I'm with PlusNet at the moment in the UK but they've recently changed their services and it's 20GB usage a month between 4PM and 12PM, after that unlimited. Anyway, don't know why but I get the fear when companies say "YOU CAN'T GO OVER 20GB!". The cost of this? £39.99. A bit expensive. Does anyone know of any good, preferably unlimited UK ISP's or at least ISP's with a massive monthly allowance. I topped 120GB one month before they brought in the new plans. Needs to be pretty fast too.
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Good UK ISP's
- Thread starter harveypooka
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harveypooka said:
Be
and Freedom2surf
See http://www.adslguide.org.uk and have a look at the compare ISP stuff.
You may have trouble with F2S' "fair usage policy if you're downloading 120GB p/month though.
I'm with Be* but not sure if they're in Leeds yet or not. If so, thoroughly recommend them. And if you live within a km or so of your exchange, you'll get blazing speed with them.
Otherwise, did Zen change their offer to make it a limited one? I know for a while that you paid a slight premium over the v cheapies but it was a pretty good service without shaping.
Otherwise, did Zen change their offer to make it a limited one? I know for a while that you paid a slight premium over the v cheapies but it was a pretty good service without shaping.
Tiscali and UKOnline - possibly?
I'm with BT myself who have a 40GB fair usage cap (but they dont mind if you go a few gig over). My friend has used Tiscali and UKOnline, and my understanding is that both offer an unlimited download capacity. She has also never had a problem with either.
That doesn't mean to say that no one will have had problems though!
I'm with BT myself who have a 40GB fair usage cap (but they dont mind if you go a few gig over). My friend has used Tiscali and UKOnline, and my understanding is that both offer an unlimited download capacity. She has also never had a problem with either.
That doesn't mean to say that no one will have had problems though!
Applespider said:
Zen offer two 8Mb products: one capped at 20GB for £24.99 and another capped at 50GB for £34.99. Additional bandwidth is available for £1.00 per GB.
I've found the connection to be reliable and the customer service is generally pretty good, but the 'purchase wizard' you're forced to use to purchase extra bandwidth is awful, and doesn't work with Safari.
Another vote for Be: they have 24meg - not that the connection ever really gets near that - it makes I think roughly 6meg download and 1-ish upload. Can't complain. They've recently started moving to exchanges outside London but I don't think they've reached Leeds yet.Applespider said:
Edit: and there is no usage limit on their main plan (£24pcm).
lonepilgrim said:
I get about 15MB down and 1 up
Before making a final call, it's worth going to have a quick read through the adslguide.org.uk forums since you'll find out quickly how many people are having problems/what traffic shaping is in place and how rigorously the caps are enforced there on any given ISP
Eraserhead said:
I use Demon too. I would agree about the expense, but as you say the service is excellent, and it is unlimited - which is one of the reasons I chose it.
I wouldn't recommend Tiscali myself. Was just on the verge of changing a couple of weeks ago (to Demon or Zen), when they sent me news of an upgrade to 8mb (Tiscali Max Unlimited) for the same price (£17.99) later this summer, somewhere around August or so.
So I'll see how that pans out before I throw the towel in. Funny thing is, I don't do torrents or other heavy downloading but probably refresh about 10gb worth of MR pages every month.
So I'll see how that pans out before I throw the towel in. Funny thing is, I don't do torrents or other heavy downloading but probably refresh about 10gb worth of MR pages every month.
Just did the test on adslguide.org.uk and download speed came to 12.6meg. Yikes!Applespider said:I get about 15MB down and 1 up
Before making a final call, it's worth going to have a quick read through the adslguide.org.uk forums since you'll find out quickly how many people are having problems/what traffic shaping is in place and how rigorously the caps are enforced there on any given ISP
Ntl
I for one would recommend NTL as they have
I use them and there great
Link
http://www.home.ntl.com/icat/broadband
I for one would recommend NTL as they have
- Unlimited Downloads
- Upto 10Mb
- Allways on 24/7 Broadband
- Good deals and ok prices
- Free Modem
I use them and there great
Link
http://www.home.ntl.com/icat/broadband
atiffarooq said:
Tiscali say they have unlimted broadband, but my friend downloaded 30GB and 40 Gb in successive months so they cut his bandwidth to lower than 512!!! under "fair usage" So actually it is a lie, personally i don't think they should be a llowed to advertise unlimeted broadband if there is a "fair usage" cap, as it clearly isn't unlimited
menziep said:
I use them too, you have to be careful with them because the contention issues are massive, I supposidly have a 2mb connection - its not, its closer to 300K I think - purely because its a highly populated student area and the everyone uses NTL.
