I know we've had these discussions before, but as I'm now on a rolling Sky contract, I'm looking to change providers and remove that from my Sky packge. I'll be removing Sky Sports at the end of the season, as nothing on during the summer that interests me.

For reference, I'm paying:
Sky Optic: £13.20 +
Sky Talk Line Rental: £18.99
= £32.19

The Internet hardly ever goes 'down', but I'm sure I could find a provider just as reliable that's half the price.

I'd also need to take into account any setting up fees if there are any.

Note: Virgin Media is not currently available in my area.

Edit: Just done a comparison search and Talk Talk is quoting £22.95 a month with 36mb speed, which is about what I get currently.

I'm with BT Frank,I think they are all much of a muchness,and lie through their teeth at the speeds they are providing......internet provider's ........Meh!

Sky

BT - had a few and they are by far the best we have ever had. They have even been oferring to sort out a speed problem that I don't actually have. My internet is fast enough at nearly 40 but they say it should be over 50 and they have standards they want to keep up. They want to send another specialist engineer around to sort it free of charge but I don't want to have time off work to sort out a problem I don't really have. Good of them to keep trying though. They are also exceedingly easy to get hold of as well, pretty instant answer of the phone and nearly always a British call centre (unless they are very busy but that's rare). I would recommend them to anyone. I also have our mobile contracts with them now - unlimited calls and texts and 4 gig data for £6 per month (my wife has same but 12 gig data for £9). SIM only of course and you have to be a BT Plus customer.

To put this into context we were with Sky before and we live in a poor internet area - Sky struggled to keep it above 5.

houseboy wrote:BT - had a few and they are by far the best we have ever had. They have even been oferring to sort out a speed problem that I don't actually have. My internet is fast enough at nearly 40 but they say it should be over 50 and they have standards they want to keep up. They want to send another specialist engineer around to sort it free of charge but I don't want to have time off work to sort out a problem I don't really have. Good of them to keep trying though. They are also exceedingly easy to get hold of as well, pretty instant answer of the phone and nearly always a British call centre (unless they are very busy but that's rare). I would recommend them to anyone. I also have our mobile contracts with them now - unlimited calls and texts and 4 gig data for £6 per month (my wife has same but 12 gig data for £9). SIM only of course and you have to be a BT Plus customer.

To put this into context we were with Sky before and we live in a poor internet area - Sky struggled to keep it above 5.

How much do you pay for the Broadband?

Apart from Virgin, the rest of them all rent from BT don't they?
That's why I find it isn't much of a muchness between suppliers.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:Apart from Virgin, the rest of them all rent from BT don't they?
That's why I find it isn't much of a muchness between suppliers.

Yeah. If your speeds aren't up to much then upgrade your router.

You can get unlimited mobile Internet from Three for 23 quid a month.
Take it anywhere you want. Reduce your mobile phone package by doing it.

Plusnet, £5 per month on fibre and you can save money by paying your line rental upfront.

Quickenthetempo wrote:You can get unlimited mobile Internet from Three for 23 quid a month.

Does that involve using your mobile as a hotspot to connect to laptop/pc/tv?

FactualFrank wrote:Does that involve using your mobile as a hotspot to connect to laptop/pc/tv?

No

Just google it. I don't know if it classes as a dongle, mobile router or what. Needs charging regular though.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:Apart from Virgin, the rest of them all rent from BT don't they?
That's why I find it isn't much of a muchness between suppliers.

+1 to this - TalkTalk sometimes use their own lines, too.

I'd use a broadband availability checker such as samknows.com to see what is available in your area. Using your landline number will provide the most accurate availability on up/down speeds and availability of service.

Worth bearing in mind (Virgin Media aside) all 'Fibre' consumer services are only fibre to the green box on your road then it's copper wire into your building. This is called Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) - a handy phrase to know if you want to show your ISP you know what you're on about and prevent them trying to rip you off.

I'd suggest going with a provider that resells the BT FTTC product but with the level of support you want. You should get this for under £30 including line rental - 40mbps down and 10 mbps up.

I've found what looks like a decent offer as I've been with Three for about 20 years. £8 a month for 20GB of data via the Huawei E5573bs-322 4G Wireless Router. Unsure on speed though.

I also currently get 12GB of data with my phone contract but the downside to that is the messing about connecting to my phone every time I use the computer (most days). Also, the speed is around 12 mbps, as opposed to 35-36 I get currently with Sky.

18 quid a month ee broadband and bt phone line..been pretty decent to.. wanted virgin originally but not provided in our area..

Plusnet is owned by BT and uses the same hardware.

BT.

I'm with Hyperoptic after leaving talk talk. We were paying for 30mb and getting less than 1mb with talk talk.

I now pay £17.99 (we don't have to pay line rental with hyperoptic) for 30mb and we get about 35mb consistently. They wire the fibre to a unit within your building as well to guarantee high speed Internet.

You can actually get £25 off your bills if you are referred so if anyone is interested let me refer you and we both save some money!

May not be available in Burnley yet mind...

https://www.hyperoptic.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Talk Talk fibre speed boost. 50-65 mbps . £27 pm. Never a problem.

FactualFrank wrote:How much do you pay for the Broadband?

