Damn Non Cable Areas!

[Zoom7000]

I've been happilly living at my parents house using Cable broadband since the days of 512kbps @ £24.99 (Damn, that was a long time ago!) Since then I have got married, wife had a baby girl and not forgetting the speed upgrades!

 

So anyway, life goes on and living in 1 room in a packed house of 8 is not so comfortable, hence, I'm gonna be moving out on rent come the end of this month... In to a Non-Cable Area! So, I have to go down the dredded route of ADSL, and I can't even get Cable TV so, I'm gonna have to shell out extortionate prices for Sky! Anyway, it seems a BT phone line is an enevitability. However, who should I turn to for ADSL. Ironically, Virgin Media seem to have a decent offer for Non Cable customers, offering "Upto 8Mbps" ADSL and Free Nationwide Calls for £20 a month. However, I'm worried about the "Upto 8Mbps" this could mean anything from 512kbps - 8Mbps.

 

Not only am I looking for a good deal, but also, for good customer service. My collegues have had absolute nightmares with BT and Talk Talk (Like going for months without Internet). So they are a no no. Also, I am a heavy user, so Unlimited Downloads at High Speeds are a must. I was interested by Bethere.co.uk, but again it is "Upto 24Mbps". I'd also like to use my own ADSL Wireless Router if possible. I may go and buy a decent Linksys.

 

Any recommendations?

[contink]

I'd recommend you try a search with "adsl" as your keyword as you're repeating a regular topic

 

For all that though, rule of thumb..

 

No such thing as a free lunch.. so avoid the "free" offers

Zen and Nildram seem to get a good lookin, as does Virgin although I personally am a bit wary as NTL took them over recently (IIRC) which could mean customer service has suffered.

 

As for the "up to.." thing.. that's down to your physical line quality and distance from exchange so worth finding out where your local exchange is and maybe talking to neighbours to see what they get.. someone is bound to be on ADSL locally...

[molesm]

If you are getting Sky TV they offer an unlimted up to 16 Mb down, only trouble is you have to use their netygaer sky barnded 108Mbs Router, oh it costs £10 on any sky pakage inclusing free sat they do alaso offer a free verison and a £5 service but they are sloweer and I think capped

[bishopsgarthstockton]

My brother is with be unlimited. He has had no problems with them. 24Mbs not bad and its 1.2Mb upload all unlimited

[ChrisH]

I've been happilly living at my parents house using Cable broadband since the days of 512kbps @ £24.99 (Damn, that was a long time ago!)

 

£24.99 that was cheap! I was on the telewest trial when then first introduced it and it was £45 for 512 8O

[Geoff]

When you move into your new house. Do a wireless survey. Someone nearby might be offering to share.

[Andrew_C]

Zen and Nildram seem to get a good lookin, as does Virgin although I personally am a bit wary as NTL took them over recently (IIRC) which could mean customer service has suffered....

Virgin have taken over NTLs broadband set-up. If you think there is anyway that NTLs customer service could be made worse; I doubt you’ve dealt with them!

[EvLPhenom]

Hey all... Just been having a look on the net for what deals are around as i am looking at going with another ISP...anyway i came across this while doing a quick google search...http://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband/

[woody]

For some decent consumer reviews, go to DSLZONEUK and click on ISP ratings on the left menu.

[EeEk]

Have a look through the forums at http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ youll see they are all as bad as each other and nothing is unlimited Its a case of pick the best from a bad bunch unless you have deep pockets

 

Im on a 2mb 100gig peak time cap with Freedom2surf @24.99 If I upgrade to the 8mb package I the 100gb drops to 50gb.

[Irazmus]

I know of a broadband company whose unlimited actually means unlimited, DataComms Europe. I've been using them for 2-3 years with no problems, and with the amount I download, I'd have fallen fowl of monitoring / limiting if they had it (I've got a machine which watches RSS feeds and starts torrents for me). Unfortunately they're not cheap and in order to upgrade the speed without breaking the bank I've just switched to Eclipse. But I'd definately recommend DataComms for those who are willing to pay a little more.

[browolf]

these days it tends to be less about unlimited or not and more about how they deal with the problem of overcapacity. more and more are using blanket shaping to limit the imact of certain types of trafffic,

 

im moving to UKFSN a reseller of entanet, who dont shape but when capacity reaches an upper limit they reduce the speed on all the connections thru a single bt central until it reaches a lower limit. Supposedly the lowest they go is 2mb/person.

[Zoom7000]

Well, I went to see the flat at 5pm yesterday, just before the agent closed and told him I would call this morning. So I did, just after they opened at 9:30am and told him I would come to see him after work to place the deposit. He tells me someone else has agreed to pay a higher rent and already placed the deposit.

 

Bloody hell, I knew the property buying sector was cut throat, but damn, I didn't know that renting was just as bad. Looks like it's back to the drawing board!

 

Either way, thanks for your help guys, a lot of my friends in non cable areas have asked me the same question (about ADSL), so it's good to know the options.