Our Bt contract is ending at the end of next month so looking around for another provider. The reason being although the exchange has been equiped for fibre optic service but only so far to private companies. BT have no plans in the near future to provide the fibre optic service out to the customer, ie to cabinet or home in our area.
private companies have already done so and ready to connect up so thinking of accepting an offer from a private company tomorrow as that is when the plan of theirs expires ,price wise That is.
BT can only offer a download speed of about 35mbps and upload of 5mbps. also free antime landline calls. price leap next month as well.
the private compny offer is 100 mbps up and down and at a cheaper rate than BT , also in the package free landline and to mobile as well . this is fast enough for what we need…
Although I worked for BT for well over 20 years , now I think they are lagging far behind with new technology and not surprised private companies are moving in, our neighbour 3 doors away has already change over.
To be honest I get the feeling BT now is really interested in big companies and not the home owner. Around here I have seen at least 3 if not 4 private companies pulling their own fibre cables through the BT ducts under the pavement which says a lot.
My BT contract ends this Aug so will give notice in July .
Bt fibre has been reliable but imo expensive ÂŁ38.25 with no phone
As I’ve no TV aerial I’m considering sky stream + broadband+ Netflix £43 package.
just been in contact with the private company. To cancel a years broadband contract left is costing obviously as it is an early termination with BT
The new company has offered a years FREE broadband service which more than covers the BT early end of contract
So we are going for it and saving a load of money . We have been given a date of 11 april for them to connect us up
So faster broadband small addition cost wise for free landline and mobile calling . BT don’t offer the mobile connection
I am with BT until November.
My bill has just gone up ÂŁ4.15 a month.
They are going to have to work very hard to keep me.
Which I’m sure they will…but I have signed up for deal alerts come October.
What I’m looking for is a provider who doesn’t put up the bill during the contract.
My Sky deal is up around the same time so I may look at them.
I am completely happy with NOW TV for my broadband and home phone 24/7. I changed over to them for £21 monthly which includes line rental plus all landline calls to UK landlines and mobiles. I’m now out of contract and still pay £21 monthly on a roll-over basis.
I changed from Shell due to high cost and unreliable service. Since I’ve been with NOW my connection has not dropped out once and TBH i cannot fault them
EDITED to add … NOW is part of SKY
Maree
I think plusnet is part of BT, I may be wrong, inernet speed depends on 3 things, one is distance from exchange and the other number of users with broadband in that area. Also with wire or fibre optic service to the home
For me the upload speed is so slow virtually unusable say for sending videos to youtube or anywhere and the download speed is that bad watching anything keeps stopping (buffering) to catch up
I explain why the change because BT cannot give a future date to get me fibre optice to my house.
I don’t really deal with it myself but I think BT is Plusnet’s parent company but they are separate companies. I know for customer service we deal with Plusnet and not BT? And it has been very good and fast
I looked on moneysupermarket and this is what it says
This is why I only do short videos at the moment . Bruce mentioned before elsewhere why I did not make longer ones. for example to do a 15 minute video would take up a few hours if in high quality ie 4k and tie up my computer from doing anything else. Ok the computer can handle several jobs at once but to the depriment of uploading videos. The company called “Box” is the only one I know of that actually has pulled fibre optic to our telephone manhole in our cal de sac and offer an acceptable service
I switched from BT to Plusnet some years ago because their charges were nearly half what BT were charging - even though Plusnet are a subsidiary of BT and use the same cabling / telephone lines.
The switch didn’t give me a faster broadband speeds, of course, but since BT Openreach rolled out Full Fibre to Cabinet (FTTC) in this area, I have found that the “Superfast Unlimited Broadband” package is fast enough for my needs and I no longer get any buffering.
The speeds are advertised as up to 80 Mbps download and up to 20 Mbps upload but speed checkers show I get around 76 Mbps and 18 Mbps.
I did consider switching to a Full Fibre to Premises (FTTP) when Zzoomm laid full fibre cables along all the streets in my neighbourhood - we all have a small junction box just outside our driveway now, so it would be easy to have a fibre cable installed right to the house, which isn’t shared with anyone and doesn’t rely on the old copper telephone wires for the last bit of the journey.
The neighbours I have spoken to have given the service very good reviews - quick and efficient installation, good Broadband speeds exceeding the minimum speeds they advertised - neighbours with the basic package promising download speeds of more than 150 Mbps are receiving actual speeds of around 180 Mbps.
It all sounds very tempting but it is currently more expensive than my current package.
I currently pay ÂŁ27 pm for Plusnet unlimited superfast FTTC broadband, telephone landline rental and free calls.
When I enquired last year, the Zzoom FTTP the cheapest basic broadband package would have been ÂŁ40 pm - with no landline - you have an option to add a VOIP telephone into the system for an extra monthly cost. They did not advertise what the price was so I sent an email to enquire.
I never received a reply to my query, so when my Plusnet contract was due for renewal, I decided to stick with Plusnet for another year.
I may change my mind when my current contract expires though.
I have noticed ads for Zzoomm recently, offering big initial discounts for first few months and the monthly charge has been reduced to £30 pm for their basic package now - maybe they haven’t had the take-up they expected, so have had to lower their prices.
Zzoomm and other private companies putting in FTTP seem well placed to scoop up all the FTTP customers now if they get their pricing right because the BT Openreach schedule shows they are lagging way behind - we are not likely to get FTTP roll-out from them until 2026 - that’s supposed to be the deadline for phasing out the old copper telephone wires too.
Offer applies to Box’s 100 Mbps, 300 Mbps & 1,000 Mbps Fibre Broadband packages for new customers joining on a 24-month contract, only, by 23:59 GMT on 28.03.23. The 100 Mbps offer is £19.95/month for months 1-24, £24.95/month thereafter. The 300 Mbps offer is £24.95/month for months 1-24, and £34.95/month thereafter. The 1,000 Mbps is £34.95/month for months 1-24, and £44.95/month thereafter. Phone package costs an extra £10 per month with a £14.95 installation fee (free for 300 Mbps and 1 Gbps packages).
note we had to decide by tomorrow evening to accept or not
That sounds like a good deal - and if BT haven’t even got round to rolling out Full Fibre to Cabinets in your area yet, I’m not surprised you want to switch.
Hope the switch all goes smoothly - I’m sure you’ll love the extra speed you get!
virgin media is not available here Besoker. the only one that is is the one we went for. fibre optics has not become readily available with all other companies I checked on
I have always been with ZEN for Broadband , never faulted them .
Have to have a Homephone for my personal care alarm system which was with PostOffice Homeohone who quit being a provider ai I naturally moved to ZEN .
Perfectly satisfied . I don’t count pennies btw just efficiency and reliability .
Box made interesting reading however it’s not available here .
I could go with a Virgin media package unfortunately it isn’t WiFi.
I don’t want trailing wires !
Sky Stream package is WiFi no aerial or dish .
My mobile I shall stay with Giffgaff just ÂŁ6 for unlimited text ,calls and no contract l
When I hear all the different companies people use, I wonder if they use the existing BT Openreach network or if they use separate full fibre cabling to each house.
If you live in a rural area, you are usually restricted as to which broadband companies you can use.
Unless you have a company which has installed separate Full Fibre To Premises cables, all the other broadband companies will likely use the BT Openreach fibre / telephone lines, so their broadband speeds will all be pretty much the same as BT can offer.
Prices may differ but the speed will be the same.
Just had the new telephone company today to do a survey and pre connection for the new broadband and telephone service. They are providing their own fibre optics from their own equipment in the exchange to the house
