Thanks Zen, but time to leave

Hi,

BT have recently upgraded my area to Infinity, I can get it with an estimated d/l of 27.6Mbps and u/l of 10Mbps ('up to' speeds of course).

Zen have been my broadband provider at various homes over the years, and I've always been very happy with the service and don't mind paying a small premium for that. However, I just can't seem to find a Zen FTTC package that matches what BT are offering for a similar price.

At the moment I'm on a puny 1.5Mbps connection, with an average monthly download of 12GB. I can't stream any HD content, iPlayer/4od are slow and jerky, downloading games through XBox live or Steam takes days, Spotify hoses the connection and streaming from Lovefilm isn't fun either. With an FTTC connection I intend to take full advantage of all of these. The missus is the same, but at the moment if one person uses the net for any of the above, then no bandwidth left for the other As for uploading, 10Mbps will seriously help working from home too.

BT's FTTC offering is:
Download: 40 Mbps (27.6 rated)
Upload: 10Mbps (10.0 rated)
Usage cap: Unlimited
Setup/install costs: £6 (postage for device)
Monthly cost: £26.80 (inc VAT)

The nearest Zen package that comes close is:
Download: 40 Mbps (27.6 rated)
Upload: 10Mbps (10.0 rated)
Usage cap: 200GB
Setup/install costs: £80 + cost of router
Monthly cost: £66 (inc VAT)

So over the first year, the Zen package will cost me an eye-watering £500+ more. Is it worth it? The only differences I can see is that the Zen package is a 12 month then 1 month contract whereas BT's is for 18 months, and the Zen package has a 'best efforts' minimum speed. Am I missing something really obvious? (aside from BT's legendary poor customer service)

Advice, comments appreciated!

Thanks

-----------

I posted this on Zen's forums but it was moderated out of existence. More disappointed by that than the pricing really. I was hoping for feedback from other Zen users telling me their good news stories.

That's pretty much decided things for me now, so sorry Zen, thanks for the great service over the years, but you've priced yourself out of my range.

BT Infinity is traffic shaped. Support is outsourced to India. You get what you pay for.

In reply to a post by ANUser:

I posted this on Zen's forums but it was moderated out of existence. More disappointed by that than the pricing really. I was hoping for feedback from other Zen users telling me their good news stories.

Why not try another post just asking for peoples experiences.
I moved to Zen for the UK based call centre, knowledgeable tech service, and because it's got a decent reputation.

True http://www.speedtest.net/result/1652916561.png

In reply to a post by Zadeks:

BT Infinity is traffic shaped. Support is outsourced to India. You get what you pay for.

Perhaps true, but to be honest, it is not worth the £500 price difference.

Can you prove the traffic shaped statement - or even if it has any impact, as my mileage varies - hugely.

BT Infinity installed July this year, Unlimited package. Leaping from 1.5mb to a full-on 40Mb; the difference between being 6miles from the exchange, and 50m from the cabinet

The line was, frankly, hammered. Two PCs, a PS3, iPad, three mobiles, and a TV all hitting it and the net was a joy to use. Constant, consistent, and sustained 4200kbs usenet downloads. Linux distros in the time it takes to have a brew. SBS server install from scratch

I'd agree that BT throttle, based on anecdotal evidence from an acquaintance who 'troughed' it for three weeks, but I don't know if he had opted for a cheaper package, or was using torrents.

As for the support... well... I've always viewed the few quid a month premium that Zen charges a worthwhile insurance, but the costs here far in excess of that.

In reply to a post by Zadeks:

BT Infinity is traffic shaped. Support is outsourced to India. You get what you pay for.

Yes, but as has been said previously only torrents are shaped and that can be got around. I'll agree that BT c/s is pants. If I ever get a fault I shall use the online forums rather than the phone support.

Hi there,

Just picking up on your last point regarding Zen's forum; I've checked the deleted posts (which is where moderated posts go) and can't find anything of this nature there, so I'm worried as to what might have happened to your post. Can you PM me the username you've used on our forums please so I can try and get to the bottom of what's happened please?

Kind regards
Phil.

Hi,

The zen support forum is set to auto-moderate certain posts. Ie if there's too many links or forbidden words it marks it for moderation (this is purely to prevent spam). I've checked the moderation panel, and can see what I think is your post, which I've approved.

Edit - just as an aside it appears the word "download" was configured in a list which increased the chances of a post being marked for moderation. Not sure why, but I've removed it from that list now!

Edited by deleted (Mon 19-Dec-11 14:22:00)

A colleague of mine was raving about BT broadband the other week, now he's hit problems and is having to chase BT to fix it and says he wants to leave.

Remember you could always buy some additional bandwidth and it will roll over until you've used it.

Edited by techguy (Mon 19-Dec-11 19:58:52)

Moved to BT Infinity about 1 month ago. Quote via the line-checker said to expect 23.8 down/7 up. It's ended up floating around 32-34 down, and 6.5 up. I don't use torrents, so can't comment on that throttling, but nothing else appears throttled in any way. Engineer and customer support have been fine so far - mind you, I haven't had any problems either, so not much need for them beyond the installation.

All-in-all, best move I ever made. Stunning speeds for just £26 / month, IMHO.