In reply to a post by jaydub:

[...]

You are looking at the cheaper end of the market, so customer service isn't going to be great from any of them. Having said that the majority of people don't have any issues and therefore the quality of the customer service doesn't make that much difference.

That's my reasoning behind it too. Thanks for the link to the TBB comparison page, I forgot about that. Does anyone know who votes/supplies data each month? Is it TBB users or just random people who stumble upon that page?

I have BT Infinity 2 - no installation fee and free homehub. Very satisfied, but realise that there may be cheaper options, but switching would men changing email address etc. and just could not be bothered. Very reliable service and constantly giving me 77Mbs download and 18 Mbs upload - within guaranteed speeds that they are contractually obliged to provide.

In reply to a post by wutr:

In reply to a post by jaydub:

Thanks for the link to the TBB comparison page, I forgot about that. Does anyone know who votes/supplies data each month? Is it TBB users or just random people who stumble upon that page?

If you go to the Main Site in the menu at the top of the forums, you will see these forums are in the menu on the left. In there is also the comparison link. And lots of other goodies.

The logins for the main site and the forums are separate, but you can use the same username and password if you wish and the username is available. I don't think you need to login to use the comparison link, but I just stay logged in permanently anyway, both there and here. Speedtests and such then get saved to your account - useful.

So the answer to your question is, anyone who finds the main site can vote . Try it without a login and see. Logged in it stores your history, and you can also change your mind right up to the end of the month if you vote earlier. It doesn't count as two votes.

Note if you hover the cursor over a column you get the number of votes. You have to relate that to the number of customers each ISP has of course, and what you hear about them on the forums.

In reply to a post by onejagjohn:

I have BT Infinity 2 - no installation fee and free homehub. Very satisfied, but realise that there may be cheaper options, but switching would men changing email address etc. and just could not be bothered. Very reliable service and constantly giving me 77Mbs download and 18 Mbs upload - within guaranteed speeds that they are contractually obliged to provide.

Was the same for me

In reply to a post by onejagjohn:

I have BT Infinity 2. [...] Very reliable service and constantly giving me 77Mbs download and 18 Mbs upload - within guaranteed speeds that they are contractually obliged to provide.

Is that an OFCOM thing or a BT specific in the T&Cs?

The minimum guaranteed sped is 73mbs - this is incorporated in to the BT contract. I actually achieve better than this - they do explain that the guaranteed speed is based on the distance from the cabin and that is why it is less than the 80mbs advertised. I am getting between 76 and 78mbs constantly regardless of time of day with no restrictions.

TalkTalk Business apparently don't prioritise their traffic over TalkTalk residential traffic according to their customer support, contrary to what was said earlier in this topic. Whether it's true or not, I don't know.

New to my list is Cloudscape Connect. Granted, they're not as cheap as the budget ISPs, but they are slightly more than TalkTalk Business (not counting cashback) and a lot less than any of the other premium ISPs, whilst offering a 12 month contract and IPv6 is in the pipeline.

So what I would like to hear from anyone who has something to say about it is: which one should I choose?

1. Plusnet - CS not as good as it used to be and currently suffering network issues (packet loss)
2. TalkTalk - CS notorious but network appears OK
3. Cloudscape Connect - Premium ISP, but consequently 50% more expensive than the above

I'm stuck. Does anyone have any real world advice on paying £15-20 p/m extra for a premium ISP over a budget one?

Just got a very interesting response from the Cloudscape Connect line checker, which doesn't fill me with any confidence whatsoever:

"Your exchange is not currently open to competition and the only broadband service available is Openreach's IP Stream service commonly referred to as ADSL Max. While we are happy to support the IP Stream service we are unable to offer our full range of products on this line."

Utter tosh. Please feel free to check out the Marple Exchange on Samknows.

If I was going to give them the benefit of any doubt, it would be that I am on a TTB line with Pulse8 and a lot of the line checkers fail as a result, but they do give a much more accurate response."

I know they have got good reviews on ISPReview, but ....

In reply to a post by wutr:

I'm stuck. Does anyone have any real world advice on paying £15-20 p/m extra for a premium ISP over a budget one?

Only YOU can decide whether its worth paying a premium for a better ISP or not (mainly wrt support). Many people with bargain basement ISPs won't have issues so they won't ever need to get in touch with support yet those with complex issues will be frustrated with the overseas call centre script readers and often shout the loudest from the rooftop.

FWIW I joined TalkTalk residential back in 2010 (only ADSL2+ ISP at my flea ridden clapped out exchange back then) and had a near perfect service - low pings, line speeds 24/7 and was even given a free static IP address after begging one of their forum OCEs for one. Never had any need to call their Indian call centre. However when I wanted to move to their vdsl2 service they told me i would lose my static IP so had no choice but to move to their Business offering. My TTB line performs just as good as my TTR line did and i pay a small premium for that. Of course TTB support is very good (Warrington based) but i can count on one hand the number of times I've had to call them...

In reply to a post by jaydub:

Just got a very interesting response from the Cloudscape Connect line checker, which doesn't fill me with any confidence whatsoever:
[...]

I know they have got good reviews on ISPReview, but ....

Their website does leave a lot to be desired, however over the phone they seem to have all the correct information available.

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

Only YOU can decide whether its worth paying a premium for a better ISP or not (mainly wrt support). Many people with bargain basement ISPs won't have issues so they won't ever need to get in touch with support yet those with complex issues will be frustrated with the overseas call centre script readers and often shout the loudest from the rooftop.

FWIW I joined TalkTalk residential back in 2010 (only ADSL2+ ISP at my flea ridden clapped out exchange back then) and had a near perfect service - low pings, line speeds 24/7 [...]
My TTB line performs just as good as my TTR line did and i pay a small premium for that. Of course TTB support is very good (Warrington based) but i can count on one hand the number of times I've had to call them...

For me that means TalkTalk Business has no benefits over TalkTalk Residential. For the difference in price I can at least try to deal with the call centres.

Cloudscape Connect and TalkTalk Residential differ in price by almost £20,- p/m (including cashback). I think that's worth the hassle if it comes to that (and I'm sure it will as I need a new line).