Off to new pastures with new IDNet offerings

There have only ever been 3 ISPs on my radar in recent years:

AAISP - was with them 2 years ago, brilliant!

Zen - was with them over 10 years ago for ADSL and been with them for the past 2 years for FTTC, also brilliant. And you finally got IPv6 deployed!

IDNet - who I will be moving to shortly.

Chose to move as:

1. Not been with IDNet before. Always interesting to try something new. And they tick all the boxes at the right price point (native IPv6 etc).
2. Zen's call charges per minute (for land line at least) appear to be over 10 times more expensive than what IDNet are offering. There is still the call setup charge to consider, but given this fact, and the fact that IDNet throw in 7 line features as standard (which all cost extra with Zen), I think I'll be saving some money by doing this.
3. IDNet offer a 55/10 FTTC speed. Nice! So that's what I've gone for. Also paying a year up front means that this package comes in cheaper than Zen's Unlimited 40/10 package @ £43.99 per month.

What I will lose:

My block of 8 IPs. Never used them all anyway and I can do everything I need to do with just 1 address. IDNet also offer 4 IPs which is a nice gap filler for the 8 IPs Zen can provide.

For those still locked into Zen contracts, I was advised on the phone today by Zen that they are looking to offer new packages early next year, one of those being the 55/10 speed. But they really need to rework their call tariffs because I do feel they might be just a tad overpriced right now.

Anyways, thank you Zen for a superb couple of years of service! If all goes south, I will no doubt return (with my tail between my legs).

In reply to a post by mixt:

3. IDNet offer a 55/10 FTTC speed. Nice! So that's what I've gone for.

Just looked on their site and couldn't find any reference to a 55/10 FTTC offer. AFAICT they only offer 40/10 and 76/19.

Unless of course you've got a special deal as a new customer.

Showing for me (once you press the order button). There's 40/2, 40/10, 40/20, 55/10 and 80/20.

There is no 40/20. But everything else is there, once you initiate the order process.

In reply to a post by rich_jtg:

Showing for me (once you press the order button). There's 40/2, 40/10, 40/20, 55/10 and 80/20.

Duhh. Thanks for that. Since I'm already with iDNet I didn't bother pressing the order button. Can't see why they don't put it upfront on their site though.

I have been thinking about switching from Zen to BT or IDnet recently as well.

The reason for this is that I found out that on my exchange (Harrow, London) Zen isn't actually an LLU service so there's no real point in being with them other than for customer service which tbh hasn't been fabulous.

On that basis, I'm considering either IDnet (for better customer service than BT) or BT (for simply lowest price after gift cards and cashback). Neither IDnet nor BT are LLU either on my exchange so it's all going through BT. I think the only LLU provider is Sky and I'm sure as s*** not going with them for any price.

Any suggestions?

Harrow is TalkTalk enabled, so you have a number of other options. I wouldn't go with the the retail option, but TalkTalk Business are good and there are a number of highly regarded ISPs that use the TTB network including A&A & Uno (currently ranked 1 & 2 on ISPReview) and Pulse8.

IDNet are very good though, although interestingly they use Zen for their backhaul.

A&A is just absurdly overpriced for what you get. I'm not keen on paying £60 a month for a capped service tbh


Pulse8 is not much better with their really high connection charge


In any case, is there even any point in deliberating between providers on a BT or TT network? It's all just re-badged BT Fibre isn't it?

I'm wondering whether to just get [censored] service but lowest monthly cost from BT or get slightly better service from IDnet but most likely identical performance to BT. Or as you say, go with one of these TT providers which I can't imagine is any better and yet seem much more expensive

40/20 is a product PlusNet make up themselves, afaik there isn't a 40/20 product available from openreach/wholesale. I believe their 40/20 product was the 80/20 product rate limited to 40.

Andrew

In reply to a post by fiddlesticks:

A&A is just absurdly overpriced for what you get. I'm not keen on paying £60 a month for a capped service tbh


Pulse8 is not much better with their really high connection charge


In any case, is there even any point in deliberating between providers on a BT or TT network? It's all just re-badged BT Fibre isn't it?

I'm wondering whether to just get [censored] service but lowest monthly cost from BT or get slightly better service from IDnet but most likely identical performance to BT. Or as you say, go with one of these TT providers which I can't imagine is any better and yet seem much more expensive

Pulse 8 is a £49.50 connection charge and you will almost certainly get charged this with any TTB based ISP as your line has to be moved over at the exchange from BTW to TTB MPF (full LLU).

In my view P8's lower monthly line costs and their very cheap calls package, make them cheaper than the likes of BT anyway, so not too unhappy to fork out for the up front cost. I might have only email, best efforts support out of normal working hours, rather than the 24x7 cover I currently get from Sky, but at least I won't have my intelligence questioned when I ring up.

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for. Good extended support costs.

If you are down to a BT vs IDNet decision, I would go with IDNet without question. I do think the TTB options are worth considering though.