Which UK ISP's are worthy..............

[Mr.Noisy]

Firstly, sorry but this is a UK thread
I will soon be changing ISP and need some solid advice, and who better than you lot? Ok, so i'm with Virgin at the moment but with all the PHORM stuff going on i'm considering knocking them on the head, But the big question is 'Who do i go to?', who would be a good provider i used to be with Zen before moving house a few years ago but since then their prices have increased and you don't really get a lot more. Basically what i want is something around 8-16meg, unlimited downloads and email that can handle 30mb or larger files, and half descent customer service if it exists,
Ive looked at Sky as i have sky tv but i have dealt with their customer service before and wasn't totally convinced they knew what they were doing but before i go crashing into something i may not be happy with what other good providers are out there?

Tar

 

[Blue Velvet]

I'm still with Zen because they were a huge step up in reliability from Tiscali, and probably still are. I'm looking at either upgrading to a bespoke homeworking package from them or maybe elsewhere...

When I tend to look at these things about once a year or so, I go over to ISP Review to get an overview of where things currently stand.

 

[::Lisa::]

Yep, Sky customer services for their broadband isn't that great although they have fixed the only error I have ever had very quickly (30 mins). I'm really, really happy with Sky. I'm on the 8MB package as BT said my line would not be able to handle the 16MB (otherwise I would of gone with that).

I was with Tiscali prior to that and had awful service. Was on 8MB service yet got dial up speeds (whether connected wireless or direct) and it disconnected literally every 3 mins. Drove me mad and had to complain many times to their premium rate number to get out of the contract.

 

[djellison]

Following the Phorm discussion elsewhere, I pay a lot ( £29.38 ) for a connection with Vivaciti (a reseller of Entanet).

I've had experience, first hand, of BT, Zen, Plusnet and now Vivaciti thru work and home. BT were unreliable, slow, and had nasty useage limits. Zen were fairly expensive given the low useage limits the package provided. PLusnet got worse and worse to the point of <2meg connection when I should have had 8. I decided to spend a lot of money, £29.38 a month, to get a connection with 800k up ( and boy is it worth it )

I've never touched my download limit, despite regularly downoading half a dozen or more > 1gig JP2 image files in a day. It's been fantastic. Not sure on the email limit (I use mail big file, as more often than not, recipients can't handle large attachments). No traffic shaping ( torrent speeds of 700kb/sec are common for well seeded files ). I can't praise them enough. An actual human being picked up the phone when I had billing problems because of a changed credit card. The only problem is the price - but you really do get what you pay for.

And I'm not on commission.

 

[Schtumple]

customer service? what the hell is that??

Don't go with AOL, useless, and when you decided you don't want to be with them anymore they don't cancel your payments to them took 2 weeks of phone calls before they refunded my dad the £50 they owed him...

I hear good things about Pipex, although they seem to be hand in hand with Tiscali so who knows really...

 

[scotthayes]

I'm switching to Virgin next month, got fed up with BT only able to deliver 3Mbps. I'll just make sure I opt out (even though it should be opt in) from Phorm.

Just remember, if you go via a BT line the speed you get will depend on how far you are from the local exchange.

 

[r1ch4rd]

...Basically what i want is something around 8-16meg, unlimited downloads and email that can handle 30mb or larger files, and half descent customer service if it exists.

You might just want to check on your telephone exchange, you might not be able to get 8mb in your area. Since Virgin use their own cable infrastructure this isn't a limiting factor for them. I can only get 4mb and I live in the middle of a big city where you would expect more.

I use Sky broadband and I have had no problems. I did have a bit of hassle getting set up originally but it turned out that it was a problem with BT.

 

[felixfatfunk]

Isp Uk

http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/biggrin.gif Fast.co.uk used them for a couple of years and got my parents online with them ( got my old G4 ibook need to get them another to stop them arguing ). Get what you pay for concerning service. The guy that I talk to (yes its the same guy!) at Fast has just a Mac for home so he is on board