UK Internet Provider

Milanista

Milanista

Mangiamoli!
19 December 2002
London & Milan
AC Milan
Hey guys, time has flown and I'm soon moving into a flat in London with 2 friends. We were looking at some options for broadband, but don't have much knowledge about the UK ISPs. Anyone care to tell me about the alternatives and speeds+prices?

So far I've found Bulldog, 16mb, unlimited, 1mb upload for 2 pounds a week.... totalling to £24.5 a month.

bethere has 24mb for £24!
 
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Thanks for the reply coopz. We thought about Sky initially, but none of us have a TV and at the moment it seems none of us need/want Sky. We're looking for broadband only bundles as we'd sacrifice television for fast internet.
 
I'd love that Sky broadband package, the price is excellent, but when you add the Sports package the price goes through the roof, and when you add the HD box it goes through the roof of the roof. :(

The best UK company I could find Milanista (I had to change at the start of the year) was Eclipse Broadband. They are great, nice fast broadband and if anything goes wrong the customer service is amazing (the first every customer service I've ever been 100% happy with). The only thing is that I was given a secret limit of 8gb a month, which I'm not happy with...

It's £23.99 a month for their second-from-top-of-the-range package and it was the cheapest and most reliable broadband supplier available at the time.

By the way, do not even consider Bulldog. They are the second most complained about ISP in UK history, just after NTL (aka NThell). A general rule of thumb that you should ALWAYS think about with ISPs is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is (I was previously with a broadband company called E7even which was dirt cheap, and when it died after eight months, it took a court action before its users could even switch ISP again because E7even refused to give us MAC codes - DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID!).
 
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how is the reliability of Sky? (the unlimited 16MB line)

Telewest Blueyonder was actually very reliable, then it got terrible when it became Virgin.

Perhaps the only benefit of cable internet was the free support phone call - I absolutely hate 0870 numbers!!! :(
 
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Milanista said:
Seeing as Bulldog is £24.50 for 16mb unlimited, https://www.bethere.co.uk/ have 24mb unlimited for £24. Do you know much about them?
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I searched on Google for "Bethere problems" and this was the first thing I found:

I'm signed up with Be, not happy at all :( I signed up 1st Sept, and about the 14th I rang to ask how long it would be, not cos I was annoyed, just to know. They said it takes 3 weeks, so the 21st. I mentioned on the phone it was a bit of a con, as they advertised the month of September free, but there would only be a little over a week left. The reply I got was: “Yeah. [pause] Yeah…..” On the 24th I called again, they said there had been a delay; it would be 6 days, the 30th. I said they should’ve told me that, and I shouldn’t have to contact them, and also that the free month would be none existent. The guy didn’t apologise, and said he would put a note on my account; whatever good that does me I’m not sure. I wrote a “ticket” voicing my complaint on the website and waited. On the 30th I got an email saying I would receive my modem on the 6th Oct, when my account would be activated. I was also given a site to track the delivery of my modem, which didn’t work at any point. On the 4th they took the money and sent me another mail saying my order had been delayed to the 6th, the date they had already sent me. Modem arrived on the 5th, on the 6th there was no connection and I got a mail saying the ticket in my name had been resolved (I had received no response/explanation/apology, they had not done ANYTHING I had asked). On the 7th I got a mail saying there had been more delays, I would be connected on the 11th and given a free month. By now I had spent over £50 on a temporary dialup connection over 2 weeks. I wrote another longer complaint, voicing all my concerns and again asking for an explanation. On the 11th there was no connection, and I rang up at 15:00 and was on hold for 15 minutes before I hung up. After a phone call on the 12th, my connection came on about 21:00. The next day I got a mail saying the ticket in my name had been resolved, although the only point they had addressed was the connection coming on.
I’ve been on for 5 days now, the speed tests come in between 2 and 8 Mbps down (should be 24) and 1Mbps up (as advertised) plus the line drops at least four times every hour, sometimes six or eight, resulting in a two minute modem reset or a five minute wait before the connection is re-established. Sooooo annoying.
I would advise anyone thinking about joining up to avoid it like the plague. The free modem is a good deal, but if the line doesn’t sort itself out soon I will cancel at the earliest opportunity, which is unfortunately 3 months down the line.

Weaver
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There looks to be tons of problems with it, plus the call-centre is in India, which is never, ever a good thing (three hours of "have you tried rebooting? I will wait while you reboot. Sir, I appreciate you have rebooted already but I have not heard you reboot. Sir, I can not provide any further solutions until I hear you reboot. Please reboot sir.")...

