Best UK internet provider

[Deleted]

So ill be moving to England soon and im wondeing what you guys think is the best internet provider over there based on price, quality and speed.

[Grym]

Virgin.

If you can can afford it, they released their 100MB line.

If not, 50MB is at a very reasonable price these days.

[sennzlol]

BE*

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[Beav]

Sky broadband is fine - 3 years now in a couple of different locations in the UK and never had an outage.

Only problem is that they are the most useless company during the installation phase. 3.5 months it took to get it installed in my current flat.

[CarlingBlackLabel]

I'd agree that Virgin is very good but not everywhere can get the 50/100meg services as not everywhere has been cabled yet so depending on the area you move to, you may be limited to a slower speed.

[Grym]

Sky is still on copper pair, so you won't really get more than 20MB, and horrid cusomter service, and yes I have a friend that work there, even working for them he would recommend people to stay the hell away from them.

If you want fast line, Virgin, but they are slightly more expensive than other ISP out there, but then in the end, you get what you paid for.

[Deleted]

Ive been looking arounsxand im deciding between Virgin, TalkTalk and Sky.

[Grym]

I'd agree that Virgin is very good but not everywhere can get the 50/100meg services as not everywhere has been cabled yet so depending on the area you move to, you may be limited to a slower speed.

If Virgin hasn't got the area he moving to fibre'd, neither would Openreach (BT's side company that deals with all lines and ISP since Sky and most other ISP out there rent line from them). So Virgin most likely still be best choice.

[Jessicka]

BTInternet, been with them 12 years or so, only 2 prolongued outages. Their fibre optic Infinity package is decently priced for it's speed. I'm surprised anyone recommended Virgin, all I hear from guildies about them is QQ about their bad customer service, bandwidth throttling and overall shitty performance. :s

[Aqua]

Virgin IF you're near the fibre optic cabling,if so screw every other company. They have all disappointed.

And sorry guy above me but BT have consistently pushed me down to under a megabit of speed when they feel they can get away with it causing me to to have to call up angrily for over a week to get it fixed over and over and over again. It's terrible service and the indians on the line sadly have no idea what they are doing.

The have quite literally had to concede to me not paying my bill on 2 occasions due to failure to provide the service listed in the contract (Over 2mb's at least)

[Rend Blackhand]

BT has been quality for me

[Grym]

Stay away from TalkTalk and Sky, they are both LLU and use BT's line, which is still mostly on copper pair. I already mentioned Sky's customer service is horrid, TalkTalk is even worse as their DSLAM cause loads of issues and they never want to admit it.

[Krillen]

Definately Virgin, however there customer support is utter useless to, but come to think of it,, they all are!!

Personally I think it depends on what you need in terms of speed, the price that you can pay per month and also the area your moving to...

Virgin are the fastest but it comes at a cost, all the rest are basically the same but I personally would place BT above Sky, Talk Talk etc. I would say do some research on the area your moving to, I think you only need the postal code and you will be able to see what line you can have to individual companies.

My verdict will be Virgin though..

[Grym]

BTInternet, been with them 12 years or so, only 2 prolongued outages. Their fibre optic Infinity package is decently priced for it's speed. I'm surprised anyone recommended Virgin, all I hear from guildies about them is QQ about their bad customer service, bandwidth throttling and overall shitty performance. :s

20MB+ line does not get throttled, if anything BT throttle their line MORE.

BT habve much worse customer service especially their BB team is now offshore, some of them can be as clueless as "what is a line card" when you call them when their card in the exchange had a problem.

And if you wondered I have worked in the broadband industry before, and yes I had lots of dealing with nearly all the ISPs

[Hilson8]

Don't go near TalkTalk, there just all around crap. But it depends on where you live in the UK, some places ISPs are better then others but its the opposite somewhere else in the country. But I heard Virgin are good to.

