Internet Service Providers

[MacNimon]

My internet connection has always been with Orange (well, Freeserve then Wanadoo then Orange), I've always been happy with the speed and service and never had any problems. But I've just got my latest statement and my monthly bill has jumped by a whopping £9.80 so I figure this is the time to finally jump ship and find myself a cheaper provider.

Who do you use as your ISP, and would you recommend them? The first deal I've noticed is Talk Talk with their phone and broadband package for £21.48 (we already have our phone with them for £15.99/month so theoretically the internet should cost under £6 - compared to the £30 I'm now paying with Orange) But the question is, are they any good? Note the word 'theoretically', because I'm wary of hidden costs...things often aren't as cheap as they first seem.

So any recommendations would be appreciated, and also who should be avoided at all costs!

[Rob McCow]

We haven't had any complaints about Virgin Media, though I suspect they're a bit more expensive. They're best if you get the phone line, digital TV and broadband together in one package.

Why not have a look at www.moneysavingexpert.com ? They should have good advice on this subject.

[Pip Madeley]

I'm very happy with 02 Broadband who are currently offering 3 months free, then £7.34 a month thereafter (up to 8MB speed) for 02 customers. I'm on the £9.79 deal with up to 20MB (I get 14MB broadband, average 1MB/s download speed). And because I signed up via Quidco.com I got another £50 cashback, so it's costing me less than a fiver a month.

[MacNimon]

I've just been checking out 02 and Quidco...looks like if I sign up for the £7.34/month option with the first 3 months free (which would qualify me for Quidco's £50 cashback) then it would be the equivalent of 10 months free broadband, once I have received the cashback. Compared with the near £300 it'll cost me for the same period with Orange for a similar package...

It's a bit of a no-brainer, isn't it?

[Pip Madeley]

Exactly Kenny! As long as you're an 02 customer (PAYG or contract) and top up at least £10 every three months (which I do), you'll get the discount price - they send out a wireless router and even e-mail/text you when each stage of the activation is complete. I'm very pleased with the service.

Bear in mind that Quidco take £5 a year from your earnings as an administration fee (call it membership), but if you use it enough (plenty of online shops are Quidco-friendly) you'll soon save loads.

Similarly, I took out contents insurance with More TH>N via Quidco and got £70 cashback! There's plenty of money to be saved if you do your homework.

[MacNimon]

Thanks for that, Pip!

Quidco is one of those sites I signed up for ages ago because it sounded like a good idea (Record Cashback is another) but soon forgot about and never used - probably because 2% or 4% back at a time didn't sound much. But all those pennies will soon add up, I suppose, and there are some great bargains to be found, as you've just pointed out.

As for 02, we have 4 PAYG customers in this household, although admittedly I haven't topped up my own phone for over 3 months as I've 'loaned' it to my daughter who dropped her own. In other words, I don't think I'll ever get it back again, in working order at least!

[Si Hunt]

I'm happy with Virginmedia. We get TV (including V+ digital recorder), Internet and Phone together and it works out as a very reasonable £50 each month, calls inclusive. Plus they are always good with support and coming out to fix things, and the V+ box is fantastically useful and quite robust too.

Si.

[MacNimon]

I'm maybe worrying about nothing here, but with these big faceless companies who are always after as much of your hard-earned cash as they can possibly get, I can't help but wonder...

I've been with o2 for over a year now, and overall I've been happy with the price, speed and service. I'm in no particular hurry to change at the moment, but why do other operators not take me at my word?

My home telephone bundle (line rental, etc) is with Talk Talk. We're currently on a deal which would cost us around £16 per month if Mary didn't make regular calls to our oldest daughters mobile (she doesn't have a landline, so no choice which number to phone) which generally pushes our bill up to around the £35 mark. We got a sales call from Talk Talk a few weeks ago trying to sell us a new bundle, which would include calls to at least one mobile plus free broadband, which would cost around £21. I told them that I'd possibly be interested in the cheap deal, but that I didn't want to change my internet provider. All I got from them was disbelief that I'd keep paying for another provider when I could get it from them for free. I then lied and said that I still had several months left on my minimum contract with o2 just to shut them up, and they then said that the broadband part of the service could lie dormant until I was ready to use it.

