Author Topic: Best Value Broadband?  (Read 5997 times)

clarion

  • Tyke
Best Value Broadband?
« on: 23 January, 2017, 09:04:05 pm »
We're moving house, so have the opportunity to move to a new supplier.  Currently have it in with our gas & electric via Utility Warehouse, who have been reasonably priced.  But the service we get isn't great, and wasn't previously under BT (so that might point to something hardware-related).

Anyway, if anyone has any hot tips, I'd be interested to hear...

Thanks
Getting there...

Dibdib

  • Fat'n'slow
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #1 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:06:59 pm »
I'd say the starting points are Plusnet (owned by BT but crucially do their own customer service) for cheap-and-servicable broadband, and A&A for spendy-but-excellent.

<blatant plug>let me know if you want a Plusnet referral code</blatant plug>

Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #2 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:08:26 pm »
Sign up to a cashback site like topcashback. See which providers are offering cashback deals.

Origin broadband are/were offering 12 months unlimited broadband and line rental for £170.

Topcashback were offering £35 cashback if you clicked through them.

No brainer.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #3 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:08:37 pm »
Likewise here.
I use A+A here in Aberdeen, but I've gone with PlusNet in the Edinburgh flat, where I can't justify the cost of A+A.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #4 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:10:53 pm »
The obvious question is whether the new place is wired for Verging Media.  They're not the best ISP, obviously (that's AAISP), but they score highly on the use-as-little-BT-as-possible rule.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #5 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:11:46 pm »
Is Plusnet reliable?

And what are the advantages of A&A?
Getting there...

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #6 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:12:44 pm »
The obvious question is whether the new place is wired for Verging Media.  They're not the best ISP, obviously (that's AAISP), but they score highly on the use-as-little-BT-as-possible rule.
Branson gets my hackles up, but there does appear to be a cable TV connection, and we may buckle on that point :-[
Getting there...

Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #7 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:20:25 pm »

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #8 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:23:08 pm »
Advantages of A&A approximate to:

They try to do things properly, rather than compete on price.  They aim never to have congestion on their network, and their prices tend to map directly to the wholesale costs of the products they're providing, rather than bundling things up in 'deals'.
They give customers as much direct access to their automated diagnostics and control systems as possible; you can run your own line tests.
Advanced diagnostics with pretty graphs mean you can tell the difference between, say, a line fault, something dodgy in BT's network or an upstream problem, rather than guessing.
IPv6, static IPs, various clever technical things you aren't likely to care about.
They're the first in line for sticking it to Theresa.
They have Shaun The BT Slayer, who will stop at nothing to kick our-favourite-telco into action over difficult line faults.
They're fully xkcd://806 complaint, and are more than happy to communicate in whatever medium you prefer (SMS even, if necessary).  If you say you've tested something, they'll believe you.
Lunar billing.
There's a cute cat on some of their documentation.

Disadvantages:

Cost
"Arnold who?"
They supply and support broadband (IP telephony, hosting, etc).  They won't help fix your computer.

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #9 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:24:31 pm »
I'd look on those price comparrison sites and see which as the best deal for you.  I recently used uswitch.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #10 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:25:07 pm »
Thanks :)
Getting there...

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #11 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:29:01 pm »


Lots of words that skimmed through and didn't read but then.....

There's a cute cat on some of their documentation.

Er pictures of said cat....Thank you

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #12 on: 23 January, 2017, 09:31:27 pm »


Lots of words that skimmed through and didn't read but then.....

There's a cute cat on some of their documentation.

Er pictures of said cat....Thank you

https://support.aa.net.uk/Information_Pack
He also appears on https://order.aa.net.uk/simorder.cgi?sim=DATA

(They've revamped the websites/documentation several times, but regular customers always demand they keep the cat.)

CrinklyLion

  • The one with devious, cake-pushing ways....
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #13 on: 23 January, 2017, 10:23:06 pm »
I just did a quidco cash back (£80 tracked, waiting supplier confirmation) and have a £150 BT reward card on its way for a broadband/voice package that is costing £6/month on a 12 month contract. Paid the homehub delivery and year's line rental up front - £215 I think - so if it all works out it'll be about under £60 for the year total cost. Obviously this means using BT. I decided to gamble cos I'm a cheapskate.

