In reply to a post by jaydub:

Aquiss are the most expensive of the lot

Do you want to drop us a line/email to see if we can work on anything for you?

Hi
Have you looked at Origin Broadband?
K

In reply to a post by keymaster:

Hi
Have you looked at Origin Broadband?
K

I'd be very wary of Origin as I were with them on Digital Region and when they moved over to BT.

Despite about four network changes in that time they always had very poor single-thread performance and a maximum MTU of 1480 on their network.

I'd like to think they improved but I wouldn't gamble a long contract on it, especially as Zen cost about the same.

Zen were having issues at peak time but things seem to have improved recently and they were nowhere near as bad as Origin for single-thread performance even at their worst.

The only thing Origin have over Zen are 24/7 support, but then when I reported problems I never got the impression they were able to do much about them, so it was more a false sense of security..

Its such a shame as I wanted Origin to do well but it just felt like they didn't really know what they were doing setting up their network. Plus they are putting people on carrier grade NAT by default and any casual user will have no idea why their gaming performance is poor as they don't actually mention this.

This was all nearly a year ago now but I doubt its changed.

Edited by alexatkin (Sun 11-Sep-16 07:54:11)

Hi
I have two lines, one with Origin and one with Zen, what a co-incedence and they are not the same price - Origin one is £38 all in including anytime calls.£44 with no call package.
My experience was better support and 24 hours from Origin, however Zen line manages about 1 - 1.5 meg faster.
This is in same property so I would say fair comparison.
I have had both for 18 months, Zen has been issue free, Origin messed up a bit in first month with some teething issues but no drama since and I have always found guys on phone very pleasantr and helpful - erven at 2am.
K

In reply to a post by jaydub:

No response from Uno

If you've submitted that on our contact form in the last day or two, please can you re-submit it?

Small oversight on our end when we removed TLSv1 which has been identified and fixed - meaning we won't have got your message i'm afraid.

Really very sorry!

Matt

Hi Matt,

You did respond the day after I posted this comment and it's only fair that anybody reading this thread is aware of it.

Just come back of our hols and need to make a decision.

I've spoken to Sky and they have confirmed our BB usage has been around the 100GB for the last six months with the exception of the last couple of months when both adult kids have been at home when our usage has mysteriously risen to 250GB!

Having dome some spreadsheet analysis and assuming that I will remain with the ISP for two years and taking into account phone costs, it looks as though BT comes out the cheapest option, after cashback offers closely followed by Sky and Pulse8. Zen, Aquiss and Uno are all coming out about £10/month more.

In terms of response to emails and phone calls, Uno win my vote, but I'm reluctant to go on a fixed monthly allocation package. Not sure I want to be checking usage every other day to check that we're not about to go over limit.

Aquiss have been very disappointing, with barely any response to emails and a very middling response to the call I made to them.

Zen seem to have gone off the boil in recent months as well judging by some of the recent posts and their sales guy seemed to have a knowledge gap about recent bandwidth problems.

So for various reasons, I'm more tempted by the cheaper options: BT, Sky or Pulse8.

I almost pressed the button on Pulse8, but when I called to get a few final questions answered I was slightly concerned to get a guy telling me I needed a MAC code. Almost certainly one of their web hosting guys, but it does reinforce the fact they are only a small provider there are only a couple of guys who know their stuff.

And then of course, there is Sky and BT. Both sell the BB cheap and then make their money on calls and are probably going to give the worst customer service experience, although to be fair I've only had to ring Sky once in the last 2 or 3 years.

If I stay with Sky, I will be looking to get a Sky Q router though, as I'm not impressed with the SR102. Anybody know the current cost of this option as I'm struggling to find the appropriate info on the Sky site?

So no clear favourite, although Pulse8 are definitely leading by a short head running into the final straight.

No issues with BT over here.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

I also have TalkTalk fibre, no issues either. Cheap and cheerful.

I would personally say BT or Sky out of those options. Any reason you have not considered TalkTalk, yes customer service is not good, but the service never drops for me and speeds are 24/7 good. The provided router was not brilliant, and I did change it.

EDIT: Have you spoke to sky retentions to see what deal they can offer you?
If you got broadband, line rental and phone with them it will likely be quite a good deal.
Much easier than changing ISP when you are happy with the Sky Service.
Discounted prices are just part of the game so every so often you have to jump through these humps to get a good price, when your offer price ends.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 26-Sep-16 13:14:07)

One big advantage of the Uno phone package I find is the line rental, which comes in at under £14 per month. Their call prices are good too, evening and weekend rates at under 1p per minute - not to mention their no 60 minute call limit. I never begrudged my wife going over the 60 minute limit for "free" calls with Plusnet and sometimes ended up paying £2 for a 80 minute call. With Uno that would cost under 80p. We have never gone over £6 per month on calls with Uno and I believe the call packages from other providers now come in at about £8.

I am on a FTTC allowance of 100GB but have never got near that because the evening and weekend use doesn't count towards that allowance. Uno's customer service is good too.

If my exchange gets congested now because of people flocking to Uno I'll kick myself!!

Pulse8 are TTW resellers, so yes I have considered them indirectly.

I have a preference for paying a real rate for Broadband and then taking advantage of the cheaper call packages that Pulse8, Uno and Aquiss are able to offer.

I haven't considered talking to Sky Retentions, so that's certainly worth trying, particularly as I will need to speak to Sky about the cost of the Q hub.

I guess I'm lazy and don't really want to have to jump through hoops every 12 months. I'm also not that keen on other people subsidising my negotiated rates, but hey I'm a Yorkshireman, so I can get over that.