Internet & Phone Providers..What's Best?

[Barn Owl]

Can anyone advise on which is best value for money?

I'm with BT for internet and phone with a monthly DD of £88.

My Sky costs me £98 per month.

I'm thinking of moving it all to sky or taking the phone and net with Virgin.

Anyone help?

Thanks,
Tom.

 

[Stuart69]

I'm with Sky for everything Tam and think it's pretty good.

TV costs me £59 a month
Net is £10 a month minus £5 because I have the phone too so £5 a month (that's 8MB speed but going to 20MB in June)
Phone is £11 line rental and £5 for talk unlimited

so a total of £80 a month for the lot. If you need any more info send me a PM mate.

 

[DavidJT]

"Which" is your friend, but charges. Well worth it through possible savings though IMHO...

http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/categories/index.jsp

 

[MrEd]

i have heard that 'internet service prowidings' are good, see the fone(jacker) book

 

[Tadpole]

Go with Virgin
their XL package (20mg broadband 165 channels TV and Phone (with unlimited weekend calls)) plus a v box and HD is £46 a month

 

[Melonfish]

I'm on virgin, phone line (unlimited weekend calls), 10mb internet (no caps), V+ tv with HD and record features (XL pack and disney added) £49 a month.
free install and free box? why bother with the others

 

[JDO330]

Maybe take a look at www.moneysavingexpert.co.uk, he does reasonable comparisons on such things?

 

[neoaliphant]

Virgin and Sky are only available in certain areas, in others they work out as not very cost efficient

Im an ISP but Im expensive so I wouldnt use me

A good deal at the moment is with Plusnet, about £25 a month for line rental + BBand + unlimited phone calls and a free wireless router

Post office are quite reasonable as well

For business use freeola/entanet are good

Al

 

[Barn Owl]

Thanks all.

 

[poddle]

Just moved my phone from BT to Primus,
Now paying £8 a month for phone including line rental and including free weekend and evening calls, BT evening and weekend hours are shorter than others( they changed it on the sly from 6pm to 7pm)

I now only pay 3p a minute for calls instead of 5p.
If you have you phone with BT you almost certainly paying way over the odds.

 

[Paul_B]

Home phone is BT but don't really use it much and only on the free evenings and weekends. My mobile is with o2 (work and peronal ones). My personal mobie is on pay as you go on O2 and I top up £15 every other month and £10 in between. That means every other month I get free calls to land lines and O2 mobiles and free texts to O2 mobiles. Since I seem to have most friends on O2 (those that aren't get contacted by facebook on works BB which costs me nowt and the company nowt when at home or anywhere I get wifi by piggy backing on other's connections - I check out any unprotected wifi whenever I'm waiting or sat a round somewhere). I think O2 is ok but not as good as Orange.

Anyhow, I'm on Orange mobile internet at the mo and it is pretty consistent at 1.3mb/s speed apart from last night when it was at 56.3kb/s for some annoying reason. I couldn't load anything. I have it on a rolling 30 day so its not really on contract (same priice as a similar 18 month contract only I bought the dongle). I am ok with it but it is probably not really a good deal at £14/month I think.

I am in an area where Vrigin is not and generally mobile reception is patchy for most networks. I live north of Lancaster in a small town. It should be better. I could go to BT and I reckon broadband speed would be better as I am about 500 metres from an exchange. That should make for good speeds.

I don't have Sky and would never get it on principle that it is part of Murdoch's empire. I am a late comer to broadband but have been on the net for a very long time both on my own dial up then on works internet (also broadband). Since I only have a works laptop I am loathe to get my own broadband hence the 30 day rolling contract. I can cancel in a quicker timescale than my notice period at work. If anyone knows any good internet deal that can be got out of quickly and easily please let me know. Reason is I don't have own pc or laptop and don't have spare cash for that and the outdoors gear and activities I'd rather spend it on so if I leave work or get my works laptop replaced with a desktop when next upgraded I would be stuck paying for broadband without anything to use it.

 

[rik_uk3]

I switched from BT to talktalk over a year ago and have had no problems at all plus the broadband speed shot up. £18.48 a month includes broadband, line rental, wireless router and phone calls. I pay a couple of quid more for free international calls so I can call friends overseas for nothing, its nice talking to mates in the States, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Germany, Australia and New Zealand without relying on them having Skype.

http://broadband.talktalk.co.uk/products/broadband/essentials

 

[jamalex]

If you are in a Virgin fibre area and you are a heavy internet user it is unbeatable. We just moved and lost our XL package but it was fast, reliable and great support when needed. Would go with them again if in a fibre area. BT's new fibre rollout covers pretty much the same area and sky will use that but it is late and still not as good as virgin speeds. We are using plusnet now and they were excellent to deal with. Different call packages to choose from and data bandwidths, but no telly. I would ask what channels you really want? Can you get the content any other way?

I advised my parents to get plusnet but they went for talktalk and after 3 months and many phone calls by them and myself and still do not have the service connected. Not impressed with their support at all.

Paul_B have you thought about a £200-£220 netbook? I've got one that is great to use and plan on taking next time I'm camping out. Plan on using the dongle to be really sad and upload photos whilst out! My model when fully charged should last 10 hours, with a dongle and slot for the memory card from my camera and weighs 1.2 kg. If i get on alright will post back here.

 

[Badger74]

I'm with TalkTalk for phone and broadband for the past few years and haven't had any major problems and I'm quite happy. I'm another will never get Sky out of principle, we don't have cable for Virgin in my village and BT is too expensive.

 

[Walks with dogs]

Another with Talk Talk here. Great value, appalling customer service though.