BT Infinity

[Colossal Squid]

I don't work for Talk Talk, I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, but just take a look at this:

Which Broadband | Compare Broadband | Broadband Comparison - TalkTalk

Over the eighteen months BT make you sign up for, you'd spend over £450 more than you would on the equivalent package on Talk Talk.

There is absolutely NOTHING that justifies that ridiculously inflated price. It winds me up that companies like BT still get away with ripping people off so outrageously, just because people stick with what they know.

Plain and simple, if you pay BT for your broadband you are being made a mug of

 

[haardman]

Plus Net also offer Infinity (they are owned by BT but run their own customer service centre out of Leeds I think).

 

[trueblue]

Don't these download limits make paying so much for the extra speed pointless?

 

[DanielT]

Don't these download limits make paying so much for the extra speed pointless?

Like buying a Ferrari, but once you open her up, you can only get as far as hickstead, then it shuts down until next month

 

[Bad Ash]

Personally I use TalkTalk who I've found to be very decent. I don't have ANY download cap and get speeds up to 20mb, which is more than adequate. I can download a blu-ray movie in about 6 minutes usually, which is quicker than going to the video shop down the road.

You cannot download a Blu-Ray movie (which is around 9GB), in 6 minutes on a (upto) 20Mb conection.

 

[Gully]

Personally I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than use BT. I've had Virgin broadband since the heady days of Telewest, and they have been excellent. In a few weeks I shall be enjoying 50MBs for the princely sum of £25. Oorah!

Precisely this, with reference to the pins.

As I type this there are two men working downstairs from Virgin to install cable for my TV/Broadband and Phone. I will soon be rid of BT forever and should have something approaching 30 mBps broadband, instead of something up to about 5 and a crackling phone line that makes even 5 unobtainable for lengthy periods of time.

 

[Gazwag]

I don't work for Talk Talk, I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, but just take a look at this:

Which Broadband | Compare Broadband | Broadband Comparison - TalkTalk

Over the eighteen months BT make you sign up for, you'd spend over £450 more than you would on the equivalent package on Talk Talk.

There is absolutely NOTHING that justifies that ridiculously inflated price. It winds me up that companies like BT still get away with ripping people off so outrageously, just because people stick with what they know.

Plain and simple, if you pay BT for your broadband you are being made a mug of

I wouldn't touch talk talk with a barge pole. I am currently in the unfortunate position that Freedom 2 Surf were taken over by Tiscali (bad enough) but now taken over by Talk Talk

Which have just released their updated recommendations:

Recommended broadband providers
Home broadband services have to do very well for overall satisfaction, customer service, ease of set-up, connection speed, reliability and technical support in order to win the coveted title of Which? Recommended Broadband Provider.

Broadband providers to avoid
Four broadband providers, including some of the UK's biggest ISPs, achieved an overall customer score of less than 40%. These were:

TalkTalk
Supanet
Orange
AOL Broadband

 

[Razi]

I had Virgin Media with "up to 20mb" broadband, which turned out to actually be a maximum of 1.5mb - though this is a limit of the exchange, as BT tests showed a similar speed limit. Infinity was enabled in my area and I switched across straight away. I have now a 39mb download speed and 10mb upload. I can get a 700mb video file in about 5 or 6 minutes now. Love it. £38 a month including free calls and line rental. Virgin was £28 a month, but for less than 1/10th of the connection speed and disgraceful customer service.

I also have the 'unlimited' option, so there is no cap on download.

I also really, really hate Virgin Media for screwing me over. I wrote two letters of complaint, and never had a response & calls to them suggested that they hadn't received anything, despite both being sent recorded delivery and showing signatures. I just gave up bothering in the end.

 

[Springal]

what does your Virgin Media speed have to do with an exchange issue and a BT test showing this? Confused

 

[Razi]

what does your Virgin Media speed have to do with an exchange issue and a BT test showing this? Confused

Because no matter who your broadband is with, it goes through the same telephone exchange down your road. Depending on the technology that exists within that exchange and the potential congestion therein, this pretty much decides the maximum speed that you (and everyone else in your area) can hope to get for broadband.

On both the Virgin and BT websites, you can put your phone number in to determine what your maximum speed would be. Both BT and Virgin come up with the same figure for me. Since Infinity uses a different technology, this isn't an issue.