Milanista said:
Eclipse sounds good, but an 8gb usage limit is putting me off! Is the limit per day or per month?
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HAH! Per DAY?! I wish!!

The service is great, very rarely had any drops in the line, and the speed is always good. They are by far the best ISP I've had (and I've gone through 5 in 10 years). It's just a shame about the limit.

EDIT: The best place for looking at UK ISPs is ThinkBroadband.com, they list all of the providers, charges per month etc. and even reviews. This is the place where I found Eclipse from.

EDIT 2: I've just done some research and Eclipse have actually upped the 8gb thing (which I never knew!!) to 40gb a month!!

The Eclipse options are Evolution Broadband 1, 2, 3 or 4 (which are £14.99, £18.99, £24.99 and £29.99 a month respectively). I am on option 3, which is 40gb a month, whereas with option 4 you get 50gb a month. If you go over the limit (which, again, I didn't know), you're charged £1.49 per extra gigabyte.
 
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I would reccomend Be! It is fudging amazing, amazing speeds. The call centres are UK AFAIK, and it is better than Bulldog. I know many mates with it, and I find it aweseome, some mates get 20mb speeds, other 16mb etc.

The amount of people who have had problems with BeThere and in the VERY minority.
 
Jack Bauer said:
I'd love that Sky broadband package, the price is excellent, but when you add the Sports package the price goes through the roof, and when you add the HD box it goes through the roof of the roof. :(
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£47 a month is good for saying your getting all the channels apart from the movies.

the downsdie is the 199 for the box, but i tell you know and i know many would Sky+ is a godsend i would now be lost without it

rockykabir said:
how is the reliability of Sky? (the unlimited 16MB line)
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At first i had a few problems becuase i got it when it first came out but now its first class

you cant beat download speeds of 1500kbs uncapped :)
 
Milanista said:
Thanks for the reply coopz. We thought about Sky initially, but none of us have a TV and at the moment it seems none of us need/want Sky. We're looking for broadband only bundles as we'd sacrifice television for fast internet.
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how do you play video games?
 
I have a special TV tuner for my widescreen laptop that lets me play my 360 on widescreen. For now its sufficient as I dont play games that much. I'm waiting for big releases before I invest in a new tv for myself.
 
I'd recommend eclipse, if you can't get be (as I can't) - I chose option 2 for 18.99 which has unlimited dls at off peak and 30gb at peak, upto 8mbs service. Still crap compared to 3 years ago when on 12mb service in Japan. Now they of course, are on unimaginable speeds compared to here.
 
There was a documentary about these magic boxes in France that deliver phone, TV and broadband at some ridiculous speed (it was either 10x or 100x faster than our fastest home broadband lines).

France is only over the water; when will we catch up??
 
I think France use ADSL2+ all over, unlike UK which is majority ADSL still. They get like 15mbs+ speeds, like ThomasGOAL!
 
If you can, as it's down to where you live, go for Virgin, their Cable service is excellent and even their ADSL isn't bad, plus no bandwidth caps.
 
Im with Virgin 10m £17:99 a month i can always max out my speeds, but crappy uplaod! I didnt know Virgin did ADSL?
 
We're gonna go Sky in a few days when we move home. I think we will live under 1km from a BT hub so we'll be eligible for Sky Max 16Mb (thankfully). TBH, anything is better than the shabby service they have here in Egypt with 16 people sharing a 2Mb line lol

How are Sky's support team? is the service reliable? do they give a wireless router btw? (or can we use our own?)
 
Mmmm...! Wait for it rk.

Sky is very dodgy, some happy stories, some very sad stories.

Can you recieve BeThere?
Check with postocode: https://www.bethere.co.uk/

That is what I am moving to, just need to get my MAC code.
Be is very good, no capping and great customer service. And very reliable, and not such a large userbase unlike Sky, Tiscali, Virgin etc. so they can look after their customers. :)
 
rockykabir said:
We're gonna go Sky in a few days when we move home. I think we will live under 1km from a BT hub so we'll be eligible for Sky Max 16Mb (thankfully). TBH, anything is better than the shabby service they have here in Egypt with 16 people sharing a 2Mb line lol

How are Sky's support team? is the service reliable? do they give a wireless router btw? (or can we use our own?)
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I have been on there BB service since it started and had no problems as yet

actually the only problems i had is with there router. Its a netgear wireless router that is known for its bugs and mine used to need restarting everyday but its fine now

you will get a netgear wireless router. They wont let you use your own and they wont give you your username and password (they only give you a user and pass to log onto sky.com), but there is ways around it if you do want to use your own :)
 
I've been on the Sky Connect £5 a month since February. Up to 8mb but really averages 6-7. 40 gig a month limit which is about twice as much as I use. I have had no trouble at all since I had it. To my knowledge it's gone down 3 times since I got it but each time was back again within 15 mins. Compared to my last ISP (NTL) it's a dream and dirt cheap.
 
