UK Broadband & Phone package - considering switching to Tiscali

[SirCrispin]

Hey, I've been trying to work out which provider my parents should switch to - they currently have a BT landline and BT broadband, for which they are being ripped off - the broadband is £30 a month on top of line rental at around £30 a month too - the actual charge for phone calls this month only came to £16 so I think it's about time they got around to changing.

The main things I've been looking for for them are broadband and phone calls combined, without BT's extautionate line rental. The £20 tiscali package seems ideal, and although I've read mixed reviews about their service, I've found that with all broadband reviews! So, I have two main questions:

a) The whole "incompatible with Macs" is just ignorance, am I right? I read a thread about the supplied modem being a pain to set up, but we already have a netgear wireless router so I would just use that - such a set up would work, wouldn't it?

b) The only good thing about BT is that we've never experienced downtime with them - whereas I have, oh so very much, with Virgin, so won't be recommending them for my parents. Do tiscali users experience more downtime then with other ISPs? And are there any providers better than tiscali that remove the line rental bill? They don't want sky or anything like that; they're trying to cut costs. Talk Talk is the only other company I've found where you don't need to pay BT line rental, but I'm not very keen on switching to them with the whole Phorm malarky (so same for staying with BT and switching to Virgin).

I appreciate any advice you can offer, thanks

 

[neiltc13]

The first thing you need to consider is what is actually available in your area. In most areas of the UK BT are the sole provider of telephone and broadband services, and while some providers will re-sell this service to you, it still is in effect a BT product.

Visit http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php and enter your details to see what providers are available at your exchange. In the right hand panel (labelled "LLU Operator Presence") is a list of all of the providers who have a completely "unbundled" service at your local exchange. These providers bypass a huge part of the BT network by installing their own equipment in your local area and as such are able to offer reduced prices.

Personally, I switched away from Tiscali after terrible service. They appear to be in some financial difficulty and there are many media reports of the company trying to find itself a buyer. I would avoid them.

I am on O2 Broadband. The service is good and I recommend them.

 

[OllyW]

Before you consider Tiscali, take a look at this.

 

[timsutcliffe]

Pretty Good

We're with Tiscali, and have been since we moved in to this place 8 months ago. There's been no problems that I can remember, and the price is pretty reasonable, especially for the first 3 months.

As far as compatibility goes, there was a little issue regarding the setup CD that they sent, but I managed to find a work around. Unfortunately, I can't remember what that was.

Also, the router they sent, although i'm sure it isn't brilliant, isn't too much of an eyesore which was a bonus.

 

[SirCrispin]

Thanks everyone, have decided to go with Orange as I was considering switching to pay monthly for my mobile, and you get a good price on their broadband and homephone like that too