CrinklyLion

  • The one with devious, cake-pushing ways....
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #14 on: 23 January, 2017, 10:25:56 pm »
And if you aren't already on quidco, say so because someone on here (self included but there's plenty of others I'm sure) will be able to give you a referral link. Currently there's a £20 bonus for making a referral once the recipient earns £5 cash back - the person sending the link can set how much if the £20 they keep and how much you get.

frankly frankie

  • I kid you not
    • Fuchsiaphile
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #15 on: 24 January, 2017, 09:45:05 am »
The obvious question is whether the new place is wired for Verging Media.  They're not the best ISP, obviously (that's AAISP), but they score highly on the use-as-little-BT-as-possible rule.
Branson gets my hackles up, but there does appear to be a cable TV connection, and we may buckle on that point :-[

Virgin are expensive for a broadband-only package, but if you want a cable TV bundle anyway they're not so bad.
However (I have been with Virgin ever since they were Nynex) there is a surprising high incidence of down time, especially in the mornings.  They seem to be forever rolling out improvements to the infrastucture, and this invariably involves a bloke opening the cabinet just down the road and scratching his head a lot.  (And since BT cable arrived, very often the bloke isn't even looking in the right cabinet.)
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Woofage

  • Tofu-eating Wokerati
  • Ain't no hooves on my bike.
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #16 on: 24 January, 2017, 11:29:22 am »
They're fully xkcd://806 complaint

I've decided I need a stuffed penguin doll. Not sure about the photo of the bearded dude though :-\.
Pen Pusher

Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #17 on: 24 January, 2017, 03:44:15 pm »
The obvious question is whether the new place is wired for Verging Media.  They're not the best ISP, obviously (that's AAISP), but they score highly on the use-as-little-BT-as-possible rule.
Branson gets my hackles up, but there does appear to be a cable TV connection, and we may buckle on that point :-[

Virgin are expensive for a broadband-only package, but if you want a cable TV bundle anyway they're not so bad.
However (I have been with Virgin ever since they were Nynex) there is a surprising high incidence of down time, especially in the mornings.  They seem to be forever rolling out improvements to the infrastucture, and this invariably involves a bloke opening the cabinet just down the road and scratching his head a lot.  (And since BT cable arrived, very often the bloke isn't even looking in the right cabinet.)
Um, we have almost Zero downtime.

I suspect that this is region-dependent.
We are on virgin fibre to the cabinet and telephone bundle. No TV.
Not the cheapest deal, but cheap for the capacity we wanted/needed (very high demand household).

MrsC negotiated the deal and we got free installation (engineer said in disbelief "We don't do this free") and V cheap first 6 months. I think the sales person managed to sign us up without handing over their wages but only just. Don't deal with MrsC.

Crinkly's ISP bundle sounds cheaper.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #18 on: 24 January, 2017, 06:00:38 pm »
I just did a quidco cash back (£80 tracked, waiting supplier confirmation) and have a £150 BT reward card on its way for a broadband/voice package that is costing £6/month on a 12 month contract. Paid the homehub delivery and year's line rental up front - £215 I think - so if it all works out it'll be about under £60 for the year total cost. Obviously this means using BT. I decided to gamble cos I'm a cheapskate.

Got the deal the other day, same as you.  But no quidco.

Don't forget to ask for the credit card.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #19 on: 24 January, 2017, 08:40:39 pm »
This is all very useful,  thank you. :)
Getting there...

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #20 on: 24 January, 2017, 09:25:05 pm »
Virgin are expensive for a broadband-only package, but if you want a cable TV bundle anyway they're not so bad.
However (I have been with Virgin ever since they were Nynex) there is a surprising high incidence of down time, especially in the mornings.  They seem to be forever rolling out improvements to the infrastucture, and this invariably involves a bloke opening the cabinet just down the road and scratching his head a lot.  (And since BT cable arrived, very often the bloke isn't even looking in the right cabinet.)
Um, we have almost Zero downtime.

I suspect that this is region-dependent.