Total bill is about £52 but that includes broadband, mobiles, landline and BT TV (which I get free as we only get the internet channels as we don't have an arial). Got BT sport free for 6 months as well when I joined. New customers get excellent deals and, unlike Sky, loyalty is rewarded. You negotiate your contract every 12 months and they give current deals to existing customers, not just new ones. You need to get in touch with them or look online at current broadband deals but I think it can be had for about £20-odd but not sure. The smart hub is excellent as well with excellent wi-fi connection and speed. I think we pay about £35 for broadband but that is because we got an upgrade to the latest smart hub and moved from Infinty 1 to 2. Nothing in our area comes close to it for speed because as I said we are in a poor-ish area for broadband.

Worth noting that if you are on BT Plus you DON'T have to pay for engineer visits either (unlike having to argue the toss and threaten to leave with Sky).

£129 per month with Virgin Media. 200mb broadband speed. However, I'm about to contact them to reduce the price or move elsewhere. Apparently the Post Office do great broadband deals. Anyone use them?

Christ, what a rigmarole it is talking to Three! The service is fine, so long as you never have to call them.

I was interested in this deal:
http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices/Huawei/HomeFi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

With Sky, I get 36 mbps or there about - with Three, I'm guessing it'll be the same as what my mobile broadband connects to, which is currently 10 mbps. It's also a 2 year contract, so not convinced.

karatekid wrote:Talk Talk fibre speed boost. 50-65 mbps . £27 pm. Never a problem.

I missed this post. That seems decent.

Is it this one? https://www.talktalk.co.uk/shop/broadba ... speedboost" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's showing as £25.45.

LDNBFC87 wrote:+1 to this - TalkTalk sometimes use their own lines, too.

I'd use a broadband availability checker such as samknows.com to see what is available in your area. Using your landline number will provide the most accurate availability on up/down speeds and availability of service.

https://availability.samknows.com/broad ... nd_checker" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not sure where it shows the up/down speeds, that you've mentioned?

LDNBFC87 wrote:+1 to this - TalkTalk sometimes use their own lines, too.

I'd use a broadband availability checker such as samknows.com to see what is available in your area. Using your landline number will provide the most accurate availability on up/down speeds and availability of service.

Worth bearing in mind (Virgin Media aside) all 'Fibre' consumer services are only fibre to the green box on your road then it's copper wire into your building. This is called Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) - a handy phrase to know if you want to show your ISP you know what you're on about and prevent them trying to rip you off.

I'd suggest going with a provider that resells the BT FTTC product but with the level of support you want. You should get this for under £30 including line rental - 40mbps down and 10 mbps up.

The openreach network also does fibre to the home not just virgin, but this is usually just on new builds, it's available if your property is conected and most aren't. This is why virgin isn't available at most property's.

Virgin aside your service provider will give you a guaranteed minimum speed, and this will be very similar regardless of who you're with as they all use the same network. That is the speed to your master socket, the difference is the equipment they provide you with. Nobody will garuntee you a speed over WiFi. But only BT can guarantee you a wifi Conection in every room and their latest routers cover the largest distance.

FactualFrank wrote:I missed this post. That seems decent.

Is it this one? https://www.talktalk.co.uk/shop/broadba ... speedboost" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's showing as £25.45.

Yeah that's what I have. I have the standard router but that offer is for the super hub which is even better. Good price for that package.

karatekid wrote:Yeah that's what I have. I have the standard router but that offer is for the super hub which is even better. Good price for that package.

Nice one thanks. I think so far, this is the best deal I've seen.

Any idea how long it took for the router to arrive and for everything to be all singing and dancing? Ideally, I'd like to take the Sky broadband off before 5th May.

It usually takes around 2 weeks, place the order with the new service provider and that will cancel the services with sky. If you place a cancelation order with sky first it will delay the process, and you will end up without broadband and phone for couple of weeks during the takeover.

Great. I'm guessing I'll have to return the Sky router to them?

Ok, I've just set up the process of changing to Talk Talk. 30 days to change my mind, if the speed/connection isn't up to scratch, but will hopefully be a bit quicker than Sky for a lower cost.

Sky will send you a returns kit if they want the router back. If you was on the top broadband package with sky talk talk cant give you better speeds. Check the minimum speed they've quoted in your contract and test the speeds once they've taken over your line to ensure they are delivering.

Connect one device via ethernet cable and preform the test from there to get an accurate result.

Ray_P_Jenkins wrote:Sky will send you a returns kit if they want the router back. If you was on the top broadband package with sky talk talk cant give you better speeds. Check the minimum speed they've quoted in your contract and test the speeds once they've taken over your line to ensure they are delivering.

Connect one device via ethernet cable and preform the test from there to get an accurate result.

I'm currently getting around 30-36mbps with Sky, depending on the time of day.

As for Talk Talk they've said..
Minimum Guaranteed speed: 33.3 Mb
Typical download speed: 42.0 Mb to 63.9 Mb
Typical upload speed: 12.0 Mb to 18.9 Mb

So I'll get 42mbps or just under, I suspect. But yeah I'll test once it's connected.

Sounds about right FF. Certain times of the day will always see a drop off . Sunday tea time always seems to be a busy one. The new super hub is supposed to rival the best BT can offer. I have an offer on my account for the new hub at £30 (normally £120) but i'm happy with the one I have at the minute.