It's All For The Best In This Best Of All Possible Worlds
Friday, 19 June 2009
telephone service
I'd just like to ask if anyone knows of an alternative (and reliable), supplier for a telephone/broadband service. I'm with BT at the moment and paying a lot of money just for the standing charge.
Thanks in advance.
15 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Have you thought about Virgin Media?? some people in the area will have had problems with VM in the recent past, us included. HOWEVER, i think that things have improved greatly in the last month or so, with no service interruptions in our road (north side of the common between old mill and brewery). we think VM offer good value for money: a telephone, broadband and cable package, from around £35 per month. given that aerial signals around here are a dodgy (so freeview not a reliable option), we've went for cable (as won't like the whole satellite thing since the dishes are UGLY and also the thought of boosting SKY's profits is just not appealing to us, also SKY is quite expensive). VW also offer some decent telephone call packages, like free evenings and weekends nationally, etc.
We have sky for broadband and they are not bad. Yes the disks are ugly ...might be a business opportunity for some prettification here! But hey, Sky employ quite a lot of people in the UK so they can't be all bad huh. In the past, I've used broadbandgenie.co.uk to find a provider so you might they them. Or there is the uswitch site which I believe even covers options for mac users.
We've been using Sky for the last 18 months with no problems or interruptions. With good call packages, incl free international calls on top of free UK (all day). The medium (8Mb) broadband package is fast enough as the local exchange does not support any faster.
I switched to o2 broadband only recently, having become tired of the very expensive and poor service of the Tiscali phone/broadband package. I am with o2 for PAYG mobile and o2 customers get a small discount.
I found it very easy to swap over and the call centre are helpful, well informed and based in UK. My only small complaint is that their website is not terribly well structured but I have got used to it now. You also need to be careful when you go through set up that you are consistent in your use of 'o' or 'O', rather than the zero (0).
I decided to 'unbundle' deliberately, even though it's a bit more expensive. I have kept the landline phone with Tiscali but I intend to move this once I find a suitable alternative. I have become more and more suspicious of bundles, be they energy suppliers or technology solutions. But then I don't like loyalty cards either. (Mrs Paranoid!)
We also use VM and pay around £40 for two TV boxes, broadband and free calls to landlines at any time of the day or night..In fact there is currently a virgin van outside my house installing 2 doors down!! we had a ton of problems with them to start with but agree they are much better now.
This Virgin Media sounds pretty good. I'll look into it further. I watch virtually no TV though so have to weigh up whether I'll be paying for something I don't use.
I'm using aol for both broadband and line rental- only about £20 a month but it only covers use after 6pm daily and at weekends. has free calls to landlines thrown in though.
i'd steer clear of AOL personally. rubbish. and have hear that their email is not very secure.
Re. VM, we don't watch much TV either, but have their cheapest TV, phone, broadband bundle package. The reception for TV is better than aerial in the area (for us), and the on demand function is kind of useful sometimes, so you can watch what you want when you want. phone is good and broadband now more reliable, and fast.
Just off the common, we've just left VM for Talk Talk on the recommendation of a friend - £17.99 phone and broadband, free weekend and evening calls, seems pretty amazing, tho we've yet to be connected so don't know how good the BB is yet. Nothing wrong with VM, except for those probs a couple of months ago, but we're big on phone calls and they won't match those TT tarrifs... VM BB promises to improve significantly right across the country by all accounts over the next few months.
Hello neighbour I use virgin media for Internet only , rarely use a home phone I get 8 mb and it's always mb never any less and I think I pay about 15 pounds a month, I've had two problems with it in three years really can't complain would highly reccomend them
Oh lovely listeners, thanks for all your advice. I'd like to add something to the melting pot.
Do you know if you can get broadband without having to pay for a standing charge for a phone service? Virgin Media sounds good but I don't watch TV. Is there a broadband only package? Hmmm, one item in a package. Does that sound like an oxymoron?
I don't know how much yu call, but the phone coop does a pay as you talk kind of deal without standing charges. Calls are a bit more expensive though, but if you don't call much it could be quite good. Plus you can get high speed unlimited internet access from all major providers for less than £20.00 these days.