Today I received a 'welcome pack' with a wireless router and a letter saying my broadband line would be active sometime on 31st October. Does anyone know whether this means that somehow my o2 account will be cancelled and replaced by Talk Talks one, or do they simply mean that it's ready for use (but disabled like they said on the phone?)

Because I had no intention of changing provider I haven't even tried to get a MAC code from o2. But is there any way Talk Talk could do this without my knowledge or permission? I'd considered Talk Talk last year because of their low prices, but bad reviews of their service put me off at that time. Does anyone here use Talk Talk as an internet provider, and what do you think of them?

Any deal with free broadband is of course enticing, but at the same time I've got a nagging feeling that you only get what you pay for, and if it's free then it won't be any good. But mostly it's the fact that I've received a wireless router which I didn't ask for which has set the alarm bells ringing...

So in a nutshell, is it possible for Talk Talk to cut off my o2 service and replace it with their own even though I don't want it?

[Darren]

I very much doubt it as they would require a MAC code. And you would need to set up billing etc. The best thing to do with cold callers is say "No thanks" and hang up.
You could check with O2 to see if they've been contacted.

As for free broadband, nothing is free these days, and the charges would likely be tacked on somewhere else.
These people are like vultures, with highly confusing (to me) bundles and terms. It's all swings and roundabouts.

Pop on and ask these guys. They seem quite knowledgeable

[Jeff]

I've been with o2 for over a year now, and overall I've been happy with the price, speed and service. I'm in no particular hurry to change at the moment, but why do other operators not take me at my word?

If I said that a petrol station in my neighborhood was giving away petrol if you purchased a cup of coffee, but that I was still paying for petrol across the street and then driving over to pay for my coffee just because I had already been a customer at the other station and feared that the free petrol might not be as good because it was free, you would probably think I was crazy for not at least trying the free petrol... at least most people would.

So in a nutshell, is it possible for Talk Talk to cut off my o2 service and replace it with their own even though I don't want it?

Most likely you will just be able to log onto the internet using either company. You could potentially set up a second internet connection in Start>Control Panel>Network Connections and then log on to either. You could do that to give the free one a trial run to make sure it isn't crap. If you find no fault with it and feel that it is the same quality that you currently have then you could save money by dropping the old provider and you would not lose out. (You might have to send back your current router and install the new one though, if you cancel the old service, but you should be able to use your current router to connect to the Talk Talk service in the meantime using the username and password for their service.) I would test during peak hours using an internet speedometer. Also check for fine print to make sure that the free one is unlimited and that they don't start charging after a certain amount of bandwidth has been reached.

[MacNimon]

An update on my internet provider fiasco...

I should never just have buried my head in the sand and assumed that your provider can't be changed without you getting a MAC code as is widely claimed, I mean how naive is that?!

After I received the unwanted router from Talk Talk, I (stupidly) decided simply not to do anything, being under the impression that if no-one contacted me either from Talk Talk asking for a MAC code, or from o2 informing me that Talk Talk were looking for a MAC code, then nothing would happen. Wrong!!!

The following Monday, my o2 router went inactive and wouldn't connect to the internet. My Network map showed that it was working but simply had no connection. So I plugged in the Talk Talk one, and was surprised to find that it was successfully connected to the Talk Talk network. However, the router that they sent turns out to be useless, if more than one computer is connected to the internet at the same time then we lose the connection, not to mention the fact that it doesn't have a very strong wireless signal.

A little bit more background info before I continue...our o2 broadband account and our Talk Talk phone account were in different names. Everything was in my name at one time, but a year or two back Talk Talk salesmen stopped Mary on the way into our local supermarket, and convinced her to change to Talk Talk; hence the Talk Talk account is in her name, not mine. So that strengthed my belief that nothing would happen with thw broadband access, as I personally hadn't asked for a MAC code, or given permission for anyone else to get one on my behalf. Mary's Talk Talk account and my o2 account were entirely different entities, totally unconnected. It apparently doesn't work like that though...

