Currently I manage a few FTTC lines

Talktalk Retail which has been flawless, don't get me started on their phone support haha

Sky which has been fine and their call centres are uk based so at least you can understand something

my 2ndline is talktalk business the CS seem pretty nice and are uk based also.

In reply to a post by tommy45:

Correct i wouldn't have a service with any of those 3 , for a start 2 of em are MPF only and the other has dire customer support, Just having to deal with their dire outsourced support for telephony is challenging enough there's no way on this planet i would take bb from them (BTretail) And their routing /peering leave a lot to be desired as well as lack of static IP (residential ) then there is the Web blocking and censoring nonsence

So you're recommendation isn't based on anything concrete like experience

I notice you bad-mouth Plusnet too although that's your ISP. You must really hate yourself.

Why would i hate my self? You think that was badmouthing my isp,lol If the truth doesn't make good reading tuff, I speak as i find, and i always have

As for experience of other isp's as iv'e said 2 are MPF only (Sky &TT) so i wouldn't consdider them based on that alone, And BT ,their outsourced telephony over the past yrs i consider a good enough indicator of what their bb support is like
But i also don't like my bb subjected to censorship and web blocking (that i have had experience of in sky's case) i was with uk0nline in past years . and BT's residential bb doesn't even offer statip ip's another reason i wouldn't tough bt bb
Oh and if you read my first post i think its clear enough that i wasn't making a recomemdation as i would not recomend any of the 4 , i have given my reasons which doesnt have to be based on my experience , i wouldn't put my self through that hell no

Edited by tommy45 (Mon 02-Mar-15 10:53:40)

Oh and if you read my first post i think its clear enough that i wasn't making a recomemdation as i would not recomend any of the 4 , i have given my reasons which doesnt have to be based on my experience , i wouldn't put my self through that hell no

But the OP is asking for a recommendation. All you've done is rubbish the ones that have been made.

Does that help him in any way?

ok not sure what you decided in the end but for this as a shared house then you can go for SKY FTTC 40/10 (which I have) and that runs 3 people no problem, costs £37 per month including phone line (£13 each for 3 users). If you want to use the 80/20 service if you have HEAVY users, then its £30 per mths, so for 3 people its £10 per mth plus telephone line = £16 each plus phone calls.... Round to £20 each and have most UK phone calls for free.

I have not had any "problems" with SKY and for now I am not looking to use anyone else.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to reply. It helps, even rubbishing ISP's, as it isn't too difficult to read between the lines.

I've still to decide. I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting my connection to just work without having to worry about it or learn Klingon in order to resolve a problem. I'm happy, perhaps reluctant, to pay a bit extra to have piece of mind, but the difference in price seems disproportionate unless I am missing something. Do the niche ISP's- IDnet, Zen, etc, offer that much more for the extra money? Is it value for money, if even for the first contract, to make sure everything is connected and working properly?

Well each ISP offers their services at a different price point. If you are looking "premium" budget take a look at plusnet. They have UK support, price is competitive, especially with their 80/20 product compared to Sky. They do pile 'em and sell 'm cheap though. Remember that you will be tied into an 18 month contract with plusnet and as I have found if you want to cancel early then it will cost you over £14 per month for the remaining contract. Also remember you don't have to have your line rental with plusnet you can have it with another provider like the Post Office etc, plusnet charge an extra £2.50 a month if you do not take line rental with them.

If you want a premium provider then you are looking at Zen or IDNet. Zen tie you in for 12 months, you don't get any introductory offers as that is not the market they are in.

Zen has no traffic shaping during peak hours although I have never seen any impact of traffic shaping on my plusnet fibre.

Zen would be my choice as I work from home 7 out of 10 days and their customer service is second to none, so I would be paying £10 extra per month for peace of mind

For me:

1. Reliability
2. Speed
3. UK Customer Service
4. Cost

Don't forget to take the price of the phone line into the equation as that can cause price comparisons to jump, some of the bigger players are charging almost £17.00 for a phone line whereas some of the smaller ones only charge just over £11.00 per month.