Dunno where your from though, but if its Guildford, BEWARE!
harveypooka said:
I'm personally sorry to see a fellow Plusnet user wishing to make the move, with Plusnets recent changes I've seen a few people jump ship to my dismay. Plusnet brought in its Fair Usage policy to contain the mass deterioration of its network. Plusnet was once just a small company with only a few thousands users, then it grew very quickly due to its low prices and apparently unlimited Internet, in fact it appears Plusnets user base grew quicker than its network.
For this reason they've brought in a fair usage plan which many are unhappy about, it quite simply tries to prevent heavy users from making heavy use during the day, they use traffic shaping to slow down p2p downloads during the day thus increasing HTTP speeds (benefits businesses). But after 12.00am p2p is boosted to full speed and limits are immensely high. The moral of the story is, if you need the bandwidth, do it at night.
As far as your pricing plan goes, you are priced on a very high package due to your contention ratio, if your unhappy with the price regrade to something cheaper, £21.99 for example gets you almost exactly the same just a slightly different ratio which is barely noticeable, but you still receive up to 8MB speeds.
Plusnet's awful business practices
Just thought I'd resurrect this thread given that my old shared house is having major problems with Plusnet at the moment and I'd STRONGLY warn people away from using them.
Basically, they have a charging scheme which they've implemented by stealth whereby if you decide to leave them within 5 years (!) they will charge you the setup fee which they told you was free initially. This can be over a hundred quid.
I set up the Plusnet broadband initially about 18 months ago and chose a pricing option which gave us cheaper billing on the basis that we'd take their service for a minimum of a year. I left the house about 9 months ago so we decided to leave it in my name for a while longer before changing details over to avoid any penalties, and we've only just got round to changing the phone into my housemate's name rather than mine.
Although BT told us it'd be perfectly straightforward to just change the billing (surprise surprise) they disconnected the ADSL at their exchange at the point the bill switched over, and as far as Plusnet is concerned, this equates to cancelling the contract or switching your broadband to a new address.
There's a load of info about it here:
http://www.broadband-guide.org.uk/providers/plusnet-broadband.html
Plusnet say in the comments section of that thread that they are abandoning the charges, but this doesn't seem to be true at present.
Steer well clear, or if you're already with them, go to OFCOM as we're going to have to.
Just thought I'd resurrect this thread given that my old shared house is having major problems with Plusnet at the moment and I'd STRONGLY warn people away from using them.
Basically, they have a charging scheme which they've implemented by stealth whereby if you decide to leave them within 5 years (!) they will charge you the setup fee which they told you was free initially. This can be over a hundred quid.
I set up the Plusnet broadband initially about 18 months ago and chose a pricing option which gave us cheaper billing on the basis that we'd take their service for a minimum of a year. I left the house about 9 months ago so we decided to leave it in my name for a while longer before changing details over to avoid any penalties, and we've only just got round to changing the phone into my housemate's name rather than mine.
Although BT told us it'd be perfectly straightforward to just change the billing (surprise surprise) they disconnected the ADSL at their exchange at the point the bill switched over, and as far as Plusnet is concerned, this equates to cancelling the contract or switching your broadband to a new address.
There's a load of info about it here:
http://www.broadband-guide.org.uk/providers/plusnet-broadband.html
Plusnet say in the comments section of that thread that they are abandoning the charges, but this doesn't seem to be true at present.
Steer well clear, or if you're already with them, go to OFCOM as we're going to have to.
there are some horror stories on the net about NTL, im sure users have all had there moments with them, me included.
but you really cant argue with the serive they give
i am on the 10meg, and my download is most often at 11.5meg (no typo)
not sure if my area is a test area or not, but im not complaining to them..
shouldnt this thread actually be renamed : Least Rip Off UK ISP?
as the winner is nothing more than the best of a bad bunch...
They are all gangsters, period!
but you really cant argue with the serive they give
i am on the 10meg, and my download is most often at 11.5meg
(no typo)not sure if my area is a test area or not, but im not complaining to them..
shouldnt this thread actually be renamed : Least Rip Off UK ISP?
as the winner is nothing more than the best of a bad bunch...
They are all gangsters, period!
I had a great experience with PlusNet for two years actually...but at the end of the two years they started introducing some weird pricing and options that didn't suit me.
I hate that you can't find an all round good ISP....