I emailed (and telephoned) o2 asking how Talk Talk could have taken over my internet connection without my knowledge or permission, and how were they able to get a hold of a MAC code on my behalf without my consent? o2 said that they hadn't...there was no record on my account of any request, from anyone, for a MAC Code or to change provider and stated that my account was still open and active. That still didn't change the fact that my o2 equipment wasn't (and still isn't!) connecting to the internet, while judging by my Windows network map the Talk Talk router was connecting to the Talk Talk network. I then phoned Talk Talk; after waiting for 20 minutes an Asian woman who eventually answered repeatedly told me that "she didn't understand my problem". Assuming that Talk Talk had somehow taken over, I asked to cancel the broadband account. After explaining it all once again to another foreigner who eventually reluctantly told me that they would "allow me to return to o2", I'm still waiting a week later for something to happen.

So at the moment it looks like I'm paying one company for internet I can't access, while paying another company at the same time for internet I don't want to access...

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I'm not entirely sure how having two different internet connections on the same phone line works (if it is on the phoneline), but I'd be surprised if they didn't conflict and interfere with each other. I'd suggest that might be why you can't connect to the o2 connection - talk talk have just shoved theirs on there and its somehow blocking the o2 one even though it isn't turned off.

You should be able to use your old router on the talk talk connection though, if the router they sent you is rubbish, just by copying the settings over. You might find it works fine then and not want to carry on with the o2 one. Or, on principle, you might want to just send some anthrax to talk talk head office.

[MacNimon]

I'm not entirely sure how having two different internet connections on the same phone line works (if it is on the phoneline), but I'd be surprised if they didn't conflict and interfere with each other. I'd suggest that might be why you can't connect to the o2 connection - talk talk have just shoved theirs on there and its somehow blocking the o2 one even though it isn't turned off.

You should be able to use your old router on the talk talk connection though, if the router they sent you is rubbish, just by copying the settings over. You might find it works fine then and not want to carry on with the o2 one. Or, on principle, you might want to just send some anthrax to talk talk head office.

That's a thought. I'll give it a try and see how I get on...

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Are you referring to the anthrax?

[MacNimon]

Are you referring to the anthrax?

Don't tempt me...

[duncan]

I use Sky Broadband and the connection speed is terrible. I regularly test my speed at different times of the day and rarely download any faster than 500kbs per second. I'm paying for up to 20meg!

My phone line can't support above 2meg anyway according to BT but their new fibre optic service will give me up to 16 meg they say.

I updated my AVG anti-virus a couple of weeks ago to the 2011 edition and I did get just over 1 meg for a few days but last night it was back down to lest than 500kbs.

[Dirk Gently]

If you don't mind me asking, who does everyone use for Telephone/broadband?

We are with Tiscali(TalkTalk) & we have a reasonable int.speed & our monthly bill is under £30 for phone/broadband/line rental.

BUT, on the 1st Feb 12:00 we lost our telephone line & it took TalkTalk 12 DAYS to fix it. Which I think is disgusting!
They might be offering a good price but their customer service & technical support stinks!

Any hoo, I'm looking to move to another supplier, but who would be similar in price? Apparently we are going to be getting Fibre Optic available in March and I was wondering if anyone here is on F.O & is it expensive?



P.S, tried looking on that link in Steve's post but it isn't very clear.

[SiHart]

Virgin for both phone and internet here. Never had a problem with them!

[Si Hunt]

Virgin. They are fine for us, although there are some that might understandably be a little offended at their decision to hike up the price of our TiVo by £3.60p a month less than 6 months after us getting it.

Si.

[Awesome Wells]

Virgin. Touch wood, never had a problem in seven years of internettery.

[duncan]

Sky and up until a few weeks ago we were going to switch to BT Infinity. I was only getting half a meg until someone suggested that my router would work better plugged into it's own electricity socket rather than on the esxtension lead. My speed shot up to 6 meg and I am not looking at switching. We went back to BT for our calls though as Sky's are more expensive no matter what they try and say.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I was with Virgin for many years and didn't have any problems with them... right up to the point where I tried to leave where it almost got to the point of debt collectors and legal proceedings before I finally got them to f**k off and stick to the actual terms of the contract. Now I'm with Plusnet which is pretty basic but good, and has a very good help system and customer support.