15 comments:
Have you thought about Virgin Media??
some people in the area will have had problems with VM in the recent past, us included. HOWEVER, i think that things have improved greatly in the last month or so, with no service interruptions in our road (north side of the common between old mill and brewery).
we think VM offer good value for money: a telephone, broadband and cable package, from around £35 per month.
given that aerial signals around here are a dodgy (so freeview not a reliable option), we've went for cable (as won't like the whole satellite thing since the dishes are UGLY and also the thought of boosting SKY's profits is just not appealing to us, also SKY is quite expensive).
VW also offer some decent telephone call packages, like free evenings and weekends nationally, etc.
Thanks for this info. I'll look into Virgin Media. Email and fast internet connection reliability are of top priority to me.
We have sky for broadband and they are not bad. Yes the disks are ugly ...might be a business opportunity for some prettification here! But hey, Sky employ quite a lot of people in the UK so they can't be all bad huh.
In the past, I've used broadbandgenie.co.uk to find a provider so you might they them. Or there is the uswitch site which I believe even covers options for mac users.
yes sky do employ a lot of people, including my husband, that doesn't make the a good company!
We've been using Sky for the last 18 months with no problems or interruptions. With good call packages, incl free international calls on top of free UK (all day). The medium (8Mb) broadband package is fast enough as the local exchange does not support any faster.
I switched to o2 broadband only recently, having become tired of the very expensive and poor service of the Tiscali phone/broadband package. I am with o2 for PAYG mobile and o2 customers get a small discount.
I found it very easy to swap over and the call centre are helpful, well informed and based in UK. My only small complaint is that their website is not terribly well structured but I have got used to it now. You also need to be careful when you go through set up that you are consistent in your use of 'o' or 'O', rather than the zero (0).
I decided to 'unbundle' deliberately, even though it's a bit more expensive. I have kept the landline phone with Tiscali but I intend to move this once I find a suitable alternative. I have become more and more suspicious of bundles, be they energy suppliers or technology solutions. But then I don't like loyalty cards either. (Mrs Paranoid!)
We also use VM and pay around £40 for two TV boxes, broadband and free calls to landlines at any time of the day or night..In fact there is currently a virgin van outside my house installing 2 doors down!! we had a ton of problems with them to start with but agree they are much better now.
This Virgin Media sounds pretty good. I'll look into it further. I watch virtually no TV though so have to weigh up whether I'll be paying for something I don't use.
Thank you so much for your comments.
Pangloss
I'm using aol for both broadband and line rental- only about £20 a month but it only covers use after 6pm daily and at weekends. has free calls to landlines thrown in though.
i'd steer clear of AOL personally. rubbish. and have hear that their email is not very secure.
Re. VM, we don't watch much TV either, but have their cheapest TV, phone, broadband bundle package. The reception for TV is better than aerial in the area (for us), and the on demand function is kind of useful sometimes, so you can watch what you want when you want.
phone is good and broadband now more reliable, and fast.
Just off the common, we've just left VM for Talk Talk on the recommendation of a friend - £17.99 phone and broadband, free weekend and evening calls, seems pretty amazing, tho we've yet to be connected so don't know how good the BB is yet. Nothing wrong with VM, except for those probs a couple of months ago, but we're big on phone calls and they won't match those TT tarrifs... VM BB promises to improve significantly right across the country by all accounts over the next few months.
Hello neighbour I use virgin media for Internet only , rarely use a home phone I get 8 mb and it's always mb never any less and I think I pay about 15 pounds a month, I've had two problems with it in three years really can't complain would highly reccomend them
Oh lovely listeners, thanks for all your advice. I'd like to add something to the melting pot.
Do you know if you can get broadband without having to pay for a standing charge for a phone service? Virgin Media sounds good but I don't watch TV. Is there a broadband only package? Hmmm, one item in a package. Does that sound like an oxymoron?
I don't know how much yu call, but the phone coop does a pay as you talk kind of deal without standing charges. Calls are a bit more expensive though, but if you don't call much it could be quite good. Plus you can get high speed unlimited internet access from all major providers for less than £20.00 these days.
Yes you can have VM broadband on its own you will not need a bt landline or any other phoneline if you dont want one
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