What is the best phone/net package in BT land?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

One tip not heavily promoted is to pay your line rental for a year in advance. If you can afford to. Saves a lot more than you can earn in interest easily.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've been with BT for some 5 years now. Wouldn't know about their service

- never needed it. That's how I prefer things.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Bill submitted this idea :

You can install OpenWRT on that or the BT version, which is much less limiting. I have seen the BT one on Ebay with OpenWRT already installed, for not a lot..

[Harry Bloomfield]

Bill used his keyboard to write :

Talktalk support become even more useless if you have any but a minor issue..

[Michael Chare]

Thank you for mentioning that. The previous ADSL routers I have had from Plusnet have allowed 10.x.x.x local networks.

[Terry Casey]

<panto-mode> Oh, no they don't! </panto-mode>

VM's network is completely independent of BT.

We pay £54 per month for up to 200Mbps Broadband and unlimited phone calls. About £7 less if you don't go for unlimited call.

About £10 per month less for the first year.

[The Natural Philosopher]

sigh. We were specifically talking about ADSL

not cable/fttp/fttc/vdsl etc etc

[Bob Eager]

I use TalkTalk, but only the wholesale side, and that means I don't have to deal with their support. They're fine for that.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Michael Chare was thinking very hard :

I can confirm that the Plusnet FTTC router, the same hardware as the BT one, does not support 10.x.x.x

[John Rumm]

Its going to depend a bit on where you live as well. In a fairly densely packed town, the wiring etc may well be quite reliable, so its less likely you will need to get faults fixed. If you live out in the sticks on long cable runs, then its a matter of "how often" and not "if" when it comes to fixes.

I run two connections on two separate (very long >6km) lines, and expect to have at least one fault a year on one or other. Fortunately I have only lost both at the same time once in the last 10 years.

[tim...]

as a monopoly provider don't you have the choice of an open market alternative?

tim

[tim...]

that how it is with me and plusnet

I only ever need to contact them when I move house (and they give you a bloody good deal on the installation fees for agreeing a long initial contract)

No service issues and they don't bump up the price by 20% each year hoping that you don't notice causing you to have to call them to haggle to put it back down again.

tim

[Harry Bloomfield]

Bill Wright explained :

That was not my experience a few years ago. Indian call centres, where the staff struggled to speak and understand English, plus just reading from a script of fixes. You were sent around around the same loop, every time you rang to progress the same issue and extremely difficult to get through to anyone competent. Email server (even now) is regularly inaccessible. They blocked newsgroup access for months.

If it all works without issue, it is fine, but God help you if you have an issue...

The last straw was TT getting hacked and having all my details out in the open for all to see.

[Terry Casey]

No, the OP only asked about broadband internet in Lincolnshire. No specific delivery method [1] stated although it is probable that his existing Kingston service is cable.

[1]"I am moving out of the clutches of Hull's KCOM and into BT land in Lincs and was wondering what was on offer for a basic phone line/internet package up to 100MB per month - I currently pay £50 pm to KCOM."

I can't see the magic letters ADSL there, can you?

[Mike Clarke]

It can still be worth calling them and haggling. With some ISP's you can sometimes get a reduction below what you'd previously been paying if you phone and say you're thinking of leaving.

[JoeJoe]

Plusnet is around half that - £24/m for 66Mb/s

[Andy Burns]

Only if you're on an introductory, or retention deal.

[JoeJoe]

Plusnet is around 50% cheaper for exactly the same service, and they use the same infrastructure as they are owned by BT...

Customer service of Plusnet is light years better than BT though.

Only reason to use BT is if you want BT Sport that is heavily discounted for BT BB customers.

[JoeJoe]

Plusnet are £21/m for 30ish Mb/s compared to KC's £40.

If you need much faster speed than that - max over BT lines is typically around 60 Mb/s - it is more expensive than KC.

I'm on 30Mb/s. It is used for 4 PCs/Laptops doing the usual things + at least 2 devices streaming HD Netflix + a couple of TVs connected to Sky/Netflix (Sky recorded programs are streamed live as well). All work at the same time and never had any problem with speed.

If you want free calls as well then just buy a simple mobile for a tenner and put a £6/month SIM in it with unlimited calls (and texts and some data) from here:

[JoeJoe]

Another thing that will save you money is getting all (or more than one of) the services from one provider - i.e. phone line, broadband, TV package and/or mobile.

They are very keen on these, and the discount will be the best from my experience.