I am, however, no expert in telecommunications.

 

[haardman]

He's using Virgin Media ADSL, not cable.

 

[Springal]

Because no matter who your broadband is with, it goes through the same telephone exchange down your road. Depending on the technology that exists within that exchange and the potential congestion therein, this pretty much decides the maximum speed that you (and everyone else in your area) can hope to get for broadband.

On both the Virgin and BT websites, you can put your phone number in to determine what your maximum speed would be. Both BT and Virgin come up with the same figure for me. Since Infinity uses a different technology, this isn't an issue.

I am, however, no expert in telecommunications.

Not true I am afraid. Completely different technologies and Virgin Media cable broadband, goes no where near any BT infrastructure.

 

[Springal]

Ah right, if you were using Virgin Media ADSL, more the fool you

 

[sten_super]

I wouldn't touch talk talk with a barge pole. I am currently in the unfortunate position that Freedom 2 Surf were taken over by Tiscali (bad enough) but now taken over by Talk Talk

Which have just released their updated recommendations:

And this is the problem, isn't it - ultimately none of the companies are very good, or at the very least are extremely patchy when it comes to the quality of customer service.

When we moved into our current house just over 3 years ago we went with BT, having been with Virgin Media (cable) and various other smaller companies before than when I was a student. I knew I was paying (and continue to pay) over the odds to be with BT, but my experience of all other companies had been such a shower of shit that I wanted something that was reliable. In the 3 years we've had one major problem (where the phone line went dead altogether) which BT fixed within 4 hours of me reporting it (and I had direct contact with the engineer responsible), and a couple of other minor issues which their call centres (although long-winded) have been able to guide me through, and have helpfully called me back at my own convenience to solve.

This compares favourably with the numerous problems of dropped connections and horrifically terrible customer service (including a letter from an enforcement agency attempting to collect 1p) that I had from Virgin, and the various problems with other companies previously.

At the moment the only people that I would consider moving to would be plusnet, who I have heard good things about, but if haardman is correct (above) they are owned by BT anyway!

 

[Gully]

Not true I am afraid. Completely different technologies and Virgin Media cable broadband, goes no where near any BT infrastructure.

Exactly.

I have now migrated to Virgin, as mentioned above, ran a speed-test and am getting the advertised 30 mBps on downloads. The main reason for doing this was because I was with O2, who used BT infrastructure, and at times couldn't connect to the internet at all.

 

[Colossal Squid]

You cannot download a Blu-Ray movie (which is around 9GB), in 6 minutes on a (upto) 20Mb conection.

A 720p Blu ray is normally between 4gb and 8gb, so yes I can. And I've timed it

 

[Digweed's Testicle]

Spoke to Sky last week who informed me they are currently doing tests to use the BT Infinity lines for their own broadband.
If you're in an area where you can get BT Infinity, Sky are hoping to roll out their improved broadband after September.
I was told this as I mentioned to them I was thinking of moving to Virgin for better broadband.

 

[Washboard Didgets]

I have been with Plusnet for about 6 years, always been very impressed with their service.

I have just upgraded to their Fibre optic broadband (FTTC). It was installed on Tuesday morning by an Openreach engineer, took less than an hour from the time he started at the green cabinet at the end of my road. So the only copper cable used is the 50 yards or so from my flat to the green cabinet (that is what FTTC is - Fibre to the cabinet).

For the first couple of days I didn't get any more than 6mbps on the Speedtest. They say it takes up to 10 days to finalise the speed. Just ran a test an I'm now up to 21mbps with about 1.7mbps upload speed.

The engineer tested the line to the socket and says it should go up to the full 40mbps with 2mbps uploads in the end.

So a happy customer here so far, and all for £16.49 a month.

 

[Bad Ash]

A 720p Blu ray is normally between 4gb and 8gb, so yes I can. And I've timed it

I'd get a new stop watch. A 20Mb connection will be downloading at ~2MB/s, so thats 120MB a minute. 4GB (~4,000MB) will take you around 33 minutes.

 

[Woodchip]

Plus Net also offer Infinity (they are owned by BT but run their own customer service centre out of Leeds I think).

I'll happily sing Plus Net's praises. Been with them for 15 years now (from the days of dial-up) and their customer service is excellent. They're based in Sheffield, not Leeds (hence them sponsoring Shef Wednesday).