Internet Service Provider (ISP) Recommendations? UK only

[liberatordeluxe]

My contract is coming to an end with Plusnet aka Cr*pnet and looking for a new ISP as i have found Plusnet appalling and poor customer service. I live in a rural area so i won't get fibre optic broadband but i just want to avoid the worst of a bad bunch. You could't pay me to go with the likes of Talk Talk or to stay with Plusnet.
Any recommendations? Thanks

 

[vacbear58]

Plusnet

Sorry to hear of your problems with PlusNet, but it may be that your rural location, and the available network infrastructure, is part of the problem. I have been using PlusNet now for about 12 years with no problems, and its also the ISP that has been used by the company I work for for even longer. Neither is in a rural location.

It is now owned by BT of course and I would not be surprised if there is a degradation in performance, I have seen that happen with DABS.com which was my computer supplier of choice for a great many years (both personal and work) but their performance recently has completely gone to hell - they are also owned by BT now.

When I moved I opted for fibre optic thinking that they would lay the fibre into the house but no, it still uses the same wire coming into the house that I suppose was installed 47 years ago when the house was built. They just installed another box ahead of the router - it is noticeably faster than where I used to live (regular broadband) in London. It was the same when we upgraded the office connection as well, a similar box installed ahead of the router. I do not know if any changes were made at the exchange or "the box at the side of the road" so it may be possible you could get faster broadband after all.

Al

 

[liberatordeluxe]

Hello Vacbear,

Thanks for your helpful advice. So not a fan of BT then? Looks like it will have to be Sky then because the current service is slow.

 

[iej]

If you're using ADSL or VDSL (often sold as "fibre" (to the cabinet)) make sure to check your line stats before you write it off as an ISP problem.

The main ones to watch : SNR (signal to noise ratio) and attenuation.

If you're on a copper service the further you are away from the cabinet (or exchange) the more the signal degrades.

VDSL here in Ireland is "up to 100mbit/s" and while the various ISPs using it do their own backhaul, - traffic is passed over to them at aggregation nodes, if you've a poorly performing line, there isn't a whole lot of difference in changing from one VDSL ISP to another. It'll get the maximum speed available if the cabinet is very close by and it rapidly falls off the further you get from.tge street cabinet.

Depending on what vectoring (if any) is done at your OpenReach cabinet those speeds vary in the UK.

Cable is generally much better as it's carries on coax intended to carry broadband - over here it's 360Mbit/s on Virgin Media Ireland (UPC) but I think it varies in the UK from area to area.

If you can get full FTTH, go for it if it's affordable!