A 75-year-old Swedish woman currently has the fastest broadband connection in the world.

Sigbritt Löthberg, from Karlstad in central Sweden, enjoys a massive 40Gbps connection - many thousand times faster than the average connection speed delivered to homes. It's the first time such a high speed as ever been delivered to a home user anywhere in the world.

Sigbritt has only recently taking up computing. She is the mother of Swedish 'internet legend' Peter Löthberg, who arranged the connection along with the local council's network department.

"This is more than just a demonstration," said Hafsteinn Jonsson, network manager at Karlstad Stadsnät.

"As a network owner we're trying to persuade internet operators to invest in faster connections. And Peter Löthberg wanted to show how you can build a low price, high capacity line over long distances," Jonsson told The Local .

1,500 HDTV channels

Sigbritt is now able to enjoy 1,500 high-definition HDTV channels simultaneously. Or, if she doesn't find anything to watch there, there's also the option of downloading a full high-definition DVD in just two seconds.

The ultra-fast connection speed has been achieved by a new modulation technology. It allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000 kilometres apart, without any intermediary transponders.

The distance is, in theory, unlimited - there is no data loss as long as the fibre is in place, according to Karlstad Stadsnät.

"I want to show that there are other methods than the old fashioned ways such as copper wires and radio, which lack the possibilities that fibre has," said Peter Löthberg, who works at Cisco.

The fibre technology behind such high speed connections is "technically and commercially viable," Jonsson said.

"The most difficult part of the whole project was installing Windows on Sigbritt's PC," Jonsson added.




I bet thats more than £24.99 a month...
 
Right, my Eclipse contract is up next month, and I've been looking elsewhere to see if I can get a better deal (it's currently £25/month, 40gb - which is a pain in the arse to keep to, would be nice to get unlimited).

I've had a look around for the last month or so and the only two candidates that stick out are Sky and BT - and seeing as the cost of Sky is astronomical (especially if you want the HD box, which we would - no point having it otherwise), it's looking like BT.

FULL DETAILS
(in brief, £25/month after initial offer price, unlimited)

You can also get BT Vision with it for £30, meaning that you can pay £4 any month that you choose and watch any Premier League match you want (five hours after it finishes - but still, I love that, because you could watch your favourite team every week instead of watching Man United, then Chelsea, then Man United, then Arsenal)...

EDIT: Just realised, the Home Hub is a pain in the arse. It's a router, and a phone charger. So it would have to be in my bedroom and in the hall at once - which is completely stupid, I don't want the main house phone in my bedroom. Plus, it's a crap router, because it only has two ethernet ports. I've got three things plugged into my router at the moment, four if I end up getting a PS3.

But anyway, what are people's opinions on BT broadband?

Just noticed that Tesco Broadband also charge £25/month for unlimited, are they any good?
 
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Look at Be24(BeThere), they are very GOOD!
www.bethere.co.uk

Very reliable, obviosuly you won't get 24mbs (but some people do get very close) but good speeds still. You get a free ADSL2+ Wireless Router and unlimited (FUP, but I hear many people doing 200GB+ without any trouble). But the thing is, not many exchanges are covered by Be.
 
Unbelievably, there's several exchanges quite close to me (one is 3.5 miles away) that are "Be compatible". I don't like how they don't tell you what speed to expect, though. You just pump your phone number in and it says "yes, you can use us - just fill in your payment details", no speed information or anything.
 
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Virgin are now pulling a swift one on there customers betwenn the hours of 16:30 and 0:00 all speed upload and download are cut in half, to help the network! Not happy!
 
Well bugger me, I rang Be this morning to see what speed they could offer me (I live 3.5 miles away from the exchange), and they reckon the fastest line-speed I could get is 5mb. :|

What a disappointment!!
 
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