Help with picking a broadband package.

Hello,

I'm currently with Sky Broadband, I'm one of the old o2 customers. I'm still on my £15 per month unlimited package.

If I remember correctly I'm on ADSL2+ and I currently get a downstream of around 11 MBps but with more people in the house and Netflix, Spotify etc. becoming popular I would like to upgrade to a faster product.

I've submitted a form with Virgin Media so they can investigate what products I can receive as they weren't sure just using the postcode/phone number checker.

Here are my stats from btwholesale.com: http://i.imgur.com/QKkQwOX.png

I'm currently with The Post Office for my phone line, would most FTTC packages require me to switch to them for line rental, or would it save me money to do so?

I'd be happy to spend £20-£25 just on broadband and would consider switching line rental too. I could push the budget a bit further if it was worth it.

I think I've included everything. Thank you.

BT, Sky and TalkTalk normally insist on you having their line rental. You are probably getting away with it with Sky at the moment because of coming from O2, but you may be able to get the same if you went to their FTTC.

Plusnet will let you have FTTC with your line elsewhere but charge an extra £2.50pm for the broadband. Be wary of their 38MBps package which has only 2Mbps upstream speed, as does the TalkTalk one. That may not be enough to let several people run Netflix, Spotify, catchup TV all at the same time as the upstream needs to feed back that the data is being received OK.

In many cases where you don't take a company's landline their introductory offers aren't available. They only come with the bundle.

How much do you pay the Post Offfice for the line? (Rental, call package, typical chargeable calls). I use my landline very little and pay £13 rental plus £1 caller display. Ordinary calls are 1ppm in peak, 0.8ppm off-peak, with per second billing.

I suggest you also look at Pulse8broadband at £38 including line rental. (That's who my line rental is with).

I have the SKY FTTC 40/10 product and it works fine for me. Looking at your stats you should get that. its £20 for the BB and £16(ish) for the tel line.

Once you have the line it would then be a case of seeing what the line can then run at & if appropriate or needed you can get a pro 80 download bb for £30+line rental

Thanks for the replies.

I'll dig out my line package from the Post Office and see, it involves free calls to mobiles after 6pm and on weekends, the exact cost I can't remember off the top of my head.

The Pulse8 looks good but there is a £75 installation charge and an extra charge for a router. I can't find a contract length on it though, does that mean it is a month by month contract because that would appeal to me.

IanD, do you know if Sky charge an installation fee I can't find it on the website. It looks like I would get a Sky Hub if I signed with them and the Sky WiFi is a nice perk. Do you know if the Sky Hub is any good?

Thanks again.

Yes, it's just month by month. Click the small "i" under the "U" of "Unlimited".

There used to be no installation fee but they had to introduce it as once it got known about they started getting people signing up to get free installation, then moving on a month later. That could have put them out of business.

If I remember I'll query the engineer visit and supply of an Openreach modem it still says there. AIUI Openreach no longer supply a modem and only visit to fit a VDSL2 filter if requested by the ISP. They've probably just forgotten to alter it.

Makes sense, it's a shame people did that. Just waiting to hear back from Virgin Media until I make my decision.

The XL for £6 extra is tempting.

I didn't understand the last part of your post, do you mean I will be required to buy my own modem + router?

Thanks.

It took me a bit longer than I intended but Virgin Media never replied to me, so I have decided to go with Pulse8 Broadband.

The one issue I have is with my o2 email addresses. Does anybody know if Sky will allow me to keep my o2 emails active after I switch service to Pulse8?

From what I've read online it depends on each provider and it looked like Sky was is of the providers that allowed you to keep your email, but I'm not sure if this includes old o2 emails.

Thank you.

Forget about what I said.

Turns out o2 are closing all o2.co.uk emails on June 7th, so I have to transfer over anyway.

http://www.o2.co.uk/help/digital-services/o2-email-c...

True. It's nothing to do with Sky.

Time to get a domain and hosted email. A .uk (and the variants such as .co.uk, me.uk, .org.uk) domain from my recommended host linked to there is now £7.19pa, as the UK authority Nominet have increased the underlying prices. Up and running within a couple of hours, so you start sending everything from it to tell people/shops/wherever and reply to things while you receive from both that and the O2 one.

If you are using webmail for the O2 you need to get an email client like Thunderbird or Fossamail and download the lot, including the "Sent" folder(s).

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 21-Apr-16 23:59:51)