I look after a server on a Virgin connection in Nottingham, and the connection seems acceptably stable.  Discounting power failure and planned intervention (moving kit around, etc), I think there have been a couple of proper outages in the last 5 years or so related to area-wide faults, and one line-specific outage related to a bandwidth upgrade that was fixed with a call to support.  Other than that, there's on average a wibble or two a month where it comes back up within a minute or so, which look like maintenance of local non-redundant kit or the router rebooting for some reason (perhaps a firmware upgrade or re-provisioning or something - the router is SEP).

frankly frankie

  • I kid you not
    • Fuchsiaphile
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #21 on: 25 January, 2017, 12:49:42 pm »
However (I have been with Virgin ever since they were Nynex) there is a surprising high incidence of down time,
Um, we have almost Zero downtime.
I look after a server on a Virgin connection in Nottingham, and the connection seems acceptably stable.  Discounting power failure and planned intervention (moving kit around, etc), I think there have been a couple of proper outages in the last 5 years or so related to area-wide faults, and one line-specific outage related to a bandwidth upgrade that was fixed with a call to support.  Other than that, there's on average a wibble or two a month where it comes back up within a minute or so, which look like maintenance of local non-redundant kit or the router rebooting for some reason (perhaps a firmware upgrade or re-provisioning or something - the router is SEP).

I would say, on average about 10 outages per year, of anything from 1 to 7 hours.  They almost invariably kick in at or around 9am, and service is restored sometime after midday.  Phoning support always results in an (automated) "yeah yeah we know about it bear with us" sort of message.
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #22 on: 25 January, 2017, 01:36:39 pm »
The obvious question is whether the new place is wired for Verging Media.  They're not the best ISP, obviously (that's AAISP), but they score highly on the use-as-little-BT-as-possible rule.
They also score highly on the consistently-twice-as-fast-as-the-best-anyone-else-can-do* rule in this street. And a lot faster if you want to pay for it.

*That's comparing the actual, routinely delivered download speed of their basic throttled-back package with the peak download speed offered by others.

PS. Idle curiosity led me to check, & the competition's speeded up a bit. BT (the owner of the other wire into the house) now offers up to 60% of what Virgin's delivering, & guarantees 40%. It's got better.

Note that the Plusnet website is much more sensible than BT's. It recognises that someone may not have a landline telephone number, & that even if not paying for a connection to the BT network may have a BT phone socket - i.e. what it'd use to provide a service.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #23 on: 25 January, 2017, 01:46:49 pm »
Also true, if throughput is important.  IME it's a bit like bike weight:  The exact importance depends on what you're using it for, more speed is nice to have if all else is equal, but mostly it's easily quantified using simple tools, which leads to a great deal of fuss being made about it by marketing to the exclusion of other important factors.

Personally, I'm happy with 10Mbit or so, as long as the latency is good enough for SSH and VOIP and there isn't evil packet loss.  A bit more than 1Mbit upstream would be nice (but not nice enough to justify the cost of Annex M or FTTC, or the downgrade to Virgin).  But then I'm not eg. a family of gamers (who also care about latency, but only after the umpty gigabytes of updates have downloaded).


(And then you get providers like BT retail obfuscating the matter by wittering on about the WiFi performance of their supplied router.  Which is a bit like Brompton not supplying a pump on the titanium models.)

Re: Best Value Broadband?
« Reply #24 on: 25 January, 2017, 01:56:20 pm »
We used to have a problem with often getting much less than the advertised speed - & this being noticeable, especially at peak usage times of day. There were a couple of spells of it building up, then dropping back sharply & the advertised rate returning. Local network upgrades, perhaps? A nice fat margin seemed like a good idea after that. Our current download speed hasn't budged since we got it, though. It's more than enough, but I'm not tempted to switch to something slower, just in case.

I ought to sort out some better diagnostics in case they're needed, though.

However (I have been with Virgin ever since they were Nynex) there is a surprising high incidence of down time,
Um, we have almost Zero downtime.
I look after a server on a Virgin connection in Nottingham, and the connection seems acceptably stable.  Discounting power failure and planned intervention (moving kit around, etc), I think there have been a couple of proper outages in the last 5 years or so related to area-wide faults, and one line-specific outage related to a bandwidth upgrade that was fixed with a call to support.  Other than that, there's on average a wibble or two a month where it comes back up within a minute or so, which look like maintenance of local non-redundant kit or the router rebooting for some reason (perhaps a firmware upgrade or re-provisioning or something - the router is SEP).

I would say, on average about 10 outages per year, of anything from 1 to 7 hours.  They almost invariably kick in at or around 9am, and service is restored sometime after midday.  Phoning support always results in an (automated) "yeah yeah we know about it bear with us" sort of message.
Odd. Must be a local problem, though I don't see why one area would be so affected.

IIRC we had one outage last year, & it came back just as I was thinking about phoning up. Less than an hour from when noticed. We're online a lot, what with my work coming from Japan & Mrs B liking to watch Japanese TV programmes, so we'd be likely to spot anything that wasn't in the early hours.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897