to have my phone with whoever I choose for BB as it will save me a tenner a month on what I'm paying at the moment. Will check out the thread on the community forum.

Thank you

All 3 are 12 month contract (Actually the Post Office might not be?)

The PO broadband has a twelve month contract but the phone line has no minimum contract term.

There is a Fair Usage Policy with the PO broadband > FUP pdf

As you only have ADSL Max at your exchange, whoever you go for the BB will be the same supplied by BT Wholesale. So you might as well go for the cheapest. You could also consider EE, who will supply the same unlimited ADSL Max product at a yet another diff price.

Thanks everyone - and I think that going for the cheapest is what I shall do if theres nothing to really choose between them.