[Deleted]

what area are you moving to? because not everywhere can get fiber optic lines, where i live there are only 3 providers, and all of them use BTs line, and the speeds are aweful, but if you're moving to london or another major city i would suggest Virgin media.
i would say stay away from BT, i am with them now, and for months now ive had an internet problem where every 5-10mins i get massive lag spike, the interenet basiaclly cuts out for a few seconds, and BT say theres nothing wrong with my internet, and their customer support does not speak English, so i would stay away from them.

---------- Post added 2011-08-12 at 01:58 PM ----------

but don't expect amazing internet in England, its terrible compared to most other western European countries i think. where are you moving from?

[fianene]

While i am loathed to say virgin (being a virgin customer myself) they are what i consider the lesser of two evils.

Sky and Bt as some have mentioned are still using copper pairs to transmit their Net, virgin while being an annoyance to talk to etc are as far as im aware the only truly unlimited bandwidth provider. With my work i download in excess of the bandwidth id get from another provider.

Im running their 30mbit connection, its more than id ever need tbh with most things dl'ng at around 3.7MB/s.

As i said though, they can be a complete pain to speak too, and i tend to keep a careful eye on my bill as they have been known to add some "charges" from time to time.

Additionally the "connection" fees etc dont seem too bad compared to others, i tried to go to BT when i moved home but the £120 reconnection fee was just absurd

[Grym]

all the rest are basically the same but I personally would place BT above Sky, Talk Talk etc..

That is because TalkTalk and Sky LLU BT lines.

LLU - using existing line that is already out there (which owned by BT since ancient time), from the exchange all the way to end user permesis. In the exchange, instead of plugged onto the BT equipment, it is diverted to a DLSAM that is connected to equipment that is owned by other ISPs.

In short: if you have problem with a TalkTalk line, you will call them, then they call Openreach (the team that deals with the ownership of the line as they not allowed to be called BT for fair competition purpose, but in the end they are just part of BT all the same), they then send out engineer, fix stuff, then tell TalkTalk, then TalkTalk let you know when everything is resolved. If fault is outside on the line, easy to fix, if fault is in exchange near DSLAM, good luck waiting for Openreach and the ISP to argue who's responsibility that is.

Virgin own their own lines which makes things a lot easier, BT also own their own lines, but slow on the line building and after knowing the how their team function, I wouldn't go there myself.

[Deleted]

Im going live somewhere in London deffenetly and my dad seems to like lambeth.

[Deleted]

That is because TalkTalk and Sky LLU BT lines.

LLU - using existing line that is already out there (which owned by BT since ancient time), from the exchange all the way to end user permesis. In the exchange, instead of plugged onto the BT equipment, it is diverted to a DLSAM that is connected to equipment that is owned by other ISPs.

In short: if you have problem with a TalkTalk line, you will call them, then they call Openreach (the team that deals with the ownership of the line as they not allowed to be called BT for fair competition purpose, but in the end they are just part of BT all the same), they then send out engineer, fix stuff, then tell TalkTalk, then TalkTalk let you know when everything is resolved. If fault is outside on the line, easy to fix, if fault is in exchange near DSLAM, good luck waiting for Openreach and the ISP to argue who's responsibility that is.

Virgin own their own lines which makes things a lot easier, BT also own their own lines, but slow on the line building and after knowing the how their team function, I wouldn't go there myself.

Openreach are the most useless engineers in my experience, we had one come round when we first changed to BT, they took over a month to connect us, was meant to take 24hours, and the first engineer that came round, i had to show him how to connect to the internet on my pc, and then how to use chrome / firefox. and all he did was run some speedtests, and changed the router. the speedtests were getting like 60kb/s download, he basiaclly said, he doesnt know whats wrong he will get back to us . the problem fixed it self eventually, now i have the problem of the connection dropping every 5-10mins. yay for BT.
but i have given up wringing them, they just pass you between different departments, and say theres nothing wrong with it. and just make me run speedtests

---------- Post added 2011-08-12 at 02:07 PM ----------

Im going live somewhere in London deffenetly and my dad seems to like lambeth.

you shouldnt have too much problem in london, you should be able to get virgins 50+ line i think